April Fools, Traditions, & Building Joy in Motherhood

Episode Transcript

Brittany (00:00):
Hey mama.

(00:03):
Welcome to the Inside Out Mamaspodcast.
I'm Brittany Turley, mom of six,and I know what it's like to
feel stuck and overwhelmedtrying to be the perfect mom,
but everything changed for mewhen I learned that small
changes on the inside can bringbig results on the outside.
Each week I will share simple,yet powerful inside shifts or

(00:25):
outside tips that can transformyour approach to mothering,
helping you thrive from theinside out.
Ready to ditch the mom guilt andenjoy this season of life.
You are in the right place.
Hey Mamas.
Well, some of you may havethought that I just quit and
gave up the podcast, but Ididn't.

(00:48):
We just had a rough month inMarch but I am back for real
now.
One of the purposes of mybusiness is to help moms feel
joy in motherhood.
Now, joy is defined as feelingof great pleasure or happiness.
Joy is an internal state thatcomes from our thoughts, and

(01:11):
that's why working from theinside out is important.
Joy can be felt even indifficult times because it is
linked internally to meaning andto faith and to perspective
through our thoughts rather thanjust enjoyable experiences like
happiness is.
We can build joy in our lifethrough different ways.

(01:35):
Five of those ways are.
Connection being aligned withour values and our purpose being
present and in the moment,gratitude and serving others
with April Fools coming up gotme thinking about family
traditions because our familyloves April Fools, and I

(01:56):
realized that we build joy inMotherhood With our family
traditions.
Now, family traditions can bebig ones or small.
But traditions usually check alot of the boxes in the ways I
just mentioned, that we canbuild joy in our lives.
So I'm gonna illustrate that foryou today with our families.

(02:18):
April Fool's Traditions.
Now, I don't know exactly whenthis started, but at some point
when our kids were young, myhusband and I decided it would
be fun to play a few AprilFool's jokes on our kids, and
it's just kind of snowballedfrom there.
So the first way that I said wecan build joy is through

(02:40):
connection.
April Fools has made connectionsfor us.
This was especially true in theyear of Covid.
I think it was like right afterthey shut down the schools and
sent all the kids home that itwas right around April Fools.
And, you know, everybody wasjust kind of in this state of
unsure and don't know, and wewere safe at home and we had

(03:03):
everything we needed, but mykids were still, you know, just
kind of like disheveled, liketheir whole world was just
turned upside down.
And April Fools was coming, so Istarted getting my little bag of
tricks ready to go.
And by the way, none of theseideas are original.
I don't think all of them.
I either saw somebody's idea andcopied it exactly, or saw

(03:25):
somebody's idea and just barelytweaked it.
There's amazing people on theinternet who share such fun
ideas.
So the year of COVID, I saw anidea on the internet to have a
mini dinner.
So I made a regular dinner, butI served it to my kids on my
girls' little tiny toy dishes.

(03:45):
And so we all had an itty bittyplate and an itty bitty cup and
itty bitty utensils.
And I, whatever I made, I put itin the small.
Pot that came with her set, andwe served it outta there with a
teeny tiny spoon, and they justthought it was the funnest thing
ever, and it's still a memorythat they talk about, and it's

(04:06):
really brought a lot ofconnection for us.
Also, along with that dinner, Isaw an idea to make sponge cake.
So you take a little sponge andyou cover it with frosting, you
put sprinkles on it.
And so since we were having amini dinner, I got a small
sponge and I cut it up intolittle tiny pieces and made
little sponge cake for everybodyand.
Then I did make an actual cakealso.

(04:28):
And they thought that washilarious also.
And so those two memories forthem just brought our family
together in a time that it wasjust a lot of uncertainty.
So it really made connectionsfor us.
All right.
The second way I talked about istraditions help us align with
our values and our purpose.
When we're aligned with ourvalues and our purpose, we feel.

(04:51):
Joy.
Our family thinks that lifeshould be fun and we do try to
have a lot of fun.
And April Fools is one way we dothat.
Some of the ways that are kindof like the old standards here
at our house that I've done foryears that sometimes they still
forget about is each night allof our kids lay out their
clothes before bed so that inthe morning it's just easy to

(05:14):
get out the door and I will snagone of their clothes.
Usually the pant leg, and I'lljust stitch up the bottom with
my sewing machine on a really.
Light stitch so that when theygo to shove their foot in it
gets stuck, or I've done thatwith their pajamas too.
We've taken safety pins andsafety pinned all their
underwear together, so when theygrab one out of the drawer, all

(05:37):
of them come out.
We've booby trapped their doorsso that when they open the door,
balloons drop or confetti orballs on their head.
We almost every year withoutfail stuffed socks or toilet
paper in one of their shoes.
So there's, they're rushing outthe door to get to school and
they shove their foot in theirshoe.

(05:58):
They can't get it in all theway.
One of the best ones that we hadwas done by one of my daughters,
and she was actually only sevenat the time.
We woke up on April Fool'smorning and I opened my door and
outside my door is a hallwaythat kind of has all of the
kids' doors and it, it's kind ofan L shape and it's probably, I.

(06:23):
I dunno, maybe 40 feet ofhallway.
And in the middle of the night,my daughter had gotten up
somehow and gotten all the booksoff of one of the bookshelves in
the hallway and laid out.
Meticulously covering almostevery inch of the hallway with
books And then she'd also pulledstuff from the bathroom, like

(06:46):
soap dispensers and shampoo andhair combs.
She just covered the entirehallway.
You could not walk down thehallway.
And I was so shocked.
I thought it was one of herolder brothers.
It was so hilarious when wefound out that it was her in the
middle of the night withoutanyone knowing.
She had been up for quite awhile, I'm guessing.

(07:06):
Laying this maze out for us inthe morning.
It really was a lot of fun.
number three being present andin the moment, no one is more
present in our house than onApril Fools.
We don't do mean pranks, butpeople are always either
watching out for pranks orwatching to see one of their

(07:28):
jokes being played out, one ofthe times that this was very,
very true is one year I got theidea to make cake pops.
So I just bought little donutholes.
You dip them in some chocolateand then put sprinkles on'em,
and then.
Put'em in the fridge so ithardens.
And you do that with donuts, butthen you also do it with some
tomatoes that are the same size.

(07:50):
And so I made a bunch of cakepops and dinner that night was
kinda like some people ate atthis time, some people ate at
this time, some people ate atthis time'cause we had soccer
and different things going on.
So the first people throughdidn't know it was gonna hit'em.
And you know, some people got adonut and some people got a
tomato and it was a surprise.
And so then they were watchingas the next wave of eaters came,

(08:14):
and they were eating their treatafter dinner Everybody was just
paying attention and beinginvolved, and it was really fun.
All right, number four isgratitude.
Surprisingly, my kids haveactually told me thank you for
pranking them.
Like I said, we don't do meanones, we just do fun and funny
ones.

(08:35):
But they've actually told methat they like it a lot and.
Make sure that I know that theywant pranks on April Fools.
I am also grateful for theopportunity to focus on April
Fools on fun with my kids,because sometimes in the day to
day caring for kids and all thetasks that is required in, you

(08:58):
know, just the.
Logistics of running a familyand making sure everybody has
what they need.
Sometimes they get old andmonotonous and just hard, and so
April Fools is a way that itkind of mixes, it mixes things
up for me, and I really get tojust put a lot of energy into
having some fun.
And then number five, servingothers.

(09:19):
It does take extra effort inplanning on our part to pull off
April Fools, and some years I'mkind of like behind and I'm
like, ah, do I really wanna dothis?
It's so much work.
But then I remember what joy itbrings me and my family, and the
smiles on my kids' faces.
And so I've done it every year.

(09:41):
Even though it's often AprilFools and me and my husband are
up late putting, putting pranksinto place, it's still worth it.
a couple of our, my kids'favorites that dos take some
extra prep.
Is when I turned their juiceinto jello.
So I buy juice and then mix itwith gelatin and pour it into

(10:04):
cups and put a straw in it andserve it to them with dinner.
And we like never drink juicefor dinner and we never drink
out of a straw for dinner.
So they know something's funny.
Then they try and sip it andnothing comes out.
And then they get to eat theirjuice with a spoon.
Or several years I've put jellybeans in the fridge, ice
dispenser, so when they go getice for their water.

(10:28):
Jelly beans comes out.
So even traditions as silly asApril Fools can help us build
joy through motherhood, byhelping us build connection,
helping us align with our valuesand purpose, helping us be
present in the moment, helpingus have gratitude and helping us
serve others.

(10:50):
Now, I don't want you to thinkthat you all now need to.
Have an April Fool's tradition.
This was just a silly way ofshowing you that traditions,
even though sometimes they're alot of work for the parents,
they are so helpful in buildingjoy through motherhood.
Now because I believe smallchanges on the inside bring big

(11:12):
results on the outside.
Each week on my podcast, I'mgoing to give you a small change
challenge, something small youcan do throughout the week if
you choose, that could end upbringing big results to your
life.
So the small change challengefor this week is to think about
a tradition.
Big or small, doesn't matterthat you do with your kids.

(11:33):
And take a mental note of how itbuilds joy through connection,
aligning with values and purposebeing present in the moment.
Gratitude or serving others.
It doesn't need to check all ofthem off, but even if it checks
one of them off, that's sowonderful.
And then celebrate that joybuilding time that you create

(11:54):
with and for your kids.
Sometimes traditions can seemoverwhelming, and we do
sometimes need to take an auditof what we're doing and decide
is this.
Really doing what I want it todo is this really serving the
purpose that I want it to.
But it's also so helpful for usto see and reflect on how, yes,
that was a lot of work, but lookat how it helped us build joy in

(12:19):
our.
Family and in our motherhood,and then it makes those
traditions so worth it.
Remember, small changes on theinside, bring big results on the
outside.
Thank you for joining me foranother episode of Inside Out
Mamas.
My hope is that our timetogether inspires more feelings

(12:40):
of peace, confidence, and joy inyour mama journey.
Be sure to subscribe so younever miss a show.
And if you're ready to takethese insights even deeper, head
over to brittany turleycoaching.com to check out my
digital workshop.
Designed to help you reducedaily mom overwhelm without
adding to your to-do list.

(13:01):
Thanks for listening.
And remember, small changes onthe inside, bring big results on
the outside.