January 28, 2021 • 48 mins
This week Amy has Kimberly Schlapman (@ohgussie) from Little Big Town on for all 4 Things! FIRST THING: This year has been pretty hard, so Amy and Kimberly talk about grief...offering hope to those in the thick of it...that you can make it to the other side. Kimberly understands grief...as she suddenly lost her first husband and had fertility struggles for years. SECOND THING: Kimberly shared what wellness is for her...mind, body, and spirit. THIRD THING: We all have our go to comfort food or recipe. Kimberly talks about the cookies she made Amy, and her favorite meal that she makes for the ones she loves! You can find Kimberly’s recipe on Amy’s blog at RadioAmy.com! FOURTH THING: Kimberly tells us 4 Things she’s grateful for...when guests practice gratitude either us...it’s always a great way to get to know them better!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, little food for yourself life ain't. Oh, it's pretty bay,
it's pretty beautiful thing that a little moth kicking with
(00:30):
four brown So I'm sitting here with Kimberly from a
little big town, and she's joining me for all four things.
We're gonna talk grief, wellness, comfort, food, and gratitude. And
you know, starting off with grief might seem somber, but
you know, Kimberly, you're someone that understands grief from the
sudden loss of your first husband and fertility struggles. You
(00:52):
know firsthand what it's like to go through hard things
and emerge stronger so that the pain wasn't in vain.
So I know a lot of my listeners are grieving
for various reasons, especially this last year, and Kimberly, I
thought by you sharing some of your story, you'll offer
a comfort and hope to those that aren't sure how
they'll ever make it to the other side. Okay, I
(01:14):
was married before to a man named Steve. I married
to Steve's in my life, both from Ohio, so weird,
both from just a few miles of each other. But
my first Steve I met in college and we were
I was married really young. I was only twenty one
when I got married. We had a great marriage. I
was just completely and utterly in love. We moved to
(01:35):
Nashville about seven years into our marriage, and we lived here.
I was breaking into the music business. We started a
little big town Karen and I did, and that was
all going great. We we hadn't Boondocks had not come
out yet, but we were working super duper hard. And
then I lost Steve suddenly. We were on a radio tour.
We were at the Indianapolis radio station, singing a couple
(01:57):
of songs, trying to get people to start playing Boondocks,
and I hadn't heard from Steve in about twenty four hours,
which was really, really weird because we normally talked on
the phone a whole lot, especially when I was out
of town. So while we were at the radio station,
um some buddies of his went to our house to
(02:17):
check and see if he was okay, because I hadn't
heard from him, and I was really really worried and
he wasn't. And I got the call back at the
radio station. Karen was with me and we were both
in the bathroom. I was already worried, sick, I already
knew something was not right. He had passed away in
our home. The word shock is not enough of a word,
(02:38):
you know, It's not strong enough word to explain that
horror that I heard on the phone when someone told
me he was gone. Karen was with me in the bathroom.
She called out for Jimmy, who was right next door,
and he came in. And I can feel like my
heart is racing right now, just feeling the horror of
(02:59):
the news, and then looking at them saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
just complete denial. No, no, this is not true. This
is not true. Well it was true, and we all
got in a van. At this time, we were still
driving ourselves around in a van. We got in a
van and drove ourselves back home. We had been married
for fourteen years, and it was something I never expected
(03:22):
to be a widow in my I was in my
early thirties at the time. In those first few days,
grief is so harsh and strong and loud, and there's
everybody around you trying to help, and it's it's wonderful
having all the people around you. But then when you
begin to grieve, the next week and the next week
(03:42):
and the next week everybody else's lives start to go on,
but your world has literally come to a screeching halt.
My bandmates, they literally physically carried me some days. We
decided to go back out on the road, probably two
or three weeks after Steve died, to keep promoting Boondocks,
and they left that up to me, you know, they said,
(04:05):
we can go or we cannot go. And I felt
like Steve would wanted me to do that, and I
felt like I needed to try to put one foot
in front of the other, and I felt responsibility to them,
to my bandmates, who you know, this is also their career,
and so we set out to get back on the
road and we did. And grief is so unpredictable, especially
(04:27):
once you get into the months after your loved one's death,
like two and three and four months and then six
months and all the firsts. In my experience and most
people that I talked to, the firsts are horrific. Every first,
every first birthday, your birthday without them, their birthday without them,
(04:48):
um Easter, Christmas, July four, St. Patrick's Day. Every first
is so very, very hard. But once you get through
those first something gets lighter. Your your grief lattens up
a little bit and where it's never ever, ever easy.
I think about Steve almost almost every day. When you
(05:09):
lose someone that you desperately love, the grief is that's
that's the commonality. You've You've lost part of yourself, part
of myself actually died with him, you know, because it'll
be something I never get back, my my relationship with him.
But I'm here to say you will make it. It's hard.
There are days when you think there's no way I'm
(05:32):
going to get through this day. You will, you will,
and there are people around you to help you. And
then when you get on the other side of the
excruciating grief, you're gonna help some other people, right because
what you don't want it to be lost, or of course,
we don't want certain things to happen to us so
that we then can be there for others. But if
it happened to you and then you made it through,
(05:55):
that is where you can show up for somebody else
or you don't want it to be waste. Did yeah
in a way? And then yeah, you have these other
blessings that have shown up in your life, and had
you been stuck in the grief, you may not have
been open to the next Steve. That's exactly right. And
also when you're able to help someone through through grief,
(06:17):
that gives purpose. That gives purpose. In my other Steve's death,
you know, there are good things that have come out
of my grief for that loss, and and that gives
purpose to that loss. And you mentioned Karen being in
the bathroom with you and then Jimmy coming right in.
And I think family doesn't have to be your biological family.
(06:40):
You are blessed to have both. But some people are like, well,
I don't really have people I can lean on family
wise or whatnot. But look around who's in your life,
who can you be there for and who can be
there for you? And try to cultivate those relationships and
connect with people and create that. And yeah, you're double
blessed because you have your family, But then you have
(07:02):
your little big town family too, and I think that
that's a super special relationship. And y'all are genuine y'all
are the real deal. We have some groups or bands
or people that come in on the Bobby Bones Show
from time to time and we're like, no way they
get along. You know, that whole thing was just fake.
There's no way that they're all friends. But you guys,
(07:24):
y'all are y'all are family? We we are, Yes, we
are friends, but we are family most definitely. I couldn't
have gotten through that grief without Karen and Jimmy and Philip.
There's no way. They literally walked me along and and
babied me. And you know, I could not have done
it without him. I'm so grateful. And it also made
its stronger. It caused us to become a family. Well,
(07:45):
and then you know, you met Steve number two. Do
people ever think, because if you're married to Steve and
then they knew you were married to Steve back then,
that this is the same Steve. I'm sure they do.
But I don't call him Steve. I call him schlap is.
Our last name is Schlap, so he is Schlap. He
schlapped to me, he slapped to my family, he slapped
to my friends. Yeah, it would get a little bit weird.
(08:07):
It's funny. I was going to a grief counselor after Steve,
Dad and I went for a long time and when
I started, Dayton Schlap and I told her his name
was Steve, and she's like, oh, you'll you know, you'll
never have to worry about calling him the wrong name
because it's not like you fell out of love and
then I had to find new love, so it's like
you're still madly in love with your Steve and said, yeah,
(08:30):
I could see where, yeah, you might call him Steve
if his name was Tom, because that's right, You're it's
not something that you this is not what you asked
for that. But I'm sure obviously slap seems amazing. Had
has been very probably another part of helping you with
(08:50):
the grief, because there's no way that's easy, even entering
another relationship and being the person that's like, oh gosh,
she's still in love with somebody else to you. Yeah,
I know that must have been weird for him, But well,
first of all, we were already friends. He was on
a tour that Little Big Town did way back in
the beginning of a Little Big Town. We did a
mall tour where we we signed up people to vote.
(09:12):
It was called Love Your Country Vote, and he was
our stage manager. So we were already friends, and so
he kept calling me like so many of my friends
did after Steve died, just checking on me. But then
Schlap never quit calling me. He just kept on and on,
and we eventually fell in love. But I know you're right.
He must have been like, oh, she's still in love
with this other man. But but maybe we're falling in love.
(09:35):
But what I loved about our fallen in love is
that he allowed me to talk about my other Steve,
and he wasn't threatened or anything by the relationship that
we had. And he always told me, please always talk
about Steve. Anything you want to say about Steve, please
always feel comfortable. And I loved that about him. Also,
I have to tell you, I think my Stephen Heaven
sent Schlap to me, and I think he sent Daisy
(09:57):
to me as a wedding gift, because Schlapp and I
got pregnant own our honeymoon with Daisy, and before I
had been trying for almost the whole fourteen years I
was married to Steve Rhodes to have a baby and
it wasn't working out. And I think he got up
there with God and he said, this woman wants a baby.
Please let this mean while win and give to her
and give her a baby. And by George, we got
(10:17):
pregnant on the honeymoon right away. Well, and I mean
that's another stage of grief in your life, is trying
to get pregnant for so long, and I know what
that's like, buying pregnancy tests after pregnancy tests and then
it constantly being negative. And I know several of my
listeners have gone through fertility struggles, So what encouragement would
(10:41):
you have for anyone listening that might be going through that.
That's such a specific grief also, and often we have
to grieve that in private, whereas when you lose someone,
people are at your doorstep, you know, how can I help?
How can I help? But when we grieve, whether it's
a pregnancy that never happened, that we kept buying pregnant
you tests four, I mean how many did we buy
(11:02):
and then, or whether it's a miscarriage or whatever it is.
I feel like that grief is a little bit different
because often it's sometimes even there's a little bit of
shame in it. Why can't I get pregnant? And why
can't they get pregnant? And I can't? Why why can
I not carry a baby? Or you know, so not
only is it a loss, it's also can be embarrassing
(11:26):
and in secret, and that isolating. Yeah, and I want
people to know there's people all around you who have
been through miscarriage or infertility. It's everywhere right now. Don't
hesitate to reach out and say me too, it's happening
to me too, or there are people all around you
who will love you. You just have to speak up.
(11:46):
And y'all had Daisy. But then how many years later
you've adopted Dolly? Yeah? Nine years, so you got the
get the wedding gift from number one, which is Daisy.
But so in the nine years where y'all trying to
get pregnant and again, yes, okay, and then you got
the adoption call, you decided to do adoption. What about
(12:06):
fertility treatments? Did you take that route? Yes, we didn't
so too. When Daisy was too we started trying again
and I soon after that had a miscarriage, my first miscarriage,
And then we started to dabble in fertility where you
know you can take some some drugs to help you clomado. Yes,
(12:28):
it makes your eggs more attractive. Thank you. I didn't
know how did say that. I had to figure out
a easy way to say it because I talked about
on the Bobby Bones show because the clomad literally made
me psychotic. I had quit taking it. It was bad.
I was so emotional. I showed up to work one
day and Bobby and Lunchbox made fun of my sweater.
It wasn't even that bad. They did a whole bit
(12:48):
on Arabo with sweater, and I like dumb and dumber
like stuff that looking back on was just silly and ridiculous.
But I cried and was basically threatening to quit, like
I hate this job. I can't even come mean, it
was floodgate tears. I was super like I almost quit
my job over a sweater. I mean, so I wasn't rational,
But so you did clomat and lots of other things,
(13:11):
which thank you for sharing too. About that, I don't
want to glass over about the miscarriage part two, and
you being willing to share your story because that will
allow somebody else hearing it too now to be like,
you know what, there is no shame. There is nothing
wrong with you or your husband for that matter. Men
feel a lot of shame too from it, and it's
(13:34):
just not the case. Well, I didn't tell my story
for a long time, but then I decided, especially when
I wrote the book about that. I just released last
Christmas about Adopted Dolly. I thought that it was important
to share the story of infertility, which was a seven
year battle. I mean, we tried literally for seven years
to have a baby, and I just decided, you know what,
(13:55):
if I can share that and and help one woman
not lose hope, then that'll be worth it. And so
that's why I decided to start talking about it. Yeah,
we did all the infertility treatments you can do all
of them, and lost those also, But then we always
wanted to adopt. We always wanted to and then the
(14:15):
first time, we lost one, and I thought, you know what,
We're gonna do it again. We're gonna try again. The
second one, I was like, my heart and I don't
know if I can do that again. So we thought, well,
maybe it's tom for adoption, and maybe this is the time.
And so that's when we started that process. And then
you wrote a Dolly for Christmas, because you literally got
(14:37):
Dolly for Chris, Yes, which is such a good book.
I I read it to my son after you sent
me a coffee, and it was it's so great. I
encourage you. Even though it's a Christmas story, you can
read it any time of the year, and I think,
whether your kids adopted or not, it's such a very
(14:58):
simple way to even explain adoption and bring it up
with your children, because whether they're adopted or not, they
may have friends to end up adopted, and just helping
them understand full picture like how this whole thing works.
And it's a great conversation starter. So I appreciated it
a lot. Thank you. Also, you know, Daisy, I think
(15:18):
it's a story also about just don't give up. Do
not give up. Little Daisy prayed for five years for
a baby. Every day she prayed and believed. That's another thing.
You got a dream, believe in it, believe it can happen,
don't give up. And Daisy did that. Daisy. That is
another good part of the book that yes is applicable
(15:38):
no matter what time of year, and even if you're
an adult, like we need to have that childlike vision.
Yeah and believe. And the thing is, we don't know
where that miracle is coming from or when it's coming.
Just don't give up the hope that it is coming
in some way. There's going to be a miracle out
there for you, some way, somehow, which is another just
(16:00):
to bring the family element back into this piece of
like family comes in all different ways. It may not
come the way you and I thought, yep, I mean
you got daisy. But I always thought I was going
to get pregnant and I wanted four kids. I mean,
my sister has four kids, four pregnancy, and so I thought, well,
I mean, this is gonna be easy, no problem, I'm
(16:20):
gonna have a whole basketball teams are great and it
never was happening for me, and family looks very different
now than I ever thought it would. But that's okay.
The grief I went through, and all those hard moments
trying to get pregnant, thinking maybe I was pregnant, and
then having your friend call right after you get a
(16:42):
negative that I've been pregnant again, You're like, okay, I'll
be there. When's the shower? You know, I totally know,
And so all those moments once you can. Of course,
none of us have a thirty thousand view what do
they call that, this bird's eye feel? None of us
(17:03):
have like, oh, from thirty thousand feet, it's really easy
to like give someone advice you know about their life,
or see what's going on. And I feel like sometimes
we need to do that with ourselves. Is like back
up and be like, Okay, I was praying for a
baby for so long or to get pregnant, and I
was getting angry with God even but had he answered
my prayer, then now I wouldn't have steven sentence to
(17:23):
share us. Once I got pregnant, my plan was to
leave the show right away. And not that that takes
precedence over anything like career wise, but still part of
your big picture where God wanted you win and what
you the journey you were supposed to be on. And
it's like, Okay, well now I know that, Yeah I
went through that, but I'm gonna appreciate that grief to
celebrate the joy that I now have. That's right. I
(17:46):
think that's so important because when you're in the middle
of the grief, no matter what it is, if it's
a loss of a loved one, loss of pregnancy, loss
of a dream, you have to remember there's a reason,
and you're gonna see someday you're gonna go, oh, that's
why that happened. You have to believe that will happen.
And it's super duper hard being right in the middle
of it. It's so hard. Yeah, we're not like saying
(18:07):
this is easy anyway, but it's just encouragement to that
once you do get on the other side of it,
you can breathe if you're willing though, and that's that's
the encouragement. Is sometimes we get stuck and it's like,
we gotta keep going. What what keeps you going? Is
it other dreams that you have? Is it people that
come into your life like slap? Is it friends that
(18:30):
are like family? What is it that's going to help you?
You know? Faith wise? What can you rely on? Mind, body,
and spirit? What are you doing for yourself? Which that's
what I want to get into next with you, more
of your wellness, like what what does that mean to
you big picture? And what do you do for yourself
specifically when it comes to those things mind, body, spirit.
(18:51):
We'll do that next, Okay. So Kimberly is consistently the
sweetest person in the world, Like, no matter where I've
seen her, whether it's in the parking lot somewhere at
our lash place. We don't get our lashes done at
the same place or at work, like I see you
at different functions or in the studio or wherever. And
(19:14):
consistently always super sweet, like this is you, You're what
are you on the angiogram? By the way, I was,
I wonder if we were going to talk about that.
I'm Anne, You're a nine. Okay. I hate conflict and
I just want people to be happy with me and
they're every whatever is going on? What are you? Well?
I don't really know for sure. I just know that
(19:35):
I'm tested as a four, but then also been verbally
tested and they said I was a three. But I
don't really know. I don't I don't know enough about it,
but I am beginning to learn about it, and it
is helping me figure out myself. Yeah, I think that's
the purpose, Like, yeah, what motivates you to do X
y Z? Yeah, I mean we all can do certain things,
but we might be doing it for different reasons totally,
(19:56):
and it's so interesting. And so why are you so
nice all the time? I just want you to like me. Okay,
that's that's a good reason. Really, I don't know. I mean,
I'm just that wasn't a real You don't have answer
that question. I'm just I think it's awesome that you
have that sweet spirit. Not everybody has it. I don't
(20:17):
have it, and not to say that at home you
probably don't have different personalities that come out. Or I
just want you to record when you're mad and post
it somewhere that's hilarious. I can't get mad. I can
get mad, but I don't know. I feel like my
parents have a lot to do, had and have a
lot to do with my outlook, you know, And they
(20:39):
raised me. My parents were amazing. We grew up in
this little tiny town. My parents were My mom was
a school teacher, my daddy was a telephone company worker,
and they worked so hard and they loved us so good.
And we've had very very strong faith. And they taught
me to never judge someone else by how they might
(21:00):
be acting, because you don't know what they're going through,
and just to try to spread sunshine and joy and
lift people up and that that that makes the world
a better place. And I love that. I love that
reminder too, of the grace we should have on ourselves
and for other people, whether it's a friend or the
person checking us out at the grocery store that might
(21:20):
be being rude or whatnot. It's like, okay, no big deal,
Like I have no idea what they're going through right now,
or maybe even that celebrity that that you know, we
get celebrity phone calls on the Bobby Bone Show sometimes
of like, what's the celebrity you met out in public?
That was a total jerk kind of thing? Trust me, y'all,
are not it? Little big towns always nice, always, But
(21:41):
it's like, you know, they may have been having a
bad day. It's and it's just such a bummer that
they're a public figure, right so then it's a hundred
times worse than the grocery store clerk that nobody's probably
going to really think twice if they're in a bad day.
But it's just having that grace and compassion for the
people that might be going through stuffy feel like I'm
mentioning this book so much lately, but and we're gonna
(22:03):
I want to get into mind, body spirit, like what
wellness is for you in just second. But maybe you
should talk to someone. Have you read that? And maybe
I should now I haven't read it, but that's a
good book, but it's I'm going to be interviewing the
author soon and LORI got lived and I'm super pumped
about that. But she's a therapist that also is in therapy,
(22:23):
and she kind of goes back and forth with that,
but she tells different stories from her clients, and some
of them one in particular, I don't like it all
in the beginning, and then once you hear some of
his therapy sessions and you really get to the root
of why he's kind of a jerk, it's like, oh
my gosh, well, no, wonder he's hurting. And so it's
like for everything, even in therapy, I've been doing to
(22:45):
be a better mom and be a better wife and
be a better person. It's like, Okay, don't focus on
the behavior, focus on the emotion that's causing it hurt.
Because it's easy to have your day. It's easy when
somebody's real kind of like could ruin your whole day.
But if you can make yourself and it's not always easy,
(23:05):
but if you can make yourself go, I wonder what
what happened to them that made them act that way today,
and maybe whisper a little prayer and maybe then you're
uplifted and they are too. Hopefully yeah, And then like
you your goal is like you see people was like,
what is this the moment that I can be joy
in their life. So you're intentional about that, which I'm
glad you shared that about your parents too. They raised
(23:27):
you that way. I don't think probably you wake up
every day and you're like, okay that you know, but
but it seems it's important to you. It is your
intentional about that. But also what do you probably just
have sweeter blood? Know? Um? Okay, So I love the reminder. Yeah,
I love that your parents were like that. I love
the reminder to have gracing and passion for people and
then to spread joy to them and maybe say a
(23:48):
little prayer. Okay, So what do you do for yourself mentally, physically,
spiritually to keep yourself on that track? Well, I'll just
start since you said mentally first, I'll start there. Gonna
be honest, I'm not as gracious to myself as I
am to other people, and I'm working on that. I
have a little bit of an inner critic who can
(24:09):
be kind of ugly sometimes, and I'm working on stopping
that inside myself. I don't I'm not sure where that
comes from. Maybe a lot of people have that, but
you know, I can have ugly little sentences come in
my head about myself, not about anyone. Else. But it's
just judgment upon myself if I feel like I failed
at something or I did something wrong, even in the
(24:29):
tiniest little things. Uh. This morning, Uh, Dolly's room is
near the care bedrooms, near the kitchen, and we have
to get up so early for Daisy school that I'm
always telling Daisy shoo happy, real quipy real qui because
we don't want Mike Dolly up because that child needs
her sleep. So this morning I was like, Daisy, we
gotta be quiet. And then I dropped this very loud
(24:50):
pan in the floor and it reverberated all over the place,
and in my head, I was like, oh, and I'd
just being really mean to myself in my head. And
then I was like, wait a minute, I've just recently
read something that says when ugly thoughts come to your
head about yourself, immediately tell yourself the opposite. So immediately
this morning, I was like, oh, I am smart, I
(25:11):
am a good mom. I was cooking my kids eggs.
That's a good thing, you know. Immediately tell yourself the
positive instead of listening to that nasty little voice in
your head. So this year I'm working on that. I'm
gonna do better. I'll piggyback off of that with Cat Defodis.
She's on my podcast network or podcast is called Unique Therapy,
(25:32):
and it's really good. But she has said something similar
at times where you know, we have the lies in
our head and we need to shut them down with like, Okay,
that's that's a lie. It's not true. But just as
you're saying, she said, But instead of just ignoring it
and saying it's a lie and not believing it, how
about you just go ahead and repeat to yourself over
and over what is true, what is true? If that's
(25:54):
not true, what is true, and then start speaking the
truths that you are a good mom and you were
you know, that's basically the same thing. So I'm just
affirming your your mental work that you're doing there. I
love that. Yes, okay, so that's something mentally. What about
physically physically well, Um, at the beginning of the pandemic,
(26:15):
I used to be a runner many many years ago,
and then I started having chintzpants really bad, so I
to stop. So I did other things in the meantime.
But last year I started running again, like in in April.
But I've quit now that's okay. My girls have gotten
so busy. They're going all different directions. I feel like Laugh,
even though we're not on the road a little big
town and we're not able to do our regular you know,
(26:36):
shows and tours, I feel like Laugh has gotten so
busy again. And so I've I've got I've backed off
of that, but I want to get back to running again.
But I like to I like to do the Bar method.
I know you know about bar and there's this workout
online that you can do whether you have five minutes
or thirty minutes or forty five minutes, and I really
I try to squeeze in those at least the five
(26:58):
or ten minute one every day if I can. And
I don't make it every day, which is fine, which
is fine, that's fine, that is fine. But if any
if your brain tries to tell you otherwise, that's not true.
What is true is you're awesome and you're strong, and
you're you're running it. You're running, you're running around being
them am oh girl, I am running all the time
and super successful businesswoman all the things. And then what
(27:23):
about spiritually? Spiritually, I love to get up before everybody
else does in my house, no matter if we have
to I have to get up super duper early these days,
but I want to get up before everybody else does
because I like to have about a half hour at
least where I can. I'll the first thing I do
is I get up and turn on my coffee maker
and grab my glasses because I can't see if I don't,
and and sit down on my couch with my cup
(27:44):
of coffee, and I start talking to God. And I
first I always try to say what I'm thankful for.
Some days, if I sit on that couch and and
some things aren't going too well, I'll I'll find myself
immediately saying here's what I need, and help me here.
But what A really try to do is sit down
and name some things that I'm really grateful for, which
you are so great at that. But well, no, I'll
(28:07):
have guests do it and I because, and then I
encourage other people to do it as a reminder for
me to do it too. So I think it starts
us off. It starts us off in a good It's like, Okay,
I'm gonna restart. I'm going to press the restart. I'm
gonna start by going, I'm happy for this, I'm thankful
for this. I'm thankful for this. And then from there,
if I want to talk to God about something else,
you know, I do, or I'll sit and read for
(28:29):
a little bit and try to I always want to
make myself better, so I start my morning's really trying
to focus on the good and finding the good in
everywhere that I can. And I'm kind of addicted to
that time. I love it. And when I don't have it,
if I, you know, decide to I'm gonna sleep in
(28:49):
extra thirty minutes, then I miss it. I miss, you know,
those days. But I have a super strong faith too,
and God has brought me through you know, literal hell
on earth, and He's brought me to the other side,
and his grace has been just so good to me. Yeah,
well there you go. Mind body spirit, which I didn't
mean to imply with the physical the body that it
needed to be like a workout. Just for clarification for
(29:12):
anybody else listening, if you're trying to evaluate your own
mind body spirit, is that yes, we can take care
of our bodies in other ways, but that might be
making some amazing cookie recipe and eating it. That's like
physically what your body needed. And uh, which, speaking of,
Kimberly made me cookies. And I have a funny story
(29:33):
about these cookies. Kimberly, you don't even know it yet. Okay.
First of all, they look amazing. I have them right
by me. I want to eat one right now, but
I'll wait. So you sent me a text that said, hey, like,
I want to make you and your family cookies, but
I want to make sure there's no allergies, so I thought,
and this will also give people some behind the scenes
(29:54):
into like even the Bobby Bones show and how we
do show prep, and how it would be cool to
talk about how Kimberly texted saying I want to bake
you cookies. So here's what happened. I got the text,
and you know it was. It was a Sunday, so
I thought, well, I might forget about this, so I
email it to myself for show prep, and in the
subject line I put prep, Well, I have Shannon who
(30:16):
helps me in life in general. Just keep all my
ducks in a row and have everything, so I see
see Shannon, right. But all I did is coffee and
paste your note that said, Hey, I'm excited to see
you tomorrow. I want to bake you cookies. Do you
have any allergies? So it's Sunday. I am going to
see Shannon on Monday. She didn't see that. The subject
line said prep like she didn't, because what I wanted
(30:38):
to do was make sure I sent that in as
prep to the Bobby Bones show for Bobby to bring up.
Oh Kimberly made you cookies, right, Like, how sweet is she?
So then we can talk about you. So that's that
story show prep talk. But that's why I sent it. Well,
then I get a reply from Shannon. She said, oh
my gosh, Amy, that is so sweet. She's like, my
(30:59):
family doesn't have any she read it. I did not
say it was a text from you, because really it
wasn't for her to worry about. I just didn't want
her to let me. She could maybe remind me, Oh yeah,
don't forget to prep that Kimberly wanted to make you
cookies so thin. I read the email and I'm thinking, oh, no,
(31:19):
Shannon thinks that I'm making her cookies. And she went
into this whole thing about how she's typically dairy free
and like because they have to be in her family
and that I guess I don't know. I need to
see if her sister is staying with her right now
because and she's like, but my sister she's gluten for Like,
it was this whole thing and I thought, oh my gosh,
(31:40):
like either I need to bake some cookies real quick,
and happened, yes, But I decided to just own it.
And I replied back right away and I was like, okay,
so this is awkward. Um, I wasn't gonna bake you
cookies at all. That's from Kimberly, So that hilario is
a side note about about that. But well, thank you
(32:00):
for the cookies, and well thank you for sharing with
us what wellness and the mind body spirit kind of
way looks like for you. I think people like having
the inside scoop on that, And then I think it's
important too, especially still kind of the first of the year,
But no matter what time of the year, it is like,
sit down and reflect, what are you doing for yourself?
Maybe it's not going to look exactly like what Kimberly
(32:21):
does or what I'm doing, but my own body spirit,
the connection of that is so important. So what does
that look like for you? On the daily? Ask yourself
that and then maybe wake up, make some coffee and
think about it. Okay, So the last thing we talked
(32:45):
about your awesome cookies that you made me, what kind
are they? I haven't even had a bite yet, their
sugar cookies, but they have all an extract in them.
And that's like your secret touch secret. Okay. I love that. Well,
you have your oh Gussie cookbook, and you have your
your line at Cracker Barrel, and you do your cooking
videos on Instagram, which I love. They're so adorable and
(33:06):
all the things. So share with us a go to
recipe that just puts a smile on your face or
somebody else's face, or is that warm hug that comfort
like if you want to make it, um and we
can share it. If you say it and it's out there,
then I can put it up at radio amy dot
com and people can go check it out. Yeah, it's
definitely out there. It's gonna have to be chicken and
(33:26):
dumplings because not just the dish itself, but growing up,
my mama made chicken and numblings. She still does, but
I mean, they are out of this world. And not
only is it just something that's put in a bowl
and eat, but it means something deeper. To me, it
says son of love. Anytime anybody's got anything to celebrate,
(33:47):
or it's somebody's birthday, or if if we're coming home
to Georgia from Nashville, Mama will make a huge pot
of chicken and dumplings. It's how she loves o people.
If somebody you know in her church is sick or
broke their leg or something, she's going to show up
with a pot of chicken and numblings because that's how
she loves on people. And so I like to make
that dish now. And I don't compare mind to hers.
(34:09):
Minds a little bit different because I could never make
them as good as she does. But I love to
make those for people because I feel like it's like
a It's like a little hug um when you know
somebody needs just a little bit of an uplift. I
like to make them chicken and numblings. And I like
to make them for my family too, because because they
love them. And well, we're going to get the recipe
and we'll put it up so I'll test it out
(34:31):
see how it goes with my family. It already sounds amazing.
I think of my grandma when you say chicken and dumplings,
or maybe even my great grandma. She was the one
that had a recipe that lived in Alabama. I remember
going to visit my grandma and that's what we would
have and it was a labor of of love. So
what got you into cooking? Clearly that's one of your
(34:51):
It's not an official love language, but I feel like
food is what is your love language? By the way,
do you know? I don't know, except that I think
it is cooking. I don' all the have you ever
done the five love languages? Like I feel like a
long long time ago, years ago, and I don't remember. Okay,
what's yours? Minus words of affirmation? That means you want
to hear words of affirmation. You won't hear people love
(35:12):
you and you're good and wonderful. Don't keep it keep
it coming. I mean, I know you're not complimenting you
right now, but more not like compliments, but like if
you've recognized like from you know, my husband, it's helpful
if I hear things from him, but for him it's
acts of service. So if I make him coffee in
the morning, that's huge for him. You know, other people
might be gifts, but for me even at work. Uh,
(35:35):
if I do something that was appreciated, or I did
a good job at something, hearing that I did good
fills me up to where I'm motivated to continue to
do more. Bobby, don't pass that stuff out like candy.
Don't give me. Don't get it wrong. But I also
appreciate that because then I appreciate it even more. And
I don't want someone just affirming me just because that's
my love language, especially at work, but probably at home.
(35:58):
You need that though, So anyway, love language. Food is
an honorary mention of a love language. But what caught
you into cooking and being so good at it wanting
to share it with others? Well, I grew up watching
my mom and my grandmother's cook They were incredible cooks
and literally standing on a stool. And the first thing
I ever remember helping my mama with was biscuits. She
(36:19):
made biscuits almost every night for supper, and um, I'd
get to hold the jug of milk and I'd get
to add the milk in and she would say, okay,
go ahead, go ahead. Well who woo woa woahooa. I remember,
you know, she would stop me quickly, but I had
an innate desire for music and cooking. I've always loved
the two and and I like to take care of
people through food. And then, you know, I started cooking
(36:42):
more and more and over the years, I just found
that it's a way to really love on people. And
then I got an opportunity to do a cooking show
that was so much fun. I loved it so much
and I want to do it again so bad. But
then when the pandemic started, I thought, hey, I think
I'm just gonna start making some cooking videos. So that's
when you started putting them. That's when I started put
(37:04):
them on Instagram, and people seem to enjoy it, and
and so I've just kept doing it. And I love
doing it because I love to cook. And I also
have kind of a little problem with dishes and glassware
and stuff. I love, love, love, love dishes, so that's
also really a big part of it for me. I
also like to prep my stuff in pretty bowls and
(37:27):
with pretty utensils, and then I like to serve it
and pretty stuff, so that's all, you know, when it's
all kind of the same thing for me, And that's
probably why you came out with the line that it
was exciting if someone approached you or you had the
idea to do a line with Cracker Bakeroll and have
that stuff there. My sister is a lot like you.
It's very much into the presentation and the dishes and
(37:48):
everything looking that way. The Thanksgiving before the pandemic, we
have some twenty three people at our house for Thanksgiving,
and I thought, I'm not going to do dishes for
twenty three people, and I ordered really d plastic where
like it was from far away. You might think it
was real, but it wasn't. It's disposable, and it says why.
(38:09):
And then I got even silver war that kind of
looked real from far away but it was plastic. Well, no,
my sister, she came in town and she's like, no, no, no, no,
I can't no, no. She would not allow it. She
was like, food tastes better when it's on really cute stuff,
especially at Thanksgiving. I mean, if it was Friday night
(38:29):
pizza night show and made a big deal. But I
was like, okay, fine, if you want to take over this, fine,
Martha Stewart, you go right on ahead, you figure this out.
And sure enough she did, and I gotta say it
did feel special. There was something about it. I was like, Okay,
I'm glad that she stepped in and made this call.
It's totally the opposite with me and my sister, completely
the opposite. Alan used the real stuff and my sister,
(38:51):
who cares, right, I just used the plastic. It's not
that big of a deal. I don't know, but I'm like, oh,
but it's so much prettier if you did it on
the real plate. It's just like your sister. That's it's
interesting how we're all just so different. Okay, So chicken
and dumplins are like a warm hug from Kimberly. So
we're going to put that recipe up at radio amy
dot com so that you can whip it up for yourself.
(39:12):
Which it's still soup season chicken and dumplin oh yeah.
Still it's still cool enough out cold places to where
I think that even in the summer, i'd probably eat
up some chicken and dumplins, no problems. I think it's
a year round. Which if you want to see some
of Kimberly's cooking video, she's at Oh Gussie on Instagram,
and yeah, she'll walk you through everything and then like
(39:35):
right away. It's like, thank you all so much for
joining me. You and I am Tabitha Brown. Do you
follow her on Instagram? Oh? She's great. Oh she has
some little cooking videos that are she's vegan. I think
not that that matters, but I'm just heads up if
you're curious about some of her recipes. But she's not
an official I think she said it was an actress. Possibly.
(39:56):
I found her on Instagram and she puts up fun cooking.
You and her, you'll always greet your Instagram videos with
like the biggest smile and just make people feel so
good right away. So good. Well, you know, I don't
know about hers. I'm going to look her up. But
for me, it's just me. So if I make a mistake,
it's just me. And I've made so many mistakes on
(40:17):
these and I can't start over because it's not like
I bought two whole chickens about one whole chicken, and
I'm gonna make chicken and dumplings and I can't. You know,
if I mess up, I can't start over. So I
mess up a lot. But well that's okay. Hey, we
have grace for that. If you need to have grace
for yourself, tell yourself what is true. You're an awesome cook.
Thank you do a great job to have the brown.
She's all of her videos start with hey there, oh,
(40:40):
hey there. I can't mimic her, well, but you're gonna
like her. She's she's really inspiring and sweet and kind
and awesome. Okay, so now we're to the gratitude. I
want to hear four things you are thankful or, which
(41:00):
Kimberly showed up in her Four Things love pull over,
which loves the pink one that we put out our
Valentine's Day a couple of years ago and then loved
it so much we just kept it up so year
round and it's just love, love, love love. But it's
funny because I had had it on earlier and then
decided to take off my jeans and put on leggings,
and I was like, okay, I'm gonna put on a
(41:20):
different sweatshirt. But when I opened the door, I thought,
how funny if we had we were twins. So let's
go through four things that you're thankful for. And I
do gratitude with guests because I think it's a way
for people to get to know each guest a little
bit more on a different level, but then also as
a reminder to just practice gratitude for yourself. I have
(41:42):
to tell you it's because of you that now, my daisy,
and uh, before we go to bed, we write down
four things were grateful for. I'm really grateful to you
for giving me that idea. And so yeah, we do
it together now. And I mean we don't do it together,
but we each do it. You know, we've made that
commitment together. I love me too. Okay, So this was
really hard as I thought of narrowing it down to
(42:05):
four things. But I'm really grateful for hugs. I love
physical touch. And we talked about this a little bit before.
I love that I can reach out and hug and
show affection to that. That's your love language, probably physical.
So you have to take You're good, okay good. And
(42:27):
with the pandemic, I mean we we don't get to
when I walked here to the in the door here today,
I couldn't hug you because of the pandemic. And I
really miss hugging the people that I want to love on.
But also I feel like we need the touch. Like
when I did lose my first husband, I found out
that skin to skin. When we touched skin to skin,
it gives us a chemical in our brain called oxytocin,
(42:48):
which is a feel good chemical, and we need that.
And when I did lose my husband, um, my counselor
told me get massages. And then this is a tip
for anyone out there who has lost a loved one,
get a massage because you need that skin to skin
contact because it releases oxytocin in your brain. So hugs,
I think we need. We I just I want to
get it back where we can hold each other's hand
(43:08):
and hug on each other because I think it's so important.
So you're grateful for hugs, grateful for hugs. The second thing,
number two, I'm grateful for health, which is kind of
a common answer, I'm sure, especially because the pandemic has
brought us, we've become so aware and grateful for health
that we have. For me, also, it's I'm watching my
parents get older. Um, and I know that you've lost
(43:30):
your momm so sorry, and that your dad's had challenges
with his health, and I'm so very sorry. My parents
are older and they also have some challenges now. My
mother has Parkinson's and growing up I thought Parkinson's just meant,
you know, your handshakes or your leg shakes. But there's
so much more to that wretched disease than just trimmors.
(43:52):
And I watch her daily with the challenges that she has,
and her whole life has always been so independent, and
she had to run everywhere and done anything she wanted,
and she's always been on the go like me, like
I am now, but now she can't do that. She's
much more slow. She has to be slow with her
movements and with her steps because of her Parkinson's, And
(44:14):
so that watching her, it makes me super thankful for
what the health that I have, I still have in
my body, but it also makes me thankful that for
the health that she still has because I still have
her and her challenges are becoming greater, but I'm I
am still grateful for the help that she does have.
(44:34):
So helps in a in a big broad term, you know,
just not for myself, but for the people that I love.
That's an important one that we definitely take for granted. Yeah,
their thing is family. I've already talked about my parents
a little bit and how amazing they were, but they
made a huge effort to keep us together and to
(44:55):
bring us together. And now my sister has her own family,
my brother has his own family, but we always we
want to we make an effort to be together, and
we make an effort to make memories. And that's something
we literally talk about, were like, let's get together and
make some memories, because I think that kind of carries
us through our lives. And then our children get a
chance to make memories together, and those things are just precious, precious.
(45:18):
And also, like we said before, I can't say the
word family and not say a little Big town because
they are now also my family, um, because we've just
lived so much laugh together and we hold each other
up like family members, and we do anything for each
other like family members do, and so family, well, I'm
thankful for you sharing all of that with us, everything
(45:42):
that we went over today. And I too, am thankful
for a Little Big Town because the music is a
hug for people. Music is such probably a release for
you as the artist getting it out there, but then
can be an emotional release for us, the receivers that
are in our car listening to it and having your
(46:03):
music touch us in all kinds of ways, whether it's
making us want to smile, and dance or making us
want to really reflect and and get out whatever that
emotion is, joy or pain. Yeah, it's crazy how powerful
music is. It's so powerful. My sister is a music
therapist and I've watched her work and it is phenomenal,
how healing it is. I've watched her work with um
(46:25):
autistic children who won't verbalize except with her because she's
doing the music therapy with them. It's it's magical. Music
is magical and it is a great healer, and it
helps us express anything and everything, like you just said,
grief to the best of celebrations. It covers it all
when words don't necessarily work, you know, music does, And
(46:47):
boy do I miss it. Sure y'all are ready to
get out there. Well, once we are out there, I'm
sure all of your fans are still a little big
town fans are loyal and waiting and just as ready
for you guys to get back out there and get
on the road too. I can't even imagine. Yeah, this
is sidelined, what y'all do. It's stopped our Yeah we
(47:08):
we we haven't toured since last March, and but we
are making new music so good. Yeah, we're ratting and
when can we expect that to y'all can't say, yeah,
I don't really know yet. We're working on it, working
on sooner than later. Well, thank you, kimb really for
taking the time. I know that all my listeners are
gonna love this conversation. I haven't even put it out
(47:29):
there yet, but if you're listening to it now, that
means it's out there. And I'm already predicting that you
listen to this whole thing, you're like, I just love Kimberly. Okay,
well that is a wrap on today's episode again radio
Amy dot com if you want Kimberly's recipe, and at
Oh Gussie on Instagram and at Little Big Town for
the music account? Who runs that? Do y'all say? Yeah?
(47:51):
We do? We do? Yeah, we we do. Karen does
a lot of it, and we have social media people
at our management office, but Karen does a lot of
it too. Yeah. I am yeah, because sometimes I'll tag
that and then I guess you could one. But there's
a team afore you always wonder like who I wonder
who is that? Or is it somebody else? Don't even know? Okay,
all right, thanks Kimberly and the question saying I mean
(48:13):
so you next time.
Okay, little food for yourself life ain't. Oh, it's pretty bay,
it's pretty beautiful thing that a little moth kicking with
(00:30):
four brown So I'm sitting here with Kimberly from a
little big town, and she's joining me for all four things.
We're gonna talk grief, wellness, comfort, food, and gratitude. And
you know, starting off with grief might seem somber, but
you know, Kimberly, you're someone that understands grief from the
sudden loss of your first husband and fertility struggles. You
(00:52):
know firsthand what it's like to go through hard things
and emerge stronger so that the pain wasn't in vain.
So I know a lot of my listeners are grieving
for various reasons, especially this last year, and Kimberly, I
thought by you sharing some of your story, you'll offer
a comfort and hope to those that aren't sure how
they'll ever make it to the other side. Okay, I
(01:14):
was married before to a man named Steve. I married
to Steve's in my life, both from Ohio, so weird,
both from just a few miles of each other. But
my first Steve I met in college and we were
I was married really young. I was only twenty one
when I got married. We had a great marriage. I
was just completely and utterly in love. We moved to
(01:35):
Nashville about seven years into our marriage, and we lived here.
I was breaking into the music business. We started a
little big town Karen and I did, and that was
all going great. We we hadn't Boondocks had not come
out yet, but we were working super duper hard. And
then I lost Steve suddenly. We were on a radio tour.
We were at the Indianapolis radio station, singing a couple
(01:57):
of songs, trying to get people to start playing Boondocks,
and I hadn't heard from Steve in about twenty four hours,
which was really, really weird because we normally talked on
the phone a whole lot, especially when I was out
of town. So while we were at the radio station,
um some buddies of his went to our house to
(02:17):
check and see if he was okay, because I hadn't
heard from him, and I was really really worried and
he wasn't. And I got the call back at the
radio station. Karen was with me and we were both
in the bathroom. I was already worried, sick, I already
knew something was not right. He had passed away in
our home. The word shock is not enough of a word,
(02:38):
you know, It's not strong enough word to explain that
horror that I heard on the phone when someone told
me he was gone. Karen was with me in the bathroom.
She called out for Jimmy, who was right next door,
and he came in. And I can feel like my
heart is racing right now, just feeling the horror of
(02:59):
the news, and then looking at them saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
just complete denial. No, no, this is not true. This
is not true. Well it was true, and we all
got in a van. At this time, we were still
driving ourselves around in a van. We got in a
van and drove ourselves back home. We had been married
for fourteen years, and it was something I never expected
(03:22):
to be a widow in my I was in my
early thirties at the time. In those first few days,
grief is so harsh and strong and loud, and there's
everybody around you trying to help, and it's it's wonderful
having all the people around you. But then when you
begin to grieve, the next week and the next week
(03:42):
and the next week everybody else's lives start to go on,
but your world has literally come to a screeching halt.
My bandmates, they literally physically carried me some days. We
decided to go back out on the road, probably two
or three weeks after Steve died, to keep promoting Boondocks,
and they left that up to me, you know, they said,
(04:05):
we can go or we cannot go. And I felt
like Steve would wanted me to do that, and I
felt like I needed to try to put one foot
in front of the other, and I felt responsibility to them,
to my bandmates, who you know, this is also their career,
and so we set out to get back on the
road and we did. And grief is so unpredictable, especially
(04:27):
once you get into the months after your loved one's death,
like two and three and four months and then six
months and all the firsts. In my experience and most
people that I talked to, the firsts are horrific. Every first,
every first birthday, your birthday without them, their birthday without them,
(04:48):
um Easter, Christmas, July four, St. Patrick's Day. Every first
is so very, very hard. But once you get through
those first something gets lighter. Your your grief lattens up
a little bit and where it's never ever, ever easy.
I think about Steve almost almost every day. When you
(05:09):
lose someone that you desperately love, the grief is that's
that's the commonality. You've You've lost part of yourself, part
of myself actually died with him, you know, because it'll
be something I never get back, my my relationship with him.
But I'm here to say you will make it. It's hard.
There are days when you think there's no way I'm
(05:32):
going to get through this day. You will, you will,
and there are people around you to help you. And
then when you get on the other side of the
excruciating grief, you're gonna help some other people, right because
what you don't want it to be lost, or of course,
we don't want certain things to happen to us so
that we then can be there for others. But if
it happened to you and then you made it through,
(05:55):
that is where you can show up for somebody else
or you don't want it to be waste. Did yeah
in a way? And then yeah, you have these other
blessings that have shown up in your life, and had
you been stuck in the grief, you may not have
been open to the next Steve. That's exactly right. And
also when you're able to help someone through through grief,
(06:17):
that gives purpose. That gives purpose. In my other Steve's death,
you know, there are good things that have come out
of my grief for that loss, and and that gives
purpose to that loss. And you mentioned Karen being in
the bathroom with you and then Jimmy coming right in.
And I think family doesn't have to be your biological family.
(06:40):
You are blessed to have both. But some people are like, well,
I don't really have people I can lean on family
wise or whatnot. But look around who's in your life,
who can you be there for and who can be
there for you? And try to cultivate those relationships and
connect with people and create that. And yeah, you're double
blessed because you have your family, But then you have
(07:02):
your little big town family too, and I think that
that's a super special relationship. And y'all are genuine y'all
are the real deal. We have some groups or bands
or people that come in on the Bobby Bones Show
from time to time and we're like, no way they
get along. You know, that whole thing was just fake.
There's no way that they're all friends. But you guys,
(07:24):
y'all are y'all are family? We we are, Yes, we
are friends, but we are family most definitely. I couldn't
have gotten through that grief without Karen and Jimmy and Philip.
There's no way. They literally walked me along and and
babied me. And you know, I could not have done
it without him. I'm so grateful. And it also made
its stronger. It caused us to become a family. Well,
(07:45):
and then you know, you met Steve number two. Do
people ever think, because if you're married to Steve and
then they knew you were married to Steve back then,
that this is the same Steve. I'm sure they do.
But I don't call him Steve. I call him schlap is.
Our last name is Schlap, so he is Schlap. He
schlapped to me, he slapped to my family, he slapped
to my friends. Yeah, it would get a little bit weird.
(08:07):
It's funny. I was going to a grief counselor after Steve,
Dad and I went for a long time and when
I started, Dayton Schlap and I told her his name
was Steve, and she's like, oh, you'll you know, you'll
never have to worry about calling him the wrong name
because it's not like you fell out of love and
then I had to find new love, so it's like
you're still madly in love with your Steve and said, yeah,
(08:30):
I could see where, yeah, you might call him Steve
if his name was Tom, because that's right, You're it's
not something that you this is not what you asked
for that. But I'm sure obviously slap seems amazing. Had
has been very probably another part of helping you with
(08:50):
the grief, because there's no way that's easy, even entering
another relationship and being the person that's like, oh gosh,
she's still in love with somebody else to you. Yeah,
I know that must have been weird for him, But well,
first of all, we were already friends. He was on
a tour that Little Big Town did way back in
the beginning of a Little Big Town. We did a
mall tour where we we signed up people to vote.
(09:12):
It was called Love Your Country Vote, and he was
our stage manager. So we were already friends, and so
he kept calling me like so many of my friends
did after Steve died, just checking on me. But then
Schlap never quit calling me. He just kept on and on,
and we eventually fell in love. But I know you're right.
He must have been like, oh, she's still in love
with this other man. But but maybe we're falling in love.
(09:35):
But what I loved about our fallen in love is
that he allowed me to talk about my other Steve,
and he wasn't threatened or anything by the relationship that
we had. And he always told me, please always talk
about Steve. Anything you want to say about Steve, please
always feel comfortable. And I loved that about him. Also,
I have to tell you, I think my Stephen Heaven
sent Schlap to me, and I think he sent Daisy
(09:57):
to me as a wedding gift, because Schlapp and I
got pregnant own our honeymoon with Daisy, and before I
had been trying for almost the whole fourteen years I
was married to Steve Rhodes to have a baby and
it wasn't working out. And I think he got up
there with God and he said, this woman wants a baby.
Please let this mean while win and give to her
and give her a baby. And by George, we got
(10:17):
pregnant on the honeymoon right away. Well, and I mean
that's another stage of grief in your life, is trying
to get pregnant for so long, and I know what
that's like, buying pregnancy tests after pregnancy tests and then
it constantly being negative. And I know several of my
listeners have gone through fertility struggles, So what encouragement would
(10:41):
you have for anyone listening that might be going through that.
That's such a specific grief also, and often we have
to grieve that in private, whereas when you lose someone,
people are at your doorstep, you know, how can I help?
How can I help? But when we grieve, whether it's
a pregnancy that never happened, that we kept buying pregnant
you tests four, I mean how many did we buy
(11:02):
and then, or whether it's a miscarriage or whatever it is.
I feel like that grief is a little bit different
because often it's sometimes even there's a little bit of
shame in it. Why can't I get pregnant? And why
can't they get pregnant? And I can't? Why why can
I not carry a baby? Or you know, so not
only is it a loss, it's also can be embarrassing
(11:26):
and in secret, and that isolating. Yeah, and I want
people to know there's people all around you who have
been through miscarriage or infertility. It's everywhere right now. Don't
hesitate to reach out and say me too, it's happening
to me too, or there are people all around you
who will love you. You just have to speak up.
(11:46):
And y'all had Daisy. But then how many years later
you've adopted Dolly? Yeah? Nine years, so you got the
get the wedding gift from number one, which is Daisy.
But so in the nine years where y'all trying to
get pregnant and again, yes, okay, and then you got
the adoption call, you decided to do adoption. What about
(12:06):
fertility treatments? Did you take that route? Yes, we didn't
so too. When Daisy was too we started trying again
and I soon after that had a miscarriage, my first miscarriage,
And then we started to dabble in fertility where you
know you can take some some drugs to help you clomado. Yes,
(12:28):
it makes your eggs more attractive. Thank you. I didn't
know how did say that. I had to figure out
a easy way to say it because I talked about
on the Bobby Bones show because the clomad literally made
me psychotic. I had quit taking it. It was bad.
I was so emotional. I showed up to work one
day and Bobby and Lunchbox made fun of my sweater.
It wasn't even that bad. They did a whole bit
(12:48):
on Arabo with sweater, and I like dumb and dumber
like stuff that looking back on was just silly and ridiculous.
But I cried and was basically threatening to quit, like
I hate this job. I can't even come mean, it
was floodgate tears. I was super like I almost quit
my job over a sweater. I mean, so I wasn't rational,
But so you did clomat and lots of other things,
(13:11):
which thank you for sharing too. About that, I don't
want to glass over about the miscarriage part two, and
you being willing to share your story because that will
allow somebody else hearing it too now to be like,
you know what, there is no shame. There is nothing
wrong with you or your husband for that matter. Men
feel a lot of shame too from it, and it's
(13:34):
just not the case. Well, I didn't tell my story
for a long time, but then I decided, especially when
I wrote the book about that. I just released last
Christmas about Adopted Dolly. I thought that it was important
to share the story of infertility, which was a seven
year battle. I mean, we tried literally for seven years
to have a baby, and I just decided, you know what,
(13:55):
if I can share that and and help one woman
not lose hope, then that'll be worth it. And so
that's why I decided to start talking about it. Yeah,
we did all the infertility treatments you can do all
of them, and lost those also, But then we always
wanted to adopt. We always wanted to and then the
(14:15):
first time, we lost one, and I thought, you know what,
We're gonna do it again. We're gonna try again. The
second one, I was like, my heart and I don't
know if I can do that again. So we thought, well,
maybe it's tom for adoption, and maybe this is the time.
And so that's when we started that process. And then
you wrote a Dolly for Christmas, because you literally got
(14:37):
Dolly for Chris, Yes, which is such a good book.
I I read it to my son after you sent
me a coffee, and it was it's so great. I
encourage you. Even though it's a Christmas story, you can
read it any time of the year, and I think,
whether your kids adopted or not, it's such a very
(14:58):
simple way to even explain adoption and bring it up
with your children, because whether they're adopted or not, they
may have friends to end up adopted, and just helping
them understand full picture like how this whole thing works.
And it's a great conversation starter. So I appreciated it
a lot. Thank you. Also, you know, Daisy, I think
(15:18):
it's a story also about just don't give up. Do
not give up. Little Daisy prayed for five years for
a baby. Every day she prayed and believed. That's another thing.
You got a dream, believe in it, believe it can happen,
don't give up. And Daisy did that. Daisy. That is
another good part of the book that yes is applicable
(15:38):
no matter what time of year, and even if you're
an adult, like we need to have that childlike vision.
Yeah and believe. And the thing is, we don't know
where that miracle is coming from or when it's coming.
Just don't give up the hope that it is coming
in some way. There's going to be a miracle out
there for you, some way, somehow, which is another just
(16:00):
to bring the family element back into this piece of
like family comes in all different ways. It may not
come the way you and I thought, yep, I mean
you got daisy. But I always thought I was going
to get pregnant and I wanted four kids. I mean,
my sister has four kids, four pregnancy, and so I thought, well,
I mean, this is gonna be easy, no problem, I'm
(16:20):
gonna have a whole basketball teams are great and it
never was happening for me, and family looks very different
now than I ever thought it would. But that's okay.
The grief I went through, and all those hard moments
trying to get pregnant, thinking maybe I was pregnant, and
then having your friend call right after you get a
(16:42):
negative that I've been pregnant again, You're like, okay, I'll
be there. When's the shower? You know, I totally know,
And so all those moments once you can. Of course,
none of us have a thirty thousand view what do
they call that, this bird's eye feel? None of us
(17:03):
have like, oh, from thirty thousand feet, it's really easy
to like give someone advice you know about their life,
or see what's going on. And I feel like sometimes
we need to do that with ourselves. Is like back
up and be like, Okay, I was praying for a
baby for so long or to get pregnant, and I
was getting angry with God even but had he answered
my prayer, then now I wouldn't have steven sentence to
(17:23):
share us. Once I got pregnant, my plan was to
leave the show right away. And not that that takes
precedence over anything like career wise, but still part of
your big picture where God wanted you win and what
you the journey you were supposed to be on. And
it's like, Okay, well now I know that, Yeah I
went through that, but I'm gonna appreciate that grief to
celebrate the joy that I now have. That's right. I
(17:46):
think that's so important because when you're in the middle
of the grief, no matter what it is, if it's
a loss of a loved one, loss of pregnancy, loss
of a dream, you have to remember there's a reason,
and you're gonna see someday you're gonna go, oh, that's
why that happened. You have to believe that will happen.
And it's super duper hard being right in the middle
of it. It's so hard. Yeah, we're not like saying
(18:07):
this is easy anyway, but it's just encouragement to that
once you do get on the other side of it,
you can breathe if you're willing though, and that's that's
the encouragement. Is sometimes we get stuck and it's like,
we gotta keep going. What what keeps you going? Is
it other dreams that you have? Is it people that
come into your life like slap? Is it friends that
(18:30):
are like family? What is it that's going to help you?
You know? Faith wise? What can you rely on? Mind, body,
and spirit? What are you doing for yourself? Which that's
what I want to get into next with you, more
of your wellness, like what what does that mean to
you big picture? And what do you do for yourself
specifically when it comes to those things mind, body, spirit.
(18:51):
We'll do that next, Okay. So Kimberly is consistently the
sweetest person in the world, Like, no matter where I've
seen her, whether it's in the parking lot somewhere at
our lash place. We don't get our lashes done at
the same place or at work, like I see you
at different functions or in the studio or wherever. And
(19:14):
consistently always super sweet, like this is you, You're what
are you on the angiogram? By the way, I was,
I wonder if we were going to talk about that.
I'm Anne, You're a nine. Okay. I hate conflict and
I just want people to be happy with me and
they're every whatever is going on? What are you? Well?
I don't really know for sure. I just know that
(19:35):
I'm tested as a four, but then also been verbally
tested and they said I was a three. But I
don't really know. I don't I don't know enough about it,
but I am beginning to learn about it, and it
is helping me figure out myself. Yeah, I think that's
the purpose, Like, yeah, what motivates you to do X
y Z? Yeah, I mean we all can do certain things,
but we might be doing it for different reasons totally,
(19:56):
and it's so interesting. And so why are you so
nice all the time? I just want you to like me. Okay,
that's that's a good reason. Really, I don't know. I mean,
I'm just that wasn't a real You don't have answer
that question. I'm just I think it's awesome that you
have that sweet spirit. Not everybody has it. I don't
(20:17):
have it, and not to say that at home you
probably don't have different personalities that come out. Or I
just want you to record when you're mad and post
it somewhere that's hilarious. I can't get mad. I can
get mad, but I don't know. I feel like my
parents have a lot to do, had and have a
lot to do with my outlook, you know, And they
(20:39):
raised me. My parents were amazing. We grew up in
this little tiny town. My parents were My mom was
a school teacher, my daddy was a telephone company worker,
and they worked so hard and they loved us so good.
And we've had very very strong faith. And they taught
me to never judge someone else by how they might
(21:00):
be acting, because you don't know what they're going through,
and just to try to spread sunshine and joy and
lift people up and that that that makes the world
a better place. And I love that. I love that
reminder too, of the grace we should have on ourselves
and for other people, whether it's a friend or the
person checking us out at the grocery store that might
(21:20):
be being rude or whatnot. It's like, okay, no big deal,
Like I have no idea what they're going through right now,
or maybe even that celebrity that that you know, we
get celebrity phone calls on the Bobby Bone Show sometimes
of like, what's the celebrity you met out in public?
That was a total jerk kind of thing? Trust me, y'all,
are not it? Little big towns always nice, always, But
(21:41):
it's like, you know, they may have been having a
bad day. It's and it's just such a bummer that
they're a public figure, right so then it's a hundred
times worse than the grocery store clerk that nobody's probably
going to really think twice if they're in a bad day.
But it's just having that grace and compassion for the
people that might be going through stuffy feel like I'm
mentioning this book so much lately, but and we're gonna
(22:03):
I want to get into mind, body spirit, like what
wellness is for you in just second. But maybe you
should talk to someone. Have you read that? And maybe
I should now I haven't read it, but that's a
good book, but it's I'm going to be interviewing the
author soon and LORI got lived and I'm super pumped
about that. But she's a therapist that also is in therapy,
(22:23):
and she kind of goes back and forth with that,
but she tells different stories from her clients, and some
of them one in particular, I don't like it all
in the beginning, and then once you hear some of
his therapy sessions and you really get to the root
of why he's kind of a jerk, it's like, oh
my gosh, well, no, wonder he's hurting. And so it's
like for everything, even in therapy, I've been doing to
(22:45):
be a better mom and be a better wife and
be a better person. It's like, Okay, don't focus on
the behavior, focus on the emotion that's causing it hurt.
Because it's easy to have your day. It's easy when
somebody's real kind of like could ruin your whole day.
But if you can make yourself and it's not always easy,
(23:05):
but if you can make yourself go, I wonder what
what happened to them that made them act that way today,
and maybe whisper a little prayer and maybe then you're
uplifted and they are too. Hopefully yeah, And then like
you your goal is like you see people was like,
what is this the moment that I can be joy
in their life. So you're intentional about that, which I'm
glad you shared that about your parents too. They raised
(23:27):
you that way. I don't think probably you wake up
every day and you're like, okay that you know, but
but it seems it's important to you. It is your
intentional about that. But also what do you probably just
have sweeter blood? Know? Um? Okay, So I love the reminder. Yeah,
I love that your parents were like that. I love
the reminder to have gracing and passion for people and
then to spread joy to them and maybe say a
(23:48):
little prayer. Okay, So what do you do for yourself mentally, physically,
spiritually to keep yourself on that track? Well, I'll just
start since you said mentally first, I'll start there. Gonna
be honest, I'm not as gracious to myself as I
am to other people, and I'm working on that. I
have a little bit of an inner critic who can
(24:09):
be kind of ugly sometimes, and I'm working on stopping
that inside myself. I don't I'm not sure where that
comes from. Maybe a lot of people have that, but
you know, I can have ugly little sentences come in
my head about myself, not about anyone. Else. But it's
just judgment upon myself if I feel like I failed
at something or I did something wrong, even in the
(24:29):
tiniest little things. Uh. This morning, Uh, Dolly's room is
near the care bedrooms, near the kitchen, and we have
to get up so early for Daisy school that I'm
always telling Daisy shoo happy, real quipy real qui because
we don't want Mike Dolly up because that child needs
her sleep. So this morning I was like, Daisy, we
gotta be quiet. And then I dropped this very loud
(24:50):
pan in the floor and it reverberated all over the place,
and in my head, I was like, oh, and I'd
just being really mean to myself in my head. And
then I was like, wait a minute, I've just recently
read something that says when ugly thoughts come to your
head about yourself, immediately tell yourself the opposite. So immediately
this morning, I was like, oh, I am smart, I
(25:11):
am a good mom. I was cooking my kids eggs.
That's a good thing, you know. Immediately tell yourself the
positive instead of listening to that nasty little voice in
your head. So this year I'm working on that. I'm
gonna do better. I'll piggyback off of that with Cat Defodis.
She's on my podcast network or podcast is called Unique Therapy,
(25:32):
and it's really good. But she has said something similar
at times where you know, we have the lies in
our head and we need to shut them down with like, Okay,
that's that's a lie. It's not true. But just as
you're saying, she said, But instead of just ignoring it
and saying it's a lie and not believing it, how
about you just go ahead and repeat to yourself over
and over what is true, what is true? If that's
(25:54):
not true, what is true, and then start speaking the
truths that you are a good mom and you were
you know, that's basically the same thing. So I'm just
affirming your your mental work that you're doing there. I
love that. Yes, okay, so that's something mentally. What about
physically physically well, Um, at the beginning of the pandemic,
(26:15):
I used to be a runner many many years ago,
and then I started having chintzpants really bad, so I
to stop. So I did other things in the meantime.
But last year I started running again, like in in April.
But I've quit now that's okay. My girls have gotten
so busy. They're going all different directions. I feel like Laugh,
even though we're not on the road a little big
town and we're not able to do our regular you know,
(26:36):
shows and tours, I feel like Laugh has gotten so
busy again. And so I've I've got I've backed off
of that, but I want to get back to running again.
But I like to I like to do the Bar method.
I know you know about bar and there's this workout
online that you can do whether you have five minutes
or thirty minutes or forty five minutes, and I really
I try to squeeze in those at least the five
(26:58):
or ten minute one every day if I can. And
I don't make it every day, which is fine, which
is fine, that's fine, that is fine. But if any
if your brain tries to tell you otherwise, that's not true.
What is true is you're awesome and you're strong, and
you're you're running it. You're running, you're running around being
them am oh girl, I am running all the time
and super successful businesswoman all the things. And then what
(27:23):
about spiritually? Spiritually, I love to get up before everybody
else does in my house, no matter if we have
to I have to get up super duper early these days,
but I want to get up before everybody else does
because I like to have about a half hour at
least where I can. I'll the first thing I do
is I get up and turn on my coffee maker
and grab my glasses because I can't see if I don't,
and and sit down on my couch with my cup
(27:44):
of coffee, and I start talking to God. And I
first I always try to say what I'm thankful for.
Some days, if I sit on that couch and and
some things aren't going too well, I'll I'll find myself
immediately saying here's what I need, and help me here.
But what A really try to do is sit down
and name some things that I'm really grateful for, which
you are so great at that. But well, no, I'll
(28:07):
have guests do it and I because, and then I
encourage other people to do it as a reminder for
me to do it too. So I think it starts
us off. It starts us off in a good It's like, Okay,
I'm gonna restart. I'm going to press the restart. I'm
gonna start by going, I'm happy for this, I'm thankful
for this. I'm thankful for this. And then from there,
if I want to talk to God about something else,
you know, I do, or I'll sit and read for
(28:29):
a little bit and try to I always want to
make myself better, so I start my morning's really trying
to focus on the good and finding the good in
everywhere that I can. And I'm kind of addicted to
that time. I love it. And when I don't have it,
if I, you know, decide to I'm gonna sleep in
(28:49):
extra thirty minutes, then I miss it. I miss, you know,
those days. But I have a super strong faith too,
and God has brought me through you know, literal hell
on earth, and He's brought me to the other side,
and his grace has been just so good to me. Yeah,
well there you go. Mind body spirit, which I didn't
mean to imply with the physical the body that it
needed to be like a workout. Just for clarification for
(29:12):
anybody else listening, if you're trying to evaluate your own
mind body spirit, is that yes, we can take care
of our bodies in other ways, but that might be
making some amazing cookie recipe and eating it. That's like
physically what your body needed. And uh, which, speaking of,
Kimberly made me cookies. And I have a funny story
(29:33):
about these cookies. Kimberly, you don't even know it yet. Okay.
First of all, they look amazing. I have them right
by me. I want to eat one right now, but
I'll wait. So you sent me a text that said, hey, like,
I want to make you and your family cookies, but
I want to make sure there's no allergies, so I thought,
and this will also give people some behind the scenes
(29:54):
into like even the Bobby Bones show and how we
do show prep, and how it would be cool to
talk about how Kimberly texted saying I want to bake
you cookies. So here's what happened. I got the text,
and you know it was. It was a Sunday, so
I thought, well, I might forget about this, so I
email it to myself for show prep, and in the
subject line I put prep, Well, I have Shannon who
(30:16):
helps me in life in general. Just keep all my
ducks in a row and have everything, so I see
see Shannon, right. But all I did is coffee and
paste your note that said, Hey, I'm excited to see
you tomorrow. I want to bake you cookies. Do you
have any allergies? So it's Sunday. I am going to
see Shannon on Monday. She didn't see that. The subject
line said prep like she didn't, because what I wanted
(30:38):
to do was make sure I sent that in as
prep to the Bobby Bones show for Bobby to bring up.
Oh Kimberly made you cookies, right, Like, how sweet is she?
So then we can talk about you. So that's that
story show prep talk. But that's why I sent it. Well,
then I get a reply from Shannon. She said, oh
my gosh, Amy, that is so sweet. She's like, my
(30:59):
family doesn't have any she read it. I did not
say it was a text from you, because really it
wasn't for her to worry about. I just didn't want
her to let me. She could maybe remind me, Oh yeah,
don't forget to prep that Kimberly wanted to make you
cookies so thin. I read the email and I'm thinking, oh, no,
(31:19):
Shannon thinks that I'm making her cookies. And she went
into this whole thing about how she's typically dairy free
and like because they have to be in her family
and that I guess I don't know. I need to
see if her sister is staying with her right now
because and she's like, but my sister she's gluten for Like,
it was this whole thing and I thought, oh my gosh,
(31:40):
like either I need to bake some cookies real quick,
and happened, yes, But I decided to just own it.
And I replied back right away and I was like, okay,
so this is awkward. Um, I wasn't gonna bake you
cookies at all. That's from Kimberly, So that hilario is
a side note about about that. But well, thank you
(32:00):
for the cookies, and well thank you for sharing with
us what wellness and the mind body spirit kind of
way looks like for you. I think people like having
the inside scoop on that, And then I think it's
important too, especially still kind of the first of the year,
But no matter what time of the year, it is like,
sit down and reflect, what are you doing for yourself?
Maybe it's not going to look exactly like what Kimberly
(32:21):
does or what I'm doing, but my own body spirit,
the connection of that is so important. So what does
that look like for you? On the daily? Ask yourself
that and then maybe wake up, make some coffee and
think about it. Okay, So the last thing we talked
(32:45):
about your awesome cookies that you made me, what kind
are they? I haven't even had a bite yet, their
sugar cookies, but they have all an extract in them.
And that's like your secret touch secret. Okay. I love that. Well,
you have your oh Gussie cookbook, and you have your
your line at Cracker Barrel, and you do your cooking
videos on Instagram, which I love. They're so adorable and
(33:06):
all the things. So share with us a go to
recipe that just puts a smile on your face or
somebody else's face, or is that warm hug that comfort
like if you want to make it, um and we
can share it. If you say it and it's out there,
then I can put it up at radio amy dot
com and people can go check it out. Yeah, it's
definitely out there. It's gonna have to be chicken and
(33:26):
dumplings because not just the dish itself, but growing up,
my mama made chicken and numblings. She still does, but
I mean, they are out of this world. And not
only is it just something that's put in a bowl
and eat, but it means something deeper. To me, it
says son of love. Anytime anybody's got anything to celebrate,
(33:47):
or it's somebody's birthday, or if if we're coming home
to Georgia from Nashville, Mama will make a huge pot
of chicken and dumplings. It's how she loves o people.
If somebody you know in her church is sick or
broke their leg or something, she's going to show up
with a pot of chicken and numblings because that's how
she loves on people. And so I like to make
that dish now. And I don't compare mind to hers.
(34:09):
Minds a little bit different because I could never make
them as good as she does. But I love to
make those for people because I feel like it's like
a It's like a little hug um when you know
somebody needs just a little bit of an uplift. I
like to make them chicken and numblings. And I like
to make them for my family too, because because they
love them. And well, we're going to get the recipe
and we'll put it up so I'll test it out
(34:31):
see how it goes with my family. It already sounds amazing.
I think of my grandma when you say chicken and dumplings,
or maybe even my great grandma. She was the one
that had a recipe that lived in Alabama. I remember
going to visit my grandma and that's what we would
have and it was a labor of of love. So
what got you into cooking? Clearly that's one of your
(34:51):
It's not an official love language, but I feel like
food is what is your love language? By the way,
do you know? I don't know, except that I think
it is cooking. I don' all the have you ever
done the five love languages? Like I feel like a
long long time ago, years ago, and I don't remember. Okay,
what's yours? Minus words of affirmation? That means you want
to hear words of affirmation. You won't hear people love
(35:12):
you and you're good and wonderful. Don't keep it keep
it coming. I mean, I know you're not complimenting you
right now, but more not like compliments, but like if
you've recognized like from you know, my husband, it's helpful
if I hear things from him, but for him it's
acts of service. So if I make him coffee in
the morning, that's huge for him. You know, other people
might be gifts, but for me even at work. Uh,
(35:35):
if I do something that was appreciated, or I did
a good job at something, hearing that I did good
fills me up to where I'm motivated to continue to
do more. Bobby, don't pass that stuff out like candy.
Don't give me. Don't get it wrong. But I also
appreciate that because then I appreciate it even more. And
I don't want someone just affirming me just because that's
my love language, especially at work, but probably at home.
(35:58):
You need that though, So anyway, love language. Food is
an honorary mention of a love language. But what caught
you into cooking and being so good at it wanting
to share it with others? Well, I grew up watching
my mom and my grandmother's cook They were incredible cooks
and literally standing on a stool. And the first thing
I ever remember helping my mama with was biscuits. She
(36:19):
made biscuits almost every night for supper, and um, I'd
get to hold the jug of milk and I'd get
to add the milk in and she would say, okay,
go ahead, go ahead. Well who woo woa woahooa. I remember,
you know, she would stop me quickly, but I had
an innate desire for music and cooking. I've always loved
the two and and I like to take care of
people through food. And then, you know, I started cooking
(36:42):
more and more and over the years, I just found
that it's a way to really love on people. And
then I got an opportunity to do a cooking show
that was so much fun. I loved it so much
and I want to do it again so bad. But
then when the pandemic started, I thought, hey, I think
I'm just gonna start making some cooking videos. So that's
when you started putting them. That's when I started put
(37:04):
them on Instagram, and people seem to enjoy it, and
and so I've just kept doing it. And I love
doing it because I love to cook. And I also
have kind of a little problem with dishes and glassware
and stuff. I love, love, love, love dishes, so that's
also really a big part of it for me. I
also like to prep my stuff in pretty bowls and
(37:27):
with pretty utensils, and then I like to serve it
and pretty stuff, so that's all, you know, when it's
all kind of the same thing for me, And that's
probably why you came out with the line that it
was exciting if someone approached you or you had the
idea to do a line with Cracker Bakeroll and have
that stuff there. My sister is a lot like you.
It's very much into the presentation and the dishes and
(37:48):
everything looking that way. The Thanksgiving before the pandemic, we
have some twenty three people at our house for Thanksgiving,
and I thought, I'm not going to do dishes for
twenty three people, and I ordered really d plastic where
like it was from far away. You might think it
was real, but it wasn't. It's disposable, and it says why.
(38:09):
And then I got even silver war that kind of
looked real from far away but it was plastic. Well, no,
my sister, she came in town and she's like, no, no, no, no,
I can't no, no. She would not allow it. She
was like, food tastes better when it's on really cute stuff,
especially at Thanksgiving. I mean, if it was Friday night
(38:29):
pizza night show and made a big deal. But I
was like, okay, fine, if you want to take over this, fine,
Martha Stewart, you go right on ahead, you figure this out.
And sure enough she did, and I gotta say it
did feel special. There was something about it. I was like, Okay,
I'm glad that she stepped in and made this call.
It's totally the opposite with me and my sister, completely
the opposite. Alan used the real stuff and my sister,
(38:51):
who cares, right, I just used the plastic. It's not
that big of a deal. I don't know, but I'm like, oh,
but it's so much prettier if you did it on
the real plate. It's just like your sister. That's it's
interesting how we're all just so different. Okay, So chicken
and dumplins are like a warm hug from Kimberly. So
we're going to put that recipe up at radio amy
dot com so that you can whip it up for yourself.
(39:12):
Which it's still soup season chicken and dumplin oh yeah.
Still it's still cool enough out cold places to where
I think that even in the summer, i'd probably eat
up some chicken and dumplins, no problems. I think it's
a year round. Which if you want to see some
of Kimberly's cooking video, she's at Oh Gussie on Instagram,
and yeah, she'll walk you through everything and then like
(39:35):
right away. It's like, thank you all so much for
joining me. You and I am Tabitha Brown. Do you
follow her on Instagram? Oh? She's great. Oh she has
some little cooking videos that are she's vegan. I think
not that that matters, but I'm just heads up if
you're curious about some of her recipes. But she's not
an official I think she said it was an actress. Possibly.
(39:56):
I found her on Instagram and she puts up fun cooking.
You and her, you'll always greet your Instagram videos with
like the biggest smile and just make people feel so
good right away. So good. Well, you know, I don't
know about hers. I'm going to look her up. But
for me, it's just me. So if I make a mistake,
it's just me. And I've made so many mistakes on
(40:17):
these and I can't start over because it's not like
I bought two whole chickens about one whole chicken, and
I'm gonna make chicken and dumplings and I can't. You know,
if I mess up, I can't start over. So I
mess up a lot. But well that's okay. Hey, we
have grace for that. If you need to have grace
for yourself, tell yourself what is true. You're an awesome cook.
Thank you do a great job to have the brown.
She's all of her videos start with hey there, oh,
(40:40):
hey there. I can't mimic her, well, but you're gonna
like her. She's she's really inspiring and sweet and kind
and awesome. Okay, so now we're to the gratitude. I
want to hear four things you are thankful or, which
(41:00):
Kimberly showed up in her Four Things love pull over,
which loves the pink one that we put out our
Valentine's Day a couple of years ago and then loved
it so much we just kept it up so year
round and it's just love, love, love love. But it's
funny because I had had it on earlier and then
decided to take off my jeans and put on leggings,
and I was like, okay, I'm gonna put on a
(41:20):
different sweatshirt. But when I opened the door, I thought,
how funny if we had we were twins. So let's
go through four things that you're thankful for. And I
do gratitude with guests because I think it's a way
for people to get to know each guest a little
bit more on a different level, but then also as
a reminder to just practice gratitude for yourself. I have
(41:42):
to tell you it's because of you that now, my daisy,
and uh, before we go to bed, we write down
four things were grateful for. I'm really grateful to you
for giving me that idea. And so yeah, we do
it together now. And I mean we don't do it together,
but we each do it. You know, we've made that
commitment together. I love me too. Okay, So this was
really hard as I thought of narrowing it down to
(42:05):
four things. But I'm really grateful for hugs. I love
physical touch. And we talked about this a little bit before.
I love that I can reach out and hug and
show affection to that. That's your love language, probably physical.
So you have to take You're good, okay good. And
(42:27):
with the pandemic, I mean we we don't get to
when I walked here to the in the door here today,
I couldn't hug you because of the pandemic. And I
really miss hugging the people that I want to love on.
But also I feel like we need the touch. Like
when I did lose my first husband, I found out
that skin to skin. When we touched skin to skin,
it gives us a chemical in our brain called oxytocin,
(42:48):
which is a feel good chemical, and we need that.
And when I did lose my husband, um, my counselor
told me get massages. And then this is a tip
for anyone out there who has lost a loved one,
get a massage because you need that skin to skin
contact because it releases oxytocin in your brain. So hugs,
I think we need. We I just I want to
get it back where we can hold each other's hand
(43:08):
and hug on each other because I think it's so important.
So you're grateful for hugs, grateful for hugs. The second thing,
number two, I'm grateful for health, which is kind of
a common answer, I'm sure, especially because the pandemic has
brought us, we've become so aware and grateful for health
that we have. For me, also, it's I'm watching my
parents get older. Um, and I know that you've lost
(43:30):
your momm so sorry, and that your dad's had challenges
with his health, and I'm so very sorry. My parents
are older and they also have some challenges now. My
mother has Parkinson's and growing up I thought Parkinson's just meant,
you know, your handshakes or your leg shakes. But there's
so much more to that wretched disease than just trimmors.
(43:52):
And I watch her daily with the challenges that she has,
and her whole life has always been so independent, and
she had to run everywhere and done anything she wanted,
and she's always been on the go like me, like
I am now, but now she can't do that. She's
much more slow. She has to be slow with her
movements and with her steps because of her Parkinson's, And
(44:14):
so that watching her, it makes me super thankful for
what the health that I have, I still have in
my body, but it also makes me thankful that for
the health that she still has because I still have
her and her challenges are becoming greater, but I'm I
am still grateful for the help that she does have.
(44:34):
So helps in a in a big broad term, you know,
just not for myself, but for the people that I love.
That's an important one that we definitely take for granted. Yeah,
their thing is family. I've already talked about my parents
a little bit and how amazing they were, but they
made a huge effort to keep us together and to
(44:55):
bring us together. And now my sister has her own family,
my brother has his own family, but we always we
want to we make an effort to be together, and
we make an effort to make memories. And that's something
we literally talk about, were like, let's get together and
make some memories, because I think that kind of carries
us through our lives. And then our children get a
chance to make memories together, and those things are just precious, precious.
(45:18):
And also, like we said before, I can't say the
word family and not say a little Big town because
they are now also my family, um, because we've just
lived so much laugh together and we hold each other
up like family members, and we do anything for each
other like family members do, and so family, well, I'm
thankful for you sharing all of that with us, everything
(45:42):
that we went over today. And I too, am thankful
for a Little Big Town because the music is a
hug for people. Music is such probably a release for
you as the artist getting it out there, but then
can be an emotional release for us, the receivers that
are in our car listening to it and having your
(46:03):
music touch us in all kinds of ways, whether it's
making us want to smile, and dance or making us
want to really reflect and and get out whatever that
emotion is, joy or pain. Yeah, it's crazy how powerful
music is. It's so powerful. My sister is a music
therapist and I've watched her work and it is phenomenal,
how healing it is. I've watched her work with um
(46:25):
autistic children who won't verbalize except with her because she's
doing the music therapy with them. It's it's magical. Music
is magical and it is a great healer, and it
helps us express anything and everything, like you just said,
grief to the best of celebrations. It covers it all
when words don't necessarily work, you know, music does, And
(46:47):
boy do I miss it. Sure y'all are ready to
get out there. Well, once we are out there, I'm
sure all of your fans are still a little big
town fans are loyal and waiting and just as ready
for you guys to get back out there and get
on the road too. I can't even imagine. Yeah, this
is sidelined, what y'all do. It's stopped our Yeah we
(47:08):
we we haven't toured since last March, and but we
are making new music so good. Yeah, we're ratting and
when can we expect that to y'all can't say, yeah,
I don't really know yet. We're working on it, working
on sooner than later. Well, thank you, kimb really for
taking the time. I know that all my listeners are
gonna love this conversation. I haven't even put it out
(47:29):
there yet, but if you're listening to it now, that
means it's out there. And I'm already predicting that you
listen to this whole thing, you're like, I just love Kimberly. Okay,
well that is a wrap on today's episode again radio
Amy dot com if you want Kimberly's recipe, and at
Oh Gussie on Instagram and at Little Big Town for
the music account? Who runs that? Do y'all say? Yeah?
(47:51):
We do? We do? Yeah, we we do. Karen does
a lot of it, and we have social media people
at our management office, but Karen does a lot of
it too. Yeah. I am yeah, because sometimes I'll tag
that and then I guess you could one. But there's
a team afore you always wonder like who I wonder
who is that? Or is it somebody else? Don't even know? Okay,
all right, thanks Kimberly and the question saying I mean
(48:13):
so you next time.
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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