THE SUMMER TRAVEL EPISODE! Planning a road trip or family vacation? This episode that’s been 20 years in the making is packed with 10 real-life travel tips that have helped our big family of seven not only survive, but actually ENJOY traveling together. I’m sharing the practical strategies and tips that have made our family trips smoother, less stressful, less expensive, more fun, and more memorable. Whether you're prepping for a cross-country drive or a weekend getaway to the beach, these 10 tr...
May 06, 2025•38 min•Season 3Ep. 41
In this latest episode in our ‘Short Takes’ series on the No Way But Through podcast, we’re back from a little spring break hiatus and diving into a question I got from one of the young moms in my real life who has spent a lot of time with my family: How do you raise tough, resilient kids? I’m sharing real-life stories, hard-earned wisdom, and three practical (and heart-level) ways to help your kids build grit, navigate tough relationships, and find laughter even in the hardest moments. Whether ...
Apr 15, 2025•26 min•Season 4Ep. 39
In Episode 41 of the No Way But Through podcast, we’re continuing our Short Takes series with this question: What habits do you wish you had made when your kids were newborns and toddlers? I'm sharing three key insights—one we didn’t do but wish we had, and two that we’re so glad we prioritized. From carving out quality one-on-one time with your toddler, to letting go of the idea of a perfect house, and the importance of shared family meals around the dinner table, these small habits can have a ...
Mar 18, 2025•13 min•Season 1Ep. 41
In this episode of No Way But Through , we dive into a common parenting challenge: setting boundaries with grandparents. This is such a tough topic because not one of us has the exact same scenario, proximity, or relationships with our parents or in-laws. Is there a one right way to put up boundaries without it blowing up our whole relationship? In this episode, I’ll give you both practical tips and my hard won wisdom on how to navigate the delicate balance between respecting your parents’ persp...
Mar 11, 2025•24 min•Season 4Ep. 38
Who is my favorite kid, you ask? I think the answer might surprise you. On today’s ‘Short Takes’ episode, I answer this question that’s been asked of me by the young moms in my real life and that my teenage son asked me just this week. I have five kids, ranging in ages from 20 down to 12. Could I pick a favorite? This actually isn’t a hard question for me to answer at all. And I break it down into two answers during today’s episode. I think you’ll be surprised, encouraged, and challenged by what...
Mar 04, 2025•15 min•Season 4Ep. 39
In this first episode of ‘Short Takes’ - Your Parenting Questions. Straight To The Point Answers, I give you the backstory behind this new series AND answer one of the most popular questions I get from young (and older) parents! We want our kids to have an independent and growing relationship with God, right? But how do we help them develop the habit of making time for God every day? Is there a formula? Is there a perfect resource? Is there one right way to do this? I take on this question in to...
Feb 25, 2025•13 min•Season 4Ep. 36
In this first episode of Season 4, I share with you THREE parenting goals worth making and keeping in 2025! While so many of us make resolutions and goals when a new year rolls around, we often don’t stick with them, especially if we feel like once we fail, we’ve blown it. What if there are goals we can make today that will pay big dividends in our relationships with our kids at the end of the year AND draw us ALL closer to God? What if these are the kinds of goals that let us mess up, but keep ...
Feb 11, 2025•31 min•Season 4Ep. 37
It’s Christmastime! Or, for the most traditional among us, it will be in just a few days! And that means it’s time for shopping, making Christmas lists, and making sure we can find the right scissors and have enough tape! As we begin thinking about Christmas shopping for our kids, how can we get them gifts that won’t just end up in a thrift store pile in a few weeks? How can we give our kids gifts that are meaningful, gifts they’ll remember for years to come, and not just simply check items off ...
Nov 26, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 32
I think a lot about what I’d want the young mom me to know! What would I tell her? What advice would I give her? What things did I learn that changed me and made me a better mom? What comforted me and gave me courage in that overwhelming season of motherhood that so many of you are in today? In this episode, I walk you through five things I wish I knew when I was a young mom. With stories from my own early days as a mom, I share with you the things that moms a few stages ahead of me told me that...
Nov 13, 2024•42 min•Season 3Ep. 35
We ALL want grateful kids, right? I know I do. So how can you begin to foster and develop gratitude in their young hearts during this season when we tend to focus more on being thankful? How do you know what might actually be worth the time and effort and create lasting impact on your kids? In today’s episode, I share with you seven practical activities you can do with your young children during the month of November that will help them practice gratitude and develop a love for expressing that t...
Nov 05, 2024•24 min•Season 3Ep. 34
The relationships in my life are incredibly important to me, and I imagine yours are to you, too! But how do we balance life as moms, raising kids, volunteering at school, investing in our marriages, buy all the groceries and get everyone where they need to be, and still make time to foster meaningful friendships without sacrificing one or the other? In this episode, I share with you three habits that have helped me prioritize my family, while also cultivating healthy, fun, and trusting friendsh...
Oct 29, 2024•45 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Do you ever wonder if you’re making the right decisions for your kids and family? If you’re a parent, your answer is likely an emphatic ‘YES!’ In today’s episode, I share with you two financial decisions we made early on in our life as parents that dramatically impacted our family life. We didn’t know it at the time, but those decisions sent us on paths that would bond us closer with our kids (and future kids!), make way for some of our BEST memories together, and help form our kids’ character i...
Oct 15, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 32
They say kids grow up so fast and that it all passes so quickly. One minute they’re the newborn baby in your arms and the next minute you’re throwing them the keys to the car and they’re driving away. Did I really just blink and it all happened that fast? We can’t slow down time, but there are intentional things we can do to make it less likely we’ll look back and feel like we missed their childhood. In today’s episode, I share with you five practical things that will help you savor the time you...
Oct 08, 2024•38 min•Season 3Ep. 31
What do we do when our real life experiences as parents aren’t matching up with what we’ve always been taught or believed? Me? I go right in and start asking hard questions and researching and doing the work to get to the bottom of why things aren’t adding up. In this episode, I share with you the journey I went on to reconcile what was happening in my relationships with my young children with what I’d always heard: “You can’t be friends with your kids.” By clarifying the distinction between fri...
Sep 24, 2024•27 min•Season 3Ep. 30
In this first episode of SEASON THREE, we tackle group parenting. What is it? Why does it matter to me as a young mom? (Let’s start this season off with a bang, shall we?) With examples from her own life and parenting, host Sarah Short discusses the current push to make collective parenting decisions with a group of families. If you’re a new mom who hasn’t encountered this yet, you’ll hear Sarah’s insightful framework for thinking through how to parent alongside your friends (and family!) By bre...
Sep 17, 2024•42 min•Season 3Ep. 29
SEASON TWO! THAT’S A WRAP! Today is the last episode of Season TWO on the No Way But Through Podcast! This season, I took on some of the harder topics YOU asked me to podcast about! We talked about helping our kids through hurt and disappointment, five life-giving phrases our kids need to hear, and a two-part episode on how we can help our kids navigate change! I shared with you our approach to discipline, which has become one of the most popular episodes on this podcast! And we even talked abou...
May 21, 2024•25 min•Ep. 28
There are few things as painful as getting excluded from a friend group or birthday party or event. And this isn’t just true for our kids, it’s true for us, too! Whether it’s a six year-old getting left out of a game on the playground or a thirty-something mom not being invited into a group of friends, it hurts. On today’s episode, I share with you five things that have been incredibly helpful for me to know and keep coming back to as I navigate the complexities of getting left out or excluded a...
May 14, 2024•51 min•Ep. 27
Let’s talk about date nights! When I was a young mom, so many conversations I had with my friends centered around how difficult it was for us to make date nights happen. Some of us had time and ideas, but no money. Some of us had money but no family in town or babysitters we could call. And the effort it took to find a babysitter and plan for and head out on a date night often felt like it wasn’t worth it. In this episode, I share with you TEN ideas for overcoming the common obstacles that can k...
May 07, 2024•50 min•Ep. 26
Vacationing with young kids brings with it a whole host of challenges - packing, diapers, disrupted sleep schedules, unexpected sickness, too much sugar, and everyone melting down - including mom and dad. In this episode, I share with you the #1 thing that has helped us have almost 20 years of successful family vacations. From beach trips to big cities, and from newborns to teenagers, this one concept continues to impact me and Jason as we plan for, execute, and adapt during our family vacations...
Apr 30, 2024•32 min•Ep. 25
I wish it wasn’t so, but our kids are gonna go through hard things and hard seasons. While it might look different for each of them, tough stuff is coming their way. So how do we help them? What can we do as moms when our kids are facing struggles at school, in relationships with friends, or in a hard season that feels like it just won’t end? No matter what your kids are going through, they need these three things from you as a parent! Whatever age kids you have, you can do these things now to w...
Apr 23, 2024•35 min•Ep. 24
Our kids will experience so many changing circumstances throughout their lives and there is so much we can do to help them move forward through those changes. From a new baby sibling arriving on the scene and your older child having to share their mom and dad for the first time to family dynamic shifts or hardships, we have tremendous opportunity to build within our kids a deep sense of trust and safety that will not only help them feel seen and valued, but will train them to see and value other...
Apr 16, 2024•32 min•Ep. 23
Our kids will experience so many changing circumstances throughout their lives and there is so much we can do to help them move forward through those changes. From a new baby sibling arriving on the scene and your older child having to share their mom and dad for the first time to family dynamic shifts or hardships, we have tremendous opportunity to build within our kids a deep sense of trust and safety that will not only help them feel seen and valued, but will train them to see and value other...
Apr 09, 2024•28 min•Ep. 22
As moms, our words to our kids carry so much weight! We are, after all, one of the first people our kids ever love. So how do we use our words in an intentional way to encourage and empower our kids, create trust and safety in our relationships with them, and reinforce what is true about them and the God who made them? In this episode, I share with you five life-giving phrases your kids need to hear at any age. From your baby learning to walk to your teenagers learning to navigate relationships ...
Mar 26, 2024•38 min•Ep. 21
The Greatest Night In Pop! On January 28, 1985, the world’s biggest pop stars came together for one night in secret to record the hit single “We Are The World”, which raised more than $80 million for humanitarian aid in Africa. But what could Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Cindi Lauper, Diana Ross, and the other 60 people in that studio have to teach all of us about community and friendship almost 40 years later? I can tell you, it isn’t what you think! In this episode, I share with you thr...
Mar 19, 2024•33 min•Ep. 20
We know our kids will face hurt and disappointment over and over again. And their hurt… hurts us. So what do we do when our kids are left out, called names, going through a hard breakup, don’t make the team, don’t get invited to the party, or are navigating painful extended family situations? It can feel like we’re the ones going through it. But in fact, we aren’t. In this episode, I share with you FIVE opportunities we have when our kids are hurt or disappointed. With real life situations I’ve ...
Mar 12, 2024•36 min•Ep. 19
Do you ever wonder if a season of motherhood will EVER end? The hard seasons with toddlers, the constant parenting when they’re in school, the TEENAGE YEARS? EVERY season of parenting has lessons for us that ONLY that season can teach us. Our kids aren’t the only ones learning as they grow up, moms are too! In this episode, I walk you through each season we live through as moms - life with our first newborns to multiple toddlers, and all the way up through having adult kids! I share with you a p...
Mar 05, 2024•43 min•Ep. 18
How do you know how and when to discipline your kids? Is it every time they do something “wrong”? What can you let slide and what do you really need to focus on and address? What actually matters in the long term? In this episode, I share with you the ONE question we stop and ask before dishing out consequences and how this question has saved us from needing to discipline and address things that won’t ultimately matter. And I explain how and why breaking either of the TWO key rules we have in ou...
Feb 27, 2024•49 min•Ep. 17
Every kid deserves to be celebrated on his/her birthday! But some birthdays are just extra special. In this episode, I walk you through the foundational things we believe about celebrating birthdays, how we celebrate each of our kids’ birthdays every year, no matter what age they’re becoming, and the five milestone birthdays we celebrate in bigger ways. With real life examples from my conversations with friends, as well as how we’ve pivoted when needed, I share with you how we celebrate our kids...
Feb 20, 2024•56 min•Ep. 16
Want to pull open a social media app and KNOW that you are empowered with tools to engage in healthy (and productive) ways? In this episode, I share with you three ways that keep me creating and engaging on social media in ways that honor others, honor God, and help me maintain balance and a healthy perspective. Listen in as I share how and why I include my young children from a VERY young age on my social media journey, a hard incident that needed a boundary, and how I know to take breaks on so...
Feb 13, 2024•40 min•Ep. 19
Can you believe it? Today we wrap up the first season of the No Way But Through Podcast! Since this podcast launched in September, it’s been downloaded THOUSANDS of times in four different countries. I’ve shared stories of my days as a young mom, the lessons I’ve learned from my triumphs and mistakes, and the hard won wisdom these last two decades of mom life have taught me. This show wouldn’t be what it is today without you! THANK YOU for listening, for engaging, and for encouraging me week aft...
Dec 05, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 14
