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The day teachers report for the school year... 🍎If you follow my content for a while, you may hear an earful about kids'...
08/07/2026

The day teachers report for the school year... 🍎

If you follow my content for a while, you may hear an earful about kids' sports (wrestling, cheer, football, track, soccer, drama, choir, swimming 😆), kids' schedules, finding your voice, telling your story, the importance of a healthy marriage, Love and Logic parenting, health and wellness, traveling with a big family, and SO many other topics I LOVE to share about.

But something I RARELY post about is what life was like when I was teaching full time.

I taught special education in public schools for 17 years. I could fill BOOKS talking about those years... but I rarely post about them.

Why do I steer my content away from something that could relate so easily to thousands of teacher moms?

To put it into one sentence...

Thinking about it takes me to a really negative place.

To expand a little...

Because I don't have much good to say about it.

Because I've spent two years learning that I choose my thoughts and I choose my state of mind, and I don't want to spend either one talking about how life once was.

Because… as Thumper says, “if can’t say somethin nice… don’t say nothin at all.”

Because I already spent 17 school years giving precious time and energy to the overworked/underpaid teacher life, and I'm not interested in giving it another minute.

Because I am no longer the woman I was when I worked all those years for the school system.

And because I have 100 things I want to shout from the rooftops... 🗣️

My years in education aren't on that list.

Some people go to prison, serve their time, and then create an entirely new life as an author or motivational speaker talking about what happened inside that prison and everything they learned there.

That's not me.

If I finished serving time in prison, I would NOT want to spend the next chapter of my life talking about that period when I lived in a cage.

Maybe someday I'll feel differently.

Maybe someday I'll find great purpose in talking about what it was like when I was sinking. Depressed. Miserable. Living in survival mode. Giving my absolute best to my students and coming home with NOTHING left for my own children, my husband, or myself.

Maybe someday I'll want to talk about the cage from the outside.

But not today.

Today, I feel like an eagle RELEASED from captivity. ⛓️‍💥

And I don't want to talk about the cage.

I don't want to remember how life used to be.

I don't want to remember who I had to become to survive it.

Teachers report back to work today...

And I'm not going to post about how that used to feel.

Because I wasn't sobbing into my pillow last night.

And I don't want to spend today remembering the dozen years that I did.

Today, I'd rather look around at the life on THIS side of the cage...

And fly. 🦅

Would you be the one who becomes a motivational speaker and talks about your years in the cage... or would you fly away and never talk about the cage again?

💦🌸

It’s almost comical what my kids think the definition of “fair” is.Apparently, their sister buying a deep-fried Oreo wit...
07/31/2026

It’s almost comical what my kids think the definition of “fair” is.

Apparently, their sister buying a deep-fried Oreo with her own money and not sharing it is deeply unfair. 😆

And sometimes I want to look at them and say,
“You do not have a care in the world. How is THIS the injustice we’re focused on?” 🤷🏼‍♀️

But honestly, that reaction is human nature.

Our brains naturally tell us: I’m right. I should have more. I’m important. If I don’t have what I want, someone else is probably to blame.

Learning to take responsibility for your life is exactly that: learned. 🧠

Yes, hard things happen. Absolutely. But eventually, you have to decide how you’re going to respond, what choices you’re going to make, and where you’re going from there.

How old were you when you STOPPED blaming other people for where you are in life?

💦🌸

A 36-hour road trip with six kids?Exactly our kind of fun! 🚙We zipped away from St. Louis for a quick run to Memphis to ...
07/30/2026

A 36-hour road trip with six kids?
Exactly our kind of fun! 🚙

We zipped away from St. Louis for a quick run to Memphis to see Uncle Trent and Aunt Jenn, then packed as much fun as possible into the trip there and back.

🍞💨 Catching throwed rolls at Lambert’s
🔺🎣 Exploring the Bass Pro Pyramid
🍗🍽️ Enjoying a famous meal at Monell’s
🐂🤠 Riding a mechanical bull (yes… all six kids and I did 😆)
💦💖 Connecting with a business partner
🎙️🎶 Singing “On the Road Again” on stage at the Lucky Bastard Saloon in downtown Nashville!

It was one of my favorite adventures of the entire summer. 🛣️

What is one of your favorite road trip memories?

💦🌸

A 36-hour road trip with six kids?Exactly our kind of fun! 🚙We zipped away from St. Louis for a quick run to Memphis to ...
07/30/2026

A 36-hour road trip with six kids?
Exactly our kind of fun! 🚙

We zipped away from St. Louis for a quick run to Memphis to see Uncle Trent and Aunt Jenn, then packed as much fun as possible into the trip there and back.

🍞💨 Catching throwed rolls at Lambert’s
🔺🎣 Exploring the Bass Pro Pyramid
🍗🍽️ Enjoying a famous meal at Monell’s
🐂🤠 Riding a mechanical bull (yes… all six kids and I did 😆)
💦💖 Connecting with a business partner
🎙️🎶 Singing “On the Road Again” on stage at the Lucky Bastard Saloon in downtown Nashville!

It was one of my favorite adventures of the entire summer. 🛣️

💦🌸

07/29/2026

Do you care what people are thinking about you?
Do you think nobody’s spending any time thinking about you?

Today I was introduced to the 18-40-60 idea…

The idea that at age 18, you care what everyone thinks about you. 😳
At age 40, you don’t care what anyone thinks about you. 💪🏻
By age 60, you realize NO ONE IS THINKING ABOUT YOU!! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Do you AGREE or DISAGREE?

💦🌸

This is what I wanted my business to make possible. 🥹Not a Lamborghini. Not working from a beach. Not retiring my husban...
07/27/2026

This is what I wanted my business to make possible. 🥹

Not a Lamborghini. Not working from a beach. Not retiring my husband tomorrow.

THIS.

Five-year-old Brady and six-year-old Hunter on a football field together… and Mama has nowhere else she is required to be. 🏈💖

(And can pay the tuition. 😆 Because six kids in football, in addition to wrestling, on the heels of summer travel AND back-to-school season… yeah, it ain’t cheap. 💸)

For 17 years, my family life had to fit around my work schedule. Now I’m building a business that fits around my family life.

That transformation still stops me sometimes.

Because I didn’t leave one career just to create another job that steals me from the life I wanted more time to LIVE.

I’m building differently.

And sometimes the evidence that it’s working looks exactly like this. 🌱

Did you ever consider starting your own business but worry it would take MORE time away from your family instead of giving you more time with them?

💦🌸

07/26/2026

Yapping Day 29 🍕🏈

Where is your FAVORITE place to get pizza?! 🍕 I want the name of the place AND the city because I spent years not able to get my FAVE pizza!

After a full Saturday of football and cheerleading ,we are enjoying BEST way to end the day… 🤌🏼🍕

I’m also leaving you with a very important public service announcement: Do not wind up like the Dairy Queen employees. 😳

You’ll have to watch for that one.

Okay, pizza people… where do you get your favorite ?! 🍕👇

💦🌸

07/25/2026

Well, it’s been a hot minute… but I AM going to finish this 30 Days of Yapping challenge, even if it takes me 60 days to do it. 😆🎤

And shoutout to Sarah, who inspired me to keep going even though I am embarrassingly past the original 30 days. 🗓️

Here’s the question I keep coming back to as a content creator and someone building a business online:

How do you open a window into the journey you’re on when you’re still right in the middle of it? 👀

The people I enjoy following most are the ones who share what is actually happening while it is happening. They let you see the messy middle, the questions, the pivots, and the things that have not been neatly wrapped in a bow yet. 🎀

Meanwhile, I prefer to make it through the tunnel, find the light, cross the rocky path, check myself for injuries, understand what the heck just happened… and THEN tell you the story. 😆

But I also know that sharing the journey in real time is what makes people feel invited into it.

So I’m genuinely curious:

If you have an online presence, have you found a balance between sharing as you go and waiting until you understand the story?

And if you consume content online (or have found yourself interested in mine) how much of the unfinished middle do you actually want to see? 🌁

💦🌸

07/24/2026

A good marriage isn’t something you have.

It’s someone you keep choosing. 💍

I think I used to believe a strong marriage was mostly about choosing the right person.

And obviously… choose wisely. 🙏🏻

But then you get married.

And life starts LIFE-ING.

Careers. Moves. Money. Six kids. Schedules. Exhaustion. Big dreams. Disagreements. Misplaced snowpants and mittens for the 900th thing. 😬

And somewhere in all of that, you realize…

The choice wasn’t just made at the altar.

We’re still making it.

When we apologize.

When we have the conversation we’d rather avoid.

When we protect time for each other even when six smaller humans have VERY strong opinions about that. 😆

When we laugh.

When we flirt.

When we dream about what’s next.

When we choose to keep becoming people who actually enjoy doing life together. 🔥

Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years from now, I don’t want to simply be able to say we stayed married.

I want to be able to say we kept choosing our marriage while we were in it.

And preferably kept dancing, too.

What’s one thing you and your spouse do that keeps choosing “us” in the middle of everyday life?

💦🌸

07/23/2026

Childhood isn’t waiting.

Neither should you. 🚀

You know what’s wild?

We spend YEARS planning for retirement…

…and almost no time planning how we actually want our kids to remember their childhood. 🤔

We tell ourselves:

“Next year.”

“After this promotion.”

“When things calm down.”

😆 That’s cute.

Because childhood doesn’t care about your five-year plan.

It just keeps moving.

One birthday.

One summer.

One Christmas.

One “Mom, watch this!” at a time. 🎄🏖️🚲

At some point I realized I had two choices:

Keep trying to cram my dream life into the tiny cracks of my calendar…

OR…

Build a business that gave my calendar a whole new job. 💥

Best decision I’ve ever made.

Not because I suddenly stopped working.

The difference?

Now I’m building something that’s creating more choices.

More memories. 🛣️

More adventures. 🌱

More “YES.” 🦋

Because here’s the thing…

The mother you’ve always wanted to be isn’t waiting on your kids to change.

She isn’t waiting on your husband.

She isn’t waiting for the economy.

She isn’t even waiting for more confidence.

She’s waiting for one decision. ☑️

The decision to believe your future can be bigger than your routine. ✨

Your kids are growing up either way…

Why not let them watch you build something extraordinary while they’re watching? 👀

If your children described your life twenty years from now… what would you hope they say they watched you build?

💦🌸

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