Archive for Kids
FAQ: Do You Ever Want to Work?
Posted by: | CommentsAs I mentioned in my last post, I am certainly not opposed to working outside of the home. For this season of life, it is not the option we are going with, but that does not mean I am set on staying home for the rest of my days! I am not sure what the future will hold in our family, but if there would come a time where the kids are in school and we are settled in one place, I would certainly be interested in doing work, probably part time.
So the next question people usually ask is “What would you want to do?” I mentioned that I had done some work towards starting my masters in nutrition. I have not ruled out going back and completing that degree at some point. And that may even start before the kids are older. I am interested in not only nutrition, but also fitness. So I have also looked into studying more on personal training and possibly getting a certificate or two there. Both of these areas are subjects that appeal to me for a variety of reasons:
1. I am already interested in these areas and get really excited when I think about helping people with their health.
2. In working in these settings, there is often flexibility to work part time or set more of your own hours. Just because I work outside the home, I still want to be available for Joe and the kids.
3. These are areas where I could serve Joe, as his desire is to coach when he is done playing (more on that in a later post), and also the rest of our family. Being well-informed in the areas of nutrition and fitness is a way I help to better the lives of our kids.
So we will see where the Lord leads us in the coming years. For right now, I am trying to stay on top of the areas of nutrition and fitness in simply reading and learning while Joe trains.
FAQ: How Does Your Family Feel About Your Life?
Posted by: | CommentsMy parents, brother, grandparents, etc. have always been nothing but supportive of Joe and me. We are very blessed in having two families who support us and love us, as well as a great church family and friendship network.
My family has always welcomed Joe warmly and is as supportive of his career as I could hope for. I know it has not been easy for them though for a variety of reasons:
1. They expected me to finish the schooling path I began. My undergraduate degree was in Communication Sciences and Disorders. This is the first part of the education process on the way to becoming a speech-language pathologist or audiologist. In this line of work though, you must have a graduate degree in able to work in that career. So when I met Joe my junior year, I was starting the process of looking at graduate schools and preparing for my GRE’s. I knew enough about professional athletics though to know that he would most likely not have a job in the same place for 2 years in order for me to finish my graduate degree. Joe and I both felt that building a strong foundation for our marriage was more important than me obtaining my graduate degree, so that I would travel with him. I will go into this issue more when I answer the question about why I travel and don’t stay home and work/go to school. But for me to give up my schooling without having actually finished (I did graduate and get my BS) was hard for my parents.
2. There is not a whole lot of consistency to our schedule. My family has learned to understand that we don’t always know when we are going to be around. Thankfully my parents have learned (like me) to go with the flow and learn to adapt. They have always been open to us dropping in to visit with little prior notification, staying for longer than we anticipated or not being able to make special family events.
3. Having your grandkids across an ocean is not easy. For both of our families, when we had children it got even harder. I am sure I will not fully understand until I am a grandparent myself, but I know ti is hard to miss much of your grandchildren’s childhood because they live overseas the majority of the year. Thankfully technology is now such that our kids do not come back seeing our families as strangers. With my parents, we Skype for about 15 minutes every weekday morning. My parents have made the effort to be up at 4:30am every morning so that after they exercise and shower, they can talk with us for a short time before heading off to work. I think this has made a huge difference in their relationships with the kids. My parents are just a normal part of their everyday life in an nontraditional kind of way.
Overall, my parents (and all of my family) has been extremely supportive, loving and encouraging through our entire marriage and my experience of being a professional athlete’s wife.
FAQ Series
Posted by: | CommentsWith a lot of questions to answer for my FAQ page, I am going to make them a series of posts. Then I will compile all the answers on my FAQ page. Here is what I will be addressing so far:
About Me:
1. Why don’t you stay in the U.S. and work? Why do you travel with Joe?
2. Did you always want to marry a professional athlete?
3. How do your parents/family feel about your lifestyle as a professional athlete’s wife?
4. What is your favorite/least favorite part of your life as a professional athlete’s wife?
5. What is your favorite place you have lived?
6. Do you ever want to work?
7. How to find time to read so many books?
8. How do you start a blog?
About Joe:
1. Is Joe’s personality off the court similar to how he plays on the court?
2. How did you and Joe meet?
3. How much longer does Joe want to play basketball? Is there a point where if something happened with your family he would definitely stop?
4. What does Joe want to do when he is done?
About Our Family/Lifestyle:
1. Why don’t you put the kids in school overseas? What schooling options do you provide for your children?
2. Do your kids speak more than one language? Do you encourage this? How do they deal with the language barrier?
3. Do your children have friends while living abroad?
4. Do the kids feel pressure because of Joe’s job? Does your son feel like he has to play basketball?
5. How do you go about starting to cloth diaper?
6. How do you employ grace and mercy in your parenting?
7. What is your family’s diet like?
8. How do you pack for living abroad 9-10 months out of the year?
9. How do you travel alone with young children?
If you have any other questions you would like to add to this list, please feel free to do so in the comments section or by sending me a message. Some of the questions that I have already answered in prior posts/pages, will simply be referenced, while others will become their own post. Hopefully some other basket wives will weigh in with their own experiences as well!
