Catholic Mom Calm

How I Use AI (And How My Company Does)

The internet is very loud about AI right now, so I want to tell you exactly where I stand in July of 2026, both personally and as a company, so you can start forming your own opinion. For the most part I'm team AI. I also think it's going to create some genuinely scary things in our society, the same way the internet and smartphones did. Both can be true. My favorite thing about it? It cuts through the noise. Instead of clicking through twenty websites full of pop-ups and people trying to sell me something, I can ask a question and get a clear answer, then ask for the counterarguments too. In this episode I walk through how I use it in real life (skincare, salad dressings, puppy training, fact-checking those sensational ads), the private questions you'd never Google, and exactly where I draw my hard lines. I also pull back the curtain on how Catholic Mom Calm uses AI and where we absolutely don't, so you know what's touched by it and what isn't. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Where I land on AI in July 2026: mostly team AI, and clear-eyed about the harm too My favorite thing about it, cutting through the internet's noise (Google's AI Mode, and always asking "what's the counterargument, and who's making it?") The intimacy-call tip: asking private questions you'd never Google, telling it you're Catholic first, and deleting the thread How I use it at home: skincare picks, homemade salad dressing, a week-by-week puppy plan, and fact-checking those sensational ads Where I draw hard lines: not for prayer, not for religious art, and why real artists and musicians still make our work How Catholic Mom Calm actually uses it (story research, email arcs, financials, coding the app) and where we still won't (design) The Calm Catholic Kids app is out, why I made it "the most boring app ever," and a word on kids, AI, and Pope Leo's letter EPISODE TIMELINE: [00:00] – Where I stand on AI in July 2026 [05:00] – Cutting through the noise: Google's AI Mode and asking for both sides [10:00] – The intimacy-call tip, and telling it you're Catholic [15:00] – Skincare, salad dressings, puppy plans, and fact-checking sensational ads [20:00] – Where I draw the line: prayer, religious art, and real artists [25:00] – How Catholic Mom Calm uses AI (and how it doesn't) [30:00] – The app is out, kids and AI, and Pope Leo's letter LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Calm Catholic Kids app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/calm-catholic-kids/id6768798893 Calm Catholic Kids (buy the collections here, not through the app, so you skip Apple's 30%): https://calmcatholickids.com Xavier Co-op (my new two-and-a-half-day hybrid school launching this fall): https://xaviercoop.com Come to France with me this fall: https://catholicmomcalm.com/france/ My skincare routine: Cetaphil cream (I get this at costco) Blue Lizard sunscreen TruSkin Face Serum Pope Leo's letter on AI: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html The AI tools I mentioned: ChatGPT, Claude, Google's Gemini (AI Mode), and Grok CHECK OUT MY WORK: Website: https://catholicmomcalm.com Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm Mary's Heart, Martha's Order Planner: https://catholicmomcalm.com/planner

'90s Seattle, Grunge, and the New Elle Woods Show

It's Friday night, I'm home alone, and I'm recording a completely ridiculous episode. No coaching, no reframe, just me wanting to talk to someone about episode one of the new Elle Woods show on Amazon Prime. My husband took the kids to the beach, I opened Prime, and this little show whisked me right back to being a '90s Seattle grunge girl. Fair warning: this one is pure nostalgia. If you grew up in the '90s, went to concerts, lived anywhere near the Pacific Northwest, or ever dyed a strip in your hair and thought it was the coolest thing ever (it was not, but it was to me), come sit with me for a few minutes. And if that's not you, skip this one. I promise next week's episode gets deep and coachy again. WHAT I COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Why the show is a love letter to 40-year-old women who grew up on Legally Blonde (and why they nailed it) The soundtrack, the plaid, the hoodies, the one girl with an umbrella, and how perfectly they captured '90s Seattle grunge My own Seattle years, from Capitol Hill to Green Lake, walking my puppies and running my dog-training business The clique-and-judge culture of '90s high school, and my honest confession about who I would have been to a new girl like Elle Why I love that the show's characters are positive and kind, and what that stirred up in me as a parent now A little window into the me you might not know: concerts, green Doc Martens, and starting a web design company at 17 LINKS AND RESOURCES: Come to France with me https://catholicmomcalm.com/france/ Calm Catholic Kids (Summer of Kindness stories free now, Collections 4 and 5 coming soon): https://calmcatholickids.com CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH: Website: https://catholicmomcalm.com Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm

Enjoying Your Daily Life (No Matter What Season You're In)

I just got back from driving six kids and two dogs (including an eight-week-old puppy) from northern Idaho to northern Wisconsin, and the trip left me with a takeaway I didn't expect. I am so in love with my ordinary, day-to-day life. Watching cousins become friends and swimming and puppy chaos was wonderful, and it made me more grateful than ever for the life I've built at home. So in this episode I'm going to make the case, hard, that you can enjoy your day-to-day life too. I take on the obvious objection head-on ("sure, Sterling, but you're in an easier phase now") and explain why it isn't the property or the ages or the lack of babies making me happy. It's the tools. I walk through calming your body first, opening the messy closet of your thinking, putting what you actually want in the result line, and building rest into your rhythms so you stop living for the next escape. It comes down to rebuilding trust with yourself, and it's available in any season. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Why a big, un-relaxing family trip left me more in love with my everyday life than ever The objection I take head-on ("it's easy for you now") and why circumstances aren't what make me happy Calming your body first: the anger thermometer, breathing, and being Dominic the dragon "cooling his fire" so your kids can see it Opening the messy closet of your thinking, popping the comparison bubbles, and redirecting on purpose Putting what you actually want in the result line (like "enjoy the kids in the afternoon"), solved both practically and mentally Building rest into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly rhythms so you don't feel desperate to escape your life Rebuilding self-trust, why peace and acceptance come before problem-solving, and the great household yo-yo drama EPISODE TIMELINE: [00:00] – Home from Idaho to Wisconsin, and falling more in love with daily life [05:00] – "It's easy for you now": the phase objection, and why it's not the circumstances [10:00] – Calming your body first (the thermometer and Dominic the dragon) [14:00] – The messy closet of your thoughts, and popping the comparison bubbles [18:00] – Putting what you want in the result line, and rest built into your rhythms [23:00] – Rebuilding self-trust, peace before problem-solving, and the yo-yo saga [27:00] – Six spots left for France LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: Come to France with me this fall (six spots left!: https://catholicmomcalm.com/france/ Catholic Mom Calm membership: https://catholicmomcalm.com/ Calm Catholic Kids (Summer of Kindness stories free until September): https://catholicmomcalm.com/calm-catholic-kids-collection-3-kindness/ CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH: Website: https://catholicmomcalm.com Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm

Why Your Window of Tolerance Shrinks in Summer

It usually hits right about now. You started summer with high hopes, pushed through the chaotic first couple of weeks, and now you're yelling more, feeling stressed, and wondering what happened to the magical season you pictured. Sterling Jaquith says it's not because you lack a plan. It's your window of tolerance, and summer quietly shrinks it. Drawing on a concept from her book Catholic Mom Calm, Sterling breaks down the two kinds of tolerance: your capacity for one specific stressor (hello, putting sunscreen on unwilling children), and your overall capacity for everything stacked on your plate at once. When you add camps, vacations, sibling fights, heat, and snacks without taking anything off, your ability to cope drops. This episode is the permission slip and the toolkit: expand your tolerance, drop the "shoulds" that are really just social norms, and stop beating yourself up. Because your anger is a stress response, and that is completely changeable. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: The two windows of tolerance: your capacity for one specific stressor, and your overall capacity for everything at once How to expand your tolerance for a single stressor, with breathing and coaching yourself (the sunscreen battle as exhibit A) Why summer shrinks your overall window: you added all the stressors but never took anything off the plate The only real "shoulds" (the catechism and the law), and why most summer obligations are just social norms you're free to decline A gentler, more honest take on screen time, and why slower old shows actually help Instituting a quiet time, feeding and sleeping yourself, and why your anger is a stress response you can change EPISODE TIMELINE: [00:00] – The intolerance of summer, and the window of tolerance from her book [03:00] – Expanding your tolerance for one stressor (the sunscreen battle) [07:00] – Your overall window, and how summer piles on without taking anything off [11:00] – Real shoulds versus social norms (you don't have to bake the birthday cake) [14:00] – A gentler take on screen time and slower shows [16:00] – Quiet time, self-care, and why anger is a changeable stress response LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: Catholic Mom Calm (Sterling's book, with the full "window of tolerance" section): https://amzn.to/4oKZRjU Calm Catholic Kids: https://calmcatholickids.com CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH: Website: https://catholicmomcalm.com Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm

Summer Jealousy

Sterling Jaquith caught herself feeling a very particular brand of summer jealousy. Friends whose parents are stable enough, healthy enough, and trusted enough to take the grandkids for a week or two. And watching that feeling rise was a perfect window into something we all do: we never question why we feel good, but the moment a negative feeling shows up, we start poking at it, and the poking spins into a storm. In this episode Sterling slows the whole thing down so you can see the difference between prayerfully feeling your feelings and indulging in what a friend called "tornado thinking." One is slow, grounded, and resolves. The other is fast, grows as it goes, and turns a bad mood into a bad day into a "bad season." Nobody is doing that to you, and that's actually the good news. You have more control over the weather in your mind than you think. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: The summer jealousy Sterling noticed in herself, and what it was actually about (hint: not the free time) Why we interrogate our negative feelings but never stop to question the happy ones The real difference between feeling your feelings (slow, grounded, done with the Lord) and tornado thinking (fast, growing, catching everything in its path) How a bad mood becomes a bad day becomes a "bad season," and why you control that weather more than you think The three choices in any triggered moment: think about it later, feel it all the way through, or spin How to walk yourself back gently and lovingly, never in an authoritarian "just get it together" voice EPISODE TIMELINE: [00:00] – The summer jealousy Sterling noticed, and why we never question feeling good [04:00] – Tornado thinking versus actually feeling your feelings [08:00] – How a bad mood becomes a bad day becomes a bad season (the weather you forget you control) [12:00] – What feeling your feelings really looks like: slow, named, and sitting with the Lord [16:00] – Why jealousy reveals your unresolved work (Europe versus the grandparents) [18:00] – Calming the storm by speaking to yourself with love LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: Calm Catholic Kids: https://calmcatholickids.com CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH: Website: https://catholicmomcalm.com Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm