When was the last time you intentionally drove with your eyes closed? I hope your answer is never.
The “why” is pretty obvious.
Seeing, while driving, is on par with breathing while living. Without it, catastrophe is basically inevitable.
As moms, we’d never endanger those in tow by being so reckless. We’d never think of driving without vision, so why live life without it?
Maybe we do that because the consequences aren’t as dramatic. You probably won’t crash and die without a meal plan. But your relationships might be strained. You may feel emotionally drained and frustrated because cooking doesn’t bring you joy and here come those hungry (cranky) little people, for the 50th time today, asking for food.
If you’re like me, lack of vision creates decision fatigue like it’s a job. Seriously. If I don’t have vision, or at least a target of where I want to be, I don’t want to do anything!
Decision fatigue has a way of wasting my time, usually costing me money, and straining my relationships. In essence, it can derail the mom I want to be, just because I allowed lack of vision in my life.
Let’s just be honest. Moms make a lot of decisions every day and we can literally manufacture decision fatigue by allowing clouded vision. If we do this, we’re quite literally shooting ourselves in the foot!
For our first Airbnb, I only had ideas randomly floating around my head until my sister-in-law suggested that I create an image board.
Initially, I thought it wasn’t necessary, but boy was I wrong!
She instructed me to start with the things I already had, or the things I already knew. And then add to it from there.
The concept is very simple. I screenshotted pictures of things that I thought might fit my space and uploaded them to a document “board” on the Canva app.
Not only was it fun, but it has helped me tremendously with everything from decisions to the relationships in my life!
“Ok. Really? You’re telling me that a vision board for a tiny house helped your marriage?”
Yep. That’s exactly what I’m saying.
“Ok, prove it.”
I will. With a question.
Name one marriage that is benefited by stress … I’ll wait.
The answer is none. No marriage is helped by stress.
And guess what the vision board helped me to have? Yep. Less Stress.
And another question: The kind that makes guys frustrated and girls cry.
The answer is none.
And guess what the vision board helped me to have? Clear communication.
I can literally pull up my phone and SHOW my husband what I am thinking.
Can you imagine SHOWING your husband what you are thinking? The poor guy is probably tired of the guessing game anyway.
Don’t believe me? When we were retrofitting the silo into an Airbnb, we went to the Restore where there are hundreds of used light fixtures. I pulled up my phone to compare the things I saw to the things I previously decided that I wanted. Guess what? Doing that kept me from spending the money on something that I didn’t actually want AND it made me more efficient. Before I had a vision board, I would have done a whole lot more hemming and hawing and not sure-ing. Having the vision board eliminated most of that! It was wonderful!
What if this could be true for life?
What would your ideal mom vision board look like?
And the opposite: What things are you living right now that you would NOT put on your vision board?
What can we do to change those things?
We’ve already discussed that driving with your eyes closed is a terrible idea, so let’s not live life that way. Let’s live intentionally. Does your 2026 mom-life need a vision board? What top three things would you put on it? Write them down. We have a couple of days left to take some screenshots of where we want to “go” before we start another trip around the sun.
Meet your farmer – Liz Gerdes. She & her husband run a farm-to-table Raw milk dairy and Airbnb in Caledonia, Minn. They empower moms (& dads) to confidently feed their families nutrient-dense food using farm fresh milk! Visit gerdesfreshfarm.com or follow her on Facebook @gerdesfreshfarm or Instagram @gerdesliz for more info.
Creamy Raw Milk Hot Chocolate
2 cups raw milk
2 tablespoons cacao powder
1 tablespoon honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
Pinch sea salt
In a small saucepan, combine the milk, cacao powder, honey, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Whisk until smooth.
Place the saucepan over medium heat, and bring the milk to a simmer, whisking often. Give the hot chocolate a taste – if you prefer it sweeter, whisk in a bit more honey. Serve warm.
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