Handling It... When Life is Anything But Simple

Handling It... When Life is Anything But Simple

From Catholic Mom Calm by Sterling Jaquith

June 6, 2026 · 37 min

About this episode

Sterling Jaquith discusses managing life's complexities while maintaining calmness and simplicity in thinking.

Six kids home for summer, a pilgrimage to France, a schooling decision on a deadline, and a Goodwill trip that produced an accidental gel bead gun. Sterling Jaquith walks through what's actually on her plate right now and shows the move that keeps her calm in the middle of it: stop trying to engineer a simple life, simplify your thinking instead. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Why "just live simply" advice usually comes from people holding very different cards than you The Summer of Kindness experiment after one week (and why Peter prayed for it out loud) How to feel real frustration in your body without making it mean something has gone wrong The decisions and uncertainties Sterling is actively sitting with this June — including her own food struggle EPISODE TIMELINE: [00:00] – Why a "simple life" is the wrong goal for most moms [06:00] – The Goodwill trip, the gel bead gun, and weighing risk against sparkles [14:00] – Summer of Kindness update — what's working one week in [22:00] – France pilgrimage, French class, and Catholic Finishing School kickoff [30:00] – The schooling decision Sterling has to close the loop on [36:00] – Why her thinking is simple even when her life isn't…

People in this episode

Host: Sterling Jaquith

Topics covered

  • parenting
  • summer activities
  • decision making
  • spirituality
  • kindness

Keywords

  • simple life
  • kindness experiment
  • summer activities
  • schooling decisions
  • France pilgrimage

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Calm Catholic Kids, Catholic Mom Calm

Places: France

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