You're The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson - Ep. 85: JD & Britney - 8 Kids, 1 Bus, No Fear

Starting point is 00:00:00 Relationship is the currency of life. You want to be wealthy and meaningful relationship. You know, money can come, money can go. Money at a certain point becomes like a massive liability. Nothing else you can get back besides your time. It's the equalizer, right? I don't care how much Bitcoin you have or what kind of house you live in.

Starting point is 00:00:16 That's what we have is time. We were recently at a really high profile event and I got offered a job and I was like, no, because first thing I'm thinking, I'm not giving up my freedom. You have to take the time to get good at being together. If you don't, and let's just say you're really charismatic with your kids or whatever, if you don't dedicate the time, they'll maybe take some of that charisma from you, but they won't truly feel valued because the only way to demonstrate value is to dedicate yourself to them with your actual time. There's no love without free will, right?

Starting point is 00:00:47 Yeah. Like if you don't have the ability to not love someone, then it's not true love, right? And what we want to have is genuine relationships with our family. hello and welcome from bitcoin vegas 2025 i'm a flat with your the voice and i'm ben from crypto talks and we're here today at a collaboration we're going to interview a series of guests here in vegas and we'll introduce each one of them for you and then we'll roll with the episodes the episodes are going to be released on both your the voice and cripple talk so make sure you're subscribed to both our next guests are jd and britney jd and britney lot are a faith

Starting point is 00:01:38 driven couple who travel the u.s full-time with their eight children in a converted bus sharing their journey as american family road trip since 2018 they've embraced road schooling minimalism and bitcoin sharing their story and experiences with hundreds of thousands of people all right jd and britney thank you so much for being spontaneous and agreeing to come in last night we met and we're like let's do this yes that's kind of our life we do a lot of things spontaneous last minute yep we prefer life like that it's the best it's more fun to just see where everything goes when you have the fundamentals figured out it can like not that we have it all figured out but it can make life enjoyable because you can handle spontaneity so and and you did and i i

Starting point is 00:02:26 really appreciate it okay so tell us a little bit about i don't want to get it wrong american family road trip yes family of 10 traveling around raising a family of 10 meaning we got eight babies we do i am we have seven boys and one girl um and we really has birthed all of my babies yes and he pays for all of the babies so that's convenient that is good um but yeah so we full-time travel in a renovated bus um it is fabulous i designed it so that's probably why i think that but um it fits all of us everyone has all the space we need because we basically just take our house all around the country and give it a new backyard amazing so it seems daunting to a people they go oh you travel full-time and i'm like first question what's your favorite place

Starting point is 00:03:20 and it's like well we go through cycles you know like what time of the year is it um what kind of events are going on you know things like that right and uh there's there's just a lot of really amazing places in the u.s and we've been grateful to be able to travel internationally as well um not in the bus yeah the darien gap is a little much for the suspension but uh but do you take a you rv when you go no overseas airbnbs airbnbs um to get around but we still road trip when we travel internationally well for example we went to brazil we spent three months there in southern brazil it was amazing highly recommend winter we bought a combi like an old vw bus because they were still building it for a long time after they stopped like in the u.s and that was the only

Starting point is 00:04:06 vehicle that could fit us all yeah like legally amazing we made it happen that's super cool it is super fun when did you decide to start living that way so we'd actually it's everything's bigger in texas okay that's kind of like this the little slogan so um we wound up with wound up getting ourselves into a massive 7 000 square foot house um and you a lot of people go oh that's like the dream it's kind of not once you're in a house like that you have to maintain a house like that and you are taking care of a bunch of little children, I spent more of my time cleaning up after them than enjoying them.

Starting point is 00:04:41 And I was homeschooling and it was just constant pressure to maintain this big house, all the land. It's a liability in a lot of ways. And we kind of flipped homes while we lived in them and just kept going. We're like, hey, it's working, let's keep going. And eventually we were like, wow,

Starting point is 00:05:02 there's a lot going on here. Yeah. So we, we decided, you know, let's tell it all. Let's do something different. Let's get rid of the actual burden part. Um, because it was, it was starting to feel like, man, something's, something's so stressful. Something's hard. Something's a burden. And it was like, well, I love my children. It's not them. Yeah. But so often we just hear these moms that go, Oh, you know, it's too much. I can't handle all this. And the first thing I ask is like, how big is your house? How big is your outside expectations? Because, you know, we accidentally become with trying to keep up with the joneses you become the joneses and you realize this is

Starting point is 00:05:36 actually not fun i want to get back to the basics and that's the relationships between me and the kids between me and my husband that's the basics that's what brings you true joy um and so like again it's not it's not about the house in a lot of ways um for people it's about your obligations um we obligate ourselves in so many different areas whether it's you know extracurricular activities or events or work or whatever it is and we just felt like in a lot of ways let's let's like focus on what our core um fundamental interests are you know like what matters most to us and in so doing we were able to just uh just start to trim away the things that that were um obligations that were unnecessary and you know uh god helped us uh through that

Starting point is 00:06:31 by his grace and and it was a it was a it was liberating you know yes yes and and we have uh we have freedom it's it's a strange concept it's it's hard to explain the freedom concept it is it's like you don't know it until you taste it when you taste it it's almost like freedom is also like, there's like freedom and security, right? They're, they're kind of like counterpoints in a lot of ways. You can be in a fixed situation and circumstance that doesn't allow that, that freedom of, you know, maybe will in different ways. Um, but you, uh, or you could have, you know, full freedom and, you know, you have to learn to be resilient when you have freedom, You have to learn to be flexible.

Starting point is 00:07:20 You have to learn to be a lot of different things. But those things are actually making you stronger the whole time. As opposed to focusing on just being safe, which I think makes you weaker and more reliant on structures that can overrun what they should be doing and maybe take the control a little too far or whatever. I don't know. Get a little carried away there. No, no. I think you're picking up what I'm putting down. you know? Yeah. Yeah. If, you know, I can bounce back off of that in Israel, for example, where

Starting point is 00:07:54 we come from, we have missile attacks all the time. People are running to shelters every day, several times a day sometimes. And it's the kind of reality that has you question, why am I relying on this external thing to tell me when am I not safe? I need to now run. I need to hide now I need to come out now and where is this safety and does it make me really safer if I comply with all that stuff or do I just move myself where is my freedom in all of that so so that that question that you're bringing that balance between freedom and safety is so fundamental in our lives and normally people don't stop to think about that they just automatically operate on what people tell them to do without questioning their sovereignty and

Starting point is 00:08:45 their independence in those situations so this is and just like i think that in a lot of ways and i'm not trying to disparage anybody's decisions but i think when it comes to children a lot of people just follow the path of least resistance like and the path of least resistance is often shaped by expectations of the people or culture or society around them so like yeah you got to have kids, but not too much. You know, you've got to, you know, oh, how do you do it? I have two kids. It's like, well, you know, I've had a one-year-old eight times. Yeah. Like I have, I have experienced that. And you can only get that through having gone through it or maybe have that learning curve shortened by like people that can genuinely mentor you. But parenting is

Starting point is 00:09:35 more about the growth of the parent than the child but that's just another example of ways that we live our lives according to other people's expectations as opposed to according to what our core values and beliefs would otherwise dictate absolutely when was it that you made that transition and sold everything and we've been full-time traveling for over seven years now wow yeah seven years and the time you have your business same time and i haven't been in a vacation for seven years for that long so he's yearning to move around yeah we we were grinding for a while before that you know we owned a business in uh in the town that we were living at the time and uh you know uh god like freed us from that obligation perfectly you know and

Starting point is 00:10:29 and our team stepped up to the bat and managed it actually lost my voice completely and i had to have a major surgery on my vocal cords um and the uh uh had to go to houston to a like a very high-end like specialist he did like beyonce for example and tina turner and i'm looking at the wall all these like famous singers thank you and i was like what's this gonna cost i know i was like oh my goodness what did we get into you're not even singing the shower honey what is wrong with you but anyways yeah so uh yeah it was it was a wild transition uh but you know we've been going at it strong our our I started it took me 10 months to build the bus so I built the bus yeah um where I so I cut the roof off and raised it a couple of feet and I you know you know built

Starting point is 00:11:17 out the interior and stuff like that and it was that was a I didn't you know I figured that out i guess you know it was it was a cool experience um but uh anyways yeah just for people that are worried uh yes i have a friend that owns a welding company he checked it all and a friend that's a master plumber that checked it all and a friend that's a master electrician and it is fully insured so yes so it is and it's legally an rv you you can do hard things you can do hard things if it matters enough to you you can make it happen but regretfully you know determining what matters to you is is probably the most important key to that but that's amazing you're the voice is brought to you by trezor the original bitcoin hardware wallet company pioneering the

Starting point is 00:12:05 development of self-custody for crypto assets since 2013 empowering individuals with an open source device enabling beginners and experts to easily and securely hold their coins i find my Trezor is super easy to use and recommended to my friends and family. Enjoy my 5% discount on Trezor product by clicking the link in the show notes and using the code FLAT. When did you discover Bitcoin? How does Bitcoin fit in the picture? Okay, so originally, shout out to my cousin. Which I've met last night.

Starting point is 00:12:43 Yeah, great guy. Yeah, he's a great guy. He has a company. He's part of 2 Prime. great guy but he actually sat us down one night and was like this is right up your alley you should invest in this um and we were not ready to learn about it yet we were not ready I'll take responsibility for that you know I was I I was too proud in a sense like so many people I see when I tell them about it they're like they can't get over their own pride I was I was my own worst

Starting point is 00:13:15 enemy in that scenario oh you're trying to tell me something that you think is interesting oh that's cute i'm doing good but let me help give you therapy by listening and it's like wow uh but the other part of the other side of the coin though i i feel like you know i don't know if i'd be mature enough to have the conviction that i do now about bitcoin like if i bought it then i would just be like number go up wow cash out you know lose everything by squandering it and be worse off than I was before. Um, whereas now it's like, I, I came because I saw the vision of Bitcoin or in a sense of like, I came for the gains, but then I stayed for the philosophical like aspects that, wow, this is fixing and writing a lot of the wrongs that like subjugate us in a, in a sense,

Starting point is 00:14:07 in a very clear sense, you know, but it honestly lines up perfectly with our family because we really believe that family should be a legacy, that you should be thinking long-term beyond just you or your one set of kids, but I want to set up my family's children's children. We were recently at a really high profile event and I got offered a job and I was like, no, because first thing I'm thinking, I'm not giving up my freedom. And they said, oh, you know, after talking a little longer, he was like, yeah, but where do you really see yourself in like 10 years? And I, without hesitation I was like hope he's a grandmother like it just popped out yeah and I you know and it was kind of funny because you know he goes oh he was like I'm thinking more professionally and

Starting point is 00:14:51 I was like yeah professionally yeah I want to be there to help support my children when they have kids you're gonna hold the baby I'm gonna do all your laundry and cleaning and help support you so that you can bond with that sweet baby and hopefully have more and enjoy motherhood like I do i want you to see the beauty in it that i've been able to see you don't do that by you know leaving them out to dry and say oh that's your kids i'm not babysitting i will say that the people so we are the people that comment to us the most when we're out and about with our family are like generally successful people they say this is the most inspirational thing i've seen like just not that they know us on social media or anything just like we're walking around like

Starting point is 00:15:37 i mean we were in uh japan over uh right before right at christmas time yeah and and people were that were english speaking you were coming out of the woodworks like oh my goodness i can't believe you're doing this i love it so much i wish i did this with my family and and it was just it was cool and i think that people have uh people that take the time to think about what matters to them notice that one of our mantras is relationship is the currency of life. You want to be wealthy and meaningful relationship. You know, money can come, money can go. Um, money at a certain point becomes like a massive liability, um, because with it, you can create your own world where you're never wrong. And it does. And you lose a lot of those maybe forcing functions that keep

Starting point is 00:16:25 you on the straight and narrow and and humble and and uh inquisitive and seeking truth and but anyways so uh but it's also why we really enjoy bitcoin and see the value in it because it is generational it will it will outlast me right and so when we're talking about it with our kids and we're teaching them about this i'm like this is an opportunity for our family for a lifetime of something different you know than what a fiat currency could give you do you teach them already even the little one i think the point about it is is we teach them uh truth yeah and then we align our lives alongside truthful elements right so like bitcoin for example being it is you know it's decentralized it's verifiable anywhere in the world with an electronic device

Starting point is 00:17:17 um you can tell that like how many bitcoin are there no centralized authority can print more or stop you from using it or and so it's actually restoring um monetary goods to a free market good right the apex predator of the free market is what money becomes and but regretfully you know um when you just put a little bit of you know poison in the water because it serves the purpose of maybe the controlling groups or whatever um it begins to erode trust and eventually but we we talk about bitcoin but we talk about life yes you know and i don't worship bitcoin no bitcoin is like a steering wheel man if i didn't have a steering wheel that'd be a rough time you know eventually i guess we won't have steering wheels but

Starting point is 00:18:08 But, you know, if I didn't have, you know, name some valuable tool that we use, you know, like there's going to be so many Bitcoiners that were early that their children are going to squander their wealth and they're going to end up worse off. Because they don't work on the core components of establishing a set of truth, values, and vision that they can push forward generationally. So everybody starts from a new generation and like the Western culture and and like all the siblings work independently of one another and pursue their own interests. And they're basically everybody's like starting at a disadvantage to what they could be, because ultimately it's incumbent on parents who are ultimately the leaders of their families to win the hearts of their children. right and if we don't take the time to do that then um they're going to be shaped elsewhere by government well yeah for example yeah i mean yeah or media or whatever the culture is doing they'll be shaped by who cares most about them right and i don't want them to be a product exactly i want them we we talk about we want them to be creators not consumers you know excellent

Starting point is 00:19:30 My kids don't have cell phones. They have computers. They know how to use the tool, and they take classes online. But I don't want them to be constantly staring at a screen and living life through whatever is being said. We want them to look out and enjoy. How do you think a child is going to handle that? Like, it's a massive responsibility. Like, just like money.

Starting point is 00:19:49 Money is a tool, you know? It's a tool to perpetuate you and your vision. it's basically your ability to exert your will in the economy is money right so if if you don't have uh like if you don't have like a pure heart or like positive good intentions like you can really hurt yourself or others with it you know or you can you know be a force that is uplifting and that at the end of the day is based on your core values i believe and the time to invest in that in core values is now when they're younger rather than in screen staring I have the same issue yeah with my son 15 so I totally see what you mean and I think that the fact that he only

Starting point is 00:20:38 got a mobile phone when he was 12 or 13 no matter how much we had to fight um was a better move than giving it to him earlier. And yes, I see the difference between how he grows up to how I grew up without it. And there are so many drawbacks today for young people because they are using those screens. Like now he's 15 and a half. He wants to start dating girls. And it's so hard for them to actually make connection physically, eye to eye, chemistry, find that magic, right? that is created when people meet each other because they're used to just being between there's a buffer between them all the time there's this proxy screen that is there so when you take it out they're kind of like they don't know what to do with themselves so you just see how it impacts

Starting point is 00:21:34 just the very basic thing of hitting on a girl and yeah or you know just finding a girlfriend it just makes it so hard so imagine how many other basic things in their lives are impacted by this sure little silly scream you know yeah and it's an addiction too yeah and i i do think i do think yes there's a lot of there's a lot of bad like and wrongs associated with that too but i also think it's like i'm not talking about i the negative aspects we pretty much there's like a negative aspect so like that's why we're like just no phones like you're i wouldn't give a baby a razor blade yeah like just honestly there i i barely have the the self-control to manage like screen time or just content and stuff like that it takes a significant amount of personal maturity

Starting point is 00:22:20 and responsibility to do that and so our goal when we talk about parenting what's our first like primary focus to give our kids tools not baggage tools not baggage and the most important tool is building their character first yeah like i i think we like to define character as like the set of values and beliefs that you hold important and then like integrity is like how deeply do you hold them right because there's a breaking point for everything right yeah i i i clean up messes right but if if uh you know if the trash can dumps out yes i'm going to clean that out but what if i see a dumpster dump out in the in the parking lot well that's a different scenario because that's not my you know i i maybe i'll help you know coordinate but but there's there's

Starting point is 00:23:08 breaking points about those things uh but i think the point i was getting to sorry to ramble but i think um people nowadays are able to parse information so quickly ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding and so you it allows i i think kids like nowadays are like almost have a more robust filter for lies yeah yeah you know in a lot of ways um it's been interesting to see that And like our kids aren't on the phone or anything. I mean, these are, you know, with purpose, but like even them, they're just, just, there's enough media in the world that I feel like they're like, have a really robust, like healthy response.

Starting point is 00:23:53 They can see through a lot of it very quickly. Anyways. And JD, if I take you back to Bitcoin, what is Satsaver? Yeah. SatSaver is a company that I started, started with my co-founder and business partner, Brian. And so basically your seed words are your Bitcoin. Like your seed words allow you to permit transacting on the, you're moving your Bitcoin from one address to another address.

Starting point is 00:24:25 Okay. A lot of people will get a signing device. they call like a hardware wallet, you know, where they have to put a pin in. And that pin basically executes that seed word prompt by just, here's the seed words, and then lets the transaction continue. So if you don't, if you lose your hardware wallet, though, you hopefully have your seed words somewhere, right? If you don't, then you don't have your Bitcoin anymore. It's ultimate self-responsibility. If you drop a bar of gold into the ocean, good luck. The Spanish have done it many times. So envision the next analogy here. Well, first of all, the industry

Starting point is 00:25:14 standard is that there's no industry standard for managing seed words. Now you have major people in the space saying, hey, don't worry about the seed words. Look, somebody's worried about the seed words that means that they have your seed words they're just promising that they're not going to do anything bad with them right but in the whole bitcoin ethos is that i don't have to trust other people right so um most people write their seed words down and just hope nobody's watching over their shoulders and then they shove them in their underwear drawer or some clever hiding spot maybe they punch them on a plate or whatever but if you find that you still know their seed words. Well, to get to it, SatSaver provides an encryption system that's a no-tech

Starting point is 00:26:00 encryption system because you don't want your seed words on a digital device. You don't want to take pictures of it or anything like that. You write your seed, you use our kit to encrypt your seed words and they're safe even if they're seen because they've been reordered. Just imagine the numbers on the back of a credit card. They work if they stay the same, but if you jumble them all up. You just don't have access anymore. So that's what Satsaver does in a sense for seed words. And it, you just decrypt your seed words with a simple pin word or passphrase that will tell you which order to put them in. Tired of feeling like your freedom and future are fading away? Do you live in a country with growing inflation, crazy housing prices, weird culture,

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Starting point is 00:27:31 follow-up in a world hypnotized and sleepwalking towards totalitarian control and digital enforcement awakened voices rise to inspire change and radiate hope in december 2024 i had the honor of hosting professor matthias desmet at a conference i produced called new totalitarian order this master class is now recorded and available to watch the conference explores the psychology behind global mass processes offering a behind the scenes look at science economics and human potential it addresses challenging global agendas mass formation transhumanism consciousness societal change and the path to transformation click the link in the show notes to access three and a half hours of exclusive presentations in-depth content and

Starting point is 00:28:21 my fireside chat with professor desmic use my code a flat for 10 off i hope you find great value very cool is it already out and it's out it's out in the wild right now that's saver.co and we're developing relationships with people to give them to their clients when onboarding and such um so who will be your go-to customers yeah so uh the whole point of managing seed words is to maintain the integrity of like the bitcoin network i mean bitcoin isn't etfs bitcoin isn't you know uh stocks that are bitcoin proxies and i'm not saying that those are bad but i'm saying bitcoin is not held by it's if it's held on an exchange then you have a risk that the exchange doesn't give you your bitcoin it's kind of it's like second layer money um like

Starting point is 00:29:27 if you're like in Canada, you go into Canada, start honking your truck horn, they shut down your bank account. Well, if they are regulated or required to by a government entity, or if they lose it like Mt. Gox, then you lose your Bitcoin. You don't have access to it. So we encourage people to self-custody their Bitcoin, but create a clear, simple handrail to help them feel comfortable managing the most fundamental element of Bitcoin ownership, seed word management. Good. So anyone that holds Bitcoin today in self-custody should take a look at SatSaver. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. So can you share your approach to road schooling and how it compares to

Starting point is 00:30:14 conventional educational methods? So a lot of our focus on everything has just been focusing on our home and rebuilding that. So especially in the United States, we have a lot of issues with families, basically. A lot of us come from broken families or just not the best family situation. And so we're all kind of just starting to refresh is what it kind of looks like. And so we've done everything from home birth

Starting point is 00:30:42 to focusing on our home life. A lot of it's like, why do we do what we do to begin with, right? Why do we do what we do? So focus on our home life, communication. And so a big element of that is educating your kids. That's a huge factor of it, you know, is if you're going to have this solid home life, I want to be the one that spends the most amount of time with my kids as possible.

Starting point is 00:31:04 No one, nobody loves your kids more than you as a parent. Nobody. It's just, this is the fact of it. And so it was kind of exciting. We started out in a university model school where it's a hybrid, where they would go to school for a couple of days out of the week, but you would also co-teach at home with the same curriculum and homeschool. And we started with that. And it was a really good fit for a while, but I wanted to have more choices on my curriculum. My son was doing really well, especially mathematics at the time. And so we wanted to keep moving ahead. And so we decided to switch to homeschooling and we've never looked back. It has been so good to homeschool. Our kids are thriving.

Starting point is 00:31:40 They're thriving. They love it. And then getting in the bus, road schooling is essentially just taking everything they were learning out of their books and doing it in person. Yeah, it's huge. You know, you're learning about history, and then the next thing you know, we're at the Appomattox Courthouse, and we're watching a reenactment, and it takes it to the next level. There's been so much more that we've learned on site about, like, historical matters, for example. And so we share a lot on Instagram about it on American Family Road Trip, and I'm like, you guys, did you know that in this museum, they have this? Or, you know, this about that. It's so fun because people online are like, I didn't know that either.

Starting point is 00:32:17 And so we have people all over now the world that really watch our stories daily. And they're like, we use your platform to also learn. You know, we have these questions. Can you ask while you're there? I'm like, yes, I can. That's a good question. So it's been kind of neat to see road schooling because we kind of coined the term a little bit of like, let's take this thing and go. So we spoke at a few homeschool conferences and just said, you know, this is an inspiring thing.

Starting point is 00:32:42 You don't have to sell your house and move into a bus to do it. Okay. you can on spring break on school breaks christmas you know we spent you mentioned japan we spent christmas time in japan last year that was the time frame that a lot of schools were out you could have also taken your kids and gone through the same tour that we did um around and seen firsthand and it's just so different whenever you're experiencing things as a family because of course we're all about family when you're experiencing these things and you're learning together side by side with your like five-year-old or eight-year-old or your 12-year-old and they're

Starting point is 00:33:16 having these aha moments with you the bonding that happens amazing shared experience is one of the core drivers of like relationship building and it's like when you think you're doing it with your kids it's like don't for listeners like don't think about me doing it with your kids think about me doing with my kids because like i'm the one that like we are the ones that have to set the pace for what's a healthy environment you know and that takes time and effort and growing together and so like we really enjoy each other you know and and part of that is respecting each other you know establishing like i i as a parent as a father i don't i can't just dominate my children, like that's not love. Like there's no love without free will, right? Like if you don't

Starting point is 00:34:11 have the ability to not love someone, then it's not true love, right? And what we want to have is genuine relationships with our family. And that means that, you know, you may have mentioned this earlier, but we were talking about, you know, people say, hey, what happens if they want to place you know do something with other kids or organize sports like we've stopped we stopped and we played football and yeah none of them liked it it was not it's so crazy because i loved sports but i think a lot of the reasons i love sports was because um it's maybe gave me an outlet that i didn't have otherwise um but i i totally enjoyed sports but but i feel like we have like a really wholesome environment all things considered but instead we switched to this last winter we got

Starting point is 00:35:03 season passes to ski and snowboard that sport was a perfect fit they loved it we went surfing last year when we went to el salvador that was a good fit loved it so that's on the trips for this summer is they were like we want to go surfing more so just because it didn't fit in the like traditional school system of sports it doesn't mean they don't are athletic or do things i mean we're always on another national park trail hiking i mean so just remember we have seven boys yeah boys wrestle boys play my 14 year old is as big as i am and i'm just like hey we can't wrestle today because you know i mean this guy gotta know but you know we we we get after we have fun you know and but it's just a totally different my i never expected to be doing this

Starting point is 00:35:51 but i'm so grateful that we are i am and there's more families than you would think doing this there's a ton of people yeah like traveling full-time with their kids whether it be in a an rv we're kind of one of the few that have a bus most have an rv um but then there's also sailing families we've met a ton of families that all over the world we'd love to do that wow yeah so i mean there's it's there's plenty of opportunity for community on the road like that there's also i mean we are well known to go park in friends houses and their front yard and have the ultimate party that's for a few days you know that's a great idea yeah it's super fun do you guys know daniel prince from the uk he also does wrote well did for a few now his daughters

Starting point is 00:36:36 are older he wrote a book as well he's a bitcoiner that's what i'm saying he's got a beautiful podcast called once bitten and he i've heard of i've heard of you okay so he has written a book also about homeschooling and okay road schooling because he was traveling with his family and his three daughters he was educating them as they were traveling around the world and they did a lot of home swaps with other families that's cool yeah yeah so he's very much into it you can introduce bus swaps yeah yeah um i must ask do the kids educate each other sometimes like do they help each other with so there's multiple ways to homeschool multiple multiple like ideas of education in general, right? So you can be classical, Charlotte Mason. You could do a

Starting point is 00:37:24 one-room schoolhouse model. There's thematic. There's, you know, many different ways to educate someone. And so we do practice a bit of a classical model mixed in with a one-room schoolhouse. So one-room schoolhouse concept would basically be everybody is learning the same curriculum, same themed for the six to eight weeks obviously that's not for like math right yeah because they have different but what would happen is they would have their own level as to expectations whether they're doing research projects or they're just doing coloring pages or they're writing a paper or um you know whatever it is and the curriculum actually breaks it down based upon age level for what's expected of them so i would mass teach almost skeleton style

Starting point is 00:38:07 and you would add in all the filler to create the full body right depending on right like i said which age would be appropriate no um currently though there is not a one-room schoolhouse model for mathematics so yeah that's the one subject that would not be included but it's science history um foreign language art music and what am i missing because you can you can introduce the same idea and there's uh varying levels of capability or expectation associated with that yeah so that's that's an option we like that just because it does fit our current lifestyle but with homeschooling that's the beauty of it you can change based upon your season of life what you need your child's needs how well they're learning a subject we've even switched I've switched out

Starting point is 00:38:58 math I teach numerous different programs of math because I have different kids that honestly learn best different ways and because I care I'm more than happy to say okay let's learn this style and they're over there like getting it right away and I'm like that's really tricky for me but it makes sense to them right and that's the whole point is I want them to be well educated so so cool equipped just equipped yeah yeah yeah yeah tools yeah have there been moments in your journey I'm sure there have been that are super challenging yeah take a deep breath have you ever shared one bathroom with your spouse with that's actually a lot less challenging that is really not challenging that's everyone thinks that's challenging you just take turns yeah people

Starting point is 00:39:44 learn that in kindergarten like it's actually not hard yeah um i would say we've had a few few crazy experiences we had traveling well a funny one for example um britney and i got separated uh we drove separate so we actually drive the bus and then we have a second vehicle um and they don't it doesn't tow buses or not that's not what they choose not to um yeah so i usually drive right behind him um in general so when we get somewhere bus parks hook it all up for like a week or two or whatever we're staying somewhere and then it's like basically moving your house like a base station and then we can use the car to go right to be more mobile we have a lot of people were moving just makes sense so we were driving separately and uh we were in new

Starting point is 00:40:31 mexico i don't know why we got separated we never get separated yeah i think you did like an errand or something and you were behind me and i took a wrong turn we didn't have cell signal so you went the right way and i went the wrong way it was that's exactly what it was that's all i pull over on the side of the road and i like get signal i'm like where are you and you're like like i'm right here out of money i tried to get gas that's what it was and i pulled over and she was out of gas the whole time so like the pressure is even harder that's what it was and i was like where are you and he pings me and he goes oh i i can get to you there's a road i see it yeah so our roads are like here oh my goodness we just looked it up like recently it's a it's a gorge

Starting point is 00:41:16 in new mexico um where the the the erosion like leaves these very steep um like they're gorgeous you know i actually the same gorge but like miles down when i was a kid i wrote a hot air balloon under the bridge through it it's very large um and steep and so we got separated uh from each other and i i looked on the map and it didn't like populate very much because the cell signal was very bad, but I was like, oh, this road connects. So I just keep going down and I see this bridge up ahead. And I was like, I don't even know if the bus is like, if it's too heavy, but I went for it. My poor daughter, she never rides with him. And I don't think she has ever ridden since. I looked at this, this spot on the map since I actually looked at it a couple of

Starting point is 00:42:05 days ago. Just, it just dawned on me to look at it. And, um, the road has been improved dramatically. it's still like a tight you know so it's a dirt road and it has these big massive boulders because we drove it afterwards where he's having to swing our 37 foot bus through while he's going down and she seriously was like it was it was down and then it was up but poor Kinsey was like she's like mom I just sat there and I prayed and I was sweating so hard and I was holding on so check this out the funny part about it is is we're going up the hill and I see this I'm like winding up and I see four by four only on the sign and I was like what is going on here let's go all right so I was just it was nerve-wracking but I couldn't back down

Starting point is 00:42:55 you know so it so I just kept going and this uh Toyota 4Runner with like four college kids like two guys and two girls just out in the boonies like partying together I like pull over because there's a slight little like cut out and I noticed them behind me and they drove by they're like beep beep beep beep like screaming out the windows and stuff and I was like you know hi I make it up to the very top and they were waiting at the top jumping up and down like it was really intense and it was probably one of the most scary moments yeah she like never rode with him again yeah she was like no it was pretty wild after that I was like wow the bus actually is like

Starting point is 00:43:39 pretty capable um it was kind of crazy pops out right where are these people though these earth earth people is that what it's called yeah it's the berry houses yeah they build thing i've ever seen it's like earthship no it's like i think you call it like earthship but they're they're gorgeous they're these artistic like made out of dirt recycled glass bottles for their windows that's where it is okay that's exactly where we popped out of course we pull up and i'm just like we need to like take a break like this is so crazy you showed up and he's like I can't I have to walk I have to get out of the bus he's like shaking and all and they were like hey are you here to bury your boss and he was like get back in the bus never mind they seriously they said

Starting point is 00:44:24 hey man have you ever considered burying your bus he was like no I haven't we have not done that oh that is too funny that was that was scary i mean but you know we've had some challenging times but in a lot of ways uh those challenging times have really like equipped us to um absolutely i mean we're glass half full kind of people yeah yeah yeah yeah um what are you gonna do shrivel up and die exactly like at what point are you gonna just make it happen yeah but then eventually you gotta snap out of it right exactly you're gonna just live coward for the rest of your life and so you know uh you just got to kind of seize life by the horn sometimes and yeah drive the gorge drive the gorge literally drive a gorge all right so we have uh two last questions to ask

Starting point is 00:45:17 what would be an advice or a few advices you'd give to families considering your transition of the lifestyle well like i would not build a bus yeah i wouldn't let me just say that um we had a very unique situation no not that story that's not why i just mean i've had people more than once you know i want to build a bus tell me how and i'm like did god tell you to build a bus yeah because if he doesn't tell you to build a bus it is a lot of work i mean if you're passionate about it my thing is is like if you're passionate about it like if you like if it matters to you you can make it happen in that regard um as far as like things to share with parents um I guess this one is more poignantly poignantly focused towards like our current culture is like a lot

Starting point is 00:46:07 of times I just feel like I should tell new parents like hey don't be too quick to decide how many children you're gonna have like because what information are you working off of what society says or yeah and you think that society's got it all figured out I mean are our families healthy, like physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially, are they healthy? And I would say in a lot of ways they're not, um, you know, uh, there's bright spots, but, um, I feel like, you know, go into life and be willing to just, first of all, commit to one another and, be willing to, you know, figure things out together as you go. And then I would say definitely guard your time. So there's nothing else you can get back besides

Starting point is 00:46:57 your time. It's the equalizer, right? I don't care how much Bitcoin you have or what kind of house you live in. That's what we have is time. That's the freedom key, right? And so if you can learn to say no, that will help you best with your time. And we're in a society that doesn't want you to say no that way to say yes to everything always and it's just not it's not realistic and you're I feel like we're happier when we say no nope well I can't do that I'm too busy no I think I need to prioritize I think the no is primarily it's not just no for no sake not that you're saying that per se but it's driven by intentional taking the time to figure out like what you actually want we just like literally float through life and we think uh it'll all sort itself out

Starting point is 00:47:44 But what happens is you got to sort yourself out so you can sort those things out. And I would say, like, that's probably the first thing. Yeah, we literally made a priority list. If you think that what we're saying is valuable, I mean, I guess it starts by just saying, hey, figure out what's important to you and why. That's another cool thing about having kids. It's like I'll have a statement to make or something and they'll say, well, why do you feel that way?

Starting point is 00:48:14 like Gunnar, why do you feel that way? And, and like, let me tell you why I feel that way, because I've actually taken the time to think about it. And, but what about this? That's a good point. You know, like as new information comes, you have to like, you have to be willing to take the new information, um, as long as it's truth and adapt to it. But at the end of the day, the core is that what do you even want? Like what, what's important to you? What is, what do you feel like you know truth is and uh so then it's easy when you get asked to like these these guys were throwing around big numbers and asking if she wanted a job and it's like well you know then it becomes like shooting glass bottles off a fence post nope don't want to do

Starting point is 00:48:59 that don't want to do that because what does it do it violates my first principles you know it violates my core desires because if i carry this out and keep moving it forward in time and space it takes me to a place I don't want to be right and so I think that's that's the first thing is what do you want literally just write about your priorities basically you know and why are they in that order that'll help you make a decision on like it's good for your husband and why to do that together here's my list here's yours what we do that sometimes where we do that hey what are three things that I love that you're doing what are like about three things that I'd like maybe we could change or adjust? And can we meet any of those? You know, is this a possible change or

Starting point is 00:49:45 nope, I am not going to do the dishes. Sorry. I don't care if it's on your list, you know, like expectations. Yeah. I think there's a lot of things that you don't have to deal with or like things in a relationship that you don't have to work through when you live in like a normal size house. And so like, we like live in 217 square feet together and it sounds crazy, but man, I call it getting good at being together. You have to take the time. You have to take the time to get good at being together because if you don't, and let's just say you're really charismatic with your kids or whatever, if you don't dedicate the time, they'll maybe take some of that charisma from you, but they won't truly feel valued because the only way to demonstrate

Starting point is 00:50:31 value is to dedicate yourself to them with your actual time you know for example but attention yeah yeah there you go that's probably a better way to say it attention yeah yeah you guys make me bullish on life you make me bullish on relationships you make me very hopeful this is a super inspiring conversation i really appreciate you and the the role model that you are and the time that you have given us at times speaking of time and attention and our audiences so i really appreciate you i'm so happy we met last night well i felt like i was like man thank you for having us but i just felt like it was just like as soon as i met you i was like you have like a fun energy i was like what do you do i was like tell me about yourself let's hear this

Starting point is 00:51:19 and then she you're over there like well like health climate i'm like i feel like we're kind of like perfectly matched here absolutely we didn't have time to go into the maha movement i know but we will do this again we can do this online as well in the future so i think we have a lot to unravel as we go forward in the relationship i seriously appreciate you guys thank you so much now seriously thanks for having us and continue what you're doing inspiring people enjoy with your kids and go on the roads and just like continue building it's amazing it is indeed you're even making me bullish on having another child it's funny because like having a kid like really only makes you

Starting point is 00:52:01 kind of better it's a challenge it's like lifting weights you know i mean there's not a single one i regret i'm like a child they get cuter it's a lot of times people a lot of times people like get to the end of the life and they're like man i wish i didn't have the all these kids no they they don't you know and but you know teach their own teach their own hopefully the message lands with people that are you know willing to maybe consider that things are different than like the status quo maybe there's value in something different than the status quo yeah and and i argue that there is and that's just my personal experience but you know absolutely amen thank you very much thanks thanks thanks for being with us please take a minute to give

Starting point is 00:52:49 this episode a like a comment and subscribe or follow and please share it with your friends so they can also get value and choose to take some positive action in their lives till next time

You're The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson - Ep. 85: JD & Britney - 8 Kids, 1 Bus, No Fear

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