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Lacey Keigley- mom to six, a writer and a small business owner.
36 Plays1 year ago
She fits too many things in her schedule and loves to travel and every spring she hoards batches of fresh homemade strawberry jam.
And she is a homeschool teacher who helped create Meadowlark Collective.
Her business is owning & editing a local community publication called Travelers Rest Here. When she moved to Travelers Rest, South Carolina 17 years ago, Lacey first researched the town online to get a feel for the community. And now, coming full circle, as a local and a huge fan of this little town at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains, she has the incredible privilege of managing the experience others see online.
Lacy writes about parenting and faith, struggle and grace at substack. Over there you can read about her adventures with her half dozen children (and three grandchildren!) and about her love of travel and her affection for beautiful literature and other late night ramblings.
Find her at TravelersRestHere.com
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Transcript
Welcome and Focus on Intergenerational Issues
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome to Russell Jones Speaks, where we explore big issues that matter to parents, grandparents, and kids. We tackle intergenerational issues. Everything that affects parents, grands, and children is on the table. That includes health and fitness, relationships, attitude, family unity, vision, adversity, God, and anything else that might arise. The goal is for you to take away something that you can use in your life immediately.
Introducing Lacey Albert Kegley
00:01:04
Speaker
Lacey Albert Kegley is a mom to six, a writer and a small business owner. She fits too many things in her schedule and loves to travel. And every spring she hoards batches of fresh homemade strawberry jam. And she is a homeschool teacher who helped create Metalock Collective. And her business is owning and editing a local community publication called Travel as Rest here. When she moved to Travel as Rest South Carolina 17 years ago, Lacey first researched the town online to get a feel for the community.
00:01:32
Speaker
And now coming full circle as a local and huge fan of this little town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, she has the incredible privilege of managing the experience others see online. Lacey writes about parenting and faith, struggle and grace at Substack. Over there, you can read about her adventures with her half dozen children and three grandchildren, and about her love of travel and her affection for beautiful literature and other late night ramblings. So with all that, welcome Lacey.
00:02:02
Speaker
Thank you. So yeah, we moved into your community. I know it's not yours, but in a way it is a few years back.
00:02:15
Speaker
We got exposed to travel address in a big way through your publication. We've gotten to know you in different ways over the last couple of years, but I want to know about the early days.
Lacey's Background and Journey
00:02:29
Speaker
You moved here 17 years ago, but what were your origins? What were your roots?
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, so I was raised in Virginia on a dairy farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains. That was just beautiful. And lived there, childhood, went to college in Kentucky, came back to Virginia to live for a while, lived in North Carolina for a little while, but mostly in Virginia and from Virginia, moved down to South Carolina. So Virginia girl at heart. Virginia girl at heart. All right. Now there was one thing I picked out of one of your writings,
00:03:02
Speaker
about running the point. Now, for me personally, I knew that reference had to do with basketball. Some people think it could be like a wartime thing going through the jungle, but I know
00:03:15
Speaker
that it had a basketball
Basketball and Life Parallels
00:03:17
Speaker
reference. And for me, I just have a special affection for point guards because I really wouldn't have any athletic career to talk about if I didn't have an awesome, incredible point guard who adopted me. I moved, I was a country bumpkin from Seacock, New Jersey that went to high school in Jersey City. And this city kid,
00:03:38
Speaker
For some reason, we got along really well. Our backgrounds were so different. But he was my point guard. And he got me the ball. All I had to do was put the ball in the basket. And it just made life so wonderful. And I wrote an article, how many years ago now? I guess 2000, late 2000s for a newsletter I used to write. And I titled the article, Sarah Palin and Cookie Burke.
00:04:06
Speaker
And it was during a time when the governor of Alaska was running for vice president and she was demonized in certain ways. I don't think she had said whatever, but I found out that she was a point guard. And so anyway, I made this whole story about it really had nothing to do with Sarah Palin. I was just using that to get some attention to my newsletter. And so tell us about that. I want to know about running point guard.
Passion to Business: Travelers Rest Here
00:04:35
Speaker
That's what I want to know about.
00:04:37
Speaker
Well, that's funny. You know, it's actually really funny, and I like the way you're putting that. I never really put much credit on that, but I think it does kind of fit and feels like a theme that's maybe stuck through my life, incidentally. Because I was not a basketball star. I went to a very small high school.
00:04:54
Speaker
and if you wanted to play, you could. So it wasn't like the kind of team that you had to really, it was fun and it was a really great learning experience, but I wasn't uber competitive. But in a big part of the reason I actually even started basketball in high school was because basketball practice happened at the same time chores happened. And basketball sounded like a great alternative to milking cows. So I was like, sure, sign me up.
00:05:23
Speaker
But I think to your point for point guard, I think it's actually pretty interesting because that is kind of how my career has gone is sort of, you know, almost like a funnel or, you know, more basketball terms, but like getting the ball to someone else. That's a big part, I think, of what Travis Rest Here does, like putting it off, showing someone else, giving them the opportunity. So I kind of like that actually. And if I was better at sports metaphors, I'd probably run with it a little more. I like it.
00:05:47
Speaker
All right. I'm going to have to dig up that article I did on Cookie Burke and we might just be able to wipe out Cookie's name and put Lacey's name in there. No problem. But anyway, okay. So now we're in Traveler's Rest and this publication, the Traveler's Rest here. Now, was that always a plan in your head to make that a business? Like, how did that happen?
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question. It wasn't a plan in my head to make it a business until it was, and then that was the plan, if that makes sense. I'll go back a little bit. I naturally am a cheerleader, not in the sports variety, but in the like, hey everybody, I love this, maybe you'll love it too. I always have been, that's just my personality type, my nature to be telling people, I love it, you might love it. I was doing that in Travers Rest just because I liked it. It was such a cute town.
00:06:43
Speaker
And this was, you know, 10, 12 years ago when I was just doing this, just saying, oh, I love this place or I stopped here. And then I started writing about the town a little bit and then kind of this marriage
00:06:57
Speaker
It's funny. I chose that word but this opportunity where so I had been doing the name travelers rest here was before me I didn't create the name and so I was doing some writing for that that publication but it wasn't they didn't have a newsletter they didn't have a it was just a website and So I had written for the lady who had founded it and then around that same time My marriage was ending and I was in a place where I needed to
00:07:21
Speaker
I needed something that would actually make money. So I was like, OK, what am I already doing that I wouldn't have to reinvent? And I was like, wait, I'm already doing this. So then when it became a plan, she at the time, she wasn't making money on it. It was like a hobby for her. And I was like, I think this could make money. So then then it did become a plan of how can I monetize the thing I'm already doing?
00:07:42
Speaker
And so then it became an actual plan with advertising and a system where before it was just, this is fun and now it's still fun, but how can I help it to feed my family and pay my mortgage? Yeah, so. Nice. Okay, so you've been doing this, I mean, you started, when was it your business? How many years has it been yours?
00:08:12
Speaker
So I wish I could remember exactly. I really should. I think it's been six and a half years, maybe seven. Okay. All right. I'm just curious. And so, okay.
The Importance of Face-to-Face Community
00:08:23
Speaker
So you have this, this vantage point that most people don't have. I mean, it goes along with your outgoing personality and your love of the area and everything. But just in your opinion, like views on the value of local community, I, I think we've gotten so, um,
00:08:42
Speaker
our culture, we've gotten so tied into devices and we talk about community online, we talk about Facebook groups, and we talk about all these different groups, but it's not really community. Community to me is where people are actually getting together in like as people, not as whatever devices. What do you see as the value of like this local community?
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're exactly right. I actually feel like, even though my business is very much online, I feel like the tide is turning, where people are really, just like you said, I think they're really craving actual connection that they need from face to face, real people. And I think that they're turning toward that, I really do.
00:09:30
Speaker
There's just something, community is gigantic. There's something really lovable about it, but there's also something really life-giving. So when you leave your house and if you're having
00:09:43
Speaker
you know, a bad day or a good day and you leave your house and you were to go to a large business and you see no one and you know no one, you basically come in with the same feeling, you leave with the same feeling. But if you're in a community like TR, you stop to pick up a birthday gift for a friend. Well, then you end up running into the mayor and into the city council member and into the business owner and into your friend from soccer in the same shop, you know, and then all of a sudden your day has really shifted.
00:10:09
Speaker
And you're also invested in those people. I couldn't even count the number of stories I could tell you about the way that
00:10:16
Speaker
this community, Traveler's Rest specifically, has served each other. It's endless. Just this week, one of our local business owners is having a medical crisis. Thousands of people are praying for her, sending her messages. We're all invested in her life because she matters to us, because we go to her business and we care. Then she in turn cares about everyone that steps in the door of her business.
00:10:41
Speaker
I don't think that you get that without the work of community. I don't think you get to that without those beginning community steps. Yeah. Yeah, there's a real value to that. I think, especially for the kids too, and not just for grownups, we need it, but kids need it and they need to experience it. It needs to be passed along to them. Which brings us to kids.
00:11:10
Speaker
So you have six of them running around. Well, they're not running around anymore. I'm guessing they're pretty groad, as we say. They pretty much are. And they had to be educated. And I know part of your background was an educator. You taught in a private school for a while?
00:11:32
Speaker
Yes. I taught English and, and because it was a small school, sometimes I taught yearbook and one terrible year PE, I think, but usually things like journalism and theater that were actually in my wheelhouse. There you go. And, and then, you know, then the decision was made to homeschool. Now we're your kids. Cause for us, it was homeschooling was a, it wasn't something we started out with. Um, it wasn't as popular. Uh,
00:12:02
Speaker
back then, I don't think as it is now. But we did the public school thing. We did private Christian school. We did private school. We did homeschool. Have you been a homeschooler? Were your kids homeschooled all the way through? Or did they kind of get a taste of the other things?
Embracing Homeschooling
00:12:20
Speaker
Well, it depends on the kid. As a family, we have done pretty much everything public, private, homeschool.
00:12:27
Speaker
Some of my kids, like three of my kids have exclusively homeschooled. One kid has done everything, public, private homeschool, and then one has done a mix of public and homeschool. So, you know, it's kind of run around. I am like you when I first heard of homeschool. I was teaching in a traditional setting and I thought homeschool, well, it wasn't very common. There's a lot more hoops to jump through in the state of Virginia to homeschool than in South Carolina.
00:12:56
Speaker
And I thought because I was so deeply entrenched and believed in this traditional school system, I really thought homeschool was kind of over here. And so I wasn't interested, but I came about it honestly.
00:13:12
Speaker
I was teaching school and then I had given birth to a baby and I was still doing some part-time teaching and directing a theater program in the afternoons and I had a daughter in, I don't remember if she was in maybe fifth grade I think,
00:13:28
Speaker
And it was almost like this epiphany. My first adventure into homeschool was really like maybe a lot of people's, I don't know, was more of a desperate thing. It wasn't an idealistic, like, I've got this plan. It was really kind of desperation. At the time, I was waking up this newborn baby every afternoon to drive my daughter to pick her up at school. So she was missing her nap. And then this daughter was coming home and evenings were
00:13:55
Speaker
just terrible. Kitchen table, crying over math, crying over spelling, and then I'm paying a lot of money to this private school. And so I just hit this like breaking point where I was like, okay, you know what? I could save the money. I could let this other baby sleep. And I probably couldn't do much worse for one year than what we're having right now. And maybe our family would feel like a family again because our nights are just terrible.
00:14:19
Speaker
And so it was really like this desperate, I just gotta do something different. And for this one kid, for this month basically was kind of a thing. So we pulled my oldest daughter out. We did homeschool that year and we focused heavily on just not hating school, not hating reading. And we just read a ton. We read all the Little House and the Prairie books, which is why they're always really dear to me. And we just tried to get back to some sort of sense of like, you're not bad at school. This was just a bad year.
00:14:46
Speaker
And somehow by the end of that year, I was like, oh, this works. And it wasn't that I, I mean, it worked that year for the baby and it worked that year for the kid who was no longer angry. And we ended up doing lots of things in the future. But after that year, I started thinking,
00:15:03
Speaker
maybe I feel differently, so I actually started educating myself on homeschool. I read a lot more. So by the time that baby came to be five, I actually believed in homeschool differently and had an actual system I wanted to try to do these next kids with. And so the fifth grader did a lot of things. You know, she's the one who's done public and private and a hybrid. But the next set of babies, I kind of had a vision, and I actually leaned into that more. But it took some trial and error with, you know, my older daughter,
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That was, uh, yeah, we, we only did it for a season. I want to say three years maybe. Um, but it was, it was well worth it, but, uh, whatever our lives were like up north, it was just, it was a little bit more chaos than we, we, we were, uh, we were, we were prepared for. So I have, um, I got a couple of things about homeschooling.
00:16:03
Speaker
And I read online, homeschoolers, I'm on a couple of groups just to kind of keep in the loop what's going on. And almost sometimes it sounds like to me that there's too much catering to what a child or a parent likes and versus what they might need. Just for example, like we had our youngest son, he,
00:16:31
Speaker
I can't remember if it was kindergarten or first grade, but the kids are going to a private Christian school at that point. They're all going together. And on his report card, there was a little note. Like, you know, report cards are not very big usually. And there was a little note that was very neatly written by the teacher that, you know, he's doing, you know, his grades were all well, but then the note was, Bud keeps falling out of his chair. And so we,
00:17:01
Speaker
I read that and I kind of, I cracked up. I mean, I thought that was the funniest note to be on a report card. I've seen like, you know, red ink, I've seen all kinds of things on report cards, but never keeps falling out of his chair. And from that, you know, I think people would say, well, you know, he's a different type of learner. You know, maybe he needs to be on a sofa or on a porch swing or something like that to learn better. But then the other side of it is I'm like, well,
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, but you know, when you, when you grow up, you know, there's certain situations where you have to kind of be in control of, you know, your body, like how you're, you know, paying attention, you know, and I was just wondering if you had a comment on that, like, you know, like it's sometimes we might need that, like external discipline of, you know, sitting upright and doing neat work and whatever, uh,
00:17:56
Speaker
you know, hygiene issues, all kinds of stuff. Yeah, I think you're right. I really think it comes down to the elusive word that every human being, whatever their age is seeking, which is some sort of balance, right? Like I do think there's a time and place for everything. And I think I,
00:18:15
Speaker
When I first totally immersed myself in homeschool, I was very idealistic and thought, okay, if I would put these things together, I would produce, which is a problem I had, this product, right? And that's not the way to think about it. And the more I live, the more I realize that every system has some flaws. I do think that there's a time where kids do need to learn to sit still. I also think that you have to sort of ask yourself, depending on the kid and the situation, what are we most trying to do at this moment?
00:18:44
Speaker
if what we're most trying to do for Bud, who keeps falling out of his seat, is we really, really want him to learn to read, well then if that's our biggest goal, then who cares if he's lying down or sitting up, he needs to learn how to read. But then there's another time, hopefully an opportunity, where yes, you do need to learn that like, even if you don't like it, you can't shout things out in the middle of a banquet or a service, things can't be about you, they need to be about this person. So I think there's a time to learn that, and you have to figure out
00:19:12
Speaker
when those times are and so if you can find some balance of like okay today I don't care about the falling in the sea because I want you to learn how to read and I don't care where your body is when we do that um to the times where it's like no today we're practicing we go in this building we look at this person and we don't open our mouths because that's polite too so I think there's some sort of balance and honestly that's why the traditional education system
00:19:36
Speaker
It's a challenge they'll always have because of the size of classrooms. You can't work on balance as easily with 20 little kids or 33 that you can with five or 10 in a different setting. That's just one of the weaknesses. Yeah, for sure. We were blessed. My one daughter, she was pretty good in basketball. Anyway, there was an opportunity for her to
00:20:06
Speaker
No, she was a two guard. She could shoot. Um, she didn't have the speed to be a point guard, but, uh, but she's definitely a team player though. But, um, yeah, she had an opportunity in high school. Um, it, I think it's the, I know it's the oldest school in New Jersey might be the oldest high school in that ever existed in, in the United States.
00:20:32
Speaker
And it's a very high-end, expensive, expensive school, but they do give you lunch. And she got a scholarship to go there. But the classroom sizes were like, I think the most was like, eat kids. And you pay dearly for that. Fortunately, that wasn't our situation. But I remember she was a high honor student.
00:21:01
Speaker
in her public school as a freshman. And when she went to this private school, I mean, the first week she had to write a paper in her English class, you being an English teacher could relate to this. And she wrote a paper and, I mean, she's, you know, she always seemed to do good work and everything. And the teacher literally like rolled it up in a ball and threw it in the trash. And which I thought was a little extreme.
00:21:29
Speaker
But she had not been exposed to the discipline of really writing.
00:21:38
Speaker
It was kind of a wake up moment. I think for the wrong kid, it wouldn't have worked. But for some reason, this teacher might have sensed that my daughter was quite competitive. And she got in, she got after it. And by senior year, they were best friends. But that was a pretty challenging moment. And it's a small group, large group. Yeah. So sometimes all these people driving around with these signs of bumpers on their car about their
00:22:07
Speaker
my student as an honor roll or whatever, you know, depending on where you're going to school, it might not have that much value. But anyway, and the other thing is some of my classic public school teacher, retired friends who are probably going to be listening to this, they would always say to me when we were talking about doing the homeschooling, what about socialization?
Socialization Myths in Homeschooling
00:22:33
Speaker
And I was like, you know, my thing, and I just jotted this down, no one else will talk to you today, I said, socialization, and I threw it at one of my old teacher friends. I said, socialization is just another way of saying, learning how to navigate life with a bunch of partially developed miscreants versus, and I mean,
00:22:56
Speaker
Like you said, the size of the class, what goes on in between class, all these things I think were more stressful than developmental. In homeschooling, we got out. I mean, there was youth group, there was group homeschool sessions, there was friends.
00:23:20
Speaker
I don't know how socialized you have to be, but what's your opinion? If somebody says, what about socialization for your kid? Well, I have to keep my eyes from just rolling because I just think it's ridiculous. I mean, one, like you said, I don't know that I want to raise kids who act like every other middle schooler.
00:23:42
Speaker
I don't want to, even though I might be doing that already is not my goal. I don't want them to be, you know, that's not socialization. Also, I mean, maybe there was a time when homeschool kids were really isolated. Maybe that has never been my experience. My kids have, I mean, they're in lots of groups. They, you know, and just because you're homeschool doesn't mean that every bit of our education comes at our kitchen table. We do a lot of group collective learning. So,
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah, I don't even and and also the whole idea that, you know, your socialization is only basically peers and that your peers are the exact same age. That isn't true anywhere else in life. I mean, my closest friends have a wide range from 30 to 70. Like, like, that's what I think adult life looks like. I think that's actually really good to have
00:24:32
Speaker
friends in variety of positions, socioeconomic places. I think a variety is actually really important, and you don't get that variety in public school. You're putting a class with everyone that's your same age, then you're also putting a class with everyone in your same ability, basically.
00:24:52
Speaker
Usually, you're same demographic because you're all sectioned according to where you live. Really, you're not socializing. I just always push back on that. I don't like that. I'm not anti-public school at all, but I just don't like that idea. I just don't think it holds any validity any longer or ever did. Right. I agree. It just always pops up. It's just one of those things. Always. On the other side,
00:25:19
Speaker
You know, the other side too, and I thought about this too, is that now you had a background as an educator. As a parent going in though, you know, I mean, my wife, I mean, her background, you know, was an RN. She was an awesome nurse. And in between, she was an awesome cook at the, at the bar we had. And she designed a phenomenal menu, but she had no
00:25:48
Speaker
education, formal educational teaching background whatsoever. And that's one area that I, that I think a formally trained, passionate teacher, you know, brings a lot to the table, you know, in terms of their particular subject matter and everything. But, you know, a lot of times we just didn't feel prepared in some of these subject areas.
00:26:16
Speaker
And I know you can get extra help and, and, and all, but, uh, but there is a really tremendous value, I think to, you know, formally trained teachers as well. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I, I don't think that everyone should homeschool. I don't think, I mean, I think everyone should, if they want to, I think, but I don't think that, yeah, it's, it's not for everyone. It doesn't need to be, I think that's okay. Right. So, uh, so out of,
00:26:45
Speaker
Out of this experience, so there was this group, but I don't see you emphasizing it anymore. I think you may, I don't know if you'd move past it or not, or you're still active with this Metalarc Collective.
Metalock Collective and Educational Opportunities
00:26:56
Speaker
What was that about? Yeah, so it was also born of, well, it's just like so many things. There were a group of us, four different moms and women who were like, oh, we wish, as our kids are getting older, as they're kind of either approaching or already into this middle school, high school years,
00:27:14
Speaker
Just like you said, there are these courses that either we didn't feel up to the task or we knew that certain courses really do seem to be better in a collective environment. There's something really beautiful about talking about literature with more than one or two people having group discussions. Things like science and math, certain subjects that, yes, a passionate teacher who can
00:27:37
Speaker
answer the question quickly of why is the sky blue? Why does the earth do this? Like that's not me, right? So putting my kids in positions for that. Greenville is a county that has a lot of homeschool options already, but there still wasn't
00:27:52
Speaker
there still felt like there was a need to us of what we couldn't find, which for us at the time was we wanted something where we could take our kids and we could leave them and we could go away for the day and they would have an opportunity to learn with the person besides us. We wanted them to have those opportunities like in science, but also like we were talking about earlier, some of the things that aren't academic that you get by teaching in a structured environment. We want our kids to know that
00:28:16
Speaker
You know, some other person could be in charge of you and you didn't have to like what they said or the way they did it, but you could obey and you could listen and you could learn from them. We wanted them to know, here's what it looks like to sit in a classroom because real life might require you to sit still. So we wanted to put some of those in, but not be our main source of education.
00:28:34
Speaker
We couldn't find anything quite like that. A lot of the co-ops that we had been previously involved with were heavy parent volunteers. Nothing wrong with that model, but we didn't want it. We wanted a model where we could say, we also have a full life, so here's a day they get those things, and then we get that same day to do something else. Now, the irony is, since we started it, we never got that.
00:28:55
Speaker
We ended up leading and directing it, so we never actually got what we wanted from it for us, although we did for our kids. What we were pleasantly surprised to find out is that there's a huge need in Greenville County for something like that. We started it, and the first year we did, maybe, I think we had 32 students, and honestly, a lot of them were ours.
00:29:19
Speaker
The next year we doubled to 60. And the next year we capped out at 100. That was always the space we had was 100. That's how many seats we had that we could fill. And now it's still at 100 and a waiting list, a substantial waiting list.
00:29:35
Speaker
So I think it's just proof that there's a lot of people that want different options. It's a really sweet place. Those of us who started it, we ran it for five years. And then by that time, we had graduated amongst us seven kids of our own children. And we were like, okay.
00:29:51
Speaker
We are now in a different position with young adults living in our houses, college. We still have some younger kids, but we weren't as... It was taking a lot of our time. And so we moved onto the board and still help guide with the board, but other women have taken it over. But it still exists and it's a great co-op. It's based on all the principles of an educator named Charlotte Mason. And that was our
00:30:17
Speaker
that was our like inspiration i remember that name she's been around a long time right choose yes yeah and that i should know that she can't hundred in england.
00:30:27
Speaker
I think that's right. Yeah, and so that's the education style it is. And basically, I mean, there's so many words, but if I could sum it up like in two sentences, it's like learning from living books. So that would be writers who, one author, not a conglomerate of authors who were really passionate about their subject, and then a lot heavy on the narration.
00:30:49
Speaker
you would read something, you would say it back to the teacher or to your classmates to show that you knew it and then it'd be talked about. The idea that it's not really yours until you can explain it is a big basis of her education model. Yeah. That was a big thing actually. Actually, in the course I do it, it was about how to become the world's greatest student, but there was three steps. But one of them,
00:31:19
Speaker
was vocab and I remember that was vital because I don't know if it was a gift or I just had a really good basic education but I could pronounce and spell all kinds of words but I really couldn't if you said well what's the you know define it you know in this instance I really couldn't give that to you you know in a clear concise way and I remember the
00:31:46
Speaker
The rule was any time I couldn't do that, I had to look it up. I would literally carry the dictionary with me. I went from a C student to a straight A student towards the end of my academic career, so it was very helpful. But yeah, repeating is important. Your youngest right now is 15? 14. He turns 15 in a couple of weeks.
00:32:11
Speaker
OK, so you're still in the mix with up to date on what's going on in the world with children and homeschooling.
Parenting Priorities: Attitude, Habits, and Self-discipline
00:32:20
Speaker
So for a parent to help develop a confident, well-balanced child to create success, just rank these categories or these concepts, like a 0 to 10, what you value.
00:32:35
Speaker
And it might be a setup question because you might say they're all important, but, uh, you know, maybe, maybe there's something, uh, maybe rank them all nine until something really gets you going. But, uh, the first one is developing a positive mental attitude. So put that in one to nine or one. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's really high. Um, I want to hear them all to know what number one should be, but I think it's really high. So, but I also think it's,
00:33:06
Speaker
I do think it can be taught and encouraged. I do think some of it you're born with though. And it's hard to encourage it if it's not your bent, I guess, but I do think it's possible. So let's say a three. Okay. All right, because attitude was huge for me. I was not born with it and my environment did not support having one.
00:33:34
Speaker
until I was made aware of it and the environment changed. And that involved a lot of prayer too, but to go from seeing the glass half empty to half full and having a lot of hope every day when you get up was huge for me. Okay, the next one was forming life change.
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think I learned it, but it wasn't like somebody said, oh, you got a bad attitude and change your attitude. It was more environmental. I was just blessed to be around people that, in fact, they wrote a whole thing about it without dragging the story out. But I got around some really positive people at one point and
00:34:26
Speaker
they would ask me every once in a while, they'd say to me, say, hey, what book are you reading? And that was like a buzz for, you know, the stuff coming out of your mouth is not positive. I mean, this was during my bar, this was during my bar owner days.
00:34:42
Speaker
express myself a lot differently back then. Which came right out of my biker days, which was part of my trucker days. Anyway, my use of the English language was a little bit different back then. They would always say, what book are you reading? It would just jar me. It took me a few months to realize they would say that every time some negative junk came out of my mouth.
00:35:07
Speaker
it was just an environment. Everybody was kind of checking on each other. And I think that just kind of nurtured an attitude in me that it changed. So maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm just a freak. But no, I love that. I think it's hopeful. Okay, how about forming life changing habits? Yeah. I mean, I think that's gonna be
00:35:32
Speaker
really high, I'd say a little bit, so maybe I'll put it at two, a little higher than the positive thinking because I think the habit would be positive thinking, right? So I think it would come out of that. I think habits are everything. They make or break our lives. It's those little habits that turn us into
00:35:51
Speaker
I mean, whatever it is and the way we're spending our time, the way we're reading, who we're hanging out with, the way I have a friend who I think of, you know, honestly, I think of him every day because he told me once that he timed how long it took to make his bed.
00:36:07
Speaker
And I can't remember what it was. It was like three minutes or something. It was no time. And he's like, you know what? If you can't find three minutes to make your bed to start your day, like, I don't like, like, what are you going to do? You know, like if you just can't even make that simple. So every day I'll get up and be like, because I hate making my bed even now. And I'll get like, no, I can do three minutes. I can do three minutes to feel. And then I always am glad, right, that my bed is made. And so I think habits are huge. I think they really do. I mean, and especially vital in the
00:36:36
Speaker
clock that, I don't know, climate, the culture our kids are growing up in, and that we are also being, you know, completely changed by this our phones, you know, the habit of the time we spend on them, like all those habits, I think make or break your life. So it's pretty high. All right, what about self discipline?
00:36:59
Speaker
I'm going to run out of numbers. Okay. I don't know what the rest are, but I'm going to say that might be number one because it does take the self discipline. They all feed on each other, right? Like it takes the self discipline to do the habits. And that's a really hard one for me. Um, and it's a, it's a hard one for me to admit that I struggle with because, um,
00:37:17
Speaker
Self-discipline is hard. I mean, I can think of tons of areas in my life where it takes a lot of work to do the thing. And you, I feel like, know that very well. And I think anyone who is committed to a physically active life, I think knows it really well. Because even if it's something you love, it takes a lot of self-discipline to tell yourself, I'm going to run every day or I'm going to lift weights, whatever the thing is you're doing in all other areas too. But I think that's going to change everything. If you could teach and train that self-discipline,
00:37:47
Speaker
you know, whatever they apply it to is going to be better. Yeah, that always cracks me up when people reference, uh, you know, my, my attempt at, you know, staying fit, but it, it, it cracks me up because it's, uh, I think a lot of it is out of vanity.
00:38:11
Speaker
Right? Which, you know, I don't walk around saying that. But, you know, especially at this age, you know, 70 plus now, like the loose skin and everything else. But even before that, you know, what was it, Shakespeare? You would know what vanity is all. And I think that's something we have to fight all the time.
00:38:29
Speaker
But then I go to the other argument and I say, hey, look, if you want to extend your middle years and you want to live a longer, healthier life, of course you need to have this discipline. But it kind of goes back and forth, like what motivates me, right? More than saying, oh, I'm going to live to be, you know, my friends are only going to make it to 87 and a half and I'm going to make it to 89 because I'm disciplined, you know? So yeah, and nobody gets out alive. But anyway, yeah, that was kind of an interesting comment. But self-discipline is a good one.
00:39:00
Speaker
And then the next one would be setting realistic goals. Well, now I have to rank that lower because I've already taken everything else. But yeah, I mean, I don't think it's not important, but I guess it wouldn't rank as high. I mean, because realistic is such a...
00:39:19
Speaker
personal word, you know, what is realistic. And also, I don't know, I'm okay with some goals that are like a little far fetched, a little like, can we do this? So I don't know how vital that is in my lineup, I guess. All right, so
00:39:35
Speaker
Okay, what about, not put pressure, but like you mentioned before, your one daughter had a challenge, loving or liking school. And that was kind of your foray into homeschooling. But when you were teaching, was like high academic achievement? Like that's not really,
00:40:01
Speaker
Like what do you, what would you say like that term even? Like attaining high academic achievement. I mean that, eh, I'll let you answer that, but I have opinions about myself. Yeah, it's a hard one because, you know, I mean, I personally love school like myself. I loved high school. I loved college. I love learning. And I like getting a good grade. You know, I liked that little high number at the top. But increasingly as a teacher,
00:40:30
Speaker
And as a human and then as a teacher of my own kids and other classes that I've taught, I care a lot less. Or I don't feel like that grade has a significance. The longer I live, what grade did you get in high school biology? No one cares. No one cares. Do you still care what grade you got in high school biology?
00:40:56
Speaker
No, no, it doesn't matter. But what you have carried with you, what does matter is your work ethic, your ability to push through when something's difficult, your desire to read the room and look around and see what other people need. These are things that, so I don't know, I don't want to say academics don't matter. They do, and there are certain fields where they really matter. But I think those habits, those core things,
00:41:21
Speaker
They're what's true, and then whatever it is you want to learn, if you want to apply that to math, if you want to apply it to becoming an auto...
00:41:30
Speaker
I can't even talk, an auto mechanic, whatever it is, you're going to learn that. So if you know how to learn, then everything is open to you. So I think that act of knowing how to learn is far more important than whether on that test, on that day when you didn't get enough sleep or your parents had a big argument the night before, I just think that weight of a number on a piece of paper
00:41:56
Speaker
I don't know. I really push against that now. That wasn't always true of what I thought and what I said, but I just don't think it matters. But again, it's that balance because you can't tell kids in a system
00:42:09
Speaker
Okay, none of it matters because it matters. The effort you're putting in matters and that effort sometimes shows up in a grade and sometimes it doesn't. I've had kids, my own or students I've taught who they worked way harder than other kids and they got a C and that A kid did not give any effort. I guess at the core, I don't think it's a good unit of measurement. Right.
00:42:37
Speaker
There's so many factors that go into that. And I guess, you know, when you get to the higher levels, like, you know, if you're going to be a doctor or something like that, I mean, you know, when you're into a specialized field, but I think when you're younger, you know, you want to give your best, but you're not going to, you know, as a parent, you're not going to totally stress out if your kid doesn't get straight A's all the time. Right.
00:43:04
Speaker
So, okay, how important is it that kids are able to confidently make friends, like have people skills?
Developing People Skills
00:43:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think people's skills are huge, but so much of that depends on your jobs and things you want in life too, you know? And I don't think that you should be penalized if you can't, if you don't have good people skills, you know, it's the same sort of thing. Like we know people who come into a room and chat it up and look so comfortable, and so then their words sometimes get heard more, and then there's a person who that's just not their comfort level, and they kind of get
00:43:41
Speaker
you know, relegated over here and they've got really important things to say. And so that's, that's really unfortunate. And so I would like that person over here to figure out, you know, how can they get their words heard. But I don't know that the idea of like, making friends, having that good social skills,
00:44:03
Speaker
I don't know, that's a hard question, I guess, because I think it's probably a lot less important than we think it is, but we also know in reality that the person who can speak and communicate better is going to have more opportunities. And that's not really fair, but I think it's true. And so I don't know, that's a really hard one to break down, I think.
00:44:30
Speaker
Yeah, and that was another one I had. I was just I had to learn that too. I mean, zero people skills. Some people might say I don't have any yet. But you know, talking to strangers or like you said, being in a room, you know, full of people. I mean, it was
00:44:51
Speaker
You know, I mean, maybe more than one or two word answers, but not much more. I mean, it was a real, real challenge. I had to really, I had to work on that. That was something, and I think it's something you can be intentional about. Um, it comes natural to some people, but again, it's one of those areas that if you put a value on it, you can improve in it. So, uh, and okay, how about, uh, owning one's personal health and fitness?
00:45:20
Speaker
Well, I think it's important. I don't know if it's the goal of, I don't know, one of the goals of education. I do think it's important. It is like all forms of education, I think, and my kids say I say this all the time. I think all education ultimately is self-education, like the only one that's going to last.
00:45:39
Speaker
is the things that you want to learn about. And so I do think learning about your health, learning about those things is important for longevity, for just feeling physically better in your own body, for mental wellbeing. I think that's huge. So I do think it's important. I've used up all my high numbers, so I don't know where to put it, but. Yeah, I just, you know, sometimes I guess people go off the deep end with,
00:46:10
Speaker
with their strictness, their A personality, if they discover something about health or the way to eat or anything like that. And I just, I don't know, I think a lot of education is outside of our bodies. And we really don't get that education about what's really going on on the inside. I mean, bio is fine, but it's not really the application in our daily life, like choosing
00:46:40
Speaker
at different activities or what to eat, what not to eat, what to drink, what not to drink. I think that's an area that- I definitely don't feel like I was educated. I mean, I was- Not just emphasized, but maybe even just modeled better by parents. Maybe you not have to teach it to your kids. Maybe you just have to model it better. I think you're right.
00:47:07
Speaker
Okay. And you had alluded to this before. What about valuing hard work? Not that you'd value it, but you'd want to play basketball instead of milking the cows. But I just found that there is a real value to hard work and physical work.
00:47:31
Speaker
just, and maybe it's, it's gender specific. If we're like, wait, do I say gender or do I say, uh, whatever boys and girls? I don't, I think both, uh, they do really well. Uh, you know, working in the garden, doing chores, things along those lines. You got an opinion about that?
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah, I do have an opinion and it's one of the things that, you know, we, you know, when you're, I mean, I'm 50 and, you know, when you are 50, when you're 70s, like you look back and there's things that like, okay, I know I missed that area. And this is an area actually that I really am sad about and I struggle with because, you know, I grew up a certain way and we had to work hard and it taught me a lot.
00:48:21
Speaker
I also grew up at a home with all brothers. Me and my mom were the only girls and I had three brothers and dad. The farm was hard work and it was important. It felt like important work and we felt good about it. That's something I feel like I truly have not done a great job teaching my kids that.
00:48:40
Speaker
And I can think of a lot of reasons why, and they make sense, but the biggest reason is has been like where we live. You know, where I grew up, like literally you had to work hard because that was the job. I mean, the cows had to be milked twice a day. It was just a thing. Like the lives that my kids have been blessed to live, you know, maybe your hardest job is to mow the grass. And there's many of you, so you're not even doing it every week.
00:49:05
Speaker
So taking the trash out to the curb on our short driveway, like it's not hard. And so in seasons, I have worked to manufacture hard work for them, but it's been really difficult to do. And I do think it's a weakness. I've been really pleased. It's something I prayed about a lot to for my kids. I think I think it's a weakness in the way they've been brought up that they have not had to work hard. I'm physically hard.
00:49:29
Speaker
And one of my boys is right now at a ranch in Colorado, and I've loved it for him because he's learning that this year. And not only is he learning it, but to the point of saying it's important, he's loving it. He's loving what he's able to do. There's satisfaction in his voice of, I can do this. I've learned this job. I'm tired at the end of the day. There's satisfaction there. And I'm really pleased with that, but it is an area of my own personal parenting. I feel like I didn't hit the mark.
00:50:00
Speaker
I really wish I had found ways to raise harder workers. I mean, they're diligent, they're doing the best they can. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying as a parent, I wish that I had found ways to put them in positions where you learn to lift your own weight and to do some figurative and literal heavy lifting. There you go. Now, what about mentors?
The Role of Mentors
00:50:27
Speaker
I found as a parent,
00:50:31
Speaker
because I was just so unprepared for just about everything and especially parenting. I found that I had a lot of success
00:50:43
Speaker
mentors for me, but they became like third party people. Like I selected some people that I felt really had it together and I would bounce things off them. And sometimes those people actually, their voice became a voice to my kids as well, you know, so that it wasn't coming from dad all the time. It was coming from, from someplace else. But they were edifying me. They were building me up at the same time.
00:51:13
Speaker
And that, but that was a conscious thing that I did. Is that a thing in education and homeschooling? Do you look to other places to kind of support and say, okay, this isn't just the world according to mom. This is like, whoa, there's a bunch of people that think this way.
00:51:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's a part of what was helping us to want to start metal art, that exact same concept. And I know personally, for me, I definitely work to get people in my kids' lives. And they've been very fortunate to have people like that in their lives who, yeah, it's not just mom saying it. And it's not even just mom's voice. This person's even saying it a little bit differently. But yet, you know, it's another adult saying it. And I think that is also full circle with community and why we want to live in community. Because your kids are going to listen to other people.
00:52:00
Speaker
And so it better be some people that have something solid to say because they are going to listen to other people. So I feel really blessed in the ways in which we've lacked in hard work. I feel very blessed in the ways that my kids have been able to have mentors and people who they trust that they can go to and whether they always do or not, they know they exist. And those are people who are saying like, yeah, here's some, they are, they have other voices in their head, some family, some
00:52:26
Speaker
friends. And yeah, I think that's a big deal. And I, it's also been a big prayer for me for my kids, especially growing up in a single, for a portion of their lives anyway, in a single parent household. I'm like, yeah, I really need some other voices that are going to weigh in with some solid words because I cannot do it all. You know, none of us can. I don't know of all people, if anybody could do it all. Come on, Lacey. Definitely not.
00:52:56
Speaker
And then, I don't know about this one. I'll leave this as the last one about appreciating your uniqueness.
Encouraging Uniqueness in Children
00:53:07
Speaker
That wouldn't be a formal thing, but as a kid growing up, I mean, and maybe it was the neighborhood I lived in, but there was always whatever differentiated you became like,
00:53:22
Speaker
you know, if you had big ears or if you had, you know, a long nose or your ethnicity was from wherever, there was always jokes. There was always nicknames. There was all kinds of stuff. And I think that may have contributed to like me being like paranoid about, about my, not only my physical appearance, but who I was, you know, and, um, and you know, uh,
00:53:50
Speaker
I think, you know, everybody has to just not try to be somebody else, right? I mean, obviously, but I think we all do in a way, right? We find some, an image of somebody that we want to be. I want to be, you know, whatever, you know, Superman or something like that. And, uh, or Wonder Woman. I don't want to be Wonder Woman, but, uh, but, uh,
00:54:12
Speaker
You know, I guess it has to be somewhat intentional, right, for kids to understand their uniqueness in this world. Yeah, and that's, I think, the challenge we have from infancy, right, that we're trying to tell our kids, like, it's okay to be different when everything in the world, especially socialization, everything is saying,
00:54:34
Speaker
homogenize, be the same, be the same. And I think it's really important to teach kids that. And also really difficult because it's one thing, and that's where mentors and community can come in too, because it's one thing if mom says, which my kids have told me many times, like, of course you think that mom, you're mom. Of course you think that I'm cute or I'm smart or I'm like, of course you do. And so it doesn't hold the same weight, even though they need that. They need that parental support saying, you know, I believe these things about you.
00:55:00
Speaker
but they need other people who are weighing in. It's really, really hard for a kid to want to be different. I think when we get older, we recognize our differences do make us special. But as a kid, I don't know, sometimes the last thing you want is to look different, be different, feel different. You just want to be the same. I think it is a really important message and a really hard message that we keep saying and saying, differences are beautiful, but that's really hard.
00:55:31
Speaker
God made a whole bunch of different types of flowers. But anyway, okay, so you've alluded to this a couple of times. We mentioned it, single mom. So we talked about this when we started doing presentations in schools back in the early 90s.
00:55:49
Speaker
We had this guy, he was like, it was scripted out.
Family Stability and Cultural Shifts
00:55:54
Speaker
We had this promotional video. We had to record it in a studio in New York City. I mean, this was before cell phones and you could do instant whatever. And the lead in was talking about the breakdown of the family.
00:56:12
Speaker
You know, and that was, you know, 30 years ago, more than 30 years ago, right? And I remember there would be, there was like clips of like newspaper articles and stuff from today talking about the breakdown of the family, breakdown of the family. And, you know, by the grace of God, and we've had way more challenges that I don't even want to think about, but you know, it's become so easy, I think,
00:56:38
Speaker
to just leave. And, you know, what do you see like, you know, you I mean, you're out and about, you know, seeing all kinds of people, like, why aren't people staying together anymore? What, like, what do you, you know, what's your sense on this?
00:56:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, but I mean, I do feel like, I do feel like an increasing part of it is that comparing and like, oh, is there something better? Is there something better? I could be more satisfied. I deserve to be more satisfied. Maybe there's something better. Like I shouldn't have to live this way or I don't, or I mean, I mean, it's so many of those things all combined. Like, okay, this is going to be hard work. I don't want to work hard. I'd rather look for something that's maybe a little easier. So like our resiliency, you know,
00:57:25
Speaker
not valuing marriage as a whole, like not seeing that it has, you know, I mean, I don't know all the reasons people get divorced, but I think all those are pieces of them and not really
00:57:37
Speaker
Like most people in my, most people, I don't know statistics, but most people in my generation, we didn't grow up with divorced parents. So we don't actually, we aren't coming from a place of knowing what that feels like, but now tons of our kids are. So they're going to know what it's like to grow up with them, but we don't. So we aren't, you know, I didn't grow up with divorced parents and most of my friends didn't either.
00:57:59
Speaker
So I don't think we recognize the damage that it's doing just yet. And I think, I don't know, I do feel like it's a culture of like, I want what I want when I want it, and I should just be allowed to have it. Like, I should just be allowed to, you know, do what I want, and this no longer satisfies, or this is hard, or I don't feel fulfilled, or what all these reasons people put forth of just like,
00:58:22
Speaker
Very here centered and it's certainly you know, it goes without saying but I will say it like there are plenty of reasons that are I mean abuse and like like we're I'm not talking about those things I'm talking about like just the myriad of people who are just like I'm tired of this
00:58:38
Speaker
I just want to do something different. I see that a lot and it is really sad. I do not know the answer or the solution to any of that, but I know it's a problem. That's all I know. Right. Even what you just said, abuse. In my mind, the image of abuse is somebody battered and bloodied and whatever.
00:59:01
Speaker
But in our culture, it could just be somebody said, hey, you know, you're getting a little fat around the middle. And that's like, you know, that would be like mental cruelty. You know, you'd get 15 years in prison for something like that. You know, so.
00:59:18
Speaker
The definition of words has changed so much, you know. And yeah, it's it's the world is just something I'm having a hard time keeping up with these redefined things. But anyway, OK, so we'll jump from that now. Your other career, avocation, I'm not sure where this is all going, but as a freelance writer at So Every Day,
00:59:48
Speaker
Where's that going?
Blog to Substack Transition
00:59:51
Speaker
And who is your audience as well? That's a great question. Um, so I, you know, I started blogging on the so everyday.com back when like mom bloggers were the thing and every, you know, blogging was brand new. So maybe that was,
01:00:05
Speaker
15 years ago, I don't know, 15, 20 years ago. And for me, I started at the time because then I had five kids under five and my whole brain was filled with diapers and who had the blue sippy cup and I missed writing and feeling like I had other things to say. And we were living far away from some of our family.
01:00:26
Speaker
And so it became a fun way to communicate and it was funny and it just was helpful to me, like my mental sanity. And that was the era where magazines existed, which they still do, but not as much. And they paid really well. Like you could write an article for a magazine and make $2,000 for one article. Like it was a great, you know, side hustle. So I would write for some different magazines and, um,
01:00:49
Speaker
for this blog. And then over the years, and actually just recently, so I would still get readership. And it was, I would say it's predominantly women, but not really. I mean, I would often get other people that would comment, but it seemed to be predominantly women in my age bracket, in my life experience, or maybe a little behind me.
01:01:09
Speaker
who were coming up and wanting to learn some things. Then this past year, I started transferring everything to what's called Substack. That's just a platform. That's all it is. But the beauty of the platform is it's a little bit like Etsy for creators or something. You don't pay them anything, but if you get paid subscribers, they take some of that fee. But the great thing about Substack is they handle all the backend things. So when I write a post,
01:01:38
Speaker
It goes right into the inbox of my subscriber, which I couldn't do when I had so every day in the same way. And so now this gets the words into people's inboxes. And I think that's right now what people are really interested in is it coming to their email.
01:01:53
Speaker
And I'm sure that'll change eventually but right now that's the thing and so sub stack puts it right there for you and then it offers an option where people can subscribe like they would to Netflix or you know, so the idea is that you're saying basically if you like what I'm doing then just the same way that you're seeking entertainment or enlightenment from a
01:02:12
Speaker
a subscription to the New York Times, or a subscription to Hulu, you can do the same thing, only you'll be paying me to write, basically. And I was a little hesitant about it, but I have been working on a book for a couple years, and I took a writing class with a writing coach, and she's like, tricepsack, it's the next thing. And honestly, it's been fun for me because it's been a direct, it's much more direct with your audience than the blog.
01:02:38
Speaker
Because that, I would never know who read it. But this, if you respond to the email, it comes right back to my email. And I know, like, oh, Sarah, come in today and we can have a chat about the thing. So it's much more engaged. And that's really fun. I feel like my audience has stayed kind of the same. I mean, it is surprisingly a wide audience. I'm always surprised and pleasantly surprised that like it's not just women and it's not just moms. And that's been that's been fun. But yeah, the end goal of that. I mean, if I could
01:03:07
Speaker
make a living just writing exclusively, that's what I would do. Just sit in my house and write words and people pay me money to do that. That'd be great. All right. There's a whole strategy with that. I mean, I haven't written a few books myself, no Hemingway pieces yet.
01:03:32
Speaker
The book is almost the easy part between getting it published, getting it out there, getting the word out, promoting it, and then where are you going from there? Then it's like, okay, are we going on a national tour? It's a whole giant
01:03:50
Speaker
unless of course you're famous or infamous and they give you so many millions of dollars just to write it in the first place. And someone else wrote it for you anyway. Yeah, that's true too. That is true. So anyway, anything else we'll talk about? Just real quick, just give me your faith.
01:04:14
Speaker
Faith, what part is faith playing in your life? So we always talk about physical, intellectual, psychological, emotional, and spiritual. Is that coming through in your writing, your faith wall?
Faith and Creative Influence
01:04:34
Speaker
I think I think it does. Yeah. I mean, for me, I feel like it would be impossible for it not to because it's just like, I don't know, just a part of I mean, I don't know. It's just a part of who I feel like I am. And so I feel like there's not a way for me to separate it. I mean, there are certainly things I might write that
01:04:55
Speaker
would emphasize faith more or less, but I feel like it's there in everything I write because it's there in what I think or do or how I... It's like seeing the world through a certain lens. So I don't think I could write without it being evident, probably. And I'm one of those people who
01:05:16
Speaker
I mean, I was born into a Christian house. I have never, I mean, I've never, never not known thoughts about God and Jesus. Like that's, I've never existed in a world that that wasn't playing a role. You know, that's been my entire life, all 50 years. Yeah. Yeah, I just, when we got out into the world doing all the presentations up north,
01:05:43
Speaker
I had to make a choice if I wanted to get into the public schools. We did over a thousand shows over the years. Everything had to be secularized. And I feel like it was, and coming down here, it's just a lot easier to talk about the Lord.
01:06:01
Speaker
in any kind of setting. And it's almost like I feel like I came out of the closet, to coin a phrase, with my faith walk. Whereas before it was kind of like, well, just give us the information, the do's and what should I do and what shouldn't I do. And I really don't want to hear about your faith walk.
01:06:22
Speaker
But like you said, it's just it oozes out of your pores after a while and it's, you know, you get it when you get me. And so, yeah, I get it. So, yeah, well, that's a wrap. I hope everyone enjoyed today's episode and you got some takeaways that you can use.
01:06:40
Speaker
You can connect with Lacey in a writing about parenting and faith, struggle and grace at Lacey Kegley at Substack, and we'll have it in the notes, as well as at TravelersRestHere.com and find her on Instagram. I know she's really big there. And please share this with your friends. And don't forget all my stuff at TopSecretsOfSuccess.com and RussellJonesPeeks.com. If you're a parent or grandparent or mentor to attend a 13-year-old,
01:07:07
Speaker
check out our 60-day transformational interactive video series, Top Secrets of Success for Kids and Parents. It's amazing, it really is. It will equip and encourage parents and kids. Yes, topsecretsofsuccess.com get on our email list. And in the words of the inimitable Hulk Hogan, say your prayers, take your vitamins and you'll never go wrong. Then you can all go and make it a great day. Bye for now.