Hi friend.
I’m tabitha and I’m grateful you have stopped over for a visit. I am glad you are here.
I hope to help you build stronger and more loving relationships within your family and with your children. The relationship between mom and child is the first foundational relationship our children will experience in their life. We won’t always be the relationship that is the most important, but we can be home base – the place that our kids know they can always come to for acceptance, love, advice, safety, and comfort.
If you want to look around at a few popular posts…
homemade pizza dough – so easy your kid can do it!
With grace, intention, and a deep breath
Tween Communication Tool: Shared notebook
Mom Pep Talk: For When You Are Tired
Kid’s Signature memory sheet: FREE printable
Grab a FREE download from these posts:
If you want to know more about me –
I’m a 38 year old human (she/her pronouns) who spends half the time running around trying to hold my busy, balance-all-the-plates, wild, messy life together and the other half of my time smiling/sobbing with gratitude that I can’t believe I get to have this beautiful life! Honestly, it’s a bit of a hot mess the way I swing the pendulum between being super focused on where we are going and so thankful for where we are right this moment. #sendhelpintheformofchocolate
I’m married to my high school sweetheart and we live on top of a mountain raising up our six kids alongside our free range chickens, ducks, goats, and dogs (oh! and guinea pigs, but they aren’t free range – LOL).
When I was very young, I dreamed of being exactly two things: a teacher and a mother. Later, as a teenager, I also wanted one more thing: to marry Brandon Studer. And if you need any proof of self-fulfilling prophecy, look no further folks – I got all three!
My parents were high school sweethearts and raised my two younger sisters and I up in a small town in western PA. I played volleyball through high school and was one of those girls that joined all the clubs because everything was just SO fun and I wanted to do all.the.things. (I mostly still feel that way – a chronic ‘yes’ girl over here, raising her hand to volunteer on too many projects).
I attended college at a liberal arts school in central PA majoring in Spanish and minoring in Diversity Studies. While in college, I also played collegiate D3 volleyball, worked at 3 work-study jobs, and spent one semester abroad in Costa Rica.
After college, I was accepted into Teach for America where I lived and taught in Brooklyn, NY for two years teaching English as a Second Language in grades Kindergarten through fourth. Then it was back to PA to work with an educational software company for a few years where I got to travel the east coast working with teachers. Then I was a stay-at-home mom until I found myself back in the classroom teaching rural PA high school students Spanish.
Whew! That’s a lot of highlights, but almost none of the real meat of this life. The good stuff; the friends, the little moments of laughing until you cry, the heightened sense of aliveness when you’re worried or scared. The smallest moments that actually make up a life.
My fella
Brandon and I started dating when I was 16, so I’ve spent more of my life with him than without him. He is handsome (honestly, cutest boy in high school and still the cutest guy I know), charming as heck, so kind-hearted, and calm. He is an athlete down deep in his blood and to see him coach now and help raise up decent young men…you guys, I can’t. GUSHING all dang day.
We dated in high school, figured out how to make long distance work for six years, then lived together for two years until we finally got married in his childhood church while I wore a lace dress and he wore a camo vest. Most people who know us have only ever known us as a pair – so our names are always pronounced as one name: BrandonandTab or TabandBrandon and that’s maybe one of my favorite things of my life.
We’ve traveled together, we’ve moved (a lot), we’ve laughed, cried, shared food, yelled, hugged, and loved the guts out of the last 13 years of marriage and 23 years of being together. He’s the best, and I’m not just saying that – you can literally ask any person who knows him. He is the actual best and he is all mine and for that I don’t ever want to know what my life would be like without him.
The studer half dozen
I was pregnant by our first wedding anniversary and it’s been pregnancies, babies, toddlers, elementary school, middle school, and sporting events ever since.
It is a CIRCUS in our house – a messy, LOUD, chaotic, wild circus. But it is the greatest privilege of my life to be front row in this big tent.
We had three boys and three girls over the course of 11 years – the last two being born in the covid-19 global pandemic! They are all similar to each other and yet each completely unique. We have been grateful so far in life with kids who are boring when it comes to health – and in today’s world that is so very lucky, and we are aware of that fact.
This blog is about all the ways I have learned and grown over the years being a mom to my six kids. It’s not about them, but they might come up occasionally.
Many ways to be a mom
Besides being an actual mom to my actual children, I’ve also held a lot of motherly type roles in my life.
I am the oldest sister of three girls.
I am an aunt and a godmother.
I have been a teacher over several years where many students have called me their ‘school mom.’ When I say “my kids” I might mean my six children or any of my 100+ students.
I have been a youth league coach in cheerleading and soccer, and a volunteer Sunday school teacher.
We host sleepovers and parties at our house, I am on the bleachers, and in the school auditoriums where I watch and cheer on my own children’s’ friends.
I think to be a mother is to care about children and helping them grow. There are many ways to be someone’s ‘mom.’
A sprinkle of random other details
- I love reading and am usually reading at least two different books at a time. My kids joke that I am not allowed in a bookstore unsupervised.
- Chocolate is my love language and semi-sweet baking chocolate chips by handfuls out of the bag is my go to.
- I am maybe the worst texter on the Earth for two reasons. First, I am horrible at replying – like a minimum of 48 hours to hear back from me. If I had a second love language it would be closed texts that expect no reply. And secondly, I hate texting with my hands and I almost always use voice-to-text which makes my husband shake his head and roll his eyes at me.
- I met my two best friends at college when we all were placed in the same freshman dorm. We have been best friends since 2001 and still get together at least once a year with all our kids (10 kids in all) despite being many miles apart
- We are big on nicknames around here, so every kid has at least two standard nicknames and all their grandparents and aunts and uncles have non-standard names like Chum, Kitty, Mimi, or Uch
- My favorite tree in our yard is a big, beautiful wild cherry tree and I named her Agnes.
- Baking makes me feel like I am in control and when life starts to go off the rails, I roll my sleeves up and throw flour around the kitchen to pretend like I can pull it all back together with a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
Contact Me
I love to hear from readers and moms – so please always feel free to reach out! You can email me directly at [email protected] or find me on social media!
