40 Days to Kindergarten: Day 1 | July 12, 2026 | Build the Foundation

“By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established.” — Proverbs 24:3

Well… here we are. I’m writing a blog in an effort to hold myself accountable, after being inspired by Julie & Julia 😅

If you know me at all, you know the last 6 weeks or so have been… a lot. Exciting, stressful, exhausting, overwhelming, and honestly... chaotic. A lot of it has been beautiful, but some of it has been really hard too.

We sold our house, went on a camping trip, moved, unpacked (kind of), hosted a party, planned a baptism, worked our butts off, stressed over approximately 47 different things, and somewhere along the way our routines completely disappeared.... imagine that! 😂

To survive, I’ve been drinking more than I should and eating whatever’s convenient (mostly my go-to, stressed-out, college-era comfort foods that are basically just pure carbs lmao), not exercising... like at all... and generally not taking care of myself. My skin looks terrible, my hair desperately needs help (so does my wardrobe), I'm sleeping like crap, snapping at Joey and the kids, feeling overwhelmed, and just generally feeling… off, ugly and unhinged.

TBH? I don’t like it. Like at all.

So, here we are. I need a personal reset, our family needs a cultural reset, and Alessandra starts kindergarten in 40 days.

That feels huge. I well up just thinking about it, honestly. I don’t want these next 40 days to disappear while we're stuck in survival mode. I know Joey feels it too, even if he'd probably tell you everything is great because somehow the man can stay annoyingly optimistic through absolutely anything 😂

I want to be intentional about these 40 days. I want to feel aligned again... physically, emotionally, spiritually... all the things. I want our home to feel calmer, and I want us to enjoy each other again. I want family dinners back around the table, speaking kindly to one another, taking care of ourselves and having routines that actually make life easier instead of harder.

So… welcome to Vida Nueva: 40 Days to Kindergarten.

This isn’t about perfection; it's about family health and stability. It’s about getting our family back on track, steadily, one day at a time.

So here's the plan:

Over the next 40 days, we’re working toward a home where…

• We put God first through prayer, church and the way we live.

• We speak kindly to each other.

• We eat dinner together around the table, screen-free!

• We laugh more than we argue.

• We apologize when we’re wrong.

• We work as a team.

• We choose gratitude.

• We take care of our bodies fully.

• We genuinely enjoy being together.

Simple enough, right? 😂

So how do we do accomplish this for real? First and foremost, I'm going to focus on the foundation. Maybe it’s the Realtor in me, but I keep coming back to this. You can have the prettiest house in the world, but if the foundation is cracked, eventually everything else starts falling apart. And I kind of feel like that’s where we’ve been lately.

Not falling apart…that's dramatic. But just living without much of a foundation. Super late nights, no real schedule, too much takeout and shitty food, way too much alcohol (even for us lol), too much stress, too much snapping at each other. I know that none of these things happened overnight, and I'm not so naive as to think they’ll disappear overnight either.

So this week isn’t about fixing everything; it’s about rebuilding the foundation. And a foundation isn't rebuilt with surface-level repairs.

The tricky part? Life doesn't stop while you're trying to get your crap together. For example, this week we both work, I have Alessandra home with me, we have extracurricular activities for the other two, host family and have Alessandra's baptism. So, I need to build habits to create a family rhythm for us that still works during a busy week... because that's inevitably every week over here!

The habits I'm focusing on for what I'll don as "Foundation Week" for Team V5 will be:

1. Sleep. Truly none of this will stick if we're all just exhausted and running on fumes.

2. Family Dinner. This one is non-negotiable to me for us to get back to. Sitting together at the table, sharing a meal, laughing with no phones/TV required and everyone sharing about their day and what's happening in their lives.

3. Speaking with Kindness. Not fake, but intentional.

4. Morning/Evening House Reset. A quick 10-15 minutes where we all pitch in to get things back where they belong, clean up the kitchen, etc.

5. Water, Protein & General Nutrition. 100 oz water each day, protein with every meal, one fruit or veggie each day and limit alcohol to a non-excessive amount. Not counting macros, just the basics of generally healthy eating.

6. Move Daily. Not like an exercise program or intense training or specific step goal, just movement.

7. Keep God First.

That's it. Nothing revolutionary; just the basics done consistently.

Over the next 40 days, I'm determined to lead this motley crew of mine into better routines, healthier habits, better communication, and hopefully a home that feels peaceful again. But more than any of that, I want God to be the one at the forefront building it with us. Alessandra's upcoming baptism this week has that front and center in my mind. Because if He's not the basis for our family foundation makeover, then this is probably just another checklist that I’ll probably abandon in two weeks!! 😂

So... here’s to day one! I definitely don't have everything figured out, but it's a start. Forty days from now I pray we’re healthier, sleeping better, eating around the table again, speaking with more kindness, and walking into Meet the Teacher with our big girl kindergartener feeling like we’ve found our rhythm again.

Let’s see what happens.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” — Psalm 127:1