Moms everywhere struggle maintaining the harmony between family and work. It doesn’t matter whether that work is inside the home, or in an office across town, or even how much it pays. The guilt is the same: If you’re spending time with the kids, then something’s not getting done…but if you’re busting your hump around the house or downtown, then you feel as if you’re ignoring your own children.

Family or work? It’s a question that repeats over and over throughout a mom’s day.

Joanna Gaines understands. In a recent post, the interior design queen told a touching story about her own family of 5 children and how she balances them with her work life. Particularly, how she carved out quality time to spend with her daughter Emmie Kay.

“I took Emmie Kay out to the garden this morning and I let her lead and I just followed along in her imaginations and her curiosities,” she starts.

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I took Emmie Kay out to the garden this morning and I let her lead and I just followed along in her imaginations and her curiosities (In all honesty I was too tired to come up with anything because mama and Crew haven't been sleeping great these days). She told me she wanted to pick flowers and put them in old books that only her and I would know about and then look for them later when we got older. We gathered some large old books in the shed and picked out our favorite flowers from the garden and then wrote our names and date in the books. We also pressed some petals that we could frame later to remind us of this special morning in the garden. One of the sweetest surprises for us both was when we opened up one of the books and found that someone else had done the same thing with some pretty leaves many years ago. It was like we stumbled on a treasure that reinforced how we would feel when we find these flowers again one day. I know at times it can be hard to find simple ways to connect with your kids. Especially in the tired and the hard and busy times in life. It can feel like it's all or nothing. But I really believe it's somewhere in the middle where the grace is extended and these simple, unplanned moments are actually the sweetest. I write all this for any of you out there who may experience "mom-guilt". I promise you that's a never ending cycle that leads to nowhere. Replace the word guilt with grace. Look for grace in the moments, the small wins that lead to the greatest investments in their little hearts. From one mom to another, stop being so hard on yourself. Don't spend another second focusing on failure, instead use whatever time and whatever energy you have and look for the moments where grace can be found. Because I'm telling you, this grace is sufficient. ✨

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Gaines adds she was too tired to come up with anything else to do as her infant son, Crew, had not been sleeping well. But Emmie Kay didn’t seem to mind.

“She told me she wanted to pick flowers and put them in old books that only her and I would know about and then look for them later when we got older,” she continues. “We gathered some large old books in the shed and picked out our favorite flowers from the garden and then wrote our names and date in the books.”

So only Joanna Gaines would keep antique books in her shed, which clearly has worked out beautifully.

Photo Credit: Instragram

Photo Credit: Instragram

Mother and daughter decided to press individual petals for later framing. But when they opened one of the books, they found pretty leaves someone else had pressed a long time ago. As Gaines so poetically expressed, the find was like “a treasure that reinforced how we would feel when we find the flowers again one day.”

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Chip has always talked about the @balloonfiesta and how he went as a little kid growing up in Albuquerque. He surprised us all this weekend and we finally got to experience the magic of this special place. Now I get why he still talks about it forty some years later ✨

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It was a good year for our magazine #MagnoliaJournal. Not only did we win an award for best newcomer of the year but we also added several promising new interns ?

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Gaines continues, “I know at times it can be hard to find simple ways to connect with your kids. Especially in the tired and the hard and busy times in life. It can feel like it’s all or nothing. But I really believe it’s somewhere in the middle where the grace is extended and these simple, unplanned moments are actually the sweetest.”

She is right. Time with your children doesn’t need to be a big, expensive outing or an all day party. The unexpected, small times of togetherness are the most tender.

“I write all this for any of you out there who may experience ‘mom-guilt’. I promise you that’s a never ending cycle that leads to nowhere. Replace the word guilt with grace,” she says. “Look for grace in the moments, the small wins that lead to the greatest investments in their little hearts.”