Questions & Answers

Hey there, friends! Last week I reached out via Instagram for a new dose of questions you guys have. I always figure if one person is thinking it, possibly more people are too so I’ve got round one of a big Q & A session coming your way. Round two will be headed your way next week! Let’s dive right in…

This is THE hardest thing about getting away without the kids. It takes a lot of planning to have everything lined up while I’m {or both of us} are out of town. When it comes to their schedules, I list everything out day-by-day for the grandparents. I try to make it as easy as possible when it comes to lining up rides to school, after school, practices, etc. Sometimes it works great and they don’t have to do much driving. Other times they have to do it all. When it comes to meals, I try to always ask if there’s anything they want me to get and have stocked for them to cook while we’re gone. Typically the grandparents will tell me they’ll get stuff once they arrive to cook, but I always offer it up. My mom and Marla both just watched the kids while we were out of town last month and they make things I don’t for dinner so the kids were excited to eat my mom’s fried chicken and Marla’s smothered steak. I always have enough for breakfast and lunches so that’s covered. Britt and I laid out her clothes for the week to make getting dressed for her easier. And we made sure every practice jersey, uniform, etc. was accounted for before we headed out of town. Super thankful for those grandparents who will step in!

I got my college degree in early childhood education and worked at a childcare center all throughout college. Once Tab and I got married and we moved to Texas, I worked as a teacher until I had Ebby Lee. Then we decided I’d stay at home with her. I did just that for about two years {because we had Nixon immediately} and then I dabbled in things…did some work from home stuff for two different insurance companies, sold baby clothes, worked for friends, worked as a preschool teacher for a couple years, etc. It took a while to figure out what I was super passionate about and what was going to give me the flexibility I was craving.

I don’t track my weight by weighing in, but I keep it in check with my clothes and how they fit. I turn forty in August and I can already tell it’s tougher than it used to be so I HEAR YOU!! I follow a couple women on Instagram who have fitness-themed accounts and the biggest take away I’ve gotten is that women over 40 should be lifting weights and we should increase our NEAT moments {which is everything we do except eating, sleeping or exercise}. I try to get more steps in my day, take a few 10-15 minute walks each day to up my step count, or add in an after dinner post walk as much as I can. I feel you though…it’s definitely a different ball game than ten years ago!

Over ten years ago, I bought a Crest WhiteStrips kit and did the entire two week regimen. It REALLY made a difference so now when I feel like my teeth are getting a little dingey, I’ll just wear the strips a day or two and it usually helps.

Years ago, I went out of town to visit the girls in my family for a girl’s trip leaving Tab at home with Ebby Lee, Nixon and baby Bowen {at the time who was probably 3-4 months old}. It was the best decision I’d ever made because I’d been asking Tab about getting someone to come in periodically to really deep clean the house. Tab didn’t understand how I could stay at home with three little kids all day and not have time to do the laundry, cook, keep the kids alive, and clean, but after one weekend away…he told me I could hire someone immediately. hahahaha! So, that’s just what I did.

I’m saying all that to say that we have a housekeeper {who actually has 3-4 on her team} come in once a week to really do the deep cleaning so we do all the other house chores pretty much daily….dishes, floors, laundry, etc. We try to reset every night before bed and then after I drop all the kids off at school, I usually take about 15 minutes to reset again.

I tried years ago to follow a Pinterest cleaning schedule I found where I cleaned the bathrooms on Monday, kitchen on Tuesday, etc…but it bothered me that the entire house was never all really clean at the same time.

ENJOY IT!!! If I could go back for a day with any of my babies, I’d do it in a heartbeat! Really I can think of nothing else to say except…savor every moment you possibly can!

I met a woman this weekend who has fourteen-year-old quadruplets and I was asking her how it was when they were all babies and she said, “Well, it’s harder now with four fourteen-year-olds”. And I understood her completely.

ENJOY that precious baby as much as you can! These are special moments you’re living right now!

One of the BIG reasons we did the house remodel is because the main living/kitchen/eat-in area felt really cramped for our family of six let alone when we had people over. We expanded the back wall of that area and put in big sliding glass doors so we have quite a bit more space. And it just FEELS so much bigger because of all the glass. THAT’s probably my favorite thing!

And the kitchen. 🙂

No, she didn’t! I added three new books to mine so we could have some reading time AND MY KINDLE DIED! I ordered a new one and had it shipped to Shay’s house so she could bring it to Turks. She charged it for me and everything BUT we were having so much fun chit-chatting the Kindles never came out.

Thank you for listening to the podcast! 😉

My first initial thought on this one is YOU have to do what feels right for your family. If this is something you and your husband are really struggling with, then it might not be right for your family.

Tab played football in college, his dad officiated football while he was growing up, and Tab has been officiating football since before Ebby Lee was born so it’s been a huge part of Tab’s life and is now a huge part of our family.

Nixon and Bowen have been watching football and playing since they could throw/catch. They both started flag football around five or six. Then played flag or 7v7 until 6th grade. In sixth grade, we let Nixon switch to tackle and we’ll do the same for Bowen.

Um, I’m trying to think if there’s ever been a sport they’ve asked to play that we’ve just absolutely declined. I don’t recall anything but I will say when they first began playing sports we kept up with the “one sport per season rule” and then as they got older that rule kind of went out the window. Then I was worried more about “idle hands being the devil’s playground” so I was okay with them being busy. They’ve played soccer, gymnastics, dance, baseball, basketball, football, tennis, volleyball, cheer and swim. Some sports are still going and others lasted only a season.

Tab hasn’t worked with insurance in years. But to give a little backstory-right out of college Tab went to work for a commercial insurance company in Dallas selling medical insurance to big companies. Eventually he transitioned to the commercial insurance brokerage side of things. About five or six years ago, one of his insurance clients reached out to him about coming to work with them. Since then he’s been the COO of a family owned forklift company in Dallas. He absolutely loves it! That’s his 9-5 job that has him traveling at times {they have branches in Texas and Oklahoma} but mostly he’s working out of the Dallas office. The road that led him there allowed him to meet some amazing people along the way who helped mold and shape him to be really good at what he does now. {A little wife brag moment. :)}

The NFL gig started in 2020 so he’s had three full seasons of officiating with them.

My very favorite part of teaching was building great relationships with the kids. I had a college professor who encouraged us to give positive feedback to parents just as much as we’d easily reach out about negative behavior so each semester I took time out of my week to reach out via e-mail or a phone call to just brag on something each kid did really well in our classroom. I’ve had a few of my own kids’ teachers reach out to do that as well and IT MEANS SO MUCH!!

My principal spoke this mantra over us in almost every staff meeting…”You can’t get into the mind of a child until you get into their heart”. And I tried to live that out as much as I possibly could.

Since I taught before I had kids {and Tab and I had many free nights}, we watched soccer games and baseball games and dance recitals and basketball games and were even invited into kids’ homes for special occasions. Now with four kids at home, I wouldn’t be able to invest that much time in my classroom kids and that was by far my favorite part of teaching. So to answer this question…yes, I miss that BUT I know realistically it wouldn’t be the same if I stepped back into a classroom because I think I’d feel like I was short changing them a bit.

I’ll tell you what NOT to do thanks to what Tab and I would do that made it the hardest on ourselves…we kept score A LOT. For instance, “Tab, I’ve changed the last four diapers. It’s your turn”, or, “Erika, I fed him the last three bottles. It’s your turn”. That kind of talk just wasn’t helpful. It took us young twenty-year-olds a hot minute to realize we were hurting no one but each other. Once we stopped doing that we enjoyed married life a whole lot more with new babies!

When we get UPGRADED! Hahaha! Thanks to Tab’s fall travel schedule, it happens quite frequently.

Thanks for popping in to read today! See you back here tomorrow!

XO