For working parents of little ones who lead all day
Be home when you're home.
You give your best all day. I help you get the mental load out of your head and into a simple system, so your family gets your best, not your leftovers.
Less in your head
More at the dinner table
Sundays that feel like Sundays
At work, you have a system. At home, you are the system.
You pull into the driveway, and before the car's even in park, your brain clocks back in.
Did I ever move the clothes from the washer to the dryer?
When is that field trip form due?
Did I take the meat out to defrost? (Oh man. I forgot.)
Nobody gave you that list. It just kept growing, one "I'll take care of it" at a time.
So you're home. But you're not really home.
And at work, half your mind is back at home.
Needed in both places. Fully present in neither.
Your kid says, "Look!"
And you hear yourself say, "Wait a minute."
(I've said it too. More times than I'd like to admit.)
Patient with everyone all day. By 5:42pm, there's nothing left for the people you love most.
And underneath it all is the thought you don't say out loud: these years are flying by, and my kids aren't getting the best of me.
And it's not like you haven't tried. The shared calendar. The chore chart. The app you set up on a Sunday and stopped opening by Wednesday. Each one turned into one more thing for you to keep running.
You're not failing. It's not your partner's fault. And you don't have to change your career to be the parent you want to be.
You'd never lead your team without a plan, a calendar, and people who know their roles. But nobody ever handed you that for home. No wonder home is getting your leftovers.
Home was never supposed to run without a system. Not when it's where your kids' childhood is happening, right now.
And you can't wait for things to slow down. There's never going to be a blank spot on the calendar for that.
Margin is never found. It has to be made.
My sticky note had 57 things on it. His was blank.
Three weeks before our daughter was born, I sat my husband down at the kitchen table and handed us each a sticky note. Sixty seconds. Write down everything on your mind.
Mine had 57 things on it.
His was blank.
He looked at my list and said, "I had no idea you were carrying all of this. By yourself."
He just couldn't see it. Honestly, neither could I, until it was all on paper.
That night, one question wouldn't leave me alone: What kind of business would I have if I ran it the way I was running my home?
At work, I had a system for everything. In my years inside the Chick-fil-A world, I ran monthly strategy sessions, planned content calendars weeks ahead, built a filter so donation requests didn't eat my week, and put a system behind every community event.
At home, I had a sticky note.
So I brought it all home. One whiteboard, and three weeks to test it before my due date.
By the time Camila was born, Julian knew the game plan. Groceries ordered. Car seat in. My favorite snacks in the fridge. And when she struggled to latch and wasn't gaining enough weight, I could give her everything I had, because he had the house handled.
Here's what surprised me: it didn't feel like a chore to him. It felt like relief. Most partners want to help. They just don't know what winning looks like. Now he did.
Today I'm doing this with a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old at home. I'm not writing to you from the other side of this season. I'm in it with you, and I built every piece of this around the same limits you have.
Maybe you're carrying your own 57. It doesn't have to keep living in your head.
Where this comes from
Mentored at 20 by S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A
13+ years inside the Chick-fil-A world, first as a Restaurant Marketing Director, then as a social media strategist for Chick-fil-A restaurants
Trained in the Gottman Method, Levels 1 & 2
Helping families make time for what matters most since 2011
"You are turning your pain into purpose, and your bitter experiences into better experiences for others. We serve a good God who turns our scars into stars."
— S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, to me in 2011
2011
Personalized date nights
2019
Connection Cards
2026
LighterLoad
Same mission. A new way to do it. I learned the moments that matter need margin first, so that's where we start now.
"In today's fast-paced world, You & Me Time is an excellent way to enhance marriages and family relationships. I highly recommend this approach to creating meaningful relationship experiences."
— Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages
How we make margin for what matters
You don't need more hours. You need less living in your head.
01
Get clear on what this season is for.
Before we touch your to-do list, we look at your season: who you want to be when it's over, and everything you're carrying right now, seen and unseen. Then you decide what stays, what waits, and what gets handed off.
02
Decide once. Then stop deciding.
Mornings, evenings, dinners, who does what. We decide them once, so your home runs on choices you already made, not on your memory at 5:42pm.
03
Keep it light with a weekly reset.
A short check-in each week keeps everything fitting as life changes. It happens before Sunday, so Sunday stays Sunday.
Same kids. Same marriage. Same job. A completely different Tuesday.
If nothing changes, the mental load keeps running through you. Your day off still isn't really off. And these little years go by in a blur of "wait a minute."
But picture this instead.
It's 5:42 on a Tuesday. Dinner's already decided. You made that call on Saturday. The lunchboxes go straight to their spot. Tomorrow's clothes are already out. And for once, you're not running tomorrow's list in your head.
Your kid says, "Look!"
And this time, you sit down on the floor and say,
"Show me."
Bath time turns into the best conversation of the day. You and your partner talk about something other than who's picking up the kids. And Sunday feels like Sunday again.
And Monday morning feels different too. You walk back into work clear and focused, not scatterbrained and already running behind.
Home stopped draining you. It started filling you back up.
You're not the one everything quietly runs through anymore. You're the one who designed how your home runs.
That's what margin feels like: your time, your energy, and your headspace, back.
Present. Rested. Actually home.
What happens when leaders finally hit pause
You & Me Time began as one-of-a-kind experiences for couples, each one planned around their story. These are a few of the people who said yes.
"We all live very busy lives, full of distractions. Sometimes somebody has to take our hand and lead us through the process, to get us back on track with the parts of our marriage that matter most. I don't see You & Me Time as a one-time event. I'm going to be a better husband because of it. As we say at Chick-fil-A, I'm a raving fan."
— Dan Cathy, Chairman, Chick-fil-A
Jon & Nancy
Parents of a 2-year-old
"With a full-time job and a 2-year-old, I have great ideas for things I want to do with my wife, but never the time to pull them off. This time, Sayuri and You & Me Time took care of everything. By the time we walked into our hotel suite, every box was checked. We could just be, and we don't get to do that very much anymore."
Kurt
Owner of two martial arts studios, married 6 years
"I had just opened my second business, and I was so caught up in planning and appointments that I started to neglect my wife a little. I'd recommend You & Me Time to anyone who's genuinely busy. Not because things are bad, but because even when things are good, you can still get stuck in a rut. Use it before you get to that point."
David & Michelle Neely
Chick-fil-A Operators, married 25+ years
"You're the most important person in my life. But this showed me my calendar and my time don't always reflect that. We spend our time on good things: work, people, community. But sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. This was a chance to pause and rethink what's most important."
Felix Hodges
Chick-fil-A Owner/Operator, married 32 years
"We have busy lives. This forced us to stop, look each other in the eye, and really talk. It was one of the best conversations we've had in the last five years."
Those nights taught me something I still build on: the moments that matter only stick when you're not running on empty.
It started with an empty closet.
When I was eight, my dad told me, "Relationships are like flowers. If we don't water them, they'll eventually die."
A few months later, I came home from school and walked into my parents' room. The closet was open. The hangers were empty. His toothbrush was gone. The chair where he sat was gone.
And I remember thinking: Why couldn't they just water it?
My parents weren't careless. They were two good people trying to survive, with nothing left over to water anything.
That question never left me. In 2011, it became You & Me Time: personalized date nights to help couples water what matters.
Those nights were beautiful. But over the years, I noticed something. A flower can't grow in dried-out soil. When a home runs on stress and rushing, even the best date night fades by Tuesday.
So now I start with the soil. A lighter load. A home that runs on structure instead of stress. That way, when the good moments come (family dinners, a slow Saturday, taking turns at bedtime, a night out with your partner), you can actually live them, not just rush through them.
You & Me Time exists so no child has to come home from school one day and find the empty hangers in their parents' closet.
Less in your head before bed.
Try the sticky note that started it all. The 9pm Brain Unload is the same exercise I did at my kitchen table, three weeks before my daughter was born.
It takes 10 minutes or less. You’ll get every open loop onto paper, decide what actually needs you tomorrow, and close the tabs that never needed you at all.
That’s where the relief starts. And you just might sleep better tonight.
It’s free, and it’s yours the second you sign up.
Our best, not our leftovers.
You give your best all day. But by the time you walk through your front door, you're already drained. And part of you is a little anxious, because the second shift is about to start.
You want to be proud of who you are in both places.
That doesn't mean your family gets more hours than work does. It means when you're with them, you're really with them.
Start with the season you're in. Together, we'll lighten your load, so you can actually be there when you're home, enjoy your kids' childhood, and keep this season from going by in a blur.
LighterLoad makes the margin. You & Me Time is what you do with it.
Think about the last time you sat at the dinner table with your mind on tomorrow's list. Or your kid said, "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy." (Or Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.) Or they told you a whole story, and you had to say, "Wait, what?"
You were there. But you weren't really there.
You & Me Time is the same dinner, the same car ride, the same bedtime. The difference is you're all there. You have the energy to ask questions. You slow down. You hear the whole story.
I'm here. I'm really here. I'm with you.
Maybe you only get an hour with them that day. But when it's over, you know you left it all on the field.