Work Hard Mom Harder

I'm recording today from a picnic table at the Fort Walla Walla Amphitheater — birds and all — and reading you more from the Meet Baby Dub book as part of Hudson Month. In today's episode, I share several vignettes from the book: Baby Genius Six Months Pregnant  The Pregnant Card Kicking, Screaming, Baby Stuff Catching Up with Old Friends — aka, pregnancy is its own time zone. First Day, Third Trimester  Teamwork  Life and Death The Meet Baby Dub book is available on Amazon and the majority of proceeds are donated to the Forget Me Not program. Grab your copy and support a great cause.

Happy 4th of July! It's Day 4 of Hudson Month, and I'm squeezing in a recording between neighborhood barbecue festivities.  This episode covers some of the most memorable moments of the pregnancy, but first Running the first Hudson Month 5K of July (35 minutes — slow and steady wins the race) A note on AI editing tools and why you should always check AI's work Then, the goods from the book: The sweetest gender reveal story, featuring Grandma Shiz's handmade scratch-off cards, 80 cake pops, and one very well-timed Valentine's Day Gettin' real about the fear that comes with finding out you're having a daughter — navigating gender expectations, high school drama (years in advance), and the hope of raising a confident, kind human.  A reminder, you can buy the book on Amazon if you want to see some of the pics I reference in this episode and give back to the Forget-Me-Not Foundation while you're at it. Happy 4th, and happy 250th, America!

Welcome back to Day 3 of Hudson Month!  In this episode, you'll hear about: The moment a gut officially becomes a bump, and fancy pants get retired for the foreseeable future. Pregnancy exhaustion hitting hard  Baby showers getting a whole new level of competitive energy when you're also pregnant The magic of maternity jeans and why you should always bring your mom shopping The art of perfecting your pregnancy shtick... and recycling it shamelessly Strangers and their wandering hands (the belly rub etiquette debate is real) Babies getting a little less terrifying as Baby Dub's arrival inches closer I'm also running a 5K every weekend in July in Hudson's honor and donating to the Forget Me Not program at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane. If you'd like to do the same, links for donations are in the show notes! Links mentioned: Donate to the Forget Me Not program: https://give.providence.org/inw/donate-now Meet Baby Dub on Amazon — $15, with the majority of proceeds going back to the Forget Me Not program Next up: an Independence Day episode digging into the patriotic threads of Hudson's story. Work hard, mom harder, love hardest. We can change the world.

In Day 2 of Hudson Month, we pick up where yesterday's episode left off — this time with a proper send-off.  This episode is a handful of fan-favorite blog posts from early in our pregnancy with Hudson — including: The Two-Month Secret — the agony of keeping a pregnancy under wraps during the first trimester The Big Reveal — how the Dub side got a slow-dawning stocking surprise, while the Shiz side brought the thunder (and possibly a noise complaint) The Quickening — the M. Night Shyamalan-approved term for baby's first movements Twins? Hard Pass. — why one bean on the ultrasound was the best news of the day What Flavor is Baby Dub? — the gender guessing game, boy name struggles, and the French braid crisis Ways to Participate in Hudson Month: 📖 Buy the Meet Baby Dub book on Amazon — a portion of every sale benefits the Forget Me Not Foundation 🏃 Run a 5K any weekend in July and share it with #HudsonsHeroesRunners Work hard, mom harder, love hardest... and we can change this world.

July is Hudson Month... a celebration of what would be our firstborn daughter Hudson's 14th birthday. For the next 31 days, I'll be reading aloud from Meet Baby Dub, the book I compiled of blog post greatest hits to share her story with the world. Today we kick things off with Day 1. If this book has touched your heart, I hope you'll consider purchasing a copy on Amazon. Every sale goes towards our Hudson Month fundraiser where we donate to the Forget-Me-Not Foundation at Sacred Heart Hospital where Hudson spent her short life.  New episodes drop daily all month long. Subscribe so you don't miss a single day. Read The OG Blog  Buy the book on Amazon (100% 5 Star Reviews, lol)

May is basically summer's December — and yet I decided to start 75 Hard right in the thick of it. In this episode, I'm getting real about why I'm voluntarily choosing hard things during an already hard season, and what God's been teaching me about mental toughness, perseverance, and preparation. You'll hear about our Maycember chaos (four kids, baseball tournaments, a husband working nights, and a booming wine e-commerce season), what 75 Hard actually is and why I jumped in with zero prep, and a story from a baseball tournament that wrecked me in the best way and reminded me what it looks like to show up with integrity even when you lose. Because if you don't choose hard, hard will still find you. And I want to be ready. Key topics covered: What is 75 Hard and why now? How mental toughness connects to faith and scripture The baseball moment that made me cry on the sidelines Why making my kid go to school when he didn't want to could be the biggest W of my Friday Anchoring into purpose when the hard is unplanned Work hard, mom harder, and keep striking the ground until God tells you to stop

I'm kicking off today's episode with Psalms 119:100 — "I have more understanding than my elders, for I obey your precepts" — and unpacking why the flex isn't age or experience, it's alignment with divine instruction. With a little help from ChatGPT (and the Holy Spirit), I dig into the Hebrew roots of the word precepts and explore what it truly means to close the gap between knowing better and actually doing better. I'm getting personal about my 20-year quiet season with God, the audacious prayer I prayed on my birthday, and the small but bold act of inviting fellow baseball parents to pray over our kids before a tournament — and what happened when I did. I'm also sharing a new commitment: tracking answered prayers, observed miracles, and moments of alignment as a living record of God moving in everyday life. And I'm launching a new recurring segment where I share these moments — and I want to hear yours too. In this episode: Psalms 119:100 and the Hebrew meaning of precepts Closing the gap between inspiration and action 20 years of keeping faith private — and why that's changing Praying over the baseball team (and inviting others to join) A birthday prayer for the year: growing closer to God than ever before How to track and notice God moving in your life Work hard, mom harder, love hardest — and shine God's love out into the world.

Today's episode is inspired by my daughter, Maddox, and dedicated to all the humans out there trying to dig for a deeper level of effort and impact.