34. The Year the World Paused. Plus Seasons of Motherhood.

This week's podcast has three parts: The Practically Speaking MOM listeners share their thoughts about positive changes their family is making due to the pandemic experience.  Val shares some  a paradigm shift that she developed about Mothers Day. The spotlight of this week's podcast is a short story Val wrote about a time when the great pause button of life was pushed and all the world went home... The year families familied in the first time in a very long time, or the first time in forever."People Were Going Everywhere and Nowhere All at Once..." The Year the World Paused"Life was flying by at maximum speed.     Parents, often working and worrying, missed out on discovering the deep hearts of their children.  Some siblings knew their peers, but not each other. And often artificial masks were worn to reduce vulnerability and hide true selves. Datebooks and calendars and schedules were the driving force of pressure, fitting in more and more and more until TIME was bursting at the seams.   Most people rode a vast merry-go-round of life, bobbing up and down while the music played, scurrying everywhere and nowhere all at once.     Most were consumed with excelling at everything from education to sports to career to appearances, seeking accolades of all kinds while also consumed with entertaining themselves at theaters and stadiums and restaurants and amusement parks.And so, performers performed and consumers consumed on the great merry-go-round, speeding quickly everywhere and no where all at once. Many. people. could. fit. no. more. into. their. busy. lives.Then Suddenly a great pause button was pushed, and everything shut down.                  The merry-go-round of life stopped turning..." The rest of this story is in the following blog post, click here: To read "The Year the World Stopped Turning" A few areas of life to examine, thanks to the pause (the blog post goes into more detail about these):      Margin & Having enough time to just be Present at HomeBeing in CommunitSend Val your encouragement and thoughts about the show.Support the showVisit Val's website: PracticallySpeakingMOM.comJoin Val's Facebook Group Intentional Mom, Strong FamilyFollow Val on Instagram and her Facebook Public Page Practically Speaking MOMWe're on a mission to strengthen families.Want to help cover some of the costs of the show? click here. A few dollars a month would help so much!Here's some other ways to give:Cash App: $valPSMPaypal: [email protected] with a credit card HEREAll donations will be used for the ministry. Gifts are not tax deductible. THANK YOU for partnering in this ministry to strengthen families and encourage intentional moms."May the Words of my mouth and the medit...