008 || The 5 Systems Every Overwhelmed Homeschool Mom Needs

What systems do you actually have in place in your homeschool? Not your curriculum — the infrastructure underneath it. The things that keep the mental load manageable, that keep the week from falling apart, that keep you from rebuilding everything from scratch every Sunday night.

In this episode Sarah walks through the five foundational systems she believes every overwhelmed homeschool mom needs: the Brain Dump, the Mental File Cabinet, the Daily Download, the Monthly Prep Day, and a Weekly Rhythm. She explains exactly what each one is, why it matters, and how to start building it — including a hint at something big coming this summer that’s going to make the Mental File Cabinet dramatically easier to set up.

Links:

•         Free Starter Glue-Print Guide

•         Free Monthly Prep Day Canva template

•        Episode 004 — Stop Rebuilding Your Homeschool Every Sunday (weekly rhythm deep dive)

•        SlideBox app

•        Shop all Homeschool Glue resources

•        Follow on Instagram

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If someone asked you right now what systems you have in place in your homeschool, what would you say? And I don't mean curriculum. I mean the actual infrastructure, the framework underneath your school and your home, the things that keep the days from falling apart when life gets hard, that keep you from rebuilding everything from scratch every Sunday, that keep the mental load from crushing you by Wednesday. And maybe you don't have any. A lot of homeschool moms don't, quite honestly, a lot of people don't. And I think that's why so many of us feel like we're constantly running just to stay in place or even fall behind. Today I'm sharing the five systems that I think every overwhelmed homeschool mom needs and where you can start. Glue. It's messy, it's sticky, it gets everywhere. But without it, nothing holds. Homeschool life can feel messy too. We have the loud days, the mental overload, so many moving parts. But we don't need is more curriculum or more pressure to do it all. We need something that holds. Simple systems, steady rhythms, the kind of structure that makes homeschooling easier instead of heavier. Hi, I'm Sarah, a homeschool mom of four, and this is the Homeschool Glue Podcast. Each week we have an honest conversation about real homeschool life and the simple systems that help overwhelmed homeschool moms clear the mental clutter, build rhythms that actually stick, and create the peaceful lives we are all craving. If you're tired of carrying everything and getting nowhere, you are in the right place. Grab that load of laundry and let's get started. Welcome back to the Homeschool Glue podcast. We've been building something over the last several episodes. We have talked about the hidden curriculum, the difference between being bad at homeschooling and being overwhelmed, the different types of overwhelm, why the Sunday rebuild keeps happening, how to plan a summer that you actually will enjoy and not feel like you need a break from it, actually feel like a break. And we've talked about chores. If you're new here, welcome. I'd encourage you to go back and start from episode one because it will really help this episode make a lot more sense. But either way, today's episode is a good one to start with. And I think it's going to be really foundational for the episodes to come. Today I want to talk about five specific systems that I believe every overwhelmed homeschool mom needs. And they are not just nice to haves, they are must-haves. They're not advanced systems for moms who have it all together. They are foundational systems. The ones that, if you don't have them, are probably the reason your homeschool keeps feeling harder than it should. I'm going to walk through each one and explain what it is and why it matters and tell you how to start building it. And at the end of the episode, I'm going to share something that I have put together for you that helps you dive in and start all of these different systems today if you're wanting to do that. So let's get into it. Let's first talk about why this matters. Before I get into the five different systems, I want to talk about the word system because that can feel kind of cold or corporate, or something that you just check the box of, or something just like you would use in a factory and maybe doesn't belong in a warm living books, you know, slow pace, beautiful homeschool environment. I totally get that. But as someone who is living that homeschool life, but also deals with, you know, some anxiety, um, has a history of depression, who feels that mental load, who has four kids, ages one to 11, like I'm in the thick of it just like you guys. And it can be really hard. But systems are what allow me and allow lots of other people who implement them to actually get to that warm, fuzzy, beautiful, enriching homeschool because they're not constantly thinking about the hustle and the grind of all of the things that have to get done, but aren't the beautiful parts. So when you don't have systems, your mental energy is mainly going towards logistics, towards remembering, managing, scrambling, rebuilding. And there's nothing left for just being present with your kids, which is what we desire so much. There's nothing left for that beautiful read aloud, because even though you're doing it, possibly, or maybe you're not even fitting it in, but even if you're doing it, in the back of your head, you're thinking about, okay, I got to make the make this supper and I got a meal plan, and I haven't meal planned in weeks, and I'm overwhelmed, and this part of the house is dirty, and I need to plan this and I got to do this, and you're not really in the moment. Same with nature walks or just conversations with your kids. And I'm not saying that's gonna go away completely because we are moms and we are wired to care for our kids. And part of caring is the actual action of caring, and that involves all of these things that make our homes run. But when we have systems, it takes care a lot of that and it kind of runs in the background. Yes, you're doing these things, but you have a system in place so nothing falls through the cracks, so your brain doesn't have to hold it all anymore, and it can actually focus on being present with your kids, which is what we desire so much. Systems can create margin, and margin is where the good stuff really lives. So these five systems, they're not about making your homeschool look organized on Instagram. Trust me, in real life, I can come off as frazzled, I can come off as, you know, uh not having it all together, you know, but I'm able to do a lot, and in my mind, I'm able to really give my presence and focus on so many different things because I have these systems in place. And so it's about getting enough off of your plate so you can actually be present for the life you're trying to build. So, system one, now this is not something revolutionary, but it's really what has to happen before the other systems can come into play. And that is the good old brain dump getting everything out of your head. It's gonna sound too simple. It's gonna seem like I don't need to do this because we all know what a brain dump is. Why should I do that? But the first step of clearing your mind is to literally clear your mind, and the only way to do that is to get things out of your mind and put them somewhere where they aren't gonna disappear. Um, because our mind can't really rest fully in the way we want it to until it's not fully carrying all of the weight of the to-dos and all the things. We have to get that down. All the things that you're constantly having to remind yourself of. I'm not saying get all the stress out of your life. That's not gonna happen. But when we have these loops that are open, meaning I gotta take that to the dry cleaner. I have to just do people go to the dry cleaner. I don't know. Um, I need to, oh, write that movie down that I saw that person talk about, or that's a great book idea. I gotta write that down. Or, oh yeah, this is bothering me about our homeschool. I gotta do that. When you have all of those thoughts, but you're just relying on your brain to remember them. That is just a recipe for anxiety. And that is a recipe for not only you forgetting them, but in your mind, there's that loop is still there. Even if you forget what the thing is, your brain still remembers that you were trying to remember it, if that makes sense. And so your neurons may not be able to retrace what it actually was, but your brain remembers that you had that thought to remember and it's open, meaning it's trying to hold on to it. And our brains aren't designed to hold tons of like task-oriented information. Yes, we can learn a lot about things, but a lot also slips through the cracks. And when you add in one or more children and a spouse and a homeschool and possibly a job or other activities, it is so easy. Plus, like hormones and brain fog from perimenopause or having babies or being deficient in nutrients or chronic illness or whatever it is, it is so easy for those thoughts to just kind of disappear, but your brain still remembers that it was supposed to remember something, and that creates stress, especially when you can't remember it. So getting it all down on paper or digital, wherever you put it, as long as it's somewhere safe, is step one. So it's exactly what it sounds like. You're gonna sit down, write out everything that is living in your brain, and you're gonna set aside a good half hour to do this or walk around your house. Because trust me, a lot of the stress of us as homeschool moms is being in the environment that has the constant to-dos. I think about my husband a lot, and I do from time to time get a little jealous, I'm being honest here, because he gets to leave our house. And so he can forget about all of the to-dos. He doesn't have to look at the the um swatch of paint that I painted on our kitchen wall 11 years ago when I was wanting to paint the kitchen and I still haven't gotten to it. Um, he doesn't have to look at that every day and be reminded of the fact that for 11 years it's been sitting there and one day I gotta paint that kitchen. He is not seeing the toddler's toys spread out everywhere. He's not going down to pick up those toys and seeing the crumbs under the buffet in the dining room and then being reminded, oh, yeah, I should clean under that. And this is not knocking husbands. I'm just saying when someone works outside the home or is outside the home a lot, they are not being constantly reminded of all the things that have to happen in the home. But as homeschool moms, where our school happens at home and we're home all the time, we are constantly reminded of all the things we have to do. And so if you can write it down, yes, you're gonna see the same things over and over. You're gonna see the swatches of paint, you're gonna see the projects that haven't been done yet. But if you can just write them down, your brain can see it and go, Yep, I remember. Don't need to worry about that right now. And you can start creating a system, as I will share more throughout this episode, that holds the information and makes sure you can come back to it. So your brain will actually trust that it's being held outside of your brain and it doesn't have to keep trying to remember it. So you're gonna sit down, you're gonna write down every single thing you could possibly think of. That's one of those loops that are open that our your brain is trying to remember. All the little things you need to do, every little thing you need to buy, every grocery, every I gotta write to the doctor about this, I gotta pay that bill, I need to sign up for life insurance. Like whatever it is, um, write it down. And you may do this over a week because it's not just gonna be a one and done thing. More things are gonna pop up. And so you wanna get it all down first. And that in and of itself, it may kind of stress you out as you're doing it because you're seeing all the to-dos right in front of you, but your brain simultaneously will take a little sigh of relief that it's not the one trying to hold it all anymore. Okay, system number two. This is my absolute favorite, and this is something I've really realized over the last year or so, and I've been a planner for a long time. So I've known in general that I've needed this, but I didn't quite understand to what extent until I started making a million Google Sheets for different areas of my life, and then realized okay, this is really disjointed. I need something a little more uh systemized, I guess. So this is the mental file cabinet. Some people call it a second brain. I don't look at it that way because I look at our brain as something that's supposed to process information and have ideas and use an imagination and wonder and all those things. And so I think of it more as a file cabinet where we can store all of these things that we wrote in the brain dump and beyond. So once you get everything down on paper, you can't just let it live in the brain dump forever. Like your brain's not going to trust that it's actually taken care of if you just write it down once and then shove the paper into your junk drawer and then never do anything with it. And so that is what the mental file cabinet is. Like I said, our brains are not designed to be filing cabinets. We try to use them like file cabinets, but they're not designed to that, to do that. And so we're creating so much stress and that mental load is so big because we're trying to force our brain to do something that it's not meant to do. So the solution is pretty simple. We're gonna build a file cabinet, not an actual file cabinet. I mean, partially, I guess some of it will be a real file cabinet, but this is a uh most likely a digital file cabinet outside of your brain. And this is a place where everything will live so you don't have to hold it anymore. It can capture all of those to-dos, all of those things to remember that you were holding in your head that you wrote down for your brain dump, and it will get organized and it will be something you can reference all the time. And so this I have created. Um, I've really spent a lot of time thinking about this. So this should have seven drawers, if you will. So this mental file cabinet, and this can be in a lot of different places. Um here's a little uh side note is I'm actually creating something for you coming, hopefully this summer, that is an actual mental file cabinet that you can just put all your information in. Um, I have been working, you guys have no idea, hours and hours every spare moment trying to get this put together so you can have it. But if you're wanting to build one on your own in the meantime, um I have some information I'll share at the end of this episode about how you can do that. But just know that's coming and you can kind of just start collecting information. You can use a Google Sheet or the Notes app or um Trello or something like that in the meantime. Um, but in general, or you could just make your own. That's okay too, or there's things like Obsidian, um, different apps like that that you can use as well. But imagine this mental file cabinet, this digital mental file cabinet, and it has seven drawers. One drawer is a command center, and this is for all your planning and task management. And you're going to refer back to this often. Then you have the household drawer, and that holds everything for your home, the cleaning, the meal planning, um, recipes, all of the things that have to do with your house and home maintenance, um, that kind of stuff. Then you have the homeschool drawer because we are homeschool parents, and so that involves your curriculum, books you want to read with your kids, um, planning their education, different things that you want to do with them, planning field trips and co-ops and all that kind of stuff. So any information having to do with that. For example, in mine, we in our small local co-op, we have a directory and we also every year someone puts together a schedule. And I used to have to go through my phone every time and hope I could find the text in a group text with a whole bunch of moms, so it's buried. Um, and I used to have to go back to try to find that, which is asinine. That's not how it should be. Put that in your mental file cabinet in your homeschool drawer. So now I have a whole co-op folder in my homeschool drawer. If you're going with this analogy, and that has the directory and it has the schedule. So, in a pinch, if I'm at co-op and I'm like, what class do we have next? Boom, boom, boom, five seconds, I've got it pulled up because it's in my mental file cabinet. Okay. Then we have our commitments drawer, and that is for anything outside of the home that you are committed to. So if it's a job, if it's a business, and I mean it, I guess it could be inside the home too, but like a business, a volunteer role, maybe you you have you are like a coach for an extracurricular, maybe you teach classes, maybe you work outside the home, maybe you um are caring for an aging parent, and there's a lot of information you need to store or things that you need to reference. That would go in your commitments drawer. Then there's your family drawer, and that is for your family. There's information about your kids and their appointments and their shoe sizes, um, gift ideas, um, all of that kind of stuff having to deal with your children and your family. Then there's the rest and play. So this is things like any hobbies, any information you need about knitting or whatever it is that you like to do. This is your wellness. So thinking about like exercise and health and things like that, um, movies you want to watch, anything like that goes in rest and play. And then the very last one is the reflection drawer. And this is for notes from books and podcasts. This is your commonplace book. This is your Bible study. This is where if you're taking an online course or a real course, you're gonna keep your notes and you're gonna reflect back. And that is in very general terms what I have come up with for this mental file cabinet and the different drawers. Um and we need something like that. And I'm sure while you're listening, you can think of examples of things that you have to reference or keep track of, but you're trying to have your brain do it. And if you had a system like this, it could hold it all and you could reference it, and your brain would be so much freer. So, like I said, you could build this digitally, you could do a notebook. I don't really recommend that. I've tried that over many years, and it's just not as easy to reference. You'd have to carry it with you all the time. Um, and it's really hard to set that up over the a long period of time. Um, but like I said, stay tuned because I have something coming in the next few months that will dramatically help with this. Okay, system three is the daily download. And this is where the brain dump and the mental file cabinet actually train your brain that it's not gonna let things fall through the cracks. You can't just set up a mental file cabinet and you cannot just have a brain dump and think your brain is gonna say, okay, cool, you've got it covered. No, that's like trying to say, you know, your toddler tells you they're going to put their toys away every time, and then you know they're never going to because they've never shown you that. So we don't trust that our toddler is gonna do something. We over time build trust with them, they grow in maturity, and then we start to believe them because we actually see the action happening. So the daily download is that action that's going to build trust with yourself in your brain. It's your brain learning to trust that you actually will come back to all those loops that are open and that it doesn't have to hold them anymore because you have not only just a place where you put them, but you've created a whole system. Now, a system is not just external things that remember things, it is actions that you do in conjunction with those things. Okay, so the daily download is what you do every day or most days where you refer back to your mental file cabinet, which holds all of the things in your brain dump. And then you do a few other things to keep um extra stressful things from piling up. And this could be different from ever for everybody, but for me, what that looks like is I walk around all day, either emailing myself stuff if I'm out of the house or you know, in a position where I can't easily write something down, I will email myself things that I need to remember that need to go in my mental file cabinet. Um or if I'm sitting down homeschooling my kids, when one of those thoughts pops up, like if they're talking about something and I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot that book somebody mentioned. I gotta, I gotta remember that. I write it down right then if I can, or I email it to myself. And maybe I'll come up with a better system than emailing myself, but keeps the name because I'm gonna share what I do with that. So I email myself or I write it down. Then the things I wrote down and the things I email, I process every day. So I sit down with my mental file cabinet either at the end of my quiet time every day or at the end of the day, and I add those things either to my task list or if it's a movie or a show or whatever, I add it to the proper place in my mental file cabinet so it's stored. And then if it's an email, another thing I do in my daily download is I go through my emails and I process them. Now, if it's a bigger thing, I do that more on a weekly basis. But if it's something super quick, I respond then. I hate email, quite honestly. I just it stresses me out. And so getting to it every day and having a time dedicated to that helps so much. And that's also because I email myself self stuff. That's also a great time to add it to my mental file cabinet, and then I can delete the email. And this also helps you keep on top of your emails and sort them as you go, delete, unsubscribe as you need, that kind of thing. So you're going through your emails every day. I also use the app called Slide Box on my phone, and I process uh photos every day because I'm taking tons of photos of my kids, of things to To remember, which also go in my mental file cabinet, um, and also like recipes and screenshots of books that people recommend on Instagram stories and stuff like that. Um, and then I also have tons of because I create content on Instagram, I have tons of photos and videos that I can eventually delete once they're posted. And so I go through my phone using SlideBox. It's amazing. I I tried out a lot of different apps because it's nearly impossible to find one that's not crazy expensive. And I believe it was free. Um, and so what I love about it, I used to have to go through my photos and select, like go through and say, okay, right now I'm gonna just go through and delete photos. And then you scroll, scroll, scroll, delete, delete, delete, delete. Okay. Then I'm gonna go through and look for photos that I'm gonna save in my homeschool glue folder for B-roll later. So then I'm just looking for those. This is a horrible way to do it. And this is the way you have to do it if you don't have an app to help you. And so SlideBox allows you to go through photos one by one and you can save them to different, um, you can delete them, you can favorite them, you can save them to different albums right there in the app. So you don't have to go through and delete or save all one type at a time, which takes forever and it's mind-numbing. So this allows you um to go through and sort as you go into whatever folder you want, and it's amazing, it's very easy. And so because I have lots of things from years past when I wasn't using SlideBox, they have a feature where it will show you, like on this day, kind of like time hop. Um, but then I just go through that day and go through everything I posted on that day that's ever been in my phone. So all the years past, and I will process that day's photos and videos. And so by the end of the year, if you do this every day, you will have gone through all your phone's photos and videos and sorted them. And it takes five minutes a day. And so I do that during my daily download, and I'll continue to do that even after I get through all my phone because every day I'm taking photos and I don't always need them. So I'm processing them, um, I'm sorting them, I'm deleting them as I go through this process, and then anything that is a screenshot that I need to add to my mental file cabinet, I do at that time. Another thing I do during my daily download is just look at tomorrow's calendar, uh, set out anything I need for the day, um, write anything down that I need. Um, and then that's basically it. So it's a time to actually act and process and refer back. And it obviously, if there's anything I need to look at in my mental file cabinet for the next day or the next week, I can do that then. So that's the third system, the daily download. Um, system number four is having a monthly prep day. So, like I said, action. It's not just about having the information somewhere, it's about action. And so the monthly prep day, I've been doing this for quite a while. This is where you set yourself up for the whole month in one sitting. It takes maybe an hour, maybe two hours, depending on what you do. So before the month comes, I plan, it's usually the last Thursday of the month. I will do my monthly prep day. And I actually have a whole printable for free. It's a Canva template, so you can change it to say whatever you want. But I will put that in the show notes if you guys are interested, um, so that you can print this out, laminate it, hang it on your fridge, put it wherever so that you can check this stuff off every single month. And so once a month you sit down or stand up, depending on what you're doing, and you go through this list. And this is gonna look a little bit different for everybody, depending on what you need to set yourself up for a new month. But for homeschool moms, that's looking through our curriculum for any supplies we need, any things we need to print, any things we need to laminate, any things we need to buy, any things, books we need to buy or check out from the library or pull off the shelf. If you are creating a lot of your homeschool, this may be when you plan that or do that. Um, but either way, a lot of us have curriculum that requires us to do a little something, even if it's just getting books out and stuff like that. So you'll do that. Um, I like to clear out my homeschool cart and just kind of organize it because especially with a toddler, the most random things end up in our curriculum cart and the most random things disappear from our curriculum cart. And so um it's a time to kind of go through that and just make sure everything's everything that we need is there and nothing extra is there that we don't need and putting everything back. I like to clean the table. Um, that's gonna look different for everybody. If I have the time, like just kind of going through drawers or cleaning surfaces. Um I usually schedule appointments that I need to schedule during this time because I hate talking on the phone. And so the monthly prep day is just kind of the time where I do a bunch of stuff I don't really love doing, but I batch doing things I don't like doing. So I'm more likely like to keep doing it, if that makes sense, instead of spreading out things I don't like to do where I have to um be getting like conjuring up the courage or the stamina to do things I don't like to do multiple times throughout the month. I just do it once and then just continue the pain. Um, if you're introverted and you hate talking on the phone, you get what I mean. I try to do all that at one time because I hate doing it. And so if I can get it all out of the way at once, it's much better than spreading out the pain. Um, all that kind of stuff I do once a month. If there, you know, I I usually will plan any errands I really need to run at that time. Like I don't do them at that time, but I figure out what I need to do. If there's any field trips or co-op planning or activities that I want to make sure we fit in or anything like that, that's what I do during our monthly prep day. So it's gonna look different for everybody, but if there's something that needs to happen, but it's not happening, or you don't feel prepared, doing it and or doing it andor preparing for it or planning for it or getting things ready for it once a month is so helpful. And it doesn't take a lot of time and it's gonna save you so much stress and give you a lot of sanity back. And then beyond that, system five is then having a weekly rhythm. I did a whole podcast episode on this. I will link below. It's about how to stop rebuilding your son, your homeschool every Sunday. Um, so I'm not gonna dive into it all here, but I find it so helpful to have a system for what subjects I am teaching on which days and having a framework for that. And then if things come up, if we're sick, if we have a vacation, if they have a class going on or whatever, or we're just having a hard day, I can totally move things around. But that's so much easier than every week having to go in and say, okay, math, when are we doing math? Okay, this book, when are we reading this book? Um, it's great for things like uh if you have a curriculum with five days with a five-day schedule, but you're only homeschooling four days. If you figure that out in advance of how you're gonna do that and just repeat it every week, that is great. That's what we do with our Simply Charlotte Mason. And I go over this in the episode a lot more. And then it also is great for things like Ambleside Online and other curricula like that, where they tell you read these chapters this week for whatever year your child is in. But that's as far as it goes, which is so helpful. But then it's like, now I have all these like 20 different things I have to do, and I need to figure out how to fit that in our week. And I, if I do that every single week and do it differently every single week, that is so stressful on you, that's stressful on your kids. So I take our stuff and I plug and drop, it's kind of like the Charlotte Mason timetable, but not as time-centered, if that makes sense. So I'm just kind of dragging and dropping things into certain days and certain orders, and I can always change it. But planning for our homeschool week literally takes me five minutes, if even on the weekends. I'm just seeing if anything needs a shift. Otherwise, I open and go because I know exactly what books to pull out on Mondays and what subjects we're doing Tuesdays and everything. And it works like a dream. So definitely go listen to that episode linked in the show notes if you guys want more information on that. But um I want to share a way um in a second that will make this really easy for you and kind of walk you through it and hold your hand through it. So before I get to that though, these five systems, they may kind of feel like completely different systems, but the beauty of systems is often they build upon each other. So you start one, then you add another, and you see that they actually really work well together. So starting with the brain drop brain dump, that clears the clutter, that clears the mental clutter in your mind that's constantly, you know, whispering at you all day of the things you need to do and the things you need to remember. Then you have the mental file cabinet, and that's where everything that is whispering at you all day actually goes to live. But you can't just stop there. You have to have the daily download, and that's the daily habit where you add things to your mental file cabinet, you refer back to them, you keep your inbox clear, you tackle little things, you go through your photos on your phone, little things that create stress over time if you don't tackle them, but you tackle them a little bit day by day. Then you have the monthly prep day. That's where you zoom out and you make sure you're really setting yourself up right for the month. So you don't have that extra stress on a daily basis or a weekly basis because you've already done those things. And not only that, but in the upcoming month, you're not stressed of like, when am I gonna do that? When am I gonna do that? Oh, this is driving me crazy. The table's so dirty. Oh, the curriculum cart, I got to deal with that too. No, I know when I'm gonna deal with it, so I don't have to worry about it. Um, and then on top of that is our weekly rhythm. So we have a rhythm that we follow overall, generally for our homeschool. So that itself, which is such a big part of our role as a homeschool mom, is the homeschool. And that's not stressing us out all the time. We have a framework, we know what's going on, it runs like a well-oiled machine because we figured that all out ahead of time. So that is the five systems. I have lots of other things to talk about in upcoming episodes. That's not all of it, but that is a big, big start and a great way to start um alleviating that mental load because you're taking some of it out of the mental space out of your brain, and you're putting it somewhere, but you're referring back to it. So you may be listening to this thinking that all sounds fine and dandy, but wow, that sounds like a lot of work to figure out. How do I even get started? Well, I've got great news for you. I have put together a very detailed PDF called the Starter Glueprint. It is a free 18-page PDF. Now, don't let that scare you. It's going to walk you through all of these five systems with worksheets and templates that you can actually use. There's the brain dump worksheet organized by category. So you're kind of sorting it as you dump all those things out of your brain. There's the mental file cabinet setup guide with the seven drawers explain. There's a daily download checklist that you can customize, a monthly prep day template, like I mentioned, and a full weekly rhythm builder with an example from my own family's homeschool week. So you can see what it really looks like in action. It's not a course, it's not overwhelming, it's a starting point and it's completely free. You can grab it now at homeschoolglue.com slash start to start implementing these five systems. Now, I did very heavily hint about a resource for the mental file cabinet. So definitely I would not say wait for that to start building yours. You could start it somewhere simple, like a Google Sheet, and you have different tabs for the seven drawers and you just dump information. I do have something very robust and helpful coming, but it takes time to build. And so just know that's coming, but definitely don't wait to get started because life is too precious to be super stressed out all the time when there are options to not be stressed out. And I'm helping you see what those options are because a lot of times I think we feel like there are no options. And so I'm here to tell you there are options. No, it's not going to relieve every bit of stress in your life, but it's going to open up a lot of mental capacity so you can be more present, but also deal with the stresses in your life that don't have to do with your house or the cleaning or the meal planning and that kind of stuff. Um, the things that you really need the brain power to figure out when they happen. So I hope that was helpful. Thank you guys so much for listening. I'll be back next Tuesday chatting about homeschool systems and how I can help you make your homeschool run a little bit easier and you can build that slow, peaceful, beautiful, enriching, wondrous homeschool life that you dreamed of when you set out to homeschool that maybe isn't quite what you're living right now. As always, happy homeschooling and I'll talk to you soon. I pray this episode blessed you and gave you something useful that will make homeschooling easier or more fulfilling. If this episode made you feel seen or gave you one thing to change this week, would you please share it and leave a review? That's how more homeschool moms who are struggling with overwhelm can find something that actually helps. You can always find me on Instagram at homeschoolglue where we talk simple systems, rich learning, and the real version of homeschool life. You don't need to do it all, you just need systems that stick. I'll see you next week. Happy homeschooling.