Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 465 | Miss Kay & Lisa Go Public with Untold Robertson Family Stories

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Miss Kay, Lisa, and Al and Lisa's daughter, Alex Robertson Mancuso, tell stories about the Robertson family you've never heard before. Miss Kay and Lisa share their inspirations for writing their new book, "Sister Roar," and describe how evil attempts to use shame in order to silence your true voice. Lisa and Alex share fun stories about the family and the journey of cooking, from Alex's first grilled cheese sandwich to reaching the level of professional pastry chef. And Lisa points out the need for friendship and inherited wisdom while navigating the perils of spiritual warfare. Get "Sister Roar" by Kay and Lisa Robertson: https://amzn.to/3Kb09L0 Sign up to watch the Unashamed overtime show, only on BlazeTV: https://BlazeTV.com/Unashamed - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Well, so we've got, we've got history here. We are making today unashamed history. We have never had a totally outnumbered to folks to have a popular Fox show. We have an outnumbered unashamed podcast today because I am the sole male. I feel like a pond of estrogen, no, a pond of testosterone. testosterone in a lake of estrogen.

That's what I feel. That's too many words and too many big words. Can you repeat what I just said? I would butcher that to pieces. So we have obviously Ms. Kay, an Unashamed favorite that they always love to have you on here. We have Lisa, another returning guest. And we have a brand new guest for the first time our youngest daughter, Alex, joins Unashamed. So welcome, Alex.

Hello, everyone. Alex said she started out listening to the podcast and loved it. She said, except for some of Papal Phil's misogyny. I said, well, he's kind of got a way of saying things. You'd think I'd be used to it after all these years, but it's still shocks sometimes. So I get emails all the time asking about, because we talk about our family so much. But so the, you know, obviously people that watch the show notes, but they're like the current, you know, because we're always telling these current stories. And so I'm always getting all the time, you know, I'd love to have, meet B.K.

I'd love to meet BK.K. I'd love to meet this. And by the way, BK does make some appearances on the Duck Call Room podcast. I hear. I've never seen it. So I don't know. But we actually have, so we have three generations of Roberts and women seated at the table, which is exciting. That's never been done on the podcast.

Right. And we actually have four generations in the room because Carly, who's Jananna's daughter, is here observing from the side. So it's pretty cool, Mom, the four generations of Robertson women here today. I mean, how does that make you feel? Oh, I love it. Yeah. I love it. The women are the best.

And I don't think anybody would disagree with that. So we sent Jay's and dad out on a mission to come up with some good stories. So we'll see how that works for tomorrow. Probably some good lunch. Yeah, maybe some good lunch. That's exactly right. So talk a little bit, Mom, about it. We're going to talk about your book.

You got a new book, which is one of the reasons you guys are on the podcast. And so you guys are all, you know, a part of that. We've mentioned it, but it's about time to release. But before we get there, I wanted you to talk a little bit about, I want to hear everybody's perspective on sort of the generational idea of being a Robertson. I mean, obviously, Mom, you're the matriarch of our family, and we grew up a certain way. And now, just sitting here, we've got three, I mean, we're talking about the span of, you know, Alex being in her 30s, you're in your mid-70s.

So how have you viewed the idea of your family growing and spreading out? And, I mean, what's your kind of observation? Well, you remember as a little boy down there when Granny and Paul lived beside us, which is Phil's mom and dad for like 15 or 20 years, wasn't it, that they lived down there. And I think that because y'all were so used to having them there, and then our family, and then our family's children, it was just, to me, it's easy. Right.

Because of that growing up. And, you know, I'd go down there and watch Granny cook something. I mean, y'all would go down there and play dominoes every day with them, you know, all that kind of stuff. I think that's how my kids learned how to be good at math at first

and know how to add and all that because, I mean, Alan was, you know, four years old, just slapping those dominoes 10, 20. He still doesn't. When he plays Dominole. And just bang, bang, bang. Now my grandkids marvel at it when they're over there just to watch the spectacle of us playing Domino's.

And it never changing. You got to watch that table, though, don't you, babe? Yeah. You'll break a finger. You do. Get that mic a little close to you, man. Well, and you know, Cy playing, that's hilarious too, you know, hearing him and all that. But that was just, it's just been such a tradition to me.

Yeah. Because Phil and I met at 14. You know, we've really never been apart. And so his family became so much my family since my daddy passed away and all when I was 14. And so it's just like to me, I just love the families going together. And, you know, we, I learned from her. She helped me. I helped her.

And it was just really good. And now I feel that way about, I mean, I just think it's wonderful that we're here. And hopefully when Jeff gets home, we'll all be here. Yeah. Well, and that's the kind of what we kind of call our setup now because we have Alex and her family on one side of where we live and her family on the other side. And literally, you're within a couple hundred yards of where Lisa and I, you know, have our setup. And so we call it the compound. And we have a group text called the compound.

But mom's right. It actually started with the compound that was down here all those years ago. And the same thing. And so the benefits that I look back and see is that all the time that Jay's and I were able to spend, when I talk with my cousins, they have a completely different experience and view of my grandparents, of Granny and Paul. And it's because they just didn't spend time with them. And so it was minimal. It was holidays. And I look, I realize there's a lot of people out there listening that because of where you are, your kids.

are spread out across the country. And you just, you don't have that, you know, luxury or ability to be able to do that. But if you do, it really is a blessing. I'd say, and you and I,

so our, we started out literally in Granny and Paul's house. We lived in the front bedroom for the first few weeks or months of our marriage. And so, I mean, you know, you've experienced firsthand all of our married life.

So what's your take on it? On compound living, what do you think about it? Well, I love it. But, you know, sometimes if you're sleeping in the same house, it's not so good. When you're newlyweds anyway. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, no, that wasn't even the worst of it. The worst of it is Granny and Paul. They both snored. So you'd get a and then a shee. It was like a all night long. It was like a little sing-song that went on and your mom and I would get so tickled. listening to it. It was literally our nightly entertainment.

And weren't they heavy smokers too in the house? Yeah. And we would be afraid because they wouldn't, like it would go a little while, you know, while they were sleeping and they wouldn't be snoring. So we were like, do we need to check on them? Like, are they still alive? Yeah, that was the worst thing. It would be like, all of a sudden it stopped.

And you're like, wait a minute, does somebody just die? Yeah. And if you just give it a beat and then it's like, and then we're off and running again. That's right. It was like a dog chasing a cat. Yeah. Jake breaking. Exactly.

But I really did like it. And I'll tell you this, even for us, last night, our grandkids were at our house. And instead of playing dominoes, we were playing Uno. Yeah, at least it's really good about playing games with the kids. So, you know, they gather around, you know, and then they try, some of them, try to make up their own rules, you know. Well, and they cheat. I watch him cheating. I was like, you little cheaters. Doc told me last night, he said, he said, everybody always cheats whenever I play with him.

And I said, Doc, I have never cheated whenever you have played with me. Well, my mom and dad do. I said, I don't believe that. I do not cheat against a four-year-old. Give me a break. I don't believe that. He said, well, Bailey Kay does. I said, I don't think she does. I think you just don't understand the rules. And he said, well, Sage always does. and Corbin always cheats, you know, against me. Corbin does too. Corbin is so competitive, he can't stand to lose, which is very robbers.

That's exactly right. But, you know, Doc said one of the funny, Doc's four, and they were playing a video guy. He's five. I got that confused. Yeah, he's five. That's five. That's right. He'll be six on June.

He's all of six. He rolls four. So, I'm glad you did it and not me. I feel better. So Doc was, he was playing this game and said, one of them kept in him, what are you playing? What are you playing? What are you playing? He said, I can't read.

I don't know what I'm playing It was pretty funny Because he was like Give me a break I can't even read you Which I thought was good And Pearl will say Ma'am

I just sit in your lap And be your coach Yeah she wants to be the coach She don't want to put any skin in the game She just wants to coach it So babe It wasn't I would say

And we've talked a little bit About this on past podcast But it wasn't easy at the beginning When we were in the compound I mean, we struggled some because I had such a close relationship with mom and dad. I didn't always include you in that, you know, which was looking back was a big mistake from our marriage perspective. But you had a, you know, it was easy for you to learn how to be rude sometime from the older men. But I was also just super independent.

I'd had an independent experience since I was a kid. And we've discussed why. And I was very immature. Yeah. So, I mean. Well, you're very dependent. So you always had. But especially when we first got married.

You just need attention. She did. And I should have given it. I should have given it or included her in what we were doing. It's just looking back on it, you know, you're young and immature. You didn't think about it. We didn't. And so what happened was I created conflict a lot between she and I, but even some between her and you and dad, because, you know, it was a compound living, but it wasn't done in the right vein.

You know, there's a lot of maturity now, so it's a lot different. So I was just thinking about that because a lot of times, I was. I'll tell people how we're living. And they'll say, oh, I couldn't live next door to my mom or, oh, I couldn't live next door to my kids. You know, I wouldn't want to be. And I'm like, I get it. I mean, you know, it does take work. It takes, you know, because everybody's different, you know.

But it was tough even for Kay because Kay would leave home and Granny would, you know, before she left, she wanted to know where she was going and when she was coming back. And if she was not there whenever she thought she should be back, then Granny's one. wondering, where are you at? You know, where's Kay? Why did you do? She's been gone to town all day long. Here's the way she said, oh, Kay's up gallivating around town again. Oh, that gallivet. A trip to town turns into a gallivanting. And it was said in the worst way, you know, gallivanting on it. I mean, like, I didn't need time alone. You had four boys, right? And Phil. And dad. And then Granny and Paul. Paul did nothing.

Six toddlers. So, Mom, so what do you tell people when we said, we need to get Dad to go on vacation with us? What do you always say when we say that? I don't want to run vacation. I want to have fun. Because Dad hates to travel. He hates at the beach. He would want me in that house we have cooking for him, tended to him, waiting on him.

Well, he never walked out the door. He never walked out the door, and I would lose all my fun. It's funny because on the Hawaii episode, we did, the running joke on the actual episode was Dad wouldn't leave the room. But in true reality, Dad would never leave the room. So we were filming it because it was really happening that way. He's got too much hair to be out in the sand, I think. That's what he says. That would probably be uncomfortable.

But he would run all our fun. A sand in every crack and crevice. No, every orifice. Or a fist. Is the way he puts it. So what about you, Roob, what's your... We have always been a clanish type of family. I mean, we were in business together.

Other members of family do business together. It's not... I mean, we, of course, we all have friends and stuff, but we are very much a stick-together, tight-knit type of family. And we all, I mean, we have our little compound with, you know, our houses, a stones throw from each other. and then in the larger compound is all the brothers and in-laws and lifelong friends. And I think I counted one day.

It's in our neighborhood there are 16 homes that are people we are related to, married into, or really, really close to. Or go to church with. Or go to church with all in our one neighborhood. Which would be forever family, right? Let's take our first break. So yesterday was evidence of that. So every year at Easter, Johnny and Chris, who was Corey's parents, which lives next door to us, they host the big Easter extravaganza for really Corey's side of the family and part of ours. I guess everybody that lives there.

And it was just, I don't know what you call it. I was just, I was, I walked outside a couple of, I was working on podcasts, but I walked outside and saw it because we adjoined yards and just kid chaos is the only way I can describe it. But fun, right? I commented on it to a couple people yesterday because they've been doing that for a long time. Like decades, I think, that they have been doing that every Easter Sunday. And it's a pot luck. They were doing that way before we all moved in their neighborhood. Right.

So it's potluck. And then they do a big Easter egg hunt for all the kids. And the older kids hide them. The younger kids go find them. But every year, no matter how much time passes, there's always the same amount of adults and kids. It's like they just grow up and then have more kids and then there's a bunch more kids. Like there's never any less kids or any more older people. It just, it's weird.

It stays the same. It's like the Twilight Zone. It is. And for Chris and John, especially now it's the great grandkids, but it just the thing keeps going. Oh, and there's like 30 of them yesterday. So they have some money eggs and, you know, some candy and eggs. And so everybody's looking for the prizes. Just to show you my grandkids, Alice's kids mentality.

Corbyn, who we mentioned. he's the oldest. He just turned eight. He's very competitive. And, you know, he loves to, he loves to, you know, he loves money and to find it and get it. And so he has already, like, giving me his whole play, but he comes in. He's real serious, you know, he's in a pap, I'm not going for the kid egg stuff. I'm going for the one that's got the big money in it. Because apparently he was under the impression that somebody was going to put a hondo in one of the eggs, you know, or maybe they had done it before. They've done it. They've done it in the past. So he's got his strategy. He said, I'm going to let the little kids go and get all the, you know, stuff that's easy to find.

I'm going for the handy. Yeah, candy eggs. Who cares? I got candy. I'm going for the Honda. So he had it all mapped out. What turns out, they just put coins this year. There was no big money.

There were no bill. And somebody, one of the grandkids put, just put some funny, what they thought was funny fortunes and folded up and put them in there where Corb gets it and shakes it. Well, he knows his paper. And he's like, Jackpot. He opens it up. And somebody had just given a funny fortune that. To him, wasn't funny.

It was like, what is this? Yeah, it was like, no money or candy, just this fortune. He was hot. Womp, wamp, that was pretty funny. So you, but it's funny, correct me if I'm wrong, Alex, but I seem to remember a younger version of you on your way to Baton Rouge to go to school at LSU saying that the one thing you would never do is move back to West Monroe. You grew up there, small town, you know.

I want it out. Yeah, I'm out of here. and, you know, I love you guys, but don't count on me ever coming back. But you had, so tell the story on what changed me. Well, I'm blaming that on my husband. So after we got married, he got offered a position to work at Duck Commander, and he was super excited about it. Of course, that was big Duck Dynasty time.

Things were up and coming, and it was real, real busy at Duck Commander. And he was happy to kind of sign on and help. So he was like, okay, well, I guess we're moving. I was like, I guess we're moving back. But by that point, it was like, okay, I know I'm going to have a family because I didn't want kids whenever I was in high school. I was like, no kids for me.

I'm doing whatever the heck I want for the rest of my life. You sound like another person listening in today, the fourth generation over there. Well, of course, that changes once you marry someone, meet someone you want to be with. So once we knew we were going to have a family, I was like, okay, I would rather live next to someone that's going to help me out and stay down here in Baton Rouge, which his family's in Baton Rouge at the time, which now they're kind of spread off across the country.

But Baton Rouge is a tough town to live in anyway. So, yeah, we came back up here. And at the time, y'all were still in the Calhoun house and there was a spare bedroom. And we did live there for a while. Yeah, a bit before we... For a few months before you guys bought the big house. And then Jay and Anna moved in with y'all.

We're just switching out, kids. So then there was another housing change, and it was like, well, y'all were like, well, we have a rim. Y'all can just come live with us. And I was like, that's too far. Nope. Pump the brakes on that. Love you guys. We're not going to live in the house with you forever.

You and your mom are both a little bit strong. So we've always said, Anna's much more compliant. So she's a little easier to. And what's crazy is that that's changed. Yeah. I mean, me and Anna used to be the ones that. butted heads and now, I mean, me and Alex don't butt heads, but we're both very opinionated. Yeah, you're strong.

Independent spirit. Uh-huh. So I live next door, but we have that big fence right between our houses, which I love. That's, it was, there was no fence there before. And I was like, we got to put a fence up there. I need some. A fence and a gate. Yeah. And you know, and a hole that we can see the kids' heads whenever they want to come over or the pets when they want to come in or out. So Alice's cats were in there. the other day taunting our dogs, which we thought was really funny. She's just sitting up there and saying, you can't get me here.

And they're just, you're just trying to. Yeah, the invisible fence ended like four or five feet away from my gate. And my cats were just sitting at the gate. Like, hello. You can't do anything to me. Just looking at them. So I guess the positives of kind of our lifestyle, the way it's been. And by the way, Willie and Corey have pretty much the same thing as what we're doing.

Because I thought their kids would leave. I mean, they're very independent. Sadie, of course, is their own rock star. But same thing. Once they all started getting married, they decided that so all their houses are right there. Right there. I think that that is a Robertson trait. The clannish compound stick together mentality is like it's not just like a, I don't know, an environmental thing.

I think it is a trait of Robertsons to be clannish and be together. Well, I want to say something here about that because I had to. such a relationship with granny. And, you know, they were like that. They lived like over in Vivian, you know, Irene, ain't Irene lived here. And then over here was, you know, you know, the hails and the other, you know, different ones last name and all that. And they were like had their own community.

Well, and you were like that to some extent as well because Ida is about, you know, it's four streets like this. That's right. And so you have a compound whether you like it. or not if you live in that town. And you also grew up, ironically, with a small business because Carraway's grocery, everybody worked there. It was the biggest business in town. Yeah, it was the only business down my. I hate to break it. Nothing else happened. There was a service station and post office. Well, the post office is a combination library, post office, city hall,

and police department. That's all in one building. And it's all about as big as a podcast studio in there too, by the way. Now, it was very small, but I just remember as a kid, you know, when I would go into the store, everybody was there from the family. Because they, you know, they had a butcher thing in the back and so somebody's cutting me. But everybody was an uncle, a cousin, an aunt, you know, grandmother, whatever. So it really was a lot like what our business became. Well, there's a story about this and A-N-Anne gets so mad about it. That's my sister. because when she grew up, her and Ronnie, which was our first cousin, they were almost the same age. So they had to work, work, work in store all the time.

Well, the eight years later, when I came along, well, I didn't work. What I did was over there by the heater or there's chairs where people, a lot of older women that were like widows or something, they were so lonely, they came up there. And they just loved to sit and just get one, they'd buy one thing from the, the store and they would sit well so i got to see and all that and so i decided to go over there and tell them stories i was making them up by the minute but those ladies laughed they felt like somebody cared about them i mean i just entertained the old people yeah right and i've been

entertaining old people well now you entertain the young people yeah i'm the old person now it's flip but just your uh abuse of the human language is entertaining for all of us Well, it's real. And I think another thing, reason why I think it's so good to have the compound, the Robertson compound, that we have is because we all cook really good. So if you want good food,

then you go to Mama's house, you know? Right. And so I think that's another, yeah, I think that's, you know, another reason, you know, that we all hang out together and we all do things together. And we kind of like each other. So I agree.

We start talking about what we're cooking for dinner at breakfast. Exactly. Planning the meals. Let's take another break. So I wanted to talk about food because it's such a, so when Lisa and I, we seem to be now in this stage of life, constantly either trying some new diet or whatever to try to lose weight. And mainly for health, but anyway, we went to this doctor a few years ago. We actually lost a pretty good amount of weight with him. And so it was like a three-hour psychology session.

before we ever got to, here's what we're going to do for the diet. I felt like I was in, he's not a psychiatrist, but that's what I felt like. He's talking about motivations of food and whether you're really hungry or not. He said, no, you're a pastor, right? And I said, yes, sir, I am. And he's a spiritual guy, believer. He said, well, I got two words for it. And you'll appreciate these two words.

He said, the first one is repent. He said, do you know what repent means? I said, yeah, I don't know what it means. He said, well, tell me what it means. I'm familiar. Yeah, tell me what it means. Well, it means to change. you know what you're doing and do something different exactly so what you've been doing has that

been working for you and Lisa nope so what do you need to do I need to repent all right so I said all right I'm on board you're right I preach it all the time he said the second word is divorce and I was like divorce what kind of program is that I was like so he could tell I was intrigued you know and I said I said what do you mean by that doc he said well you have to divorce you have to divorce your love for food. So he told me. I sat there a second. I said, Doc, I'm going to tell you right now, I'm all about a separation of my love for food,

but with a hope of reconciliation because I'm not divorcing my love of food. It's too ingrained in who I am. So we went back and forth about it. But it was interesting his take on it. And people I know that are just naturally skinny, it may not be just their metabolism, but a lot of most of them, they don't love food. Right. It's fuel.

It's like, I don't care what we eat. I got to eat a certain time. 12 o'clock, time to eat. Exactly. I got to get the fuel in and I got to go. But I want you all to describe from the women's perspective. And mom, we'll start with you because, you know, it started with you. Actually, it started even before that.

It's when the Robertsons, especially, I guess. Well, our nanny. When I grew up, yeah, when I grew up, my grandmother, I stayed with her half my life until I left. And all I did was when I was little, I watched her cook. I was always in the kitchen with her. And I was looking at cookbooks the whole time. And she was over there. And I remember I said, Nancy, you're rattling.

And what it was was all the pans. I don't know if she didn't have the right lid on them, but they were, blah, you know, there was always going like that. And she was always cooking, rolling out the dough, making those homemade pies. She made a lot of sweet potato pies, egg custard, chocolate, every kind. She was the one that your egg custard pie was hers.

Those are all my three favorite pies that you make. And, I mean, it was just in me. I mean, I guess you could say we did love food. But it wasn't just the food. She had a, we always ate in a regular kitchen if it wasn't a lot of people. But then she had the big pretty dining room, beautiful, and a big living room. And so if it's any kind of occasion, we got to eat in that. And I was so excited.

I remember as a little girl, you know, we'd have special little, you know, she'd had crystal and all that kind of nice dishes and everything. And I remember for special occasions, I would go in there as a little girl, and the table was all set and everything, and I'd just sit at the table with nobody. just nobody, and I just loved it. I just loved thinking about it. We were going to eat the turkey or what big roast or whatever she had cooked. And it was just important to me, and I loved it.

I loved the food, but I love the company. I love that we sat there and talked and laughed and, you know. So it's funny because they owned a store, you know, they owned the grocery store, but you'd think, like our kids now, grandkids, I mean, it's just candy all the time and all this. but she would only let me get when I'd stay with her in the summers. My memory's little bitty. I mean, I was, you know, like Pearl's age. And I could only get one thing of candy at the store. We'd go down the store.

I'd get one thing. That was it. And then, but she would buy a can of Eaglebrand milk, and she would open it up and put it in the fridge. So every night after supper, I got to get one spoonful of that Eagle Brand milk. But I just, I grew up loving that. You know what I mean? Those are some of my earliest memories. And they are connected to food, which is what I'm.

why I will not consider divorce. Let's see. I just have to have a lot of separations. And that's also why we never use anything other than Eagle Brand milk. That's it. That's the only one. Everybody in business, I'm going to cry. It's going to be bad.

So, babe, tell about how is coming into our family different from how you grew up? Because food wasn't a unnecessary love for it because your dad was like, he only ate like four things, as I recall. My dad was a meat and potatoes man. It didn't matter if it was boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes. potatoes or fried potatoes, baked potatoes. You're starting to sound like bubble of gum. He had to have a potato.

Tator tots, a hash brown. He didn't like any of that. It had to be, you know. But so that or chicken, you know, steak, something like that. But growing up, my mom, and I kind of did this even with our own kids, I didn't, She didn't allow me in the kitchen because she wanted it done a certain way. And she didn't want to, you know, she would work all day. She didn't want to take the time to teach me what she was doing.

So I never learned anything from her. Same thing with housework. I mean, I cannot stand to iron to this day because my mother, it had to be done a certain way. And I'm just like, then you do it. If it needs to be done, it's our way, you do it. And so, you know, I kind of pulled that trait in whenever we were raising our kids. But so she didn't love food. My mom did not love food.

She ate it, you know, strictly because she knew she needed to. She also worked in a grocery store, though, right? She was around food all day long. Well, she was around meat wrapper. So she was around meat all day. So she said by the time she got home, all she wanted was vegetables because you're handling that meat all. She's sick of it. Yeah, so she's sick of it.

But so whenever I came into the Robertson family, I knew nothing. I didn't even know how to boil water, you know. Luckily, we lived next door to mom and dad. That's exactly right. You were not the only daughter-in-law that didn't know. I mean, yeah. We had some more there. Yeah.

Didn't know anything. And there may be one that still doesn't know. We won't say who she is. We already did the other day, didn't. Okay, yeah. Talking with Sadie, we were talking about that. But, you know, whenever I came into the family, I learned how to cook a certain amount of things. Well, I mean, it's crazy now because one of those was, you know, tuna fish sandwiches and French fries.

So that was a meal. And fresh French fries. Yeah, not frozen. Yeah, not frozen. And then I learned how to do hamburger helper. because we were poor. Yeah. And cheeseburger, hamburger, helper.

Yeah. I mean, heck is good by itself. Yeah. And then, you know, then I would learn, then I learned how to cook eggs. And I mean, you know, I'm serious. I mean, very not things that you would consider to be a meal, you know, yeah, we're just going to have eggs and bacon and that's it, you know. Well, you could cook good eggs.

Yeah. She's the best out of it now. But now, the one thing that I didn't learn. from K and it was probably because I didn't have the patience is is the pie making ability. Yeah, the pie crust and all this. I didn't learn how to do the pie crust. I didn't learn how to do the biscuits. Although I, you know, she's taught BK. I could learn that for BK. I also didn't learn how to do her dumplings. No.

And so whenever I cook biscuits, it's Wap Biscuits. You know, you take them things and wop it on there. Pop it on the table. Yep, yeah. But I have learned how to do that well, you know, and I do it like cake, kind of put the butter in there, you know. And then, you know, I buy my dumplings. I don't make them. We kind of fell into that first, let's take another break. We kind of fell into that first generation of working, both of us working all the time.

And it does change a little bit about that because you were working with a company at home. And so, you know, what you did, you couldn't necessarily always. easily passed on. What's interesting is, is now it seems to come full circle because Alex, who has had to work, but she's worked in food business, is now doing a lot of those things that you never did, which is kind of interesting, you know, third generation. You're making your own packerous. You're doing some of the stuff. Well, I went to pastry school. And you did that. That helped. I've been a professional pastry chef by degree for about 10 years now.

Which means she makes all the birthday cakes for the family, the pedophores. Literally my profession. See, I never could do that. Right. Never. Because you just did. Those cakes and beautiful stuff. Mine tasted good, but it looked like.

An earthquake, earthquake cake. But I came into that the same way as mom a little bit later in life because everyone around me, including you, dad, you're a good baker. I remember many things you baked growing up. And so everyone around me cooked and everyone was really good at it. So it's like, why am I going to cook? They're cooking all this things. That's better than what I could make.

So I never did it. So I went to college and I had never made a grilled cheese. I was like, how do you make a grilled cheese sandwich? So I burned several before I figured out how it's done. But then start working in restaurants. then came to, I mean, I love cake. That's what I say. I became a pastry chef because I love cake. And if I'm a pastry chef, I'll just eat cake. I'll just make cake and then eat the cake. That's what I want to do with my life. So went to pastry school and then, of course, we had our

business together, Ms. Kay's Sweet Genese. Which again, so the name of our operating LLC was third generation of Washdale Parish. And it was really fun for all of us because mom and I and Lisa went in, you know, this business together, and then you wind up, you know, running it for us, and along with John Gimber, our cousin. And so it was really a great family thing for us. It was, it was sad when we had to close. It was mainly just because one of our employees, but two, just because it's something we all shared together, you know, having a business that centered around food.

And it, our restaurant here in town was an old building in downtown West One Row. It reminded me of carways. It was old. It was old. It was same era, 1920s. It was the first gas station in West Monroe in 1918. Exactly. So it was really cool.

It was just a lot of nostalgia there. And so, you know, some things don't last forever, obviously, especially with business. But the experience of it I'll always take with me and getting to do it with ours. And have our parties, like birthday parties there. That's what I missed the most. It was our spot to hang out as well as. Because we weren't open at night. So if we had a party or something, we had a lot of.

Uh-huh. Well, and it's funny, I'll add one more thing here before we go on what Memo K was saying about she would read cookbooks while her grandmother cooked. Every time we go down for Christmas or whatever, whenever I go to Kay and Phil's house, and I call them Kay and Phil sometimes because Memo K and Papa Phil gets a little bit laborious for the time. You can call me anything. Go to Kay and Phil's house, and what do we do? I'll go look through your immense cookbook collection and pick one, and then you, you can call me anything. You can call me anything. I'll go to go. You go to go. I'll go look through your immense cookbook collection and pick one, and then you can. You can, You and me all sit on the couch and say, oh, we got to make that. Oh, look at that. That looks so good. That's what we do is we look through cookbooks.

Usually I end up taking it home. Yeah. She bars. Which is fun. She won't miss it. So I'm going to shift gears. She didn't send that down to Anna, though. No.

She didn't get the cooking. Anna has a few things she does. She has a very good baker. She does very well. Probably about five or six. Her sweet potato. Oh, her sweet potato. Casserer.

for all the holiday events is fantastic. And she's got to wear cakes. You know, she does some cakes. Most of it just box cakes. But, I mean, she really does a good job. She loves to cook for people. She kind of takes after me. And she's so generous.

She loves to take people cookies or. Oh, and over there a few nights ago. And she had like 10 of them. She'd been baking all day. I was like, what is this for? She's like, well, I'm going to bring one to her teacher. And I'm going to bring one to Ms. Ann down in the neighborhood. And I'm like, all right, you just.

spend a whole day making cakes to give away for free. She loves doing it. I'm like, you can charge for that, you know. So I want to talk about the book, because I should have anticipated that when I was outnumbered, we would be struggling just to get our podcast in here. We're almost going. But Sister Roar releases this week, Tuesday, April 19th, just in time for a great Mother's Day gift. So if you're wondering something to buy for your mom or your wife, who may be the mother of

your children. Or your sister. Or your sister. But a lot of men cook too. That's true. They do. And a lot of men read, believe it or not. I know.

So they could read this book. A couple of things I want to say before we get into it. So we're going to have a Talk Shop Live promo for Sister Roar. It's going to be on Monday night, April 25th at 7 p.m. Central Time. And we've done, you know, talk shop lives before. They're really good because you're discussing the book. We're having fun, you know, while we're doing it. Sign copies are going to be available to purchase, of course.

Also, there'll be some giveaways. And if you miss it, you can tune in any time after it airs on Talkshop. Dot Live. So check that out Monday night, April 25th. Well, Kay and I always, well, I always wanted to do a book with Kay. I'm not sure she always wanted to do it. I did. But, you know, I always thought it would be something about grandchildren or something like that.

But we both do women's ministry. We just, we do it differently. Kay has groups all week that she meets with and talks to people on the phone all the time. I do mine a lot by email.

I do some one-on-one, of course, here, but then also where we live. And we just think that it's very important the female relationships, woman-to-woman relationship, because at any point

when you're struggling with something, you feel as though, and the evil one will tell you, you're the only one that's got that problem. Nobody else has got that problem. But there are always people that have been through exactly the same thing. So we need sisterhood. We need people to encourage us and walk through those struggles with us. But also we need, you know, the older women teaching younger women, how to be wives, how to be moms, you know, how to do this crazy thing. And called life. How to cook a grilled cheese sandwich? Yeah, how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich. And so that's what we wanted to talk about in our book is you need community. You need sisters in your life.

And you need to be able to share those really important things and allow God, you know, to heal you. yesterday I was talking to a girl and she said because I told her I said you need to confess your sins and she said you know just since we've been talking I feel like a burden has been lifted and I said well and she said a guy told me and it was Chad

she said Chad told her you confess your sins to God to be forgiven you confess your sins one to another to be healed. That's right. And so I thought that's excellent because she already felt better just since she and I had talked. So I just think it's, we think that Kay and I both think it's very important to have those relationships, to have the small group relationships with women in order to encourage and build one another up. So let's take a break. What was your experience like, mom well I was just listening to tell you what this brings back to me because I've worked with women for

what 30 years I don't know a lot a long time and much longer I'm telling my life how old I am the world but you know it was just so easy to me to have small groups of women and we just do a little lesson and then you always wind up confessing something or telling can somebody help me know how to deal with one of my children or my husband or, you know, they just, and everybody would, you know, tell, well, I've had that problem too and all that. It was just so good. And they would love me and love each other. And I just couldn't stop doing that. So it went on for so many years. And now I'm older, but I look back on that. And one night, this is so funny, Alan won't remember, but they were boys, probably teenagers.

And Jason woke me up at 2 in the morning. And I said, what's wrong? And he said, well, the phone was ringing, and we couldn't hear it in our room. And he said, and you've got to go talk to that lady. She's crying, and she needs you. And so I'm trying to just open my eyes, you know, and Jason said, you've got to hurry. You've got to hurry right now. She needs you right now.

So I got up and talked probably an hour and a half to a good. girl to talk her through her problems. And then so my kids learned early. Somebody calls for mom. There might be in real deep distress. So look, we got to get her. Yeah. So I didn't really grow up.

Most of, because you guys weren't Christians for, you know, the first half of them, or actually most of my growing up years. But then once I was a teenager and then mostly as a young adult and when Lisa and I got married, our compound, so to speak, was always full of community. groups, I mean, constantly, you know. That's right. And so that became part of my raising. Now, Alice, for you, it was the same thing because we were in ministry.

Without picking up the hitchhikers on the side of that. Yeah, it was a little safer maybe. Bring them home to feed them. Our community was a little more thought out. But mom had boys. We had girls. We thought about that. So what was it like growing up in a house of community?

Because the first house you probably remember had memories of literally was a house built, not built, but rented for ministry. I mean, it had multiple bedrooms. We had college kids living with us. You know, you got... And it's still there in the parking lot of a church now. It is. It is just kind of grown around it.

So what was your experience like with that, with idea of community and all that? Just kind of growing up and seeing it. It seemed normal. I mean, that's the way it was. Right. I think we had, excuse me, we had Willie living with us at one point. We did. We had our cousin Melissa.

living with us at some point. We had Kevin McIntosh living with us at some point. And it was just that, oh, they're going to be staying here for a while. I mean, it was totally normal. Bible studies, late night. Late night and run to the building and get baptized. All his pizza, you know, late night pizza runs. And that BJ's pizza was right there.

Oh, and that was some good pizza too. I wasn't mad at it. And then, you know, going out to camp all the time, Camp Chioca. and church volleyball leagues and pretty much every time the doors at the church were open, we were there. And so now I'm married to someone who grew up Catholic. And it's like, yeah, they're doing that thing. The church, are we going? Like, it's Thursday.

Yeah, but they're doing the thing at the church. Are we going? And it's like, but it's Thursday. Why don't we go to church on Thursday? So I'm not saying something bad about him, but, you know. That's the way you grew up. The way he grew up is that was it wasn't your lifestyle. It was just kind of a thing that you did.

And, you know, whether there's a lot of very devout and good Catholic people, of course. But it was just, it wasn't a lifestyle for him like it was for us. And we had house church in our, in our home every Sunday. I always thought that was really fun. And I'm a pretty social person. I love having people over and I love people having, you know, having them at my house and, you know, having friends and conversing. My husband is, uh, he's more introverted. So it's more of a struggle for him. But now I found that we are the hangout spot for all the neighborhood kids like Corbin.

So my son, Corbin is eight. And then there's a bunch of other eight year old kids in our neighborhood. And they're always at my house. And they're just coming in. And I'm like, yeah, just get just not, y'all get outside. I'm locking the door. Y'all go play outside. And so it's actually kind of nice to have that house where people are coming and hanging out. And, And, you know, I get to see other people's kids. And I don't know what their home life is like. But when you come here, you know, I'll feed you. And, you know, we'll play Uno or we play baseball out in the yard or go play basketball.

I still rollerblade. I'm pretty proud of that. Oh, yeah. She's good at it. 30-something-year-old woman. I'm a good rollerblader. So we'll go out and rollerblade and, you know, have fun. And a lot of times.

It's normal to me to have all that activity in your house. And because, like we said earlier, we have the opportunity to have our family at the core of our community. So we do life together. And that means we got teenagers. You know, we got one listening in today with us. So there are issues we have to deal with. Stuff happens.

And so as a family, we deal with that, both spiritual, physical, emotional. But we realize a lot of people, you aren't close to family. So that's why you need forever family. I think that's really kind of one of the core themes of the book, which is a big part of it. So we want to encourage you to get a copy of the book. I think it'll be a blessing to you. And it's really fun because, you know, dad's written several books, but you guys wrote Women Aduct Commander together with all the daughter-in-laws.

But I've just enjoyed watching y'all kind of go through the process together. Not only coming up with the content for the book, but then also working together to promote it and doing media together. I mean, it's just, it's really, you know, a lot of times that seems like a lot of work for people. But to me, it's a bonding that happens as well. And I love going through it with everybody. So you can get it in a lot. on Amazon.com or all the place you do. If you buy the book, I always encourage you to be sure and review it because that helps

other people wondering whether they're going to buy it or not. So whether you like it or don't, just you can be honest, but I think you're going to love it. And I do want to mention Amy McConnell, who is contributed and helped us help you guys put it together. I thought she, and also Beth Clark, who worked a little bit on the initial part of it. Yeah, she's written some other books with us. But, you know, writers are so unappreciated in this process.

They are. They are. They're gift for being able to take your stories and put them together. Also, Phyllis, part of her story is in this book, which is really powerful. Nothing's been written down. We've talked about it, obviously, a lot on the podcast. But that was an opportunity to introduce, you know, from her perspective, what it was like to come into our family and now a new community, which has been. She did part of the audiobook as well.

So you get to hear her tell it. Her voice. In her own voice. In her voice, yeah. And, you know, whenever you're a writer, you can, I mean, whenever you're the author, you can choose to have the writer's name on the front of your book or you can put it inside the book. But to me, I feel like I need to honor them by putting that on the outside of the book. Because she did an excellent job, you know, with this book.

And, I mean, she dedicated, you know, three months of her life to doing this. Well, y'all have the gift of the experience and the gift of telling stories and a lot of gifts, but she has a gift of writing. So she can take that and put it into something beautiful. We got to go. We're going to go to overtime because I want to ask you guys about the title, which we didn't have time to do that here. So we're going to do that. Talk about Sister Roar, why it is a roar. We'll do that in the overtime, which, by the way, it's blazedtiv.

dot com slash unashamed to subscribe to get the unashamed overtime. So as well as everything else on their platform. So I want to encourage you to do that. One mention before I go, I'm going to be in Ashland, Ohio on Thursday, May the 5th, 630 in the morning. It's a community prayer breakfast, which is also the National Day of Prayer. So check that out in Ashland if you want to hear that. And thank you so much for being here today on Unashamed.

Those of you that follow on Blaze TV, come on over and we're going to talk a little bit more. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to Blaze TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.