Just the Way You Are

Love Alive

"Okay, so Sutton this is the worksheet you need to do," I said passing her a paper from the binder her teacher prepared for us, "umm, here's a pencil and eraser. Easton, you need to practice your printing - letter X, like x-ray." I set them up at the table and turned see to Beckett who was watching a movie on the bed with Hunter. We were two days into the tour and heading to Memphis. Hunter had a coffee house before our performance. We got a second bus for Lynette and Leo to join us for the six weeks of our tour to help with the children. Unlike our other tours - these concerts had an opening act and then an hour and half straight of just Hunter and I.

I made a coffee while the kids worked on their school work, and I flipped through the binder to see we also had to cover some science and language. I shook my head realizing that this was going to be another job on top of the tour and being a mom. I decided to improvise a little by including music in some of the lessons. "Mommy - we're done." I looked over their work and after a few corrections on Sutton's math, I dismissed Easton to watch the movie and grabbed my guitar worked on some reading and singing with Sutton.

"Sutton can you read these lines?" She nodded, reading through it once. I tuned my guitar and explained to her what we are gonna do.

"Singing isn't just making noise. Mommy and daddy need to write our songs, and we have to read the words. When we sing someone else's songs, we need to learn their words. We're gonna sing this song together. I played trough 'Waiting on You' by Lindsay Ell once, Sutton applauded.

We read through it together before playing through it twice. I gave her a high five and let her watch the tail end of the movie with her brothers. Hunter walked up as I watched the video. "She's talented like her mama," he kissed my head, "that was a fun idea you had there."

"Thanks sweetie. Coffee is fresh by the way," He smiled and grabbed himself a mug, "I'm going to send the kids to grab dinner with your parents so we can do sound check." We pulled up to the venue for the night and got everyone situated. The crowd was amazing, playing with Hunter felt like home. We sang all our favourite duets, including a new one from Jason Aldean and Miranda, I played guitar for him in Rescue and he played piano for Everything. The night ended with an encore of I Want Crazy and called it a night. We removed the crib and turned the couch into a pull out bed for Sutton. Easton and Beckett shared the table as it switched into a bed at night.

By the second week, we were into a groove. I did homework with the kids while Hunter took care of entertaining Beckett. If either of us had obligations between radio or magazines, Leo and Lynette slid in to save the day. We were in Columbus, Ohio and we were informed that our show was delayed. "Yep, thank you for letting us know. We will just wait it out." Hunter closed the phone, his face was concerned, and he flagged me to the back of the bus and closed the door. "There was an incident,we have to cancel tonight and we will grab a hotel in Akron."

"What kind of incident?" Confused, I asked if it had to do with the venue. He shook his head and explained to me that there was a mass shooting at the university and it had been closed down which meant that the adjoined stadium would fall under closure. "Holy crap that is devastating." Hunter told me we were not allowed to leave the bus, neither were the band or his parents. I nodded, "Would we do a make up date?"

Hunter shrugged, "It's not entirely up to us." We retreated to the front of the bus where the kids were and I shook off the scary news and got everyone back on track. Hunter got a text that hotel arrangements were made at our next stop and we hit the road to Akron for tomorrow's show, "If anyone had tickets for Columbus, they'll be honored at Akron." I nodded and smiled as we ventured on.