Growing Home Together Podcast

Do you have a dog who panics on a trip to the vet or groomer? It can be quite an ordeal! It’s something we experienced recently with our Bernedoodle, Jovy, on grooming day. While the perceived threat wasn’t real, her reaction to it could have put her (and Joanna!) in real danger.

We can sometimes react just like Jovy as we interact with our spouse. Something that seems simple on the surface can trigger instant feelings of stress and...

On this podcast, we usually sit down with guests to talk about marriage and family life. But in this episode, we wanted to get personal and share a piece of our own story—specifically, how depression has impacted our marriage.

We have been married for over 30 years and have five children together, but what we didn’t know until the birth of our third child is that one in seven women experience postpartum depression (PPD) after birth....

For parents, March can often feel like the last calm before the storm. Once April arrives, family calendars are inevitably flooded with school exams, spring sports, band concerts and dance recitals, and a whirlwind of other end-of-school-year obligations. Even if our days are full of good things, this hectic time of the year can make us feel tired, stressed, and disconnected from God and one another.

Our guest—a busy homeschool mom ...

As parents, we do all that we can to love and care for our kids. Our days are often filled with driving them to and from school, packing lunchboxes, helping with homework, doing laundry, and keeping up with everything they need to flourish.

But in spite of all the time we spend doing things with and for our kids, have you found that it can still be a struggle to connect with them in a meaningful way?

We’ve certainly felt this way at ...

As parents, we do everything we can to keep our kids safe, happy, and thriving. We make sure they eat their vegetables, buckle their seatbelts, and do their homework. We are committed to taking them to Sunday School each week, teaching them right from wrong, and nurturing them with love every day to help them grow into the best versions of themselves.

So when we discover that our child has fallen into addiction or some oth...

Welcome to a special episode of the Growing Home Together Podcast—coming to you from the producers!

Hi, my name is Mitch. I support Rob and Joanna in their various creative endeavors by lending a hand with the production of their podcast, social media, blogs, and more.

I also have my good friend, Kelsie, with me to help spread some Christmas joy as we bring you a little bit of a different version of the podcast to...

If you’re like us, your weekly routine is filled with events, chores, doctor’s appointments, and more. Depending on the size of your family and how many obligations each person has to juggle, it can be quite challenging to coordinate all the details of who needs to be where and when.

At our house, we have a big calendar hung on the wall of our kitchen that keeps everyone on track and (hopefully) on time. But amid the press...

When Joanna was in fifth grade, her teacher passed out a pamphlet to everyone in the class. On that pamphlet were all kinds of topics about puberty and sex, and it had a phone number that you could call to listen to pre-recorded information on every subject. In all honesty, there were lots of terms and phrases on that pamphlet that she had never heard of before!

This led to Joanna's mom giving her “The Talk.” If you r...

As our children grow up, they may start to handle some things themselves. This could be chores, getting up on time, or saving up their allowance or earned money whenever they want a new toy.

This is a natural part of getting older, but as a parent, it can be difficult to navigate when to step in and when is it healthy to let your child fail. There are going to be times when “helping” is actually preventing our children fro...

A number of years ago during one of our Michigan winters, our kids had a snow day off of school. What should have been a fun memory for our daughter became really scary since she suffered a sledding accident that put her in the hospital. She went through surgery and weeks at home in a wheelchair. To make matters worse, when she finally returned to school she was pushed out of her friend group by a bully who made the rest of her sch...

This is an exciting podcast for us since it’s our 100th episode! Wow! We are so grateful for every one of our guests who have joined us to encourage us in our faith and in loving our family well. We are also truly grateful for all of you who have tuned in, listened, and supported the ministry of the Growing Home Together podcast. 

We have the honor of welcoming some of our favorite people to the show for this very special ...

In this stage of life with our middle schooler, it is pretty clear what our job description is as his parents. He needs us to provide clean clothes, food in the fridge, some help with his homework, drive him everywhere, and pay for his schooling and extracurriculars. We are his biggest cheerleaders and guides as he is doing this work of growing up.

But things aren’t so clear when it comes to our adult children. We are havi...

If we could use one word to describe Christian parents right now it would probably be “overwhelmed.” Parents feel overwhelmed by their busy schedules, concern of how culture will influence their kids, insecurity in their own ability to teach their kids about Jesus, or even the pressure to get everything right.

Our guest is bringing a word of encouragement and hope to us as moms and dads. Christie Thomas is a mom and best-s...

We got married when we were pretty young after we met at Bible college. Needless to say, we had a lot of lofty ideas about what our Christian marriage would look like. We thought we would never argue, never lose our temper, keep the romance alive all the time, and always put each other first.

While we meant every word of our vows and we have stayed committed for over 30 years, we did not anticipate that we both entered our...

When I (Joanna) was in middle school, I can remember having a love of learning, I enjoyed being outdoors and moving through childhood content with who I was. It wasn’t until I moved to a new school and got my hands on my first Seventeen Magazine that it seemed like I was overwhelmed with feelings of not being enough. I felt like I wasn’t pretty enough, popular enough, or good enough to be wanted and loved for who I was.

I ...

“A mom is only as happy as her unhappiest child.” Have you seen this quote floating around social media? It’s caught our eyes more than a few times.

I think for a lot of us as parents, this phrase can feel accurate because when our child is hurting or struggling, it becomes the main focus of our lives. Our emotions can get all tangled up in their anxiety, pain, or their failures, and those feelings can make us feel like we...

Does your calendar have nearly every square filled to the brim? For most families, May is a particularly busy time of year with graduation parties, school concerts, sports, final exams, and all the things that go along with wrapping up the school year.

Even with such a busy schedule, we can get to the end of a packed-out day and still feel like we don’t have much to show for it. We can be in the same room with the people w...

When we got married over 30 years ago, we learned right away that growing a strong relationship would be a never-ending process. In our years together, we keep blending our personalities, habits, and the good and bad in our backgrounds so that we can love each other well and accomplish the oneness that God designed for marriage.

For couples who marry after divorce or the loss of a spouse, they face even more layers of grie...

This week on the podcast, we're revisiting an excellent conversation originally shared in 2021. Anxiety remains a challenge for many children and families (including ours). While you’ll hear references to COVID-19 in this episode (as this was recorded in the height of shutdowns), the practical tips for anxiety are well worth revisiting so we can better support our kids in their challenges.

Show Notes: https://growingh...