SPEAKER_02 0:11

Welcome to Mom's Brain is a Coffee Stain, the only podcast clinically proven to raise your blood pressure and your dopamine. I'm Kayla, Millennial Mom, current chaos coordinator of two spoiled giants who think budget is a TikTok sound. Today we're talking with Jay Rosemarie Francis, podcast host of Solo Mom's Talk and author of Courage to Believe Daily Devotional, Healing Hem, and the Solo Mom Manifesto. Let's jump on in. Thank you for joining us today, Miss Jay Rosemarie. We really appreciate it. And how about you start off by sharing a little bit about your personal journey and what serve or what led you to serve and advocate for single moms?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Oh, okay. Um, thank you for having me, Kayla. I appreciate being here. Um, so this started all started um after my husband um abandoned us with our two and four-year-old. I came on one day and the house was empty and he was gone. It was two years before I I heard from him, but then we haven't seen him since. Um but I struggled through trying to raise those two little boys on my own, but I'm not gonna lie, it was it was a tough struggle. And and so when they were about three teenage, I moved to from Atlanta to New York City. And I just sold everything, I gave away everything, and just packed them in my car, and we drove 900 miles for a two-week job. And and while this sounds crazy, it isn't because what I did was I what I had to do was trust in a God. Trust to to follow God's lead because what I was doing looked stupid, look dumb, look respectful. And but I I couldn't it was like I was an autopilot. You know, it was it was a series of things that happened, and it happened, you know, and after I I did it or I made a decision, I'm like, wow, I did that. I'm like, why did I do that? You know, so anyway, fast forward to about I'd say 2012, I participated in a discovery group at my new church in Brooklyn. And it was a nine-week discovery group of women uh who had gone through some stuff. And we were given the opportunity, a forum, if you will, to just talk about our story, to discuss what we were going through, to to just bear our soul without any judgment. We weren't allowed to correct each other. If somebody cried while they were telling their story, we weren't even allowed to give them a tissue. Because apparently I learned during that time that if someone's crying and you give them a tissue, it's like you're telling them, Don't cry, shut up. Oh. Yeah. And that was a wake-up call for me because I thought I would have been doing something good. Right. But you're you're you were encouraged to let it all out. And if somebody makes sense, then they're saying to you, don't let it all out, you know, keep some of it in. And so we weren't even allowed to do that. And we weren't allowed to repeat what we to discuss anything that happened within the um the group. And the reason I'm explaining what it was is because it had such a profound effect on me that I went through that program twice so I could train as a facilitator for for this group. And one of the things that happened to me while I went through, well, several things, but one thing was that I kept thinking to myself, I wish I had this when my kids were younger. You know, just after my husband walked out, I wish I had this group that I could go in and start complaining about my life, right? Somebody to complain to. And I kept saying to God, God, why can't we have this? I'd like to do that. I even went to the church to see if they would open the group up to the community. But it was for members only, so that was that. And I kept bugging God, and God said, Well, why don't you do it? You know, and and so I said, Okay, you know, not want to back down from a challenge. I said, okay, I'll do this. And I did my research, and I came up with an online radio station which wasn't exactly fitting for what I was thinking about. So I did more research, and as always, you know, seek and each or find. I bumped into Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Cliff Raven Scrap, and the more I searched, the more I learned about podcasting. And I was thinking it's perfect. And but it took me six years. Took me six years from the time I got the idea. Um, I wrote, I love to write. Whenever I get an idea, I start writing. And I had pages and pages of notes. I've gone, I'd gone as far as to set up the studio. I mean, everything was done. I told people about it, but I didn't do anything. I didn't hit publish because I was scared. I was scared of putting my story out there. I was scared of just being in public with my memory. Right? And even though I was thinking other people, other moms must be going through the same thing because I experienced that with this group of, I think it was 13 women. They went through it, I went through it, so maybe a lot of people are going through this. But I couldn't bring myself, you know, the lizard brain, Seth Golden like to say, was telling me, you're not good enough. Who are you? Who do you think you are? And the truth is, I was broken, and I discovered later how broken I was, how much trauma I was dealing with and hadn't dealt with, stuff that was buried that I didn't even know existed. But I started to work through those as I did this research, you know, for single moms and how I could help them and help us be more to be more strengthened, empowered to stand up for ourselves, really. And one of the reasons my podcast is called Solo Mom's Talk is because when I did the research for single moms, they there was so much negative mess out there about single moms. Some of it may be deserved, maybe the people who were, you know, talking about had an experience with someone. But I knew for a fact that it wasn't the majority of single moms. It wasn't me, right? So that was one thing. The other thing was that people had the idea that only unmarried moms were single were classified as single moms, which was another misnomer, you know, because they're and I didn't the other thing was I didn't want to just address those women, those moms. I wanted to dress address all moms who found themselves, who chose to raise their children, whether they were alone or not. Right? So they were married still, still still parenting solo. They were divorced or widowed. Oh yes, they were single, they might have adopted. They might be there, it could be grandma raising or daughter's children for one reason or another. They are parenting solo. Yeah. And those are the moms I wanted to address.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

I love that. I think that that is absolutely wonderful. And speaking of the narrative that surrounds like single motherhood, um, what is one of the biggest myths that if you could break it regarding single parenting or solo moms, what what myth would that be?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Well, I mean, there are two of myths. There's one that is the perception, right? That we we're lazy, we're always looking for a handout, and we're promiscuous, and all these different things because people don't know our story. So they just assume, right? And the other myth is that is the one we perpetuate amongst ourselves. We're alone, we have to be strong, we have to tunnel it through, you know, nobody cares, we don't need a man, you know, just all this stuff that we keep ourselves, right? And and so those are two destructive myths, one from the outside and one from the inside. And and I I have been working on trying to dismantle this outside myth, it's the external myth, because it matters. You know, it matters what people think because it drives perception, it drives policy, it drives how your kids are served in the community. So we have to pay attention to that. But the internal stuff, you know, you don't have to be strong. You don't have to carry the world on your shoulder. And if you ask for help, it doesn't mean you're weak. It means if you think you can't you don't need a man, that's fine. But you're not daddy. And and you know, I you I used to accept people wishing me happy Father's Day because, you know, I am raising my children alone. And I stopped doing it. You know, I stop doing that because one, it goes against everything God stands for, and two, it's just a myth. That is a myth we don't want to perpetuate. We're not daddy, we can't be daddy. Um, there's a reason. There's male and female and mother and father, there's a reason. And so I just want us to be able to empower ourselves with better language, you know, better thought process. Yeah. Uh and you know, just fix it and we can fix it.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yes. And what does it really mean to anchor your identity in Christ instead of your circumstances, especially in the hard seasons? I know you, you know, you've been in some tough times and God's led you to, you know, on the path that you needed to be on. And I know personally there's been times where very hard times I've gone through, and I'm like, why, God, why? And I get mad and angry, and then I can look back now or years later, and I see I can go, okay, I see what you're what you were doing there. I see what you were doing there. But it's really hard in the hard season to do that. So how how do you anchor your identity in Christ?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

So it's hard to do it in the hard season, but for me, that journey, this journey started when I was in my hardest season, right? Um, and I'd gone through a time when I didn't want anything to do with God. Not because I didn't know it was good, but because his people weren't good, right? I didn't view his people as good. Um, I wrote a uh newsletter about this yesterday, is that I was pastor's secretary. I was doing all this stuff in church, you know, supporting youth group and just all kinds of stuff, spending my time doing all that stuff. And when my husband filed for divorce, my pastor looked at me and said, Well, you can't lead these groups in church anymore because you're a divorced woman. So I'm like, I want nothing to do with any of those people, but I went a step further and said, I wanted nothing to do with God. Right? And even though I didn't say it out loud, I lived it out loud. Right. And so it wasn't until I hit rock rough bottom, um, really, that I've I remembered God. I remembered that, oh, there is a God, there is someone actually who cares. Because sometimes we are in a position where we we just think that nobody cares. And when everybody's let you down, husband, father, mother, community, pastor, when friend, when everyone has let you down, right? Now you have to turn to the one who would never let you down. Okay? And the the the the awakening will come when you recognize that there is a higher power. And the higher power isn't the pastor on the pulpit, it isn't the celebrity one on the on YouTube, it isn't the next door neighbor who claims to be a Christian. There is a higher power. His name is Jesus, and he cares about you. So the mindset has to shift from thinking about people and their actions and what they say to who you know and who you who you have an idea of who is better than all these other people. Right? My when my youngest son was about 13, he gave his life to Christ. And uh one day he went to church without me. And I asked him, well, church was after. He said, Well, you know, I discovered something today that my pastor's human. 13 years old. And the pa he said that because the pastor was talking about all the difficult times he was having, and he said, I never thought pastor at a difficult time. But you see, that's the lesson we have to learn. Yeah, people are people, they're just like you. We're just at different we're just at different uh level of sickness, right? Because they say the church is like a hospital, everybody responds to the cure differently, right? And so for us to understand how to connect our story with Christ, with God, with Jesus, we have to admit, we have to admit that God is all-powerful. One, and two, that he loves us, and three, that he wants to help us, and four, that he understands us. He's touched with the feelings of our infirmity, and I think a lot of times it's just how we were raised or what we've experienced or how other people act. Yeah, it's not that that we we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

A lot of us know, some of us really don't have any clue, but a lot of us know. So when I got hit that rock bottom, I had no choice but to call out to God.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

And whether it was he was ready to listen or he was ready to understand, or I was ready to listen, he he did this with me. Every time I I I hit a brick wall, he would move that wall out of my way.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

That's not sometimes it doesn't work like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

And and that's expected, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

And you know, my mom always used to say a prayer isn't a request. Um, so you you don't request something from God when you're praying. Um yes, so but you know, it is hard. And for moms who've maybe experienced a deep hurt or abandonment, especially from the people that are they're, you know, were supposed to be in their circle, you know, like a husband or a father or mother, how do they begin to rebuild trust in both the people and in God? You know, when you feel like, oh my gosh, like everything has let me down, and you've kind of turned your back a little bit to God, how do you rebuild that trust?

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Well, for one, you you I hate to say it, but we shouldn't be trusting people in that way, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:41

We we need to anchor our trust in God. David is the is the biggest example of this because David was one who was hunted, he was chased, he was he was ostracized, even though he was supposed to be king. But he kept turning back to God. He kept he yelled, he screamed, he hollered, he cursed other people, and he said, God kill them, God do this to them, God do that, but he still made God his anchor. And so we have to learn how to anchor ourselves in God. And even if it's messy, you know, uncoordinated, doesn't sound right, awkward, still do it. You know, one of the things I I do a lot, and I wrote about this in the devotional, that I used to lay awake worried. You know, I go to bed at 11 and I'm awake at 2, 3 o'clock, and I'm like, I need to sleep. And I stopped worrying one night, one morning when I heard, it's like I heard the voice of God say, Come talk to me. And I I turn over, I kneel down, and I started to pray. Sometimes I'd fall asleep, talking rubbish, talking gibberish, but I started to do that every day, talking to God. And I no longer lay awake worrying. Yeah. Because each time, each time that happened that I'm awake with nothing to do and thinking about all these things, and it's night, should be sleeping. I start to talk to him. So I encourage you, do that first if if you have nothing else.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

I love that. It it makes perfect sense because he's like your best friend that's always there. You know, so there's never a time where it's not appropriate to call or anything like that. He's always listening, he's always there. So I think that that's so important. And you know, we there's many lessons that we've learned in the Bible and just personal history, you know, it you can seem like you've maybe been angry with God or turned your back to his teachings and things like that. And then, but what does he do? You know, he still welcomes you back. Yes. So it, you know, it's the ultimate love. He you know, and that's just one of those things that it's so important to understand that my mom used to say, you don't really lose trust in God, you're just angry.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Because you you trust that God loves you, you know that he's doing the best work for you. You just don't understand it, and you're not meant to.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Right, yeah. So I'd like to add to that God isn't surprised by who you are, how you are, what you did. There's no secret from God. Right. I discovered that I realized I'm just free to talk to him because he already knows you messed up. He knew you were going to mess up. And when I think of the profound love of God for me, that thousands of years ago he sent his son or he became man, even though he knows that today me, J. Rosemary, wouldn't be a good person. He did it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

When I discovered that, I was like, man, why wouldn't I trust somebody like that?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Absolutely. And you touched a little bit about on your devotional. Um, what can moms expect from your courage to believe devotional? And why is it a structured journey so powerful for healing?

SPEAKER_00 21:32

So I like to say about it that it's not your average devotional. And the reason is because I talk a lot about my story, I address the emotions that affected me, and I know affects other solo moms like fear, anger, for worry, grief. I I go on forgiveness, I go. Through all these emotions that we experience and how we can deal with them and how to openly deal with them in front of our children, not yelling and cursing in front of them, but teaching them emotional, you know, emotional intelligence so they understand that even though you're angry, there's a way to work through that anger. Right. Right? And so I deal with a lot of those emotions and explain to you that God's not surprised by them. You're angry at your ex, he's not surprised. But they we have to work through those emotions, right? That's the first part. The first 10 days deal with all those 10 different emotions. And in the second part, I deal with God's role in our lives and the role he can play in our lives when we let him. Provider, father, shelter, shepherd, healer. All those things that we need and he can provide. So in that context, you don't need a man for that. Right. Right? And I'm saying that not because I'm not against someone finding a partner and getting married. What I am saying is don't do what I did and think that a man is the answer. Yeah. God is the answer. So I lay that all out in the devotional. I talk a lot about my own story and the different things that happened to me through the past 20, 30 years. And I think it will resonate with moms who are raising their children alone at different, no matter what stage you are. And then at the end of it, I have like a toolkit. I talk about things I use to get me through the different stages of that I that I that I went through. Um, therapy, journaling, that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

That's wonderful. And, you know, you've mentioned journaling and everything. And I um I love to journal. Um it's just it's very therapeutic. But I don't find a lot of time to journal some days, you know, just between the kids, you gotta have dinner, homework, sports. Life is chaotic, it's busy, it's exhausting. I don't get to journal every day. So at that same thought process, though, what does faith look like on those busy, chaotic days where somebody like me, who I like to sometimes write out my prayer? You know, not always, but I like to write out my prayer. Um and some days I just I don't have the time for that, you know? But that doesn't mean I don't have time to pray. Maybe it's right after I get out of the shower or whatever, like just a few minutes. Um but is it really centering your day around Christ and walking in faith when you're in the middle of all the chaos and the exhaustion? Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

So I can't always answer base on my own experience. I I can when I go back and see things, I could say, well, do it this way, do it that way. But then I realized I was in a very fortunate position a lot of times, right? But because what I did a lot, I walked a lot. And while I walk, I prayed. Because yes, sometimes you don't you get up in the morning and you want, you, you can't, you don't have time to kneel down and pray. And if you do, you probably fall asleep and it'll be late for work, right? I wrote the subway, which gave me a lot of time to write and read. Okay? So somebody may have to get in the car and drive so they don't have that privilege, right? But I've discovered that on your phone, there's an app, there's a journal app, there's Google Docs that you can speak into. Yeah. So you're driving, you set Google app docs on, and you start talking, you know, because maybe you want to talk about your feeling. Maybe you're mad at somebody, maybe you're mad at God. Talk about it. That's your journaling. You don't have to cut up 30 minutes to sit down and write. It can happen at any time, at different stages. I used to be able to do that at my desk. I walk away from my desk and walk down to the wharf and just sit down. I had that privilege. Maybe you don't. It's however it can happen, make it happen. Because it's beneficial for you and in turn beneficial for your children. I once interviewed a woman who told me that I asked her about self-care because it was one of the questions I had at the time. And she said, Oh, I don't have time for self-care. I need to take care of my children. And I realized that a lot of times we think that if we step away to invigorate ourselves and strengthen ourselves, that that means our children lose out. Nothing is further from the truth. I'd like to repeat what one of my guests, Dana Malstaff, says when it gets chaotic and you're just overwhelmed, tie a red ribbon on your bathroom door and tell your children you need to use the bathroom. And when they see that red ribbon, they know that mommy needs some time alone. And you could use that time alone, whether we extend, 15, 20 minutes, or whatever it is to do what you need to do. Whether it's journal, cry, you know, just sit there and breathe. Whatever it takes, you have to, you have to do something to help yourself. You you you just do. You just have to.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Absolutely. I I and you, you know, you brought up the use of technology, and I think that that's so important because we are privileged to have technology where you can do text-to-speech and everything else that and there's literally prayer apps where maybe, like you said, maybe you don't have 20, 30 minutes to journal, but you can follow along with the prayer right after you know you get the kids on the bus or something like that. Um I think that it's so important to find that time to give to Christ, whether it's you're just having a conversation with him, or it's like you said, if you're going to him to be like, Lord, please help me, please ground me, please, I need to recenter myself, you know, whatever it may be, you it's important to give that time to him in in a way that is self-care. It is, you know, because like I said earlier, he's your best friend, you know. And I know after I sit down and I talk with one of my best friends over coffee or something, I feel like, oh, I feel like so much lighter, you know. Well, you can do that with Jesus every day. Yeah. So I love that. Yeah. Um, and as we move forward, you know, we're talking about single moms and they have their trauma. You know, like you said earlier, just because you're a single parent or a solo parent, that doesn't mean that you your partner left. It could be in your widowed or you're raising your grandchild. But there's still a level of most time trauma that comes with the with the experience. And how do they begin to heal that trauma and still show up for the children?

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Uh again, it it's so complicated uh all of it, because there's so many layers, right? Because you may have had to parent that child while still dealing with your own pain, while still in dealing with your pain that's that not healed or you haven't even recognized, you don't even recognize you're in pain, right? And a lot of times I like to say self-reflection is one of the biggest tools you could use to start that journey towards healing. Because if you don't know where you are, you it's hard to figure out where you need to go. So one of the biggest things I'd say, one of the biggest questions is to ask, what is going on with me right now? You if you if you get angry a lot, see this, somebody says something, it triggers you, you're mad, and you act like the fool. I've done it, I've thrown things across the room, I've broken stuff because I'm just mad. Ask yourself, why is it that I'm mad? Why does that make me mad? And this is where the writing stuff down comes in. So when you're doing that, work through it if you can on your own, within writing or recording it on your phone, so you can go back and listen to it. So you have to start to look into yourself. One of the things I always say is that God whispers what he wants to know, what he wants you to know in your heart. But we're so busy we don't have time to hear, we can't hear him. And this happens whether you are a Christian or not. Abraham was not a man of God when God called him, and God wants all of us back to him, right? And so if you are not, you know, churchgoer or Christian, God still loves you and wants you back. Open your heart to listening, not to this person on YouTube and that person on that platform, to God and say, God, this is hard, this is tough. What do you want me to do? What should I do? And trust me when I tell you that the answers keep coming.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

And yeah, you make mistakes, it's okay because God will always look out for you when you trust Him. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

But stop reflection, ask questions, ask yourself questions, look in the mirror and say, Why are you like this?

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Write it down, speak it, anything.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Just start there. Yeah, that's wonderful advice. And you speak about using stories as a tool. Um, how can sharing our stories bring healing not just to us because we are writing it down or saying it, but to others?

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Well, for this the same example I gave about the nine-week discovery group, right? Uh, because I'm listening to them and they're listening to me tell my story. And again, no intervention, just us talking. And it will dawn on somebody that that's saying, I'm alone, I'm the only one who's going through this. Or if they're experiencing some crisis at that moment and they hear somebody else going through that crisis, right? It resonates and they could pick apart what's being said. You know, when when we first started Solomon's Talk, I had a group called Solomon's Connect. And it was during COVID, and there was a young lady, she had a two-week home, and she was going through a divorce. And this was during COVID. And she came on just to, because she said, I don't know what to do. I I just I don't know what to do. And there was me, a divorcee. There were two of my friends from work. I pulled them onto the Zoom, and they were both divorcees with adult children. And we didn't try to tell her what to do or give her advice. We each told our story. And when we were finished, he said, Oh my goodness, I am so glad I heard this because now I know I don't have to give up hope. So when you tell people you don't have to tell people what to do. They will hear what you're saying, your story, your drama, and sit, you know, fit their thing around your drama and try to figure out their own life for themselves.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Absolutely. Does that make sense? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, because everybody can take something different from, you know, we can all hear the same story, but we can resonate with it in a different way. So it makes perfect sense. And speaking of sharing stories, as you said earlier, it took you six years to start your podcast, you know. Um, just felt like, well, who's gonna listen to me and everything? What finally gave you the courage to really just say, today's the day, I'm doing it, I'm getting this out there, and I'm sharing it with the world.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

So it was a journey, a six-year journey. But the I I would say the thing that did this for me was when I went to a Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within um seminar. It was three, four days of craziness, but it was the most awesome time because Tony Robbins liked to do these intense workshops, and you know, he he does a lot of repetitive exercise with you. I did the firewalk, and no, I didn't get burned, and uh but it gave me it it have me coming away with this, I couldn't do anything feeling, and I just went on because like I said, I was preparing, I had my equipment, I had everything, I had even recorded some things. I've even recorded the first three episodes, and all I had to do was hit publish, and I did. I actually did, and and so that's that's that was the you know, the kick in the butt actually that you know got me going. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Yeah. And for the moms who are listening and they maybe feel like unseen or overwhelmed, or like maybe they're barely holding it together, what would you say to her?

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Okay, so this sounds cliche, but it's true, and I want you to look into that.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

God sees you. That's the most important thing is that God sees you. You're not an unidentified object, you are a human being created by God, and a lot of times how we see ourselves is a reflection of what others say about us or how others acted towards us. If our parents didn't pay us much mind, didn't protect us, didn't do what they should do for us as children, then we absorb all of that because we're not good enough, we're not important enough. If our husband gets up and leave us, even if they died, you know, it's it's just our human way of dealing with loss, is that we internalize it and say, I must not be good enough. I did that after my third divorce. What's wrong with me? I'm not good enough, right? I would just want you to understand, and I mean I'm saying it to you, and I know my words might not mean anything, but you are important, and if nothing else today, you're important to this life or the life you're leading because you're their leader, you're their example. Look at your daughter or your son. What do you want them to do? Or what who do you want them to be when they're 18, 19, 20, 21? What kind of husband or wife do you want them to be? Or a school teacher, whatever it is. What do you want them to be? And how are you going to help them to get there? What kind of example? And that's a lot of pressure on your mom, but that's pressure for you to look in the mirror and take care of you.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

And I would encourage anyone who has the resources to go to therapy, see a therapist. If you live in an area where there's a YMCA, you may be able to get free or reduced fee mental health counseling. There's nothing wrong with it. Get the help you need. Your children don't have to go through what you've been through.

SPEAKER_02 39:44

Perfectly said. And speaking of our children, what kind of legacy do you hope to leave, not just for your children, but for other women who are walking this path, the solo mom path?

SPEAKER_00 40:00

So, one of the things I often talk about, which has nothing to do with this, but traveling. I love to travel, and I want my grandchildren to see that it's okay to just get on a plane and go where you want to go and stay as long as you want to stay. It's okay. It's good actually. But also, I want I want my children to understand that they don't have, even if they're seeing me suffer, they don't have to suffer like I suffered. Everybody's gonna have challenge. So we're not saying that children are never gonna have challenges. I'm just saying you I want to leave that idea to my children that they don't have to walk my path. They can carve out their own path. Yeah, whatever that is for them. I also want my children, I always taught them to believe in God because God is real, it's not religion, it's not the universe, it's not an entity, it's God, and that's who I encourage them to trust in, to believe in, and anything that you want and need, go to God and ask it, and believe that he loves you enough to give you what you want within reason. But so I want there's a lot of things, but those are the like the basic things that you you want your children to not to excel beyond where you are. Yeah, and that's why I encourage therapy, I encourage healing, I encourage all these practices that these emotional things that we go through. Let your children see those things. Let them see you say, Oh my god, this is so hard. But I trust you, Lord. Yes, let them see.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Absolutely. And as we wrap up today, where can our listeners connect with you and grab your devotional and listen to your podcast?

SPEAKER_00 42:14

Oh, so podcast is Solomon's Talk. It's uh we have a um it's on YouTube, uh also on Apple and Spotify and the other platforms. I'm at jrosemarie.com where I blog a lot. I have a store at Solomon's Talk.store, and I do have a free gift for, you know, it it's uh it's like the first two or three days of the devotional. Um the introduction and the first chapter. I also have audio and and these are all free for downloading. So I'd like you to go grab those and see what the devotional is about. And it's available on perfect, wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. So much fun.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

And if you would, please leave us a review. It really helps other tired moms and dads find the show. And if you want to become a supporter of the show or just keep us caffeinated so we can keep bringing the chaos every Tuesday, head over to our Buzzsprout page at mom's brain is a coffee stain. Buzzsprout.com. Even a couple bucks means the world and helps us keep the coffee and the show flowing. Now you can become a subscriber of the show and get access to new episodes two days early. And don't forget, check us out on social media. You can find us everywhere at Mom's Brain is a Coffee Stain. Go ahead and slide into our DMs or email us. Your best no guilt hacks, cringiest mom moments, or episode requests at momsbrain is a coffee stain at Outlet.com. And y'all head over to check out Jay Rosemarie's podcast, Solo Mom's Talk, available pretty much where you get podcasts. Apple, Amazon, Spotify, you guys know where we find your podcasts, YouTube. And don't forget to visit her website, jrosemarie.com to get more information regarding her books, blog, and the free gifts she's giving away. We'll put the note we'll put the links in the show notes. Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go make dinner and then take my baby for another driving lesson. Love y'all. Mean it, go sip on for us, and we'll see you next Tuesday.