Announcement: Big Changes to the Newsletter!

Hello!

This is Hope, the founder and primary content creator of Family Scripts. Here’s a picture of our family on Christmas Eve.

Thank you so much for reading along for these first two months of Family Scripts. It’s been such a life-giving thing to create. Our team has so many ideas—so many—for how to improve this newsletter and make it better for you. Heres’s what we’ll be talking about:

Digital Minimalism // Preview of Next Month’s Personal Growth Theme

Sections and Shorter Emails!

Paid Format + How to Get It Free

Meet Becca // Community Coordinator and Creativity Collaborator

Hope’s Notes

Digital Minimalism

Next month’s theme for personal growth is Attentiveness. Your attention is worth more than you could imagine; just see how much money corporations are paying social media platforms to get a few seconds of your eyeballs’ gaze 😳 Frankly, it sucks to always be the product. It’s an insult to our intelligence. We deserve more dignity than to have our precious attention sold in exchange for services that provide minimal benefit to us (and probably damage our mental health.)

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport is next month’s choice for the Grownup Book Club, and it will make you reevaluate everything about your phone use. This book convinces me more than ever that paid newsletters—not Instagram feeds—are the best way to share and receive inspiration online. I’m so excited to be in this space and give myself—and others—the opportunity to get out of social media, too, if they choose.

Sections and Shorter Emails!

I don’t want your inbox to be full of more information than you need, so I’ve decided to use the wonderful Substack feature of “sections.” As a subscriber, you’ll have access to all of them, but you can opt into which you want in your inbox. This way I can make the emails shorter, and you don’t have to scroll past the stuff you don’t care about. They’re all still under a cohesive monthly theme for personal growth and a weekly emphasis. Here’s what the schedule will look like, starting next week!

Mondays - Parenting Pep Talk, Personal Growth Challenges, and Parenting Hacks

Tuesdays - Activity Suggestions and Acts of Thoughtfulness

Wednesdays - Book Discussions, Picture Book Recommendations, and Story Prompts

Thursdays - Meal Inspiration, Exercise Suggestions, and Grocery List

Fridays - Bonus newsletters (travel highlights, interviews, guest articles, etc.)

Also, on Fridays I plan to publish an issue of Hope’s Notes, a separate (and free) publication; more on that later.

It’s easy to opt out of which sections you don’t care about, so hopefully this system will help you only get the content you want most. If you need some help, just ask by replying to one of these emails or contacting family.scripts.info@gmail.com.

Paid Format + How to Get It Free

Starting March 1st, we will be switching to a paid format here on Substack. I’m sure you’ve noticed how annoying it is to scroll past a zillion ads on blogs or wonder about the genuineness of an influencer’s product endorsement.

Barrages of ads are an insult to our intelligence and a waste of our attention, so I’m committed to never use ads, sponsors, or even affiliate links. (In fact, most of the ideas in this newsletter are intended to be free and resourceful. I don’t want to add more garbage to landfills in the name of a five-minute craft.)

Anyway, in March, the newsletter will start being $8/month here on Substack. I’ve been told to charge more than that, but I want this newsletter to be accessible to as many people as possible.

I’m also offering free memberships to the first 100 of you who would like to be sort of a Family Scripts ambassador. I would just ask that you share about Family Scripts 3x a month…you could share an Instagram story about an activity you did with your family, invite a friend over to do an activity with you, text a picture of a parenting hack you think might be helpful…

You don’t have to use social media or be sales-y. Just tell people about whatever you think they might benefit from. If you’re interested, simply reply to this email and tell me that you want in, and I’ll make sure to give you a promo code or whatever is needed when we switch subscription model.

I work so hard on this, and I love being able to do giveaways here.

Meet Becca - Community Coordinator and Creative Collaborator

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ve got big dreams for Family Scripts, and one of the ways we want to grow is in the community aspect. Becca has joined the team and is helping us figure out the best way to grow this newsletter and build a community. She is wise beyond her years and an awesome person to work with. Below she shares a little about her:

“I recently graduated with my degree in Psychology, but I am primarily interested in writing and creating resources for restorative, healing work in the world — whether that means counseling, creating, or being a SAHM mom. In my free time, I enjoy hiking with my husband, writing (poetry & prose), listening to indie folk music, and “jamming on my planner” (in the words of Leslie Knope). My life has been shaped by the stories and souls that inspired me, including Elisabeth Elliot, Corrie Ten Boom, Dr. Diane Langberg, Brené Brown—and my own mother, who gave me a childhood filled with curiosity, creativity, and lots of books. Working for Family Scripts has already been a life-giving experience and I look forward to serving this community as Community Coordinator and Creative Collaborator.”

So happy to work with you, Becca!

Hope’s Notes

You’ve probably noticed that these newsletters use the pronoun “we” a lot. That’s because this newsletter is something my whole family helps create, and I try to keep it a little impersonal because I’m choosing to be professional. I also don’t talk about my faith a lot because Family Scripts is not a specifically Christian publication. Also, some readers have asked for more of a behind-the-scenes view into what I’m learning and what my family is up to.

On top of all that, Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport is really making me question my use of social media. I always take a social media break during Lent, but I would love to back away from my personal Instagram in a big way long-term while still having a platform to share all the stuff I’m learning about God, parenting, mental health, and now entrepreneurship. (Plus I want somewhere to share about the random fun things and cooking fails that happen, like my toothpaste-flavored chicken biryani.)

So I decided to make a separate publication for the more personal stuff. It’ll always be free but I don’t plan to always make it open to the public because I want to be able to share as transparently as possible. If you would like to subscribe to that one, you can check out Hope’s Notes. I plan to write every Friday.

Welcome to Hope's Notes.

Whew, that was a lot to read! Thanks for following along, and I hope this newsletter is a big encouragement to you!

See you on Monday—or whatever day(s) you opt to receive this newsletter!

Warmly,
Hope

Family Scripts