Ghostrunners - 349 - Homeschooling, Conspiracy Theories, and Being Crunchy (with Kathryn Ellis and TJ Mousetis)

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

Brad’s wife, Kathryn, as well as good friend TJ Mousetis (from Walk In Love., Sunny Morrow, and all-around awesome dad) join Brad on this episode while Jake is cruising around Galveston!  Learn about Kathryn’s thoughts on being labeled as “crunchy”, homeschooling, and her honest thoughts on minivans.  TJ joins to talk conspiracy theories, setting boundaries on devices for your kids, and how to make millions off of Amazon Reviews. Help give the gift of water to those in need: https://give.healingwaters.org/ghostrunners  Check out Good Ranchers and use code GRKC http://bit.ly/3KV86YU Check out Main Street Roasters and use code GRKC at check out for a 10% discount! https://mainstreetroasters.com      Ghostrunners merch: https://bit.ly/399MXFu Become a Patron and get exclusive content from Jake & Brad: https://bit.ly/2XJ1h3y   Follow us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/33WAq4P  Leave us a voice memo and ask a question: https://anchor.fm/jake-triplett/message Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, you ready? I swear that is fake. That seems like a fake thing. I promise. Jake, Tymon, everyone will know that when you clap, it's to sync up the stuff. I promise. The stuff.

The stuff. Guys, we are here with the first lady of Ghostwriters Podcast. One of two first ladies now. Yes. The original first lady, Catherine Ellis. We're going to have a great time. We also, I also interviewed, did a little online interview with our friend TJ from Walk in Love for a little while.

It's going to be a fun episode. So stay tuned. Let's get into it. Uh-oh. Ooh, I think this tight beat means that it's going down with some random for a podcast. All right, Kath, thank you for being here, baby. You're welcome. Yeah, late night podding here. I know.

Post bedtime. This is, I think, the third night in a row that we were planning to record this. And we are finally here. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's been a little bit of a battle in the, uh, Ellis household recently with the kids. And, uh, yeah, there's been a few nights where it's like, well, the first night it was not about the kids. It wasn't great before. I don't even remember. It was a Jensen FaceTimed us. Oh yeah. We talked to him for like an hour and a half. Yeah. Yeah. Which

was great. Great. Yeah. It was really good, but it made it where it was like, okay, well, it was like, I don't think we should podcast night. And you're like, Oh no, of course. Yeah. And then last night I was like, are you ready to go? And you're like, are you kidding me? Like you really want to podcast? Well, last night. Yeah. Last night it was like nine o'clock and I was just starting the dishes and I don't know. I had two loads of laundry to fold and all that fun stuff. Yeah, all the regular stuff. And yeah, I just think I, we talked about it beforehand and you're like, I don't want

to talk, you know, whatever, too much about the bad things and the whatever and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, listen, I just want to be honest and be real and be like, I said, if nothing else, if my only influence on people is like that, they know that marriage and family is hard, but so, so perfectly, wonderfully worth it. That's, that's all I want in life. I think there's so many, so many people these days that are just always laughing off. Oh, marriage is so hard. Marriage is so, my spouse is so dumb, like whatever. My kids are so annoying. I can't wait for them to go back to school. And I'm like, I don't want people to think that, but I also don't want

people to think, oh, I can't do what Brad and Catherine are doing because they just love their kids and love their life all the time. Right. Right. And we definitely, honestly though, tonight was awesome. Today, today, this afternoon slash dinner was like, so fun. It was like night, literally like night and day of yesterday. Like, and I would say more normal for us. We have more of those days. Yes. And of the bad ones. Exactly. Exactly. That's why when you have the bad ones, it's like, Hey, it's okay to say, Hey, we had a hard day today. Yeah. Um, so yeah, had a hard, had a hard few days, but yeah, had a great, I don't even remember exactly what Bo said tonight at dinner, but I was like, did you hear that? That storm? Yeah. Sorry.

That was so loud. Big old. I didn't hear it probably as well as you did because I have my headphones on. Oh, yeah. That's why. That's truly why. That was so loud. Sorry.

No, you're fine. It's a fun time to podcast. I know. I know. I also love a good storm. I love thunderstorms and I love especially summer thunderstorms. I think are really fun. Yep.

Talking to the mic. I literally can't get closer to this microphone. You can get closer. And so it's kind of a bummer that we're stuck in this room with these bright lights and one tiny window with the blinds closed. I can't enjoy this storm. Yeah, just do the rest of the podcast. We'll open up the blinds and you can just watch out the window.

Oh, that'd be so fun. Dang, that is a good one. I know. I know. Anyway. Um, we get, we don't talk about a ton, but you also similar to storms, not truly, but same noises. You love fireworks and you got to enjoy some great fireworks on 4th of July. You want to tell some people about what we did? Sure. I'm not a very good storyteller, but yeah, we went to our friend Molly and Calvin Beck's parents' lake house. Yep.

Calvin's parents' lake house. Continue Good, the candle company. We've talked about them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was really fun. They live very far away from our house. No, I mean, far away while still being in vicinity of like a day trip. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's still in Kansas City. It was just far to get there. But totally worth it when we got there. The house is beautiful and amazing. The property is so cool. And it's on this lake, which is awesome. And you probably remember the story better than i do but this house got burned down yeah that's right yeah um yeah it used to be like this little two-bedroom fishing cottage and like these kids apparently had a huge rager like kids not not the becks like some like random kids that i guess stumbled upon

the house or something or broke in or something. But it's kind of funny that they even knew it was there because like when you turn into the driveway, it's very wooded. Like you, you know, you like take that little driveway in those country kids have been exploring though or something, whatever it is, like they got in, they had a rager. Somehow the cops found out there's a lot of things. I don't know about it. Somehow the cops found out. There's a lot of things I don't know about it, but the cops found out and there were, the kids were doing donuts in the yard or something. I don't know.

That's another detail. And so then like later on, like the next day, early in the morning, like 5 a.m., some guy, one of the kids went into the shed, the fishing shed. There was like a gasoline tank, poured gasoline all in the house, burned it down.

Burned it down. Yeah. I heard that story, like a semblance of that story from like three or four different of the Beck boys. And they all said, did they tell you,

yeah, there's a book in there actually. Yeah. Well, the funny thing is, I heard it from Molly, who's like the sweetest human on the earth. She was like, yeah, like I actually burned down. What? She was like, yeah, like I actually burned down. What?

She was like, yeah, I mean, they have a book with pictures in it, but you know, it really was a blessing in disguise. Now they call it the Casa de Fuego. Okay. Yeah. I mean, yeah, now it is like, I mean, they, yeah, they took. They took the insurance money. Yeah.

And obviously rebuilt and it's, it's a cool house now. It's really fun anyway. So we were down there um which was great and oh can i tell sorry real quick can i tell the story of the uh um gingerbread house did you hear about this yeah that was so weird you think it's weird i loved it well okay again i i got it from molly and molly because i was saying next year when i was like yeah it's just like something they do oh this is like such a okay this is such an Ellis triplet future thing I feel like like this is something that honestly if it were to happen to one of our families the triplets would

be on the gingerbread house side of things I think so um the Petersons another another close family family of the Becks uh have been coming to this fourth of July celebration with the Becks, uh, have been coming to this 4th of July celebration with the Becks forever. And, uh, they, one year, I think Mr. Peterson realized, found, found this gingerbread house that they had decorated. This family had decorated in December for Christmas, like in June or July. And he's like, this is ridiculous. We're taking this with us to the 4th of July celebration and we're blowing it up with a firework. And so now it's tradition every single year. They keep their gingerbread house. They bring it from Christmas. They keep it around until the 4th of July. They bring it to the Beck's house and they blow it up together. And the funny thing is I was talking, it must've been me, Molly and Rachel that were standing there because Rachel was like, Oh, do they just

keep it? Like, do they just put it in the freezer or something there because Rachel was like, Oh, do they just keep it? Like, do they just put it in the freezer or something? And Molly was like, no, actually they just put it on the bookshelf. Oh, there's a gingerbread house. Just chill on a bookshelf for six months.

Yeah. They call it Casa de Ginger. Yeah, I know. I was like, yeah, I, I love,

I love it. I love everything about it. I can totally see not really as much as Jake, but Rachel just being like, Oh yeah, I guess we have this house. I don't know. I love everything about it. I can totally see not really as much Jake, but Rachel just being like, oh yeah, I guess we have this house. I don't know. I just didn't think about it. Yeah, exactly. I put it on the shelf and forgot about it. I mean,

the same family that leaves it out for five months is probably the same one that's going to be okay to keep it out on the shelf. Yeah, I forgot about that. So yeah, Hattie and Rosie. The funny thing about that though, when they okay, put it, like keep it out on the shelf. So, so yeah, Hattie. Okay. But the funny, the funny thing about that though,

when they were blowing them up, like the, there were other babies and kids there. And like the baby, the mom with babies were like, yeah, we're going to go inside when they blow off the fireworks. I'm like,

some little kids had like headphones on and they were like, oh, is Henry sleeping? I was like, sorry. I was like, no, actually Brad's holding him, I think. And I look out in the field and Brad and Henry are practically like lighting the match. Oh my gosh. I was like, oh, there's my four month old.

That is so inaccurate. We were a hundred yards away from this thing. You didn't see where it was getting. Did you see? Yeah, it was over thing. You didn't see where it was getting. Did you see? Yeah, it was over there. You didn't see. By the soccer goal. Oh, and I had him in like a kind of a football hold and was, yeah, getting one ear covered

by the chest, one ear covered by the bicep. Okay, good. And then I don't know how much Bo was putting his hands over his ears, but he was trying. Okay, good. But yeah, Hattie and Rosie were like, yeah, deathly afraid of fireworks right now. Yeah. Yeah.

Bo, totally fine with them. So anyway, fun time at the Beck's. Anything else you want to say about the fireworks or was it just a great time? It was a great time. Yeah. I ended up leaving with the kids, but I knew how much Catherine loved fireworks. I was like, just go home with Jake and Rachel.

Isn't that nice? Nice guy. Nice guy. Nice guy. Yeah. So anything else? Not really. Fireworks were great.

They did them on the other side of the. What? Sorry. They did it on the other side of the little lake. And so the reflection on the lake was beautiful. Sorry. I was just thinking of like in my head. I was did anything happen any weird explosions no they didn't and this is very morbid but i actually kind of love those firework videos that like what go wrong oh like

have you seen the one but not like truly terribly wrong no not when people die or well you said morbid and so i was like oh i just mean morbid of like they're scary you shouldn't laugh at them guilty pleasure but the one the one with all those kids well yeah it's like the ring doorbell yes the camera and they're just like lighting them off in the street and they go nuts and again it's scary i should not be laughing but like if moms are like yanking their babies out of the walkers and like running for the hill. Well, the one I'm thinking of, there's like one explosion that's like,

whoa, that was kind of crazy. Let's maybe get our kids. And then there's another one in like the driveway that like just blows up a car basically. And all of a sudden it's like, I don't care how you pick up that kid, just lift him up and run. I watched it three times in a row.

Oh, really? I think it's so... You love explosion videos. I was going to say, I love the one of Jake. Yeah. And the football thing. I still don't understand what that thing is. Football fire extinguisher or something.

Oh, Tymon, can we put that in right now? Oh, gosh. Throw it in. It's been in here probably multiple times. Doesn't matter. Throw it in again, Tymon. All right, so we're with our friends John and Carson again in their epic slow motion camera

and they have an idea to fire extinguish your ball. He died doing what he loved, checking to see if wolves were ticklish. I like that. I like that. Whoa.

I got nailed. Wow. That was wild. I just flipped out of my chair. That was so wild. I think my right ear might have permanent damage.

I can't hear. hear yeah it's so funny okay so nothing i wish we had it on the tv right now because i would cry he died doing what he loved seeing if wolves were tickling oh my gosh katherine could watch it 20 times in a row katherine's not like just like sit on her phone and die laughing at things but that for whatever reason gets you every time. So yeah. What are some good memes I've sent you lately? Oh, the one that we think was funny.

Like, I think I sent it to you recently. I can't remember what you sent me, but like there was that one where it was like what I hear when my wife tries to tell me something three, you know, three rooms away. And it's like this little baby going at the baby, something like that. Because you get onto me for that all the time. Yeah. Like, Kath, I can't hear you. Time. We'll put that in right here too. Yeah. That's enough. I hate it. I little kid. I refuse to communicate with you like that. I just will wait and I won't respond to you at least. I'll just come into the room and talk to you because I can't do it.

I love a good meme. I love a good babble on B. I'm trying to think of some good ones right now. I don't know. And I can never tell them and give them justice. But yeah. Anyway, this is the first time you've been on. I mean, I think you've been never tell them and give them justice. Right. But, um, yeah. Anyway, um,

this is the first time you've been on, I mean, I think you've been on like now three or four times, but first time you've been on since Henry. Yeah. Um, how'd you feel about the fact that we held that secret from the ghosties for so long?

Um, I felt fine. It wasn't really that big of a deal to me until probably the last like month, maybe, maybe a little bit longer than that. Yeah. I don't know. Um,

I've just like, when you would take pictures of me or when you would post pictures of me, it was like, okay, well don't post that one because I'm large. Or like when we were doing Instagram lives a bunch and it was like. Oh, yeah, that was funny. You'd come in, but you'd only be up.

It was kind of fun, though, because it was like, okay, they can't see me. If you only knew. And no one will ever, like no one in our community at least is going to be mean enough to be like, whoa, looks like Catherine's put on a few pounds. You know? Yeah. And so, yeah, no comments like that or anything. So, so yeah, it was, it was fun. It was fine. That was all your idea. Was it? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if you ever explained that. I don't remember.

It kind of, I don't remember the conversation or how it went. It kind of started because I was around like 14 weeks. Yeah, 14 weeks pregnant, I think, at Grande Boo. Yes. And you were like, I want to tell. I want to announce it at Grande Boo. Right. And I was like, well, I don't know. We had had a miscarriage before Henry,

and so I was kind of slow to, to telling if you've ever had, if you've ever experienced that you're, you're kind of nervous, you're not going to go around. And so you're just kind of nervous to tell. So at 14 weeks, which is still like a good time to tell it's a normal time to tell, but I was like, I don't know. It's still like, I just don't feel good about it. I don't want you to share. And so he was like, yeah, okay, that's fine. So he didn't. And then after that, I don't know, I guess it was like a week or two after that, I must have asked like, okay, or maybe I said then of like, yeah, I feel okay now, 16 weeks.

Like you can tell if you want to. You're like, I don't know. I don't think I will. And I was like, what? You're like, yeah, I just think I'll just tell him when Henry's born. Okay. Sure. Sure, why not? Yeah yeah so that was kind of how it came about so do you have any announcements to make no four months no postpartum now four months um no okay just quick summary from your perspective how is being a mother of four how is time with Henry been? Anything you want to share about?

Being a mother of four, interestingly enough, I feel like I have been the most productive being a mother of four because if I'm not holding a baby, I'm like, go, go, go. This is precious time. Quick to the dishwasher, quick to the washing machine. Yeah, whereas before I feel like, not that I was lazy before, go, go, go. This is precious time. Quick to the dishwasher, quick to the washing machine. Yeah. Whereas before I feel like, not that I was lazy before, but I feel like

it's easier to like squeeze in like, oh, I'm just going to lie on the couch for a few minutes. Or I'm going to sit in this chair and scroll for a few minutes or whatever. And now it's like, no, which honestly I do kind of like, I mean, it's not like there's never an afternoon where I sit in a chair, but I'm just saying I do like it because it makes it where when I get to bedtime, I do kind of like. I mean, it's not like there's never an afternoon where I sit in a chair.

But I'm just saying I do like it because it makes it where when I get to bedtime, I can truly relax. Yeah. I'm like, no, I don't need to do any household stuff right now because I've been doing it all day long. So I like that part of it, I guess. There's something about that. I don't know what it is, but sometimes the busier you are, the easier it is to stay disciplined in anything. Because it's like I don't have time in the luxury to be lazy

and get off track right now. Yeah. Which if you're a mom of one and you feel that way, that is valid. Because I think you've probably felt that way to an extent with every one of our kids. But it's just a matter of like, it continues to add on and change and everything. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. The other part of your, well, just Henry in general, I think you would say that Henry is our hardest baby. And it's so funny because in some ways, like I'll say that I'll be like, yeah, he's he's probably been our hardest baby. And so much of it to me

is maybe recency bias of like, well, he's the hardest baby because we're going through it right now with him. But people will always be like, oh, he's really hard because he's not sleeping through the night. And it's like, well, no, he's actually been sleeping through the night really well.

But like, what is... He's just hard. Well, okay. In his defense, poor little guy. He had thrush for a while, which is like, they get these little sore things in their mouth and they can, they can be not comfortable. So nobody would like that. So anyway, so he had that off and on and we just like, couldn't seem to get rid of that for him. He was for a long time.

Yeah. Yeah. Months. I don't know. I truly don't know i truly don't know um he was gassy like pretty uncomfortably gassy and so that was difficult obviously uncomfortable yep um and just really he just had a lot of tension um we he went to the chiropractor for a long time and i feel like even the chiropractor was like oh you need to see this

other lady that does this other kind of therapy he just seems to have a lot of tension so like okay which that was actually really cool like she was like a voodoo miracle worker okay but not truly voodoo no christian woman oh yes oh my gosh amazing christian woman talk about if you want what she did i wasn't in, I wasn't in the appointment. So cool. Um, she was like doing some wild. Yeah. So it's called CFT, which stands for cranio fascia therapy, treatment therapy, probably. Anyway. Um, I don't know exactly what that is. I don't know how to explain it to you. Um, it's similar to like to a chiropractor. So it works with like their nervous system and,

and tension and whatnot. Um, but she, so yeah. Okay. So the crazy, I mean, she did lots of things.

She, the first appointment was an hour, did lots of great things, um, to release a lot of tension. But one thing she did is she was holding him. This is going to be hard if you're just holding him with one one hand like behind his neck and the other kind of on his legs. But she was like twisting him like upside down and sideways and like all these things.

And I said to her, we were in my bedroom, our bedroom, and it's carpeted. So I was like, you know, whatever. I guess if he falls, it's on carpet. That's when you know it's like a wild appointment. I mean, if your rationale is that. I know. I whatever. I guess if he falls on carpet, that's when, you know, it's like a wild appointment. I mean, if your rationale is that I know I did, I did, I had that thought. But anyway, I did say to her, I was like, listen, I trust you a hundred percent. I really do. Like, I'm not worried. You're necessarily going to drop him, but I am so impressed that you're not dropping him. Like, it was just like, I was like, oh my gosh, what are you even doing? Anyway, and so one thing she explained is she was like, I'm actually not like, I'm not really doing this.

He's moving like this. I'm just holding him in a way that is allowing him to make these movements. So the example she gave is she was like, you know, in the morning we stretch out. Well, she was like, well, babies can't do that. Like they can't like arch their back and bend their head back. They don't have head control, you know, nothing like that. So they can't really. And when we do that, that's releasing tension, tightness, whatever. Anyway, babies can't do that on their own. So she was like, that's what I'm doing. And so she kind of

taught me, it was pretty interesting. Cause she like taught me kind of how to hold him and like on the changing table and stuff. And she was you can feel him like you can feel his body like naturally kind of move that way anyway so she just taught me like here's how you like you can hold him like this and you know it'll help him like release some of that tension anyway it was amazing and he was like so tense like when she got like before like visibly like oh like like hands and fists yeah like but like on his chest like just like this like all the time and by the end like she was like his hands were open you could like you could lift his arm like i like trying to give him baths and like oh my gosh like it was like

prying his arm up i was like dude anyway it was it was wildly noticeably different. Oh my gosh. Yes. And I like that helps him so much. So she's seen, or he has seen her twice now. Yeah. He's got one more appointment with her. Um, and I feel like that was huge, huge. Just like, yeah. Yeah. Helps so much.

So anyway, so yes, he has been our most difficult. Just recently he's turned a nice quarter. Yes. been our most difficult just recently he's turned a nice quarter yes and i've always said and i've always said three months is like the sweet spot like if you can get to three months if you can get there mentally emotionally if you can get there um it's like game changer i feel like that's when their personality starts to come out they start start laughing. They start smiling. Like you as a mom finally are like coming out of the fog of less sleep and postpartum recovery and all that kind of stuff. And so it's like, okay, cool. I can do this. And Henry just turned four months, which I feel like is very on par for him to be like a month late to that. But, um, but yeah,

he's great now. I mean, he's like so fun. Oh, he's so cute. He's so fun. He's the cutest baby we've ever had. I think. Do you think? No. Really? I mean, I think he's very cute. No, no.

Who is then? Honestly. I don't know. I think it's him. Maybe. He just looks like such an old man though. That's what's so cute. I don't know.

Like just yesterday, like I could barely see like his, like his hair on his head was like just combed a little one way. And I just imagined like when you have more hair, which is impressive because he has no hair. It was like the right angle, like in the sunlight or something. And I was like, oh my gosh,

you're going to be such a cute little two year old. Like, and when he smiles, I do love, I, well, I love two yearyear-olds in general two-year-olds or it's like my favorite age um and rosie just entered that age and i love it um but

there is something about two-year-old boys i had that thought just a couple days ago of like i'm so excited for you to be two you're gonna be so cute um okay so cft not completely the crunchiest thing in the world but it's one of those things where it's just like okay like it's not normal someone hearing that be like you what you flip your you do you know pommel horse with your baby and that's not all she did no she's a lactation consultant as well like yes yeah yes but hey anybody out there with newborns struggling with that kind of stuff? Look into it. CFT. All I have to say, I have been on a crunchy journey myself, thanks to you.

You're welcome. So many things that I would have just been like, that's ridiculous. Some things I still do think are ridiculous, but because of you, I think that's one of the things that people know about you to an extent is like, okay, Catherine likes things natural sometimes or whatever. Like, uh, so people have asked on this episode for you to talk about some of that stuff. What does it mean for you in your eyes? What does crunchiness mean personally?

Sorry, without getting too much into the weeds, I feel like, and maybe it's just because I'm getting more used to you. Maybe it's the algorithm that I'm getting sent on my social medias, but I feel like crunchiness, natural minded, whatever it is, is getting way more mainstream than it was when you probably started thinking this way seven years ago or something like that. Um, but it just, it just, yeah. So what is, what does crunchiness mean to you and how, how crunchy do you consider yourself? Okay. Without getting too, I don't know, cheesy, deep. I don't know what the word is. I remember when I, um, kind of started getting into essential oils, which was like Hattie was probably our only

child at the time. Um, I was such a hater. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What else? No. I still, sorry. I don't know about essential oils. That's fine. Yeah.

Because they're in the Bible, but whatever. No, I'm not saying that there's no benefit. Whatever. Go ahead. Anyway, essential oils. When I first started getting into those. They're in the Bible. That, yeah, I started learning about them and what they are and how they come from plants and herbs and, you know, nature and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it really is cool. Like once you start to study that, um, that like it's, I don't know, sorry. That like the Lord created all of it. Yeah. And it's cool to think that like way back in the day, if you want to go all the way to like Adam and Eve or Noah or Abraham or any of those people, obviously they didn't have modern medicine, but it wasn't like they would get a cut and be like, Oh, I'm screwed because that's now it's going to get infected and I'm going to die.

Please don't say screwed. Sorry. Just kidding. Sorry. I'm just kidding. I was trying to think of another word to say that would be funny. And I don't know. Cause I'm not that funny.

Um, anyway, but you know, they had all these natural things. Like they would put different plants and they knew like the different plants and the different,'t know, cause I'm not that funny. Um, anyway, but you know, they had all these natural things, like they would put different plants and they knew like the different plants and the different, you know, whatever herbs and, and, and whatever. I don't know what all it was or is, but, um, on it, that is very healing or very, you know, whatever.

Like if you get into herbal remedies, it's amazing. Like it is so cool. And I think it's so cool that the Lord gave us all of that, that we have all of that. I think modern medicine is cool too, obviously. I'm very thankful for antibiotics and all that good stuff. But I do think there is absolutely like first line of defense is natural stuff because why not? It doesn't have, you know, side effects or anything like that.

Anyway. So when it comes to crunchy, I feel like a lot of the crunchy stuff is a lot of just like going back to nature, going back to basics, if you will, like just getting away from any artificial, right?

Whatever, anything, which is becoming more and more like hard to do in our culture. if you will, like just getting away from any artificial, whatever, anything. Which is becoming more and more like hard to do in our culture. Oh, gosh, yes. Everything these days, how you consume almost anything is becoming very difficult to do that in. Oh, gosh, yes. Which you could say too then,

which is the amazing thing about the human body, the fact that our bodies can process and like detox from just the, the load of artificial and chemical and all that kind of stuff. Like our bodies are amazing. However, I do feel like the number one, like health thing that I think about a lot is detoxing because our bodies are just like bombarded with toxins in our everyday life. And so I think that's like one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself is just a detox. So scale one to 10, Catherine Ellis, how crunchy are you? I mean, on my scale, I mean like in my world compared to a lot of other people, I'm

probably, I'm a five. Okay. I think to the average American, I'm probably an eight. Give me an example of somebody who's a 10 crunch. Oh, gosh. In your eyes. Like something that people have never heard of probably. I don't even know. 10 crunch is like they make everything. Like they make their own tallow sunscreen.

But they never use never that i do that but they never use it because safe sun you know like they don't need it because they're out and because okay because instead of using tallow sunscreen they would just eat a whole bunch of carrots that morning because carrots it's not really carrots i don't remember what it is but carrots are proven to protect your skin from the inside out from the effects of sun. Okay. Like that's their sunscreen. Okay. Eat this herb. So it's more like to me, crunchy, it's crunchy. You can also mean like hippie ish. Like they don't shower or they don't whatever. Oh yeah. They don't shave. Yeah. Yeah. Don't shave their

armpits or they don't like brush their hair. I know some people. For what reason? Not like purposely. I don't know. Or maybe it's just adjacent like personality to. I don't know. I don't care about that as much. Some of the other crazy things that lady does. You're thinking of a specific person?

Absolutely, I am. No, I think she's very smart. You want to call her out? Knows a lot of stuff. No. Because I respect her and she knows a lot and i really appreciate her and i love like her resources and the things that i've learned from her but on the other hand i'm like girl is it's not the lady i'm i like probably not

no my girl holistic hilda holistic hilda look into her y'all she's so cute okay go see this that time. Uh, once again, every single week we are sponsored by main street roasters. Once again, it's time for us to talk about them. Main street roasters. They're simply the best, simply the best, uh, single origin coffees. They got them blends Miller morning blend, other blends where they take two different types of coffees, throw them together, make them delicious. They got them. Small batch creations. Yeah, they got those two. Flavored coffees. Of course, they have tons of those. Single serve K-cups. Yeah, they got them. You can even get your coffee custom labeled for that special event in your life

for a special gift, whatever it may be. They have gift boxes. They got all sorts of goods. They got gift cards. Just check them out. It's mainstreetroasters.com. Their promo code is GRKC for 10% off. Once again, it's just one of those things that at this point, it's just a no brainer. If you're going to drink coffee, you should drink Main Street Roasters. Okay? What else do I need to say? Right? Just go and get it. All right? MainStreetRoasters.com. GRKC, 10% off.

No, no, no, no, no. It's not her. She seems normal. I don't think you know this person. Okay. This one that I follow. But anyway. Do you have any current crunchy obsessions?

Kicks? Kicks, if you will? Crunchy kicks? Sure. My current crunchy kicks kicks it's kind of hard to say crunchy kicks uh ever heard of dry brushing me or is that the thing on your face no what's that called i don't know like where you roll something oh like the um yeah i don't think that's crunchy well i don't know that's a i don't know what you call that thing eye roller no that

you stick in the freezer yes yeah freeze roll people say it feels really nice i have one somewhere i should find it um no not that no dry brushing is where you get like a like a brush is it wet or is it no i'm trying to think what kind of brush it is i don't know how to explain it anyway horse horse brush but you like sure like a horse you can buy it like a... I'm trying to think what kind of brush it is. I don't know how to explain it. Anyway. Like a horse brush? But you like, sure, like a horse brush. You can buy it at a vet or something. Horse brush. But you brush your skin when you're dry.

Oh. And it's supposed to stimulate your lymphatic system, help with detoxing. Okay. Anyway. You're doing that? I'm doing that. When? Before I get in the shower.

Really? Got a little brush in my cabinet. Because after the shower, you would not be as dry. Normally, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Anything else? Ever heard of castor oil packs? Yeah, you're into that.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a little something. It is a little something. But it's easy. Here's the thing, guys. These things are easy. I'm like, even if it's not like changing my health 100% the next day, like why not?

It's not hurting me, you know? It takes two minutes tops. So I'm like, why not? It's got to be benefiting. I'm trying to think of the things that I'm like real into right now myself. I saw a video. Have you seen or heard like, I mean, it's biblical. Like in Leviticus or

something like that, talking about don't wear wool and linen on the same day. What? Yeah. But there's some kind of like, I don't know. We could, you could look it up if you want ghosties. But there's something about like wearing both those things together are not good for your body or something. Anyway, there's, there's, there's so many people out there like don't wear polyester. Don't wear. Oh yeah. Don't wear a hundred percent cotton or linen. Don't wear a

hundred percent. No, no, I'm sorry. Don't wear polyester. Wear cotton. Wear organic. Unless it's from rollback GRKC 20. Um, yeah, yeah. But like, yeah, don't wear whatever. Yeah. But there's like studies that are like, if wear those two two things together they're not beneficial to you if you're wearing wool it's beneficial to you linen is beneficial to you but if you wear them together it doesn't benefit you i don't know pretty interesting i mean it's one of those kind of like you're saying like hey god has given us these things these natural resources anyway um my other current crunchy i just thought of is I'm making my own kombucha. Yeah.

Have you tried it yet? I have. I think I'm not going to try that. No, it's good. It's good. I like kombucha from a place that I would buy it at the store. No, no. It's good.

Actually, you really should try it. I actually need to take it out. I need to take it out of the jar. I don't have any of the flavorings yet. But I took it out and Hattie and I tried it. Hattie had a cup. Hattie likes everything. Yeah, but she is. Hattie and I tried it. Hattie had a cup. Hattie likes everything. Hattie ate that dessert the other night.

The rest of the kids were like, Bo didn't eat her whole dessert. Bo was like, yeah, I didn't eat that. Yeah, we're at a friend's house. I was like, how's the dessert, buddy? Oh, I had a bite. I had the strawberries. I was like, uh-oh, that's not a good side.

I know. Okay. But yeah, kombucha. No, it's good because you've tried to make it before. I know this one's better. This is way better. I promise that was that. Well, whatever. That's not that interesting. Go ahead. No, that's great. Let's kind of move on. I don't want to, you know,

do this forever because we have stuff with TJ and I know that your time is valuable. Hey, people don't care about castor oil packs. So, Oh, what is that?

First of all, like it makes you sleep, right? Or something. Um, it helps with sleep. It helps with detox is another big one. Castor oil is a,

um, I don't know. Is that the thing that you could take when like to do labor? Yeah. I'm actually terrified of it. One of our friends like took it very typical of this friend i'm not gonna call her out very typical of this friend she was pregnant and decided she wanted to do natural induction which i don't

well whatever anyway so she does but she but very half-heartedly like she's like i don't know i thought i would like maybe give it a try. And so I was like, well, how did you do it? I've been terrified of castor oil as a labor-inducer thing because you hear horror stories. Anyway, so I was like, so what did you do? She was like, I was like, did you put it in a smoothie or something? She was like, I don't know. Because I was like, well, how much did you take?

She was like, I don't really know. I just poured some in my cup. Ew. What? And like once I researched it later, not like after that conversation, but anyway, as I was pregnant, they suggest like one tablespoon. And this girl did more than that. She had a baby quick.

So quick. I mean, she got to the hospital. I think the baby was there within an hour or something like poor thing she did it all natural she was like that was not my plan i was supposed to get an epidural and it was not happening and i was like well yeah you basically drank a bottle of castor oil oh that's amazing anyway um so yeah so you put it on this on this um it's kind of like a little towel. You pour a little bit of castor oil on it and then you can put it over different things, whatever.

But I put it over my liver and I sleep in it. And your liver is obviously what like detoxes. And so it helps that, like stimulates that to do its job even better. Helps you sleep. Yeah. Probably more stuff than that, but that's all I can think of right now. Castor oil. Google it. All right. Uh, let's go from one kind of, yeah, one hot topic to another here. Um, let's talk about homeschooling a little bit. Um, not as hot button, but like whatever things that set you apart a little bit, I guess. Um, let's talk about homeschooling a little bit. Okay. Um, not as hot button, but like whatever things that set you apart a little bit, I guess.

Um, things were doing a little differently. Um, I guess whatever for, for the sake of not talking too extenuously about all this stuff. Um, you were homeschooled growing up. Your whole family was pretty much your sister near the end of her schooling career went to a private school but um yeah i think that definitely obviously played a role in us homeschooling um what else do you would you consider like some of the biggest benefits some of the biggest reasons that we decided to homeschool um i think we decided to homeschool? Um, I think we decided to homeschool because we wanted to be the number one influence in our kids' lives, especially at a young age. And it's hard to be the most important

influence when you're not around them for eight hours a day. Um, so I think that was a really big one for us of, we didn't want to outsource't want to outsource the teaching and training of our kids. Yeah. I think this was not the biggest reason we chose it, but one of my big reasons now, I think, and after having done it for a couple years now, is the time that our kids get together. I really, really, really love. Yeah. I really love it. We mentioned that once a really love. Yeah. I really love it. We, we mentioned that once a week probably.

Yeah. Um, yeah, I think their relationship is stronger because of it and will continue to be stronger. And, and, and I think with that, like it helps teach, you know, like, I don't know, they are around each other a lot. So obviously there is, there does come a point when they're on each other's nerves and you know, like they don't get along and they don't like, I don't know, but there's so much teaching in that and so much training on, okay, here's how you have conflict and here's how you do it right. And here's how you like, I don't know. I, yeah, even today, I don't know, maybe this is the wrong thing to do, but this is what I did. Um, I told the kids that they had to clean.

Hattie was outside and Bo was in the playroom and I was like, okay, once I'll get like clean up for like three minutes or how he was in the basement, it doesn't matter. Anyway, clean up for three minutes and then y'all can have a popsicle outside. I was like, but y'all all like everybody has to be done cleaning until anybody can have

a popsicle. And so Hattie was cleaning, Hattie was cleaning. And honestly, she didn't even clean that well. I went down to the basement later tonight, but anyway, uh, she Hattie was cleaning. And honestly, she didn't even clean that well. I went down to the basement later tonight. But anyway, she was supposed to be cleaning.

And then she comes up to the playroom and I'm like poking my head in the playroom. And Bo is almost done. But he has a couple of things. It's not really that bad in there, but it's a couple of things to be done. And I was like, can I have my Popsicle? Can I have my Popsicle? And I was like, no, you got to wait until Bo's done cleaning. And he's not finished yet. And he was working, you know, whatever. And I was like, H gotta wait until Bo's done cleaning and he's not finished yet and he was working you know whatever and I was like Hattie you could help him and it would go faster you know

you could get your prop school sooner and then I had to walk off I went to go get I was like I'm gonna go get Rosie up will you you help him so I can get done faster and I was getting Rosie up and changing her diaper and whatnot and long story short hattie never helped him and she was like playing some game at the dining table and i was like why didn't you help him she's like well i just i just didn't really want to and i said okay well you don't get a popsicle oh snap i was testing you and you failed i didn't mean to test her but but I thought that was not right. I know I didn't say point blank, go in there, clean that up with him. She didn't disobey. No, she didn't disobey, but that was not.

How'd she take that? Yeah, you can imagine. Hattie doesn't get disciplined very often. Because she's pretty good most of the time. Yeah, which I think, anyway, so things like that stick with her. And I wanted to stick with her of like yeah hey help brother out literally like help him that's the nice thing to do it's not like hattie's never nice she is but that was like i don't know she literally like looked at him and was like i don't want to do that and walked away you know selfish

or yeah whatever like self-centered was not putting the needs of somebody else before her own. We tried to teach, Hey, we're a team. Yeah. So I liked, I liked the idea, whatever. I'm not trying to teach you how to be a mom. You're you're a great mom. But I, I like saying like, Hey, we need to clean up the basement. We need to clean up the playroom. Like y'all start in your own places. But if one of you guys gets done first, do the other, but then that's not teaching them to do it on their own, I guess. Well, and like I said, I kind of was a little bit intentional about not saying, okay, you're done now. Go in there, help him like finish up the playroom. I know you didn't do it, but finish up the playroom. Yeah. I kind of was testing

her. I wanted to see what she would do. She chose wrong. Okay. Let's talk more about homeschooling. Sorry. Common misconceptions of homeschooling that people have that I feel like we have friends that are like, I could never homeschool. Yeah. Those people, anyone can homeschool. Truly anyone.

If you love your kid, you can homeschool. And I'm not saying if you like spending 24 hours a day with him, I'm saying if you don't homeschool, you still can love if you like spending 24 hours a day with him i'm saying if also if you don't homeschool you still can love your kid oh well duh if you love your kid no that's not what i meant that's not what i meant yeah i'm just saying yeah it's yeah i was gonna say it's easy okay but common misconceptions um i think one of them them is I had in my head that homeschooling meant doing elementary school just like public school, just doing it yourself. Yeah, not that at all.

Like recreating the school at home. That is not what it is. For Hattie, it was literally like not even every day. For sure not every day. Yeah, probably not. And definitely never more than an hour. Yeah, no, not for kindergarten. was literally like not even every day for sure not every day yeah probably not and definitely never more than an hour yeah no not for kindergarten at an hour was max yeah so much of it's just like at least at this stage in our lives so much of it is just learning through life experiences yeah

and just talking to your kid like just like kindergarten was just a lot of, you know, going over phonics and like letter sounds and letter recognition and, you know, just that kind of stuff. And that doesn't require necessarily curriculum. I mean, you can, and we did a little bit of curriculum in that subject for kindergarten, but, um, yeah, you definitely, yeah. But My goal is not to recreate what is happening in the classroom. Okay. What about misconception or is it a misconception? What do you say about the social aspect of homeschooling? I think that's a big hangup. That was, I don't know if that was really my hangup because I had friends growing up that were homeschooled, but like,

that's definitely a stereotype, right? Like, like yeah which is kind of a funny stereotype because there are some weirdos in the public schools kids are weird in private schools i mean it's like yeah yeah like there are weird kids everywhere okay and so i don't and so it's kind of funny to me that people are like oh it's only the homeschoolers that are socially awkward i'm like give me a break there are people that are yeah yeah whatever i'm censoring myself um so yeah i think homeschool kids interact more often i think with people of different ages like they're around um more adults maybe more seniors maybe younger kids. And so I think it helps with that as far as social skills of like, it helps them learn how to interact with people of all ages and stages just because they have more opportunities in that. As far as friends, I mean, I don't know.

It's hard for me to speak into a little bit because I was never in the classroom setting, but correct me if I'm wrong. It's not like you're sitting and chatting with your best friend for eight hours. That's exactly what public school is. Yeah. I didn't do a single bit of work. Yeah. I hung out.

I was with Scott all day. You and Scott. Yeah. Home room. Do you hear about home room on like, like whatever TV shows that you watch? I feel like that's a classic thing that was like not really a thing at all. Like there's so many like things that Catherine like will be watching. She's like, did this happen at your school?

I'm like, no, we never had like walked outside from one class to another ever. Like our entire school was under one, whatever. Like no one got thrown in a locker because our lockers were three times smaller. Um, okay. But yeah, like socially, I think it's so much about, yeah, just how much you're doing outside of, you know, school and, and like you're saying, like getting all these different experiences. I, I mean, I think time is a fun example of all that because I was instantly impressed. I don't even know if we had really hired time and yet maybe we kind of technically had like the first day we got this new cameras, new equipment and stuff. He came in and was so confident. And so, uh, what's the word?

Just like, just assertive. Yeah. Just he's a go getterter with it and i was so impressed by that of like you are mature beyond your years in that way yeah and maybe in some ways he has way behind on something so but i'm like but way behind on like does it matter you know like way behind like i was listening to some of the episode today when y'all were doing movies you've never seen which i guess this goes to all y'all but yeah you know in time he was saying things he had never seen or, you know, things he didn't know about or whatever, but I'm like, so, but he knows all the good stuff and the right stuff. And like, you know, like he's very functioning human and I don't know. Okay. Uh, so what do you say to people when they're like, okay, we have Hattie as a seven year old doing homeschooling, but then you have three other kids. What does that look like practically? Um, it looks like a lot of,

um, flexing. Um, yeah, like last fall I had a certain idea in my head of what school was going to look like. And Rosie was 18 months and threw it all off which was fine we still got our school done it just was in a way that that was different than how i thought it was going to go so i think it's a lot of that because you never know like if you have tinies like what age and stage tinies we're calling tinies yeah tiny yeah i guess now i am what's up tinies tinies hey i don't think i've ever heard you be like uh the tinies have just been so bad today come on tinies that's just like one of those you got this mama kind of things uh you're i know you're just a mom of tinies right now i've never heard that though

i've heard mom of littles that's what i'm saying i've mom of tinies right now. I've never heard that, though. I've heard mom of littles. That's what I'm saying. I've never heard tinies in general. Yeah. Let's bring it in. Let's make it a thing. Do your thing. Go, Cs, do your thing.

Yeah, there it is. Yeah. Anyway, so I feel like it's a lot of flexing on, you know, yeah, on what your intentions are versus how it actually plays out. I think it's a lot of, you know, like who's your hardest one? You know, like if it is your 18 month old, the hardest. Okay. Well, for that, Hattie and I did a lot of school when Rosie was napping.

Yeah. So that made it the afternoon. That's not ideal. I would like to have our schoolwork done in the morning, but you know, you do what you have to do. So we did a lot in the afternoon last fall. Yeah. I don't know. You flex and flow on that. Bo loves to be in the action. No surprise there. Oh, he's always wanting to be around everybody. Whatever. Yes. Yes. So anyway, so Bo, I got him a, uh, like a preschool workbook from Costco two years ago.

I got this thing for him and he's still working through it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He does his school while you guys do your school. He does his school and he loves it. He's, oh, I'm going to go get my school book too. I'm going to go get my... And you know what? I don't know what he's doing there.

I don't care what he's doing. Like he can actually follow the instructions. The mountains are oceans, dad. Exactly. Yeah, they are. I saw it. Look what I cut out. I'm like, cool.

You're not supposed to cut anything out on my page those bears do live in the ocean dad yes exactly that's a square he's just yeah just make it of his own things yeah but you know what it's fine he can sit at the dining table and he can cut and paste whatever he wants to yeah while i get stuff done with Hattie. So I would say with tinies, um, the beginning of the year and the end of the year probably are going to look very different because they grow so much. They go through so many different stages. And so trying to keep them busy or trying to do it when they're napping or

whatever, like your school year is going to change a lot from start to finish. How do you know if your kids are on track? And do you have fears of like, oh, Hattie's not reading in time or whatever? I say, what track? Yeah. Or compared to

who, maybe? Yeah. I don't really care. It's like, what if the public school kids are reading this level and Hattie's not? Something I'm really thankful for in kansas is we don't the homeschool laws are are simple here um so you don't have to do state testing or anything like that which i'm sure there's some probably teachers out there that are just aghast that my kids won't be tested every year to know where they are. But I don't, especially at this age, especially elementary,

I just don't think that's super necessary. Hattie started reading. That's the thing with homeschool is you're very in tune with your kid because you're around your kid. And so you know if they're, oh, that's funny. Hattie's seven and she's still not reading. Hattie's seven and still doesn't know what two plus two is. Like, you know, Hattie's seven and she's still not read. Hattie's seven. It still doesn't know what two plus two is like, I don't know.

And, and, but she's like taken off on reading chapter books now. Okay. So we're going to focus a lot heavier on the math for this next year, for this next month, you know, and like,

we're going to work on this addition until that really clicks for her or, you know, whatever, same thing of like, and so how do you seven, she's going into second grade. She can read, she can write, she can do math. So I'm like, or whatever, same thing. And so Hattie's seven. She's going into second grade. She can read. She can write.

She can do math. So I'm like, I feel very good. I think we're all right. Yeah, I feel very good with where she is. Yeah, so I feel like so much of homeschooling is you just know your kid more. Not more, but when you're the one teaching them, you're in tune with what they're learning, how they're learning, when you're the one teaching them, you're in tune with what they're

learning, how they're learning because you're the one doing it. There was definitely a time where I was like, Hattie seems a little behind in her reading compared to other kinder. I feel like, I feel like most first grader, kinder, whatever it is, like it seemed like other kids her age were reading better than her yeah but i just knew that she was so smart that i was like she's gonna get there yeah sometimes i was genuinely like is she doing this is she's messing with us like i know she knows how to do this like what is she why isn't she like or i'd be like how do you should read this and she'd just roll her eyes like oh dad i don't want to do this and then now all of a sudden it just like clicked and she is

just going a mile an hour. And see, and that's the cool thing too, because I, I feel like it clicked this year and it was on our third reading curriculum that we tried with her. Yeah.

Good word. And the first one we started out with is the one that I grew up using. And so when that wasn't going well, I was like, well, I literally have no idea what else to do. This is the only, this is how every human on the planet learned how to read.

I don't know how to teach you how to read. Um, so we tried a different one and that one also was like, it was like running in mud. Like it was just so hard. And so I was like, okay, this is not working either.

And so it's just trial and error until I found the one that I was like, okay, this, she's responding well to this. Like she likes these games. She likes these visuals. She likes, you know,

whatever the worksheets, blah, blah, blah. Um, and then it. She likes these visuals. She likes, you know, whatever the worksheets, blah, blah, blah. Um, and then it was off to the races. I mean, it just clicked.

And so, which is the other great thing about homeschooling is you can pivot halfway through the school year. It's like, okay, this is not working. Yeah. Concepts aren't clicking.

She's not understanding. She's getting frustrated. I'm getting frustrated, you know? Okay. And you know what? One of those, I even,

um, rented from the library. So, okay. There you go. Look into your library for curriculum. Whenever I sometimes feel those struggles of like, is she going to be able to do this? Or is she behind on this? Or what if she hasn't learned this? One of the things that I kind of find comfort in is just your ability versus my ability. Honestly, like if I don't know how to do something, it is sometimes harder for me to learn it or like, or I, yeah, I'm not, and I'm saying I still try and I have learned plenty of things. I started a woodworking business after not knowing how to use a saw, But like, I, I feel like it's like your entire siblings, like your entire family. It seems like you guys are always continually like

picking up new things or like interested in like, well, I don't know. Let's look into that thing. Like let's, let's learn more about this, you know, idea or this topic or this new tool that, or this fire pit or whatever, all these different cool things. Um, and it's just, I think that like gives me comfort that like, if we raise our kids, hopefully to be respectable, polite, well-intentioned kids who have been influenced more by us than the environment, you know, whatever other people, um, and they might not know all the presidents or they might not know, you know, whatever other people, um, and they might not know all the presidents or they might not know, you know, all the, you know, abbreviations for the elements,

but they know like how to find those out and how to learn more about them and how to like dig deeper and like have those skills. That's fine with me. You know what I mean? Which is a big piece of the classical model of education of it's, you're not teaching a kid what to think you're teaching a kid how to think. And that's what I think is so important. That's what I think a lot of people in our generation and younger generations of like, they don't like, they don't really know how to think like they think what they've been taught to think instead instead of questioning and and questioned doesn't have to be bad like i feel like in the beginning even of our marriage like anytime i would like question you on things i can't even think of a good example oh my gosh it used to bug the

heck out of you it felt yeah you would you would say why a lot yeah why and sometimes it was the tone sometimes it was like sure why no i'm just kidding but sometimes it was just yeah just was like this underlying like hey it feels like you're you're doubting you don't like it so you're asking me to like justify it or something like you need to just listen and instead i was curious like i just want to know like how do you get how did you get there? What was your mental process of getting there? I'm curious because I didn't get there to that end point, but you did. So how did you get there?

And I didn't. And you know, whatever. Or, yeah, I don't know. I can't think of another example, but just like. Why? Oh man, that used to drive. You're right. That was a tough, tough time.

I would be frustrated with you. I say, just, can you, can you just let me just, just make a decision? And of course I was always like, well, yeah, I trust you. I'm just curious. Like your thought process. Yeah, that was great. Don't you love it? I think one time I was just like, just for like a week, just like listen to what I say and let's just do it and see if I'm a good leader or not. Something like that. I thought, oh, my God. Oh, we're homeschooling our kids.

It's going to be a long 50 years. 50, huh? That's it? I guess. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Oh, man. Okay.

Let's kick it to TJ and myself, and we'll come back for some fun little quick questions. Quick cues. Hey, okay. Let's kick it to TJ, uh, and myself and we'll come back for some fun little quick questions. Quick cues. Hey TJ, welcome to the podcast. My brother ghost runners podcast. How is Maui? Now he's good. Beautiful. Uh, it's getting hot. Uh, but not like, you know, I'm from the Northeast northeast so like we were at the gym today and there were some people from pennsylvania who were working out they probably lived 25 minutes from where i used to live which was crazy wow and uh we were just talking about how like people think it's humid on maui when you come from like the northwest they're like oh it's so

humid here but like the northeast is like a literal swamp land of darkness uh like it's like the best way i've ever heard someone describe it is like it's like living inside someone's mouth like when you just walk outside you're just like don't touch me yeah don't don't even look at me because i feel like that adds to the humidity um so it's not hot like that okay because i've had plenty of summers like that but it's getting hot it's getting hot which is awesome because the water is warmer and yeah it's just fun uh have you seen i mean this is like the stupidest question i'm just becoming more and more obsessed with whales have you seen a whale in maui oh oh yeah yeah whale season is like late october through like usually see the first one in october

but you have to be like on a boat out in the water okay through like uh probably february march they start to leave but like if you go to the beach in like late december january february you can just sit there and you'll just see them jump jump jump jump because they come they come to make babies and they come to have babies. So both things are happening off the coast of Maui. Yeah. And once the babies are born, the moms have to teach them how to jump. And so you'll see a mom jump, which is the size of a school bus. So think about dropping a school bus in the water and you can just see it from miles away. Right.

So they'll jump once and then the babies will jump like sometimes 20 times in a row because they're practicing. So you'll just see like, if you can see the big one, it's like we were one time in this place called Aluwalu and I would say like a mom whale jumped like 300 feet away from us and it was the most spectacular thing i've ever seen like we were kind of sitting i saw it out of the corner of my eye and i grabbed a child because like it was like rocky and i was like we gotta go and we all ran to the end um but it's like one of those things like when you can see a big one close it's like seared into your memory yeah yeah dude i i mean i watched you know whatever that documentary is

it blackfish is that what's called yeah if it's not then that sounds really inappropriate i'm calling it um no like i watched that and i was just like i want i just want to see every whale so yeah i'm coming to maui in october uh you are so it sounds like maybe that's a good season for it so i'll be we might see a few yeah Yeah. We might. Yeah. So, um, I know that TJ has been on the podcast once before. Uh, we've talked about it a million times, but,

uh, walk in love, sunny Morrow. Um, I always want to say the little rhythms, like L I L I L little rhythms, little rhythm. Hey,

what happens to me? Little rhythm. Uh, I think you should have, that feels like a branch off yeah maybe like a really cheesy youtube channel where i'm rapping about kids days hey do your chores and then it's like i try to i've you know been making a living on the internet for forever and it's like you work so hard to like do school stuff. And it's like something like that would probably be the thing that takes off. And you're like,

Oh, you're the like rapper guy that raps about kids chores. There's like little Dickie. There's a little rip. Yeah. Oh man. Yeah. But yeah,

we, I, I'm going to Maui in October alongside of TJ tj uh tj's hosting dads on maui and there's there's our our session is sold out but there is another session that i won't be yet yeah it has some spots correct yep yeah okay i'm so stoked for it uh we're actually moms on maui so yeah brooke and i we do know, we moved here and we're like, this is such an amazing place to be. How can we help people experience this? There there's part of it. That's like, you know, obviously it's just like the natural beauty of the ocean,

all that kind of stuff. But then I think the, some of the real magic of Maui is like, you're so removed from people. You're so far, like your time is so different that there's this element of like you don't get as many texts you don't get as much life updates like you're just behind literally in time and so what we've so we were like let's let's do these retreats so we can have people come and like kind of experience that and she's done moms on maui now one two three four times we're actually the fifth one starts this week. And they've just been really powerful, like impactful to the ladies that have come.

And I was like, well, dads need some love too. And then I asked you if you would come and join us. And so I'm so stoked. Oh, I know, dude. What are like my main expectations of what I need to be doing for this? Because just be yourself. But like like do you need me to like be like cooking and stuff because probably i'll probably need some help on in the in

the kitchen a little bit i need some signature dishes maybe or something yeah oh man it's gonna be your signature dish oh if you had to cook something for no um cook like lights out like like you know like i'm not a great cook but like one thing i can totally depend on like i can make make it good every time is eggs eggs yeah eggs like eggs and some sort of meat i'm like that is a easy no-brainer for me i don't know though like i think i'm pretty good with eggs but like my kids are so accustomed to katherine's eggs katherine just does everything better than me in the kitchen and so accustomed to katherine's eggs katherine just does everything better than me in the kitchen and so whatever like katherine's better than me but like no she just

so i i think this is some great eggs and they're they're like oh this is fine but i'm not i don't want all these because it's not mom's eggs and i'm like brooke is yeah brooke is a fantastic cook she's like how can i stay on island and cook for you guys while you're gone? And I'm like, however that happens, I'm okay with it. Let's just figure that out somehow. Everybody else. Yeah. Oh yeah.

I'm excited about it, dude. Um, okay. What about, uh, just in general, I feel like out of most,

out of all people I know, I feel like Catherine and TJ are the most kicky people. And by kicky, I mean, uh, we've talked about it on the podcast before, like Catherine's kicks, but like, okay i i remember when i was in maui uh on maui whatever the word is um in december you were getting really into that app that like controlled how much screen

time you had on your phone still have that on yep yeah yeah so definitely still on that kick okay i just know you have like trends that you love you've been into crossfit for a while now whatever different things do you have any any recent ones that we need um well i have here this one's this is so embarrassing but let's just lean into it i love conspiracy theories okay i i think that's the latest kick. I've never been on TikTok before until about maybe four or five months ago. I had one early and I was like, this is going to waste too much time in my life. It was too loud and noisy. And so I deleted it. And then I signed back up again because it was like, well, we're trying to grow the brand, you know, we're trying to reach new people. It's just like, you know, it was just kind of by default. And so I signed up and like, it starts to feed you stuff. And you know, if you, you know, their algorithm is really strong, like it learns quick. And so you're just like, okay. And for whatever reason, I started watching the conspiracy theory ones like Flat Earth, Tartaria, like Ancient History. So this is my favorite one. So there's a conspiracy theory. And I'm like,

as you watch some of this stuff, you're like, I don't know, maybe I do believe this. Like, I'm not smart enough to dispute it. They're making some good points. Like, I remember very specifically watching one. This was a long time ago. I actually watched this on Instagram. And Brooke's like, what are you watching? I'm like, well, I'm watching this theory that the people that exploded in the Challenger explosion aren't actually dead. They're all actually professors and they have their names and lookalikes and they're showing this video. And I'm like, I don't know who originally was in the Challenger explosion. So I'm not smart enough to even like, like they could be making up both sides. And I'd be like, Hey, I guess I believe this now. So

that's kind of like my ongoing joke is like, I guess I believe this now. Like I'm, you know, I'm too dumb to know otherwise. Okay. So it's, it's via TikTok though, that you're finding. TikTok is the, the algorithm is just so strong and it just feeds and feeds. And so there's this whole world of TikTok conspiracies that there used to be this ancient world, ancient country, kingdom, empire called Tartaria. And they're responsible for a lot of the structures that have been built throughout the world so like there's similar you know pyramids similar pyramids in different parts of the world similar looking buildings in different parts of the world and so the conspiracy theory is that a lot of the like incredible buildings that we have all over

the world were actually built by tartartaria and we just inherited them. Okay. And so like they, like, you know, cause like they'll show pictures of like, here's this giant building in, you know, Moscow that like is incredible and the detail and all this kind of stuff. And then they'll show like someone out front that's like pulling a horse and buggy. And they're like, how did this person build this structure? Like the technology, you know? And so I just love it. I think it's just so fascinating. I,

and Brooke's like, you're getting, you're weird. Like, she's like not into it at all. She's like, if you ever bring this up in front of anybody, I'm going to tell them that I like don't approve of it. And like,

and so you're like, I'm just like, this is, yeah, this is just where this is the kick that like, that can just be like, I just, you know, again, like I'm, I'm, you know, I believe that a Jewish man, a Jewish carpenter was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died for my sins and then rose again.

Like as far as like crazy things to believe in, like I'm there. And so that by default, I'm like, yeah, all right. Like maybe some other crazy stuff has happened. And so, you know, I'm not. Yeah, sure. I mean, you hear all like the conspiracies or like the, the whatever, not to get too political, but like all the, you know, whatever the government's doing this, the government has control of this. And like on some levels I'm like, okay, that's ridiculous. On other levels I'm like, well, if I believe these other things in life, why would that be impossible over here? The one that really got me, the one video that really got me was, okay, so here's like one of the roots of the conspiracy theory.

One of the roots of Tartaria is that, and again, I'm not smart enough to know if this is even true, but the video is that the Great Wall of China, the windows on the Great Wall of China to shoot arrows to defend are on the wrong side. They're actually facing into China. And so the conspiracy is that they didn't build it. They just inherited it because it was actually built by Tartaria to defend from whatever was in the China region. I'm like, I love it. I'm all in.

So I might buy a Tartarian flag and hang it out in front of my house. What happened to it? Like, did it just, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe there's all sorts of conspiracies about that too. So you're welcome.

Ghost runners. I feel like now everybody's uh tiktok is going to be filled with that because our phones are listening to us and so uh have you heard of ninjas or butterflies you heard of them no oh yeah yeah i've seen them so yeah they talk about it a lot too i've seen like their clips yeah yeah he's got like the long hair and the beard and yep yeah some of the stuff that they come up with, uh, like the grand Canyon stuff, like there's ancient stuff found in the grand Canyons. Yeah. It's like, if all this is true, that's wild, you know? And, and they've made, yeah, it's quite a popular, not a living, but yeah, they're getting, getting more and more

traction based on it. It's like, yeah, I, again, I'm not smart enough. Like I'm going back to Pennsylvania this week and my dad is like, he majored in history, like graduated with honors. And so I'm like, so ready and excited to like chat with him about it and be like, have you ever heard this? And what do you think about it? And like, is it crazy? And like, I don't know. Yeah. Yeehaw y'all. We are sponsored once again by good ranchers.com. The best place to get your American meat delivered. Uh, before you go giving your money away to Jeff Bezos this week, you should go to good ranchers.com and shop their prime deals on American meats. Trust me. You don't want to miss these savings for America's best meat delivered right to your

door, uh, for this week and this week only, Good Ranchers is offering you the chance to save up to $150 when you subscribe to their 100% American meat subscription service. Imagine having top quality, 100% American beef, chicken, pork, wild caught seafood delivered right to your door, all while saving up to $150 during this special prime week promotion. As you guys probably already know by now, we've talked about it plenty. Good Ranchers sources all of their meat from local U.S. farms, ensuring that you're getting the best of the best. No antibiotics, no added hormones, just pure, delicious meat that you can trust. With these prime deals, you're not only getting incredible savings, but you're also supporting American farmers and enjoying transparency

you won't find in the grocery store. Even better, for every order that Good Ranchers, for every order Good Ranchers will donate to paralyzed veterans of America. So if you value local, trustworthy, high-quality food, now is the perfect time to join the Good Ranchers family. Head over to GoodRanchers.com, subscribe to AnyBox, and unlock their exclusive Prime Week savings. But hurry, these Prime deals are only available for this week.

Remember, that's GoodRanchers.com. It's no code, Dina. Just subscribe to unlock up to $150 in savings. Great deal. Treat yourself to the best meat America has to offer. Your taste buds, your wallet, and American ranchers will thank you. GoodRanchers.com. It's American meat delivered. Well, so many things I feel like that were conspiracies five years ago, all of a sudden

are kind of accepted as truth now, whatever. And I think like, you know, going off you like not to get political or anything, but like, I think one of the reasons that like, it sort of like is interesting to me is because like with the COVID stuff, we saw people fully believe one thing or the other, and then fully not believe that thing or the other in such a short period of time. And I think seeing it live happened right before my eyes that like people were screaming at me for one thing and then they were totally okay with it just in 12 months or 16 months or whatever. It's like this weird, oh, people can actually

be fully controlled one way or the other. And I'd never seen that in my life. And so there's probably other times in the world and in history where people have been totally convinced that one thing happened one way when it might've happened the other way. And so I think that's part of it. I think it's all connected, connected, but it's mostly just like a kick that like TV's not as good movies aren't as good. So I'm like just watching conspiracy videos and I'm into it. I'm unashamed. So take that Brooke, wherever you are, you're not ashamed. I do. I love it. I feel like my algorithm, uh, TikTok, especially especially like it seems like it's ever changing too like yeah i i for a while i was getting nothing but like not nothing but like so many music centered videos and then

sports stuff was going on and then whatever for a while they were sending me whatever like uh tom segura and like burke kreischer okay yeah yeah you know like it just was like but and i liked it all and it but it was like it wasn't like i don't know and then all of a sudden i'm getting baseball stuff now and anyway and then brooke's reading this book uh i forget who it's by but it's like all about like how devices are like slowly destroying our brains and so like there's two very different things happening in our house right now that like Brooks, like trying to be like, I'm going to throw in my phone. And I'm like,

look at this cool stuff. Is it a, is she reading anxious generation? No, it is. Um, Oh, let me see if I can find it.

It's like about, uh, I'll, I'll find it while we're talking, but well, okay. Cause that's one of the things I did have that thought when, whenever I mentioned like, yeah.

It's called the opt-out family. The opt-out family. The opt-out family, how to give your kids what technology can't. So it's mostly geared towards kids. And like some of the studies and stuff is like, honestly, like bone chilling to like what kids are consuming. And it's like really about just like as parents, how do we protect our kids from a device that doesn't have any morality or like is honestly like built off of fear and anxiety. So like Instagram is like reading your face and how you react to things and it will show you and it's's based on fear and anxiety. And so there's a study that as soon as you watch,

if you watch something that's like this hurricane, if you're watching hurricane coverage and you're like, man, this huge hurricane is coming, Instagram will pick up on that. And then they'll show you five more hurricane things within the next 10 minutes. And it's all built off fear. And so as adults, hopefully we are able to recognize like, hey, I'm not going to give into into this, but as kid, like, but that's happening to kids too. And so it's like this really like,

so the book has been great. At least, you know what, she's been kind of picking up pieces and sharing it with me. But yeah, just like as parents, what do we do when our kids are like, you know, like what do we do with phones? What's the age, how do they use them? All that kind of stuff. And so yeah, resource, I think. I don't know. Have you heard of the podcast? Honestly, Barry Weiss podcast. Anyway, uh, not, not a Christian podcast, but it was really cool. Actually, one of the episodes that I listened to, and I've actually mentioned on ghost runners a couple weeks ago, but it was they were just talking to this other i

think she was a psychologist or therapist or something like that uh but all the things they kept saying like kept turning back to like biblical values but then they also interviewed um this guy have you heard of the anxious generation this this new book i feel like i've seen that like the cover yeah so they interviewed him this author jonathan And yeah, he's talking all about how like, yeah, I've seen that cover. Yeah. Um, yeah, basically I think it was 2012 or 13. Like all of a sudden once, once Facebook and Instagram got like comments and likes and all this stuff, like mental health and anxiety and all this stuff has just gone. Yeah. And, and yeah, as I was listening as i was i i mean it was kind of the same idea like when he would say these different stats or these different anecdotes or something

it was like our kids never get in a phone our kid yeah you know you know they're not you know whatever like we always talk you know jake's whole bit is about being sheltered and everything and i'm like i'm sheltering my kid as long as I can. Yeah, 100%. Well, it's interesting. Like the groups of people that aren't giving their kids early access to phones are like really strong Christian families. And then like the tech moguls, like literally the people that started these companies. And so it's like, what an interesting like two groups of people. Right. Yeah.

We talk about it all the time. And like, you know, there's kids with phones in our neighborhood and we tell our kids like, as soon as a phone comes out, you come home. Like, that's just our rule. And you know, and, and there's been some like, you know, we've had to have conversations about like, you know, our oldest feeling embarrassed by that. And I'm like, you don't have to tell them that's why you're leaving. You just have to say, Oh, I have to go home, get on your bike and ride back because you know, they're not, there are a few clicks away from things that they should never see, you know? And I'm just like, yeah, I'm not going to mess

with it. Yeah. Well, okay. So what was the, what's the app called that like limits your screen time and all that stuff? It's called Opal, but there's actually a few of them coming out now. Uh, I've seen, I've been targeted for quite a few, but yeah, Opal is such a good app. Yeah. Such a good app. Oh, go ahead. So yeah, so it blocks out your, so you, you can set different parameters like and then different intensities. So like I have one from nine o'clock until eight 15 the next morning where it blocks, like I basically tell it the apps that I can use,

which are music, my audio book, the normal stuff. And it blocks Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, just the time wasters, Redfin, which is a real estate app. I'll just scroll and scroll and scroll. And there's different severities of blocking out. So like the one from nine to eight 15, I literally can't open those apps. I could download, I could turn off my phone, turn it back on. I could delete the app and reinstall it.

There's nothing that's going to work. And then there's like a severity less where like, if I go like this, this one, I have like, it's like family time from like four until seven o'clock, eight o'clock PM. And so I, if I actually need to get into those phones, like I'll open the app and it'll be like, it'll give me like a 50 second countdown. Like,

and I'll have to wait, I'll have to wait with the app open for 50 seconds to pause it and then use the app. And so like for that, some of that stuff, it's like, well, I need, sometimes I need it for work. Right. So I'll do that. And then there's one that's like a little bit lighter than that, where it makes you wait like 30 seconds. Okay. And so it's crazy what the like 30 seconds will do. You'll just be like, well, I actually don't need it, you know, or like the 60 seconds, I actually don't need it.

Um, and then the full lockout has been great. Like I find myself way more present. Well, I want, I go to bed earlier, like it shuts off at nine, I'm in bed for the most part. Right. And then I'm just way more present in the morning as we're getting ready, breakfast, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Cause you, you literally said like, I download TikTok and you said like for our brand to hopefully, you know, grow. But now I'm watching deep dark videos about an ancient kingdom. That's the tension, right? Like I think Jake would, you know, grow, expand. But now I'm watching deep dark videos about an ancient kingdom. That's the tension, right? Like I think Jake would, you know, say similar things. I definitely feel it where I'm like, yeah, I have to have Facebook. I have to have Instagram for work, you know, but then it's like, well, you know, am I really even using it that much for work or am I just like, you know, and so I don't know. I didn't,'t i i i'm intrigued by like the idea of what you're saying like you know yeah with this app and and how that would work and um if that would help with because

so often so often i will like literally get on instagram to do something for work or something in and get so distracted before i even get to the thing that i was supposed to be doing and it's like oh it's be doing. And it's like, oh, it's, it's so good. It's like, oh, I, I, I see Jake posted a story. Let's see what he posted. Yeah. See how he's doing in the hurricane type of thing. I'm looking at 16 stories and then I'm on reels and then like, what was it here for again? So. Yeah. There's a, there's a really good book called digital middle minimalism by Cal Newport, where he talks about how, like, we originally got these devices to make phone calls and sort of text. And that was the agreement we had with them.

This is the social agreement with a phone. It's this convenient way to call people when I need a ride. And it's a convenient way to text people if I need to. And that was our original agreement and then they like filled it all in the like with all this other stuff that we didn't originally agree to and so we were almost kind of manipulated into this like like monster that we didn't really sign up for in the first place nowadays everyone knows what they're signing up for but like for us who were the first people to get cell phones, like there was definitely

just like this element of like, oh, it's just a call. Like all we're doing is calling our parents to pick us up. Like that's the convenience. And then all of a sudden it was like this whole other monster. And so his big thing is like coming up with like a rule of life for your device. Like what are the rules? Like what's it for? You know, is it for entertainment?

Is it for entertainment? Is it for work? Is it for this? And then just like establishing those. And I think that's what we'll like our generation will end up doing with our kids is we'll help them sort of like establish those rules so they can have a healthier relationship with technology than we do. Because we were kind of like weirdly manipulated into it without really like fully understanding the depths of what it was doing to us. Right. Yeah. It's funny. Like how, how protective I am for my children. It's, it's similar to like, you know, my diet versus like what I want my kids to eat. Like, it's like, Whoa, you can't have three donuts in a day. But then again, it's like,

I'm, I'm your dad. I can do whatever. Like, it's like, Oh, you can't, you can't be on the screen and you stop looking at my screen. And then what they see me doing, you know, 30 times a day. Yeah. My kids have started to ask me if I'm using my screen time for certain things and I'm like, okay, that's good. That's nice and convicting. So I mean, uh, yeah, well that's cool. Um, all right. Uh, any other, you know, kicks that you've been on? The only other one is, you know, it's as, uh, you know, we, so a little bit of backstory, not too much, but like we are having a crap year in business. Just that's what, that is what it is. Like, I'm just claiming what it is, not trying to sugarcoat it, but

the Lord will provide. I'm confident of that, all this thing. And so we were already having kind of a bad year. And my wife, Brooke, used to sell Beauty Counter, which was about 30% to 40% of our income. So she was very good at it, very successful, one of the top people in the business. And due to some legal buyout things legally with Beauty Counter, they had to shut down. Overnight, they shut down. And so the original founder is trying to buy it back, but there's so much complications legally that it's taking a lot longer than they thought. So they shut down overnight with hopes to open, open back up in the fourth quarter. Um, and so like, Oh, so overnight our income was just like cut in half, essentially, you know, cut down by a third on top of a year that had already been kind of rough for us. And so I was like, well, what do, what do we do? Like, I don't know. I

literally don't know. You know, like obviously're just trying to trust the Lord and just lean on him, reduce our spending. We're doing all the normal things that people have to do when tough times hit. But then Brooke got targeted for this person that was like, this is how I make extra money on Amazon. And I was like, okay, we have an Amazon affiliate link. We make $20 a month because someone's like, where's that thing from? And we're like, here's the link. Maybe they'll use it. But this, this lady was talking about how like she makes review videos. And so it's like, she's like, I don't have to post to my social media. I don't have to talk about it. But if someone watches my video of me reviewing a product and then buys the product, I get like a small percentage. And she's like, and I've been able, she's like, just last month I surpassed my husband's salary. And I was like, okay, okay.

Like, and again, you, you see online gurus that are like, just, you know, buy six gas stations and then, you know, rent out a condo. And then, you know, they're just like, okay, guy, thanks. Like what was it integrated at one time? Somebody said, just make like what was it integrated at one time somebody said just make what was it 200 yeah just write like 200 two thousand dollar checks and me and brad are like what who are you oh that's all i need to do oh oh man problem what was i thinking? I'm an idiot. Gosh. And so, so Brooke saw that and she was like, okay, she didn't say anything about it. And then for the last moms on Maui, she always has a friend come to help her out. Kind of like you're coming to help me. And this friend, her husband makes a living on YouTube. But again, like things have been sort of tight and rough and like the

sponsorships are going away. Like, it's just away. It's just like everything's getting a little butt clenchy for all of us. And she told Brooke about the same program and she's like, we've been doing this thing. And so Brooke was like, okay, this is someone I know. This is a friend of mine. This is something that maybe is actually legit. It's just not... Yeah. And so I started making Amazon reviews. So that's the next kick that I'm on. And it's like, I'm not making a ton of money. It's not like the gates of heaven have opened up. But it's interesting how easy it is because I've been talking on the internet for so long that I could pick up a product and give a 30, 60 second review, no problem. And I'm now doing that in my head as I'm like going through our house.

I'm like, what is, what is happening to me? I'm just like, right. I've been doing the same thing. And so I'm just looking around for Jake and Rachel's house. Like, what can I review here? And like, let me scan it, see if it's on Amazon. Jake and Rachel literally gave our kids this cool sprinkler, like toy thing. And I was like, did you buy that on amazon

not only is it a present but i'm like maybe i can make some money off and so you know so i'm up to 137 big one oh no 151 big ones you dog so uh it definitely is working yeah i definitely like there's, I have this bike helmet that like I've had for years and that's the, that's like my moneymaker right now. That that's the, and then we have a robot vacuum. And so those two things have like most of that stuff. Okay. Yeah. It's like this little, like it feels sort of passive, you know, like part of, you know, selling products online is like, it gets so tiring that you're like constantly feel like you're asking the same people over and over again and you're just like trying to come up with new ways to say hey buy this shirt i think you'll like it and that can come that that feels exhausting

at times and so this has been like a nice sort of like kick that feels like it could be passive it could be a separate thing i don't have to like tell my audience about it um yeah no pressure you can't comment on the video like if someone doesn't like it they're not gonna you're never gonna know you know yep so that's my other kick i love it and i'm going back to my you know i'm staying with my parents when we go to pennsylvania so i'm like ready i'm ready a new a new frontier of yeah that's great you should like pay your friends five dollars to like yeah just like let me come over if you could leave the house i just need about 40 minutes i'll clean for you like maybe that's what you do that's that's the business is like do like a maid cleaning service yeah but i'm really just he wasn't very good at cleaning i mean things

were tidied up pretty well they put everything back in different spots than they originally oh man yeah that's the other kick the amazon videos um good yeah so you mentioned or something that we've talked about multiple times on the podcast recently for us is the idea of filthy rich and things that matter. And I know that, yeah, yeah. And it wasn't even me. It was my, my buddy that said it originally, but, um, yeah, I, I know that, like you said, you've had ups and downs and more downs this year. It seems like, um, yeah. What is your like tendencies? What are your, um, yeah, you're just, how do you react when things are not going well? Like what are your like tendencies what are your um yeah you're just how do you react when things are not going well like what are your initial are you are you the kind of guy that's like i'm just gonna go do something new i'm going to tweak what we have i'm going to go cry and give

up you know like whatever yeah i i think you know like like if you, if you listen to our podcast, we sometimes refer to ourselves as the butt clenchers. So that was a self-imposed nickname from our audience because I, in the past, we'd talk about sort of these like butt clenching moments in life, like finances get tight or, you know, you're having just like a rough time with your kids or like whatever, just like these moments where you're just like, you like, oh no. And another phrase that we used to use, which I don't use anymore, which has hopefully shown some actual maturity in my life, is I used to say, oh, I'm Googling bridges to live under. When things got rough in life, I'm like, oh, let me see if there's a nice bridge that I can move my family to and we can live under.

And so I honestly, in the past, I would go down, like I would get, it would get dark real quick for me. Like it would just be like, oh man, this is the worst mistake I've ever made. I'm the dumbest boy in school. Uh, no one likes me. Everybody hates me. Like I would get real depressed real quick. Um, thankfully I have a loving wife who now has taught me and through, uh, being married for 15 years, we have learned to communicate better. And so I would say that like over the last few years, five, 10 years, like I've definitely learned to emotionally regulate better than I used to. And so there's an element now that I just like, it stinks. Like there are definitely times where I still feel like,

what am I doing wrong? How can I fix this? Like, uh, is it me or is it something out of my control? And I think lately what we've been just Brooke and I've been talking about and just like, just leaning into is like, God is good. Whether we live a good, good life or whether we live a comfortable life or an uncomfortable life, like he is still good. Like his goodness does not equal comfort. And so we've been sort of just trying to like rest in that place that like a good full life, like Jesus said, I've come that you may have life to the full does not mean I have come that you may have life to the maximum comfort. And so if things are uncomfortable for a season, that doesn't mean that God is not good or he does not love us. And so we've been really like just kind of sitting in that, that like we have enough for today. We will keep, keep trying our best. We'll keep bringing back, bringing forth our best effort.

We'll keep trying to produce the highest quality products. We'll keep trying to like add the most value to our customers. But in the end, a lot of it is outside of our control. And so if we can just rest in him and find comfort in him, then let the chips fall where they may kind of thing. Like, yes, we can be wise. Yes, we can make good decisions. And something that I've really tried to wrap my head around lately and something that I really try to remind myself daily is like, my kids have never asked me how much money I make. My kids have never asked me like how well we're doing. And so like, they just want to spend time with me. They just want me to play with them. And so like, that's, that's a rich life. That's a good life. And, you know, and so as long as I can kind of

not compartmentalize in a bad way, but as long as I can check out of the office and say, hey, you did as well as you could today. Whether the sales are good or bad or ugly, you did as well as you could. As long as I can check out and be present with Brooke and the kids, I feel like that's the lesson that I'm trying to learn during this tough season. Because we've had tough seasons before. We've had great seasons, you know, and we will again. And so really learning how to like balance those out, like emotionally be present has been kind of like at the top of my mind lately.

Yeah, it is. It's amazing like being an entrepreneur. Some days it feels like you're the next Mark Cuban. And other days it's like, I don't know if we're going to be able to. Yeah, i get a regular job yeah um yeah and all that stuff but it yeah i remember you mentioning like back when you were living in pennsylvania like you you guys were close to like maybe you did even just like say we're done with this like it's it's over yeah right yeah so uh yeah the year that sunny born, which now I'm blanking totally

2018, we had like, again, just like a really rough year. Uh, Sonny, it was my second daughter, super difficult baby. Uh, you know, just like just one of those years we had started another business. We were part owners of a coworking space, which was like slower to get started than we thought, you know, just like lots going on. And the, the, the, what I felt like happened that year, and this is the analogy that I use, it was like the scene in, uh, like a, like a, like a show like ER or something like that, like a hospital show, someone runs in, they're carrying someone like they just collapsed. I don't know what to do. Like, that's what I felt like our, our business had done in 2018. Like it just

collapsed. I don't know what to do. And so you run to someone and they're like, well, maybe you should try this. And you're like, no, that's not the answer I'm looking for. So you run to someone else and you're like, maybe you should try this. And you're like, no, you're dumb. I don't believe you. You're just looking for someone to agree with you or whatever. And what I felt like that whole year the Lord was asking me to do was just, you need to set it down at my feet. You need to lay the burden down at my feet. And I wouldn't do that. I was just like holding it tight, running from room to room. And so by the end of that year, it took almost a full year, we decided, hey, we're going to close up shop. We're going to be done with this. We're going to figure out

what's next for us and our family and all this kind of stuff. And so, yeah, we thought we were done in 2018. And so we stopped. We shut it down, we closed down the store, we sold out all the inventory. We sold our stake in the coworking space so we could have money to survive. And, uh, yeah, we just like for six months, we kind of just searched and tried to figure out what was next. We ended up coming back to the business. The Lord actually led us back to it, but yeah, it was definitely like a season of like, I don't know, like, let's see where we're going, which is terrifying and a little bit liberating, but mostly terrifying. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, I'm excited to see, to see how the Lord continues to use this situation with you guys. And I do think that there's this element, like,

you know, we were just making jokes about it, like just buy a couple of gas stations or write a couple of thousand dollar checks. Like there's so much bull crap on the internet of just like, you know, why aren't you, if I was, if I had $0, I'd be a millionaire in two weeks. Like, why can't you do it? And you're just like, no. First you just borrow $200,000 from your dad and then you invest that in a plane. You're just like, okay. You know, like, and so I, I feel like three major. All right. He doesn't have $200,000 from your dad and then you invest that in a plane you're just like okay you know like and so i i feel like three major all right he doesn't have $200,000 yeah yeah uh he will once we unearth tartaria we'll have we'll be the technology will discover the advancements yeah yeah exactly we'll be really rich in what matters time travel um Yeah. Yeah, exactly. just like to be super honest about it. Cause I do think that there's so much just like kind of chest pounding and

like, look at me, I'm so good. Like that's what the internet is. It's highlights. And so like, I've just been trying to lean into like, this is where you are and that's okay.

And if you're there, that's okay. But if you're doing great, that's awesome. Like sure. Do great. You know? And so it is what it is.

I mean, I think there's, yeah, that is so that's, that's people don't like Jake and I, because we're like these amazing people. I think they're just like, you just feel like you're just two of our best friends that we don't know. Like, yeah, no, I, I think I, yeah, there's definitely value to just being real and being honest. Yeah. Just be as normal as you can.

My, my goal has always been, and, and, and one of the highest compliments we can receive is like when people meet us in real life, they're like, oh, you are exactly who I thought you'd be. Because I have met people that I've followed on the internet and I'm like, oh, you are not who I thought you would be. And that kind of stinks. It kind of like shatters your image or whatever. I'm probably not as outgoing in real life as i am on the internet like that is the one difference and then i've also heard i'm not as tall as people think i am so you're like six eight or something yeah i don't know yeah that's funny i i did well yeah i recently met met a guy that i i was expecting him to be as tall as me and he was not. Hey shorty.

Whoa, bud. How you doing down there? What's the weather like down there? Kitty pool for you or what? Awesome, man. Well,

I think that's going to be about it for this one. Thanks for joining me. I'll be on anytime anytime i love it dude this platform makes it really easy to do i think uh yeah relatively smooth and everything so um yeah i think the other so this episode is going to be you and it's also going to be katherine katherine and i are going to do a little bit of something okay now we're going to talk about homeschooling so maybe let let's end it there. Let's talk about just one, two minutes of your thoughts on homeschooling,

what you've learned recently. Okay. Homeschooling. And you're actually doing a lot more of the... Yeah. So again, because of some of the financial stuff, like most of our audience is female. So Brooke and I were like,

hey, maybe you should have a little more time to work, make a little more content, like be a little bit more in front of the camera. And so for most of this year, I taught most of the homeschool. Um, and I actually just posted a reel about it because homeschooling is no joke. It is so hard. Um, not in the terms of like, it's hard to teach. Like, you know, my girls are in third grade in kindergarten. Thankfully I knew everything that I was teaching for the most part. Some of it, I was like, I don't remember this, you know? So it's hard, but it's hard because like, there's an element of like, you just want your kids to move faster. Like you just want them to

read faster, write faster, answer faster. And you know, they're reading their book and they're like, okay, the, the pig went to the, you know, and I'm like, just let's, why don't we just keep looking at the page the whole, the whole time. And, and, uh, and then, you know, and, and the lesson that I've learned throughout homeschool is like how, like I, I'm a, you know, I try to be a good father present and like, you know, one, one, a good father teaches kid, you know, teaches their kids. Like I don't sit there and give them all the answers. I don't provide all the solutions. I don't just say, Hey, I'm going to fill this book out for you. You go have fun and play. And like, so like for me, I think the biggest takeaway in homeschooling this year was like, if'm a crap dad compared to God the Father. And so

if I'm willing to be there and be present and sit there and struggle through it with tears in the eyes of all of us and just keep going and pursuing, how much more is my Father in Heaven sitting beside me at the table when I'm struggling and counting with my fingers and going through something for the 17th time and still not understanding it and trying to get through it, even though I've got tears in my eyes. And so that was the best part of homeschool this year was that it is such a great picture of grace and patience and love that even, again, talking about this year that we're having, I'm not just instantly getting a check to solve all my problems, but like, I know that my good father is sitting there with me using this time to sanctify me and teach me so that in the future,

you know, I'll have these lessons to persevere even more. So. Right. That's, I love that. That's great. Yeah. Yeah, dude. That's, that's good. Homeschool is, it's fun. We're, we're done though for the year. So we're taking the summer off. Hallelujah. Yeah. Mid-July you're finally done. That's, that's great. Okay. Congrats. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm still, we're still like in the early stages of it. So yeah. And again, like I always say, I always say this to Brooke and she, she doesn't like it, but she started now to say back to me is like, this is the worst we'll ever be at it. Like when you do something to start,

like if you're starting a podcast, a business, starting to homeschool, like starting to work out, starting to eat healthy, like this is the worst you'll ever be at it. You can only get better at it from here on out. And we've definitely seen that we're in our third year of homeschooling. Yeah. And we've definitely like, we're, we even learned a bunch of this year that we're like, okay, next year is going to be even better, even smoother. Uh, you know, all that stuff. So, yeah, I mean, it's just like anything, just, it's like, it's so easy to tell your kids and

teach your kids that lesson, but then it's so hard for you to not understand it yourself. Like a hundred percent. Yeah. Hattie hates failing and gets so discouraged when she fails. I'm like, how do you remember? Like you have to practice in order to not fail. And so often as adults, we forget that. And so it's like, yeah, Hey, it's going to take time, but cool, man.

Uh, well, thank you once again, again, TJ, walkinlove.com, Sonny Morrow, if you're a lady out there looking for everyday essentials as fun as you are. Is that it? Did I nail it? You nailed it, dude. Yeah, and come to Dad's on Maui, Mom's on Maui, whatever. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff going on.

Yeah, man. Cool, man. All right. Thank you. Should I give a lot of stuff going on yeah man cool man all right um thank you should i give a discount code yeah of course let's do uh gr 20 20 off all three brands okay for wow one time only one time only code cool but you can use it one time on each brand so okay nice dude that's that's very generous. Cool, man. Hey, ghosties interrupting the episode for a second to talk about healing waters, international sponsor of today's episode. Um, yeah, we are fundraising alongside of them, uh, to help bring clean water

to Chiapas, Mexico. Uh, it's there, the poorest state in Mexico. They live in extreme poverty there. Day laborers earning only $12. Huge issues there with their water consumption, with their water supplies. It's just something that is truly foreign to me. And I just, I want to make a difference. I want this to be something that we can help eradicate for these people. So we are fundraising alongside of Healing Waters International, alongside of a generous donor, Ministry Partners in Christ has pledged to match up to $10,000 in donations to Healing Waters International with the Ghosties. And so we are making it a goal of pledging and raising $10,000 towards this project in Chiapas, Mexico.

How awesome would it be to say we raised $20,000 in order to eradicate this issue for the Mexican people of this clean water? They are doing some amazing things down there. Healing Waters International truly have huge hearts for this thing. One quick testimonial here. Mrs. Edelmyra is an elderly woman from the community of Rosarito where she was born and raised. She told us that all her life she had to carry water from the well for bathing, washing clothes, and everything else her family needed. Edelmyra never imagined that a project like HWI's would come and solve the water problem in her community.

She considers it a great gift, especially at her age, to see this project come true. So we are asking you guys to potentially donate, help raise funds for this. A one-time gift of $30. $30 provides a child with safe drinking water for an entire year. Let that sink in. $30 can literally change a child's life, providing water for them for an entire year. $150 would provide an entire family with safe drinking water for a year. $750 would provide five families with safe drinking water for a year. If you want to go the more monthly level, $25 a month provides safe water for 10 people for a year, $50, five families a year,

$100 a month safe water for an entire classroom of children for a year, $100 a month. I know that's not nothing, but that is something that I think we can figure out ways to save $100 a month in order for this great cause. And then $250 a month provides safe water for 100 people for a year. Um, once again, $10,000 is our goal. Um, that ministry partners in Christ has pledged to match.

Uh, if you'd like to donate, it's give.healingwaters.org slash ghost runners. We'll put that in our show notes as well, but it's give.healingwaters.org slash ghostrunners to donate to this project in Chiapas, Mexico. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Teej. Thanks. And we're back. We're back, baby. You're doing great, Kath. You really are. We just have a few little last questions here to end the episode.

Okay. If you go to any concert right now, what would it be? Fun fact about me, I don't really love concerts. So I would say Need to Breathe. What do you not love about concerts? I don't love them either, to be honest.

What do you do? You know? You feel obligated to do something? Yeah. I kind of do too. I would love a concert where I could sit. You're an old person one of my favorite concerts nickel creek yeah it was awesome was great yeah and we sat there we sat

there i don't have to sit like i'm not that old physically like i'm happy to stand but like don't be like do i have to sway like do i have to like cheer yeah yeah you had to like put my arms up or like crowd surf yeah that's fair you know like i'm like i i'm here because i enjoy this artist and so i would i would like to enjoy them yeah and i'm never drunk at a concert you've never drunk no i said and i'm never drunk at a concert which i feel like often it's like the drunk people that are like oh they're so annoying anyway but need to breathe i have seen them what three times no more more four times it's been a long time we've seen them a lot together i love them yeah and nickel nickel creek was great oh

nickel creek was great in concert or one of my other favorite concerts that i've been to is the piano guys oh you love them yeah loved it so fun but you also love carrie underwood yeah i remember you come back from having me like Carrie Underwood was amazing. Because Carrie Underwood was at the Sprint Center and it was my first like big concert. You know what I mean? I don't think I've ever been to a big concert before. It was, I would see Carrie Underwood again. That was really, and I didn't even like know, I mean, I knew her, but I wasn't like super

duper into her music at the time. That was kind of random. Have you seen, but I think I showed you that footage, like the sphere in Vegas, like that venue. That's just like just three or 360 degree, whatever, like screen kind of thing. Yeah. I want to, I want to go see John Mayer. I want to go see John Mayer anywhere, but I want to go see him there.

I've seen John Mayer. He was very good. When? How? In Texas. With who? With Alyssa Estelle, her boyfriend Tim Head, who's now her husband, and Sarah Estelle. Tim Head.

Yikes. Yep. Okay. That was senior year of high school. I went to go see him. He was very good wow i have seen a lot of concerts for somebody who doesn't really love but you know what the john mayer one is really great because it was outdoor and it was on this lawn so he sat on the chill it's chill

okay so fun go ahead carry on to what i think i said too because we were in a really sweet box oh yeah that was with uh yeah that's. Okay, if someone's not crunchy right now, where's the first place they should start? I know. I mean, crunchy versus healthy, it's hard, you know, because on the one hand, I would say, like, start with your food. That's not a crunchy thing to do, but, like, start there as far as, like, if you're trying to be healthier,

like, eat organic. I'm sorry, I am one of those people. But, you know, that means, yeah, whatever. Organic means it hasn't, well, nothing. Means it hasn't been sprayed with glyphosate. Google glyphosate if you want to see what that does to the body. Not good stuff. So like eat organic when you can.

Learn, like, yeah, I don't know the less process, the better. So like look at ingredient lists on products. Can you read them? Can you pronounce every ingredient that's in there? Um, so I would say that's like the most basic, like, I don't know if that's crunchy. That's more just like healthy start there. I think some people maybe would consider them the same. I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I'm getting too far down the rabbit hole to decipher my bias versus what other people think.

But yeah. Um, okay. Someone asked for your perspective on neighbor Henry, not our son, but any, any stories that you have of him or experience with him? Am I pretty accurate in how I portray the guy?

Yeah. I don't interact with him too much because I know it takes a long time. Yeah. I mean, I'd seen him super recently. Yeah. I've been texting him. Okay, good. I was gonna say, which is always a little scary with an older person, you know, he's

like in his sixties. You think? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Um, yes. Your impression is very accurate? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Yes, your impression is very accurate. Yeah.

And your description of him is very accurate. He's great. We did have an interaction with his neighbor, Doug, recently, and his wife. Oh, yeah. I wasn't there. You just texted me. That's so embarrassing. I had sent the kids outside, and was going to like fill up my water bottle

and go out or I don't know what was happening. But for whatever reason, Rosie was the only one that obeyed me. And so Rosie was outside and we have this gate that goes to our driveway and Rosie can open and close the gate if it, anyway, normally. And she had opened the gate,

which is often open anyway, but she had opened the gate and gone into- It was our backyard. Yeah, backyard and gone into our driveway. And from our driveway, you have access to the street. It is very far away from the shop. We'll call it four times as long as a normal driveway. Yeah, like it's a very long driveway.

Guys, we have a huge property. And there's a line like halfway down our driveway that our kids know not to cross, even if we're outside. Like they just, they don't cross that. Yeah. And to cross, even if we're outside. They don't cross that. It's still very far from the street. I don't think Rosie's ever really crossed that or ever tried to cross it. If one of the kids would, though, it'd be Rosie. Absolutely. She was out there on the driveway and just standing by the shop door. Again, she was still very far from the street. As'm like about to walk out there, I see this, um, yellow truck pull into our driveway, which is another thing. Anyway, pulling to our driveway. Well, cause it's another thing where they pull in and I was like,

oh my gosh, they're turning around. Okay. I thought you were going to hate on his yellow truck. No, no, no, no, no. It's very yellow, but no, I just, you people. Google glyphosate, guys. See how much yellow is in that. Seriously. Y'all would be shocked at the number of people that turn around in our driveway. It drives Catherine batty. Drives me batty. And here's why it drives me batty.

Because she has a bunch of tinies. I have a bunch of tinies. And more often than not, I'm out there, not necessarily standing in my driveway, but like in my backyard. Like I can see them. They can see me. I'm out there, not necessarily standing in my driveway, but like in my backyard. Like I can see them. They can see me. I'm like, what are you like? Okay, I have turned around in people's driveways before,

not frequently, but every once in a while, but I don't do it in a driveway where they're sitting there watching me. Well, I'm just amazed how often people get lost. Oh my gosh. That's what's more amazing to me. I will see four cars in one day. Stop. I'm not kidding. Okay. Four cars in one day turn around in our driveway and i'm like what the do you not have a phone

like you like not have google maps like yeah anyway sorry so this yellow truck pulls in i'm like oh gosh somebody's turning around and then they don't back up so it's like oh maybe this is a customer brad didn't tell me about them and they're dropping off something or they don't back up so it's like oh maybe this is a customer and brad didn't tell me about them and they're dropping off something or i don't know and so i'm walking out and he gets out of his car and he's like walking down our driveway and then i recognize him it's our neighbor doug who's a firefighter so i'm like oh you're safe and responsible um he was like oh hey like my wife and i were just driving by and we saw this little one out here by herself and we were really worried she was going to run to the street.

It was like, we figured she was out here and you didn't know it. You're like, I knew exactly what she was doing. Oh my gosh, you're right. Thank you, Doug. Saving her life. I was like, yeah, you never know with this one. She's quick to run out the door. I was like, so Doug, how are you how are you all right see ya

okay rosie go back yeah no come on rosie hold my hand while he drives away anyway that was kind of embarrassing anyway i i'm all bad i would have been like yeah we wanted to learn how to play by herself doug but i appreciate i and i told him that over and over again i was like doug thank you thank you i'm sure it was not judgmental. No, no, it wasn't. And thankfully we knew him and so it was fine. And he was with his wife and he was just like, well, we were just, be careful. All right.

What about, uh, sell me a minivan? What's, talk to us about the minivan journey you've gone on. Sell you a minivan. I would say talk to my husband, Brad Ellis. He will sell you a minivan. no i'm kidding would you go back would you rather have a large suv honestly that's hard because i've never had a large suv with kids so it's hard to say. I had a Toyota 4Runner before the minivan and I loved it. Okay. But right now.

Yeah. The minivan is probably the best. It's lower to the ground. Kids can get in and out easy. It has a sliding captain chairs, which I think is game changer. Okay. So Honda Odyssey sliding chairs. Yeah.

It's good. Game changer. Game changer. Honestly, though, I can't imagine what we'd do without the sliding chairs. I really can't. I mean, yeah. They're so helpful. I really can't.

Buckling kids in the back and everything. We took a road trip all the way to the Gulf Coast of Texas with a family of six, and we packed all of our stuff in the back of it. Easily. Pretty easy. Yeah, I was going to say. Pretty easy. We could have packed more.

Yeah, and it's not like we packed super light. I mean, we took Hattie's bike for crying out loud. And we took a Dock-A-Tot that Henry didn't even use. There you go. Yeah. So a lot of space. A lot of space. A lot of space.

How do you feel? Do you feel weird driving them anymore? When I catch a glimpse of myself in it, yeah. Okay. I mean, but that's just a whole other story because that's just like. That's just kind of. It's just like, wow, I'm that old to where I'm driving in a van. I'm like, well, yeah, I've got four children.

Isn't it weird how we don't. Age. Mentally think that even though it's like, okay, we've taken on the responsibility and accepted that, but we haven't accepted. Yeah. What's your, what's your mental age? How old are you in your head? Oh,

I think I'm, I think I'm in my twenties now. Cause I'm starting to like physically feel a little ailed. But besides that, I'm like 12. Wow. Okay. Not truly, but like,

I don't know. Yeah. I'm 22. Oh, are you? It's great. Just, you just,

because you want to listen to Taylor Swift song. Yeah, no, I'm 22. Really, are you? It's great. Just because you want to listen to that Taylor Swift song? Yeah. No, I'm 22. Really? Forever and always, I think. Yeah. 23 was the first birthday that I was like, ugh, I'm turning 23. I kind of remember you being like, oh, I'm in my mid-20s or something like that.

It's true. I hated that. I hated turning 23. Yeah. Okay, hate's a strong word, but you know what I'm saying. I've hated every birthday since. Thanks. All the ones we've been married for.

Yeah. I get it. I'm going to get you a better presence. If you could do it over again, would you have kids earlier? Yeah. I think you and I had them pretty early like we were only married two years three three by the time i had her so like maybe i would do it a year earlier than that but yeah i don't think we necessarily waited too long i do love like i can tell you this makes me sound old

but being pregnant when you're 33 versus being pregnant when you're 26 night and day i don't know how people in their late 30s do pregnancy that sounds horrible so truly so yes i mean i advocate for everyone hey get married and have a kid yeah right off the bat okay because you know when you're newly married like you don't have that much money you're not For everyone, hey, get married and have a kid. Yeah. Right off the bat. Okay. Because, you know, when you're newly married, like, you don't have that much money. You're not really established. Like, because I know people are like,

well, we want to, like, be married first before we have kids. And, like, that's fine. But, like, why not, like, become empty nesters at the age of 50? And then, wow, you're in the prime of your life and you're empty nesters and now you've actually got money and you're more established. And it's like, now I'll see the world. And I'll take my best friends, my adult children with me. There you go.

Nobody lost. That sounds fun. Doesn't it? Where are we going? Oh, all the places. I can't read a book these days, Hattie, without wanting to go there. It's kind of alarming to me. I'm like, Hattie you find your own husband to fund these

trips yeah mom and i were going to paris we are we're going to what else did we're going to new york we're going to stay in the plaza that was sweet with who's my good ranchers need to keep sponsoring this thing oh my god where else we're going we're going to Greece. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, we really want to see all of that stuff. Can you read more books that take place in like Wisconsin? Yeah. Oh, stop. We got listeners in Wisconsin. I know, and it's probably great.

It's just so cold. Not in the summer. Could be. What's your low? You know, probably 50. No. Sounds kind of cold. It's not 50 degrees right now.

You don't know. Give me a city in Wisconsin. The northern ones. Okay. I don't know Wisconsin. I don't know either. They all are like Milwaukee, right? Madison, Wisconsin, low.

The lowest low this week, 64 degrees. 64? That's chilly. It's the lowest. That's chilly. Some days the lowest lowest 64 that's chilly listen look up look up what'd you look up look up look i know that thing where were you what was that madison where is madison that's like the it's like borders canada yeah right try a milwaukee or chesapeake. Oh, look at you.

What's the one that had all the riots written house? Yeah, that's the one you would know, huh? I don't remember it. What was it? See, Wisconsin burning down cities up there. Stop because it's so cold. I got a light fires. What was that? Yeah, right. Get out of here. What was that city?

Ricochet. I don't know what shopping on. Yeah, but they say I know. What was that city? Rickshaw. I don't know. Shabanon. Yeah, but they all sound like that. I don't know. I don't know either. Anyway. That's going to bother me. Wisconsin's cold.

Wisconsin. I am trying to get to Wisconsin. I'm trying to get to Pepin. Look that up. Pepin? Pepin. Oh, wait. Scotty Pepin?

Minnesota. Minnesota. Is that Minnesota? It's Minnesota. Yeah. Take it back. Sorry, Wisconsin. Pepin Township. Yeah. Take it back. Sorry, Wisconsin. Pepin Township. Yeah. Lake Pepin. Look at the weather there. That's the little house on the prairie. Hattie and I are going there. We're also going to South Dakota. We're going to Mount Rushmore.

About the same as Wisconsin. Mount Rushmore and... You guys. What's the one called in South Dakota where they lived? The Ingalls. Oh, the yeah. What's that called? I don't know. I was thinking. Yeah, I know. Anyway, we're going to go there.

There was a potential law. I hope it gets passed eventually in Kansas. That was like, yeah. What is it? Six thousand dollars a year per kid to spend on education expenses. Yeah. School choice. That'd be awesome. It'd be amazing. Because then I'd be like go to greece i know right yeah i know yeah

just learn something while you're there we started on that um okay let's go let's have i don't know let maybe maybe you're having answers maybe you don't do you have anything to rant about anything you want to get off your chest anything you're like i'm tired of people saying that turning around in my driveway yeah there you go i'm tired of people oh i'm tired this is funny i'm tired of people saying all the all the things oh you don't like all the things i don't like when people don't like it at all are people saying it out loud or are they yes you want to call her out madison vining wow i know called her out i really like her y'all but she says it all the freaking time

and i just like you know when i had to get my water bottle and my keys and it's just all the things all the things it's called everything it's a word not all the all the things everything you said blahdy-blah like three times? Did you tell that story about Bo? Oh, no. That's hilarious. I don't know what. Bo was trying to tell us a story the other day,

and poor guy, he could not get all the words out. And it was like, God, so I'm going to go in the playroom. And then when I'm in the playroom, I'm going to get the, well, you know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. He just gave up.

I know. And then he turned around and walked off. That was pretty cute. Okay. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. That was funny. He's influenced by his sister probably.

Yeah, I know. Anyway, so there's my rant. All the things. I don't don't like it don't like it at all it it i don't know all the things okay stop it said to rant yeah you're right so i am go off um okay and the last one favorite him oh gosh first Oh, gosh. First hymn, favorite hymn that comes to mind. Or give us a laundry list if you want. Top five. Anything. Okay.

One of my newer favorite hymns, because I learned it with the kids a couple years ago, that I knew but didn't know very well, is How Firm a Foundation. I really like. It basically is just scripture verses in every verse i really love it and just talks about yeah how firm a foundation we have in the bible um my latest one that i've been liking is i don't know if you call this one a

hymn maybe you do maybe just an old chorus but the song give thanks yeah i don't know if that's a hymn but i know is it it was made like the 90s maybe so like no was it yeah i don't know if that's a hymn but i know is it it was made like the 90s maybe so like no was it really i don't know oh was it really i don't know maybe it's before that let's see okay but tell us why uh or like that you've been listening to that one a lot i've listened to that one a lot okay lately yeah i it. It's a nice, um, bedtime him to sing with the kids. It's a good one. Okay. Um,

trying to think, what are some ones that I've told you that I wanted at my funeral? 1986. Really? Yeah. Wow. Shocked. Um,

I really like because he lives. Yeah. I really like that He Lives I really like that one I really like I mean so many There is a fountain Yeah There's a lot of them Yeah

It is well Which is like a so like cheesy answer but i love that one so well with my soul so good so good yeah um yeah great well thank you for being on thanks for joining i i mean we could have talked i mean we do talk a lot, but I could have asked you a bunch more questions about a lot of this stuff, but I just know this is going to be a long episode. I know. And probably not even that entertaining. No, I think it's,

it's a different kind of entertainment. I think sometimes we're just being goofy and yelling and screaming and whatever. Other times we have conversations like this. I think it's fun and there's value in all of it. So thank you so much. Um, ghosties, uh, feel free to ask more questions. I think, I think, uh, yeah, we'd love to hear them and love to get feedback in any way. Uh, I'm going to shout out just a few people here that have bought merch, uh, today, uh, we're recording

this on July 10th. And, um, I'm just going to say all the people that have bought merch. Today, we're recording this on July 10th, and I'm just going to say all the people that have bought merch today, July 10th. Shout out Karen Wickersham. Wickersham? Hannah. I got some names today. Karen Wickersham,

Hannah Huguenard, Natasha Veers, Sadie Gallagher, Sierra Norris, Trevor Ashback, Isaiah Mulder, Katie Klein. Shout to you all. Thank you for ordering merch. If you haven't ordered your merch yet, go centers dot life. Check it out. We got plenty of really cool things on there. Yeah, feel free to support us in any way you can. Main way of us growing this podcast is by you guys

just telling other people about it. Oh, people did ask Catherine. Does Catherine listen to every single episode? I do. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I get behind. Or sometimes it's like kind of on the background.

You didn't hear every single time. Oh, yeah, for sure. No, you're pretty consistent. You were listening to it today. I always came out today. Wednesday's episode. Was I? Yeah, probably was.

So and you do enjoy it. I got to make sure I know what you're saying. I got to send you things when you are wrong. Yeah. I know who Harambe is. Yes. Like, oh my gosh. Yeah, that's fine.

Catherine, I know who that is. How rude. Oh, and a lot of people, I mean, I don't even remember saying this probably, I don't know, 10 people commented in some form or fashion about me saying, oh, I like the fear. That's why I married Catherine. So I just want you guys to know that was a joke. I mean, Catherine's a strong woman. Thank you. She, she could scare me sometimes. I didn't even catch you say that. We have a very healthy marriage. Um, yeah, it was a very like, were people worried about you? I don't think so, say that. We have a very healthy marriage. Um, yeah, it was a very like,

were people worried about you? I don't think so, but I think it was one of those things like, well, we're not gonna, we're not like Jake didn't even like acknowledge, like I didn't even remember saying it. I mean, Jake knows not to say anything either.

They all know their place. Yeah. I don't know. So anyway. All right. Thank you. Ghosties as always for listening. Uh,

we'll see you guys back on Monday with Jake, with time inon with the crew um back for another fun episode to hear all about jake's cruise so love you guys see you next week bye you