Joanna Gaines Is Thankful Her 5 Growing Kids Taught Her to Slow Down and Spend Time at Home

She’s famous for her home designs, but Joanna Gaines is happiest when she is tending to her garden with her children. “Nurturing plants together does something,” the HGTV star dished to Southern Living earlier this month. “It is a simple way to connect with my kids.”

Joanna, 40, and her husband Chip Gaines, 44, have always made parenting look easy, but she’s started to appreciate the small moments more since the birth of her fifth child, Crew Gaines, last summer. “One of my regrets is that I don’t remember things from the other four. It was such a crazy time,” Jo, who now keeps a journal for that purpose, admitted to the outlet. “Motherhood means everything to me. Everything else in my life can go away, but that’s my thing — these kids.”

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When Fixer Upper premiered in 2014, Joanna and Chip already had four kids and struggled to find enough time for both work and family. “I’ve been through plenty of stages of guilt,” confessed Joanna, who doesn’t believe in dwelling on the negative. “I don’t want to waste a second of emotion on something that doesn’t create any good. I think, ‘What can I do to show my kids that I love them?’ Even if it’s making a cup of hot cocoa, it’s about finding little ways to connect.”

Now that the two lovebirds are on a well-deserved break between the ending of their HGTV show and the beginning of their new cable TV network, the home decor guru has been laying low at home while relaxing with her hubby and kids. “Time together as a family is a gift,” Joanna gushed.,

When Crew arrived last June, it had been a long time since her older children, Drake, 13, Ella, 12, Duke, 10, and Emmie, 8, had been babies, but experiencing that newborn stage again resonated deeply with Joanna. “When I had the first four, it was a whirlwind,” she confided, adding that it’s vastly different now. “This past weekend, Crew was sick, and I took him to the doctor — just me and him. The simplest things are highlighted to you. It’s the little moments that stop me in my tracks, because that’s what life is all about.” Joanna is such an amazing mother!