The Key To Success & Other Deep “Spiritual” Thoughts While on the Road

I have no idea what time it was last night when we stumbled into the Hyatt in Memphis, Tennessee. I think we gained an hour or maybe we lost an hour, maybe its Tuesday? I have NO IDEA, I lost ALL track of time two weeks ago – it could be 7 pm right now for all I know (except for the sun being up!).

Needless to say, it was while I was in this state of mind I woke up and began thinking about the power of regeneration. I started thinking about how in a healthy human body, the human body will replace its red blood cells 2 million every second, how our skin cells constantly reproduce, how our minds need constant challenging, and how our need as a human race is to continue reinventing itself. It would appear (upon deep thought) that if we “aren’t growing, we’re dying”.

HOW?

So how do I do it all? It is a question I get asked often along with, how do I raise six kids, how do I home school, how do I take care of myself and maintain my sanity? How do I have enough energy to do everything I do?

The answer is simple: our kids keep us young our kids keep us learning and reinventing ourselves.

It is said children are “sponges”, and if you think about it – so are we when we are with them! Children are constantly asking questions we don’t know the answers to, they are constantly prodding us to try new experiences, they have no fear, and they do EVERYTHING wholeheartedly. It does not surprise me Jesus of Nazareth said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 18:3

WHAT IF HEAVEN WAS ATTAINABLE TODAY?

What if, the “heaven” Jesus is talking about in this sentence ISN’T a virtual heaven? What if the kingdom of heaven was something we could become a part of right here, and right now? Wouldn’t that be heavenly?

While I know you didn’t sign up for a “Christian Blog” when you logged in this morning, I would like to reassure you, I am not a “Christian”. I am a student of the Bible and happen to believe what it says. This concept of “youth, vitality, and a long life – a life eternal” is what I study, and that also happens to coincide with a belief in Jesus Christ.

The Bible was originally written in a combination of languages, on scrolls, on tablets, and on anything else that could hold words! Mans desire to impute the words of God directly from Him to the generations to come as a manuscript to live by, has driven us closer to God and the way He works. This is how we have documented the words of Christ, and this is how I KNOW Jesus wants us to live a life of heaven on this earth. Because He said so!

GET HIM (me) TO THE GREEK

In today’s case “Get him to the Greek” isn’t a cheeky movie with Russell Brandt, it is the original language the words of Jesus were written down in. While it is documented that Jesus often talked of eternal life, he more often talked about a thing called “Ouranos”, a state in which things are perfect – a state in which GOD DWELLS and everything has its perfect order. In English we translate this word as “heaven”.

You have often heard people refer to yummy ice cream as being “heavenly”, or when they have slept a good night sleep as being “heavenly”. When you use the word “heavenly” in a statement like this, you are more right on than you know! Contrary to some religious beliefs… YOU CAN HAVE A HEAVENLY EXPERIENCE HERE ON EARTH… you can dwell where God dwells and be in alignment with the Lord and His perfect order of things. Even Jesus said so…

“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done ON EARTH as it is IN HEAVEN.” Matt. 6:10

So there you have it. In this most famous stanza of “the Lord’s prayer” Jesus is speaking of the same heaven he spoke of in regards to us changing and becoming like little children. It is a heaven, which we CAN experience here on earth. We absolutely can be inline with God and His purpose for our lives, and we can absolutely know and feel and be where God dwells NOW. That’s why Jesus came! Jesus is not talking about “aionios zoe” (eternal life) in this prayer to His Father – He is talking about the same heaven he spoke of which we will NOT be able to enter into, unless we enter as little children.

I TOLD YOU THINGS GOT DEEP!

Maybe it’s because it is Sunday, because I woke up in the Bible belt, or maybe my depth of spiritual insight is from a lack of sleep? For whatever reason, I woke up meditating on how the key to living a long life, to success, to the future, to our growth in humanity, is a CONSTANT reinventing and regenerating of ourselves, to live life as little children.

When people ask me how I stay young? I simply respond, “It is because I am around so much youth!”

This morning I was so surprised to reread Matthew 18 & Matthew 6 in this new light, in the that it is as sponges it is as children we enter into heaven – we enter into a successful state of mind!

When we operate on this earth with a certain inquisitive nature, a faith filled no holds barred wholehearted gregariousness, a wide eyed enthusiastic spirit we enter into a “kingdom of heaven” a heaven that has no boundaries that isn’t reserved for just the afterlife but is available here on earth for us NOW. On earth as it is in heaven.  

BE FREE

So, BE FREE. Be free to be childlike, be free to live a heavenly life by constantly improving yourself and experiencing new things, be free to enjoy your surroundings and go exploring, be free to question why you do what you do, be free to release yourself from the trappings that make you too “ADULT”, be free to sit and learn at the feet of those who have come before you. Read books, watch documentaries, and by all means get out your front door!

It’s what we do; it’s how we stay “young”.

One of the things we did while we were out and about exploring the country was drive to New Orleans, Louisiana and eat beignets and pet the carriage horses.
Our little Teddy Bear this morning as we woke up in Tennessee, a state I have never been to with a Church on every corner and flourishing with abundant green trees.I don’t know what it will be like saying “goodbye” to our last child as he will one day move out. Today all six still live with us, and I am counting my blessings. I will have to continue to grow and learn – the greatest lesson I have so far is to have an example of childhood I am finding in them! I learn more from them, then they probably have from me! 🙂

On the Road Again! Heading Back Home (4000 miles later!)

This blog originally started out as a blog about our trailer, Betty. However when we decided to travel across country with our family of eight (and Betty wasn’t ready yet), it turned into a travel blog of sorts. I am thankful to report we all survived our seven days in Orlando, Florida and we are on the road again.

Driving with six kids in the car isn’t so bad at all, as a matter of fact all our children are great miniature road warriors – I am so proud of them! The toughest part of this journey so far has been the creative sleeping arrangements of our children. Most rooms are not made to accommodate eight people, and in these cases we went to the drugstore and purchased some blow up airbeds (the kind you float on the pool with, not the aero-bed kind) for two of our youngest ones. This was a lifesaver, as they were able to go in the bathtub during the day and be slept on at night. If you do this… just remember to have your children use sheets or blankets because sleeping on plastic is both HOT and noisy! LOL. (We used hotwire.com to book all of our travel except for the timeshare in Florida, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa – yay! The hotels that best suited our family were the Westin and the Marriot, which are actually quite affordable using hotwire.com.) Swimming on the 29^th floor of the Westin in New Orleans was something I will never forget! There we were on the top floor of a downtown High Rise in a pool with a five foot glass wall the only thing separating us from the top of the building and careening 29 floors to the earth below. It was scary for mom, but fascinating and absolutely the most thrilling part of the trip for the kids!

QUITE A SURPRISE

It was quite a surprise for us how green Florida and the southern US is. We are getting rather used to the brown hills and anti-greenness of California. For as much as Cali is our home, it was rather refreshing to be caught in tornado warnings, non-stop thundershowers, and plunge into the refreshing waters of a cool pool on a hot day. It doesn’t ever get that hot in Northern California. We like everything we do to be “mild”, there was nothing mild about Florida.

The heat was extreme, the rain was extreme, the nature (our daughter saw a wild alligator) was extreme, and the attractions in Orlando were extreme. We sat through two showings of Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation at the AMC Dine–in-Theater, a really cool experience where you get served dinner by a wait staff as you watch your movie in a reclining leather chair and cast all your cares out the exit doors to the side as you are entertained with your feet up. (A highlight of the trip!)

Some other highlights for me were Pyrex shopping in Cocoa Beach (where the Astronaut Wives an ABC Television Show based on the best selling book) was partially based, driving over the bridges to Miami and seeing the ocean on both sides of our car, eating breakfast in Delmar beach a coastal village by the sea which was reminiscent of our California beaches (except more humid and much warmer), going to the Gaylord Palms hotel and seeing wreckage from the treasure of the Spanish ship the Atocha and eating at the steakhouse, other highlights include swimming with our children and laughing endlessly at our own jokes as we got sleepier and sleepier. Turning our phones off regularly and not cleaning (much) or working (much) was refreshing. We haven’t taken a family vacation in years… this was overdo. 

COST 

I feel it is important to mention as a family of eight we did many things to make this trip the most affordable. We saved up for our trip and paid cash along the way, we went to the grocery store and bought foods with high water content while we were on the road. We stayed in the smallest rooms possible (with the aid of air mattresses) and we took the company car, which was a blessing as it is new and very comfortable. We didn’t set a stringent budget, but I would definitely advise to anyone who asks they pack much less than they think they will need and taking more cash – a trick of the traveling few. Pack half as much stuff, and take twice as much cash!

TAKEAWAYS

My key takeaways from our time spent on the road and in the hotel as a family are:

• I really really like warm tropical weather, even if it is rainy warm weather.
• I want to live closer to a beach.
• I am ready for a more permanent lifestyle change, which would involve more relaxing and less working.
• Our family is very close and while our vacation was spent away from our daily maintenance and routines, the amount of time we spent together wasn’t really that different from our regular schedules. (which is awesome)
• I want to do whatever I can to make this time as a family of eight last as LONG as possible.  

It was nice to eat a breakfast at Starbucks 3000 miles from home, having some predictability was very well received. 🙂

These alligators were at the Gaylord Palms Hotel on loan from Gatorland in Kissimmee, Florida. 

The Dine-in-Theater experience at Downtown Disney

Cocoa Beach!  Some of my Pyrex and vintage finds while on the road – not stopping at every antique store and Thrift Shop has been really hard! LOL

This vintage Thunderbird was in mint condition and straight out of the movies! I love it!

Our family at the beach… when need to do this more often. 

DAY FOUR: Unschooling, Texas & Endless Questioning…

It wasn’t that long ago, 15 years to be exact, our son Joseph was born. I will never forget the process up to his delivery the hours of meditation and positive thinking and the grinding of a day in and day out focus “I am GOING to have this baby AT HOME!”

Home births are a foreign concept in my family. My husband and his brother were both born at home, but everyone (and everything) in my family has pretty much been done by-the-book. Babies are born in hospitals, babies are given formula, children go to public school, our adults go to Jr. College, than College – or get married out of high school.

I give you all of this background to say… LIVING AN UNSCHOOLED – “UNEDUCATED” – GROW YOUR OWN FOOD – BE BORN AT HOME – BREAST FEED – HIPSTER – HIPPIE – HIT THE ROAD – WORK FROM HOME artisan lifestyle, is not something I was “born into”. In essence it is like taking a bird who was raised in captivity, letting it go, and saying “Ok birdie, you are wild now BE FREE!” I struggled for a long time to accept this pretty radical way of living.

The funny thing (to me) is that it seems to take more education not LESS to live off the gird and away from structured learning. In our little world of unschooling, I am always being asked “the impossible questions” from our kids like “How does fog work?” or “If there were no plants would we be able to breathe at all?” These are the types of questions our children (and myself) have to go online to read about, visit the library, or go to the planetarium to discover our answers. Everyday we are learning something new, and YES everyday it IS WORK. But it isn’t sit down in your seat type work, it’s let’s drive across the country and learn about the United States type work.

FAR FROM PERFECT

I would love to tell you our children are in the backseat playing car bingo, memorizing the state capitals or telling us facts about each state we pass… they AREN’T. They are sticking gummy bears up their noses (I’m guessing), watching their iPhones, playing video games and MAYBE reading a book. It almost makes me feel like an unschooling failure!

Then, when we pull into port and I sit back and watch as the oldest takes care of the younger ones, and the middle one get the bags, and my daughter hold the baby (all I am left to do is wait and watch) I realize they might not be learning things like I learned once “The capital of California is Sacramento, the capital of Arizona is Phoenix, the capital of New Mexico is Sate Fe and so on and so on…” but what they are learning is how to be a FAMILY and how to get what they WANT by asking questions like… “So mom, where’s the BEST place for beignets in New Orleans?”

Next stop Café Du Monde in LOUISIANNA!!

Today we are in the great state of TEXAS!

They say everything is bigger in Texas … whoa! I think Teddy could ride this bug!America, the home of the beautiful and the brave. There is still patriotism in our great country, contrary to the medias portrayal, the real people of America still believe in liberty and justice. #werenoheadliners

Road Trip DAY THREE: The Day I Got Pulled Over… Again.

This was not my first time being pulled over because of my husband.

YES, I blame him. Ok, so maybe not literally blame him for being pulled over twice during our marriage for blatantly breaking the law, but notice he is in the back in this picture and I WAS the one driving. (No I was not using the phone and driving) this picture was taken in between the officers taking of my driver’s license and running my “credentials” to see what a NON criminal I am. Jessica Heilman : Not returning the shopping cart when finished = GUILTY. Unpaid parking tickets = NOT GUILTY.

The first time I was pulled over was when I was caught holding the phone in my hand to my ear which in California is a B I G “NO NO”. There were no children in the car, and I was attempting to get off the phone as quickly as possible. I did not have the new headsets as the law was a pretty new one, and I was in the middle of a deep conversation attempting to be polite on the phone while mitigate driving, talking, and dealing with our marriage. In all reality I SHOULD have been pulled over. I was clearly distracted. I remember going around the turn on the freeway and then I SAW HIM AND HE SAW ME – unlike “love at first sight” I dropped the phone, shouted “I AM BEING PULLED OVER!! CALL YOU BACK” as the phone slipped out of my hands, down my thigh, and in between the car seat and the center consul where it should have been in the whole time. 

Now, when I get pulled over (both times it has happened) and the officer asks me that loaded question “Do you know WHY you have been pulled over?!” Like a guilty parrot at confession I immediately SQUAWK out my sins and in rapid fire succession. I end up telling the officer everything I have done wrong since the day I was born. Yes, I am that honest. In the case with holding the phone, what else was I supposed to say “Um, no officer… I have NO IDEA what I was doing wrong when I was speaking on the phone to my husband and you pulled me over.” Or in today’s case “NO officer, I have no idea what the odometer said when I looked down immediately after I saw you hiding in those tumble weeds. I was definitely not going exactly 93 miles per hour.” Of course since I couldn’t lie my way out of ANY of those situations I said – “YESSIRIWASGOING93MILESANHOUR”. Thankfully Officer H. was a very nice understanding man, and he let me off with a situation and traffic school. I guess being a non-criminal has great benefit. (Lesson here, when your husband is tired and wants to nap on a road trip – use cruise control because for some reason men are the luckiest drivers in the world and can break every law – but it is us women who get pulled over for them!)

BREAKING THE LAW – AGAIN??

Yesterday I wrote about the fact most people break the law when they are tired. Tired of working hard and getting nowhere, tired of being oppressed, tired of being taken advantage of.

Do I think of speeding as “breaking the law”? Well… yes/no. I believe we need laws like speed laws to hold us accountable to the safety of others, but I also think each case should be evaluated individually, as in the case today. The officer was JUST. I was driving too fast because I was wrapped up in singing Tom Petty’s Into the Great Wide Open (SUPER CLICHE), the road was smooth, and the car drives great. I was happy to let my hubby nap and the kids were all chilling out. I was completely engulfed in a moment of road trip Nirvana. DANG.

So here we come full circle. Some laws are broken because people are tired, and some laws are broken when people are WIDE AWAKE. Some laws are laws that should be challenged, like Rosa Parks and the incomprehensible treatment of individuals – and other laws like taking peoples money or murdering an individual, should NOT be challenged.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just be obedient little soldiers and never break any laws or challenge any processes? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could trust that every man/woman in authority would be JUST? That would be wonderful, but that is not the world we live in. We live in a world of rough drafts, trials and tribulations, give and take.

WIDE OPEN SPACES

Irony would have Tom Petty on the radio while I was in the process of being pulled over. It is on my “Road Trip” playlist and as he was singing about wide open spaces I was coincidentally looking at large dessert skies with mounds of white puffy clouds spanning the horizon as far as I could see from East to West. Being from California, this is not a sight we see very often, our skies when not hazy, are often obstructed by trees, mountains and startup buildings.

Driving through Arizona, New Mexico, and venturing toward the midwest however will make you feel about an inch tall. It is a reminder of all the SPACE on this earth and how BIG our home really is. In this case, I would rather be pulled over for being lost in the road’s Utopia feeling insignificant and at one-with-the-road, than be safely sitting at home on my couch rejecting myself because someone on TV is a 36X24X36 and I am no where near there. I think when we travel and break OUR OWN BOUNDARIES (the laws that we make for ourselves) we really ARE living, so we should all work to LIVE WELL.

Today we drove all the way across Arizona and to New Mexico Visiting with Grandma in Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico  This church has served Old Town since 1706, gorgeous church – gorgeous skiesOur Joseph found “his city” 🙂

Road Trip DAY TWO: A Day of Heat, Golf, Dirty Feet, and Dirty On the Road Secrets…

Currently, I am sitting on the cool tile floor in a hallway with my back up against one wall, and my feet the other. I am 100% positive my feet are dirtying the pretty cream wall paint… we will consider this dirty secret no.1.

As soon as I remove said feet, I will sneakily crawl away from the hallway, stand up, and pretend those 10 little tootsie marks, aren’t mine.

This is how TIRED I am at the moment. Dirty tootsie leaving, sneak out in the middle of the night, tired. I blame it on the heat.

Yes, it was 108 today at some point in the day. While we were out golfing this morning (18 horrible for me holes, I played horrible, golf is OK – me not so much) it got up to 102. I DO NOT know how y’all can live in the desert. I do not know how people can live in the south… and here we still have yet to travel to; New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and FLORIDA! Good Lord.

The plus side of the day was spending time with family, eating pizza, and walking into a Goodwill and finding a stack of Pyrex lids marked at 1.99e – Woo Hoo! I collect Pyrex and in Pyrex land this was like the Holy Grail. The dishes on their own are spectacular… but with the lids they are most desirable! Now I have a plethora of lids, and oh BTW I will be buying MORE Pyrex along this journey. Secret No.2.

GOLF

What can I say about golf? I knew when I first met my husband golf was going to have to become my thing if I ever wanted to see him again. He LOVES the game so much a few years back he turned Professional and plays in tournaments. While his score hasn’t gone low enough to qualify for any tournaments yet – his heart has one each one he has entered. It really is something to be 38 & 40 and traveling across the country on basically an all expense paid trip. We are staying with family a majority of the way and thanks to Intel Corporation where Jeff works, he was allotted the time off and the most comfortable car to drive in. It is a very special holiday… that’s for sure!

I wonder what my “DIRTIEST” road trip secret is… there was the time we had our son pee into a travel cup in traffic, there were those times when they because getting rouge about the cabin (you know when “please remain seated” is overruled by “I don’t care just be quiet”), there is the “let’s grab a candy bar/tummy trash every time we stop at a gas station guilt”, the “Oh, Andrew isn’t really sick… he just ate TOO MUCH OH MY GOD QUICK PULLOVER TOO LATE” in the rental car. Not too awful I suppose, mostly centered around guilt and the awful feeling of breaking the seatbelt law (which wasn’t an issue when I was a kid) makes me wonder how any of us are still alive today. Do I like the thought of traveling with kids as “free agents” in the vehicle. NO. I think it is better to pull over and go to a McDonald’s Play Place. Which now that we are headed to the south I’m sure we will be at the Chick Fil’a every chance we get.

WHY BREAK LAWS?

Why do we break the law? God’s laws, man’s laws, any law? I believe the majority of the time we break laws because we are tired. Tired of being so “good” all the time. Tired of the struggle, tired of opposition, tired of DRIVING. We drive SO MUCH we don’t know why we are “driving” any more. Take the burglar, a tired and over worked person who can make a buck by taking it – quicker than a buck by making it. It is the same with the prostitute, the gambling addict, the parent in that car holding their kid on their lap. They are TIRED and they NEED to PULL OVER.

Maybe this is you? Maybe you aren’t breaking any laws that mater, but you haven’t been eating the best or exercising like you like. I bet you are just tired. You probably just need to take a nap! I will list some tips of ways you too can recover from working too hard…

• Get away for a looong weekend
• Schedule a babysitter once a week
• Walk to coffee instead of drive
• Walk around your block until you feel better
• Sleep in
• Take a day off of work
• Ride a bike
• Get a pedicure or manicure
• Take yourself and a friend to dinner

Whatever you decide to do. DO SOMETHING. Get some rest, stay safe, don’t break laws. Be your own best friend and treat yourself the very best, when you are done maybe get up and go to the kitchen sink, get a rag and wipe those dirty tootsie prints off the wall. 

Stay tuned tomorrow as we head to Albuquerque, New Mexico!!

Tips for Traveling Road Trips with Children : DAY ONE Palm Springs!

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Saint Augustine

I find it interesting this unschooled and unscripted life we attempt to live.

No one telling us where to go, or what to do. The wind being our guide and the earth under our feet. It hasn’t always been this way. As a matter of fact for years we labored – trying to get somewhere – somewhere there was enough food to eat and clothes to wear. I still have a knee jerk reaction when it comes to spending money on me. Generally if something isn’t “a smoking hot deal” new OR used it isn’t for me. I’m working to break this stingyesque outlook, but so far nothing is more exciting than the words “CLEARANCE”.

Today was day ONE in our trek across the USA. I wish we could have brought Betty our Happy Little Camper with usI She just isn’t ready yet. We have been sharing pictures periodically on Instagram live as we go. So far so good! We wanted to leave the house at 4am, we left at 9. We wanted to get to Palm Springs by dinner time, we were late. I wanted to sleep in on Sunday, we will be playing golf! LOL. (No I don’t play golf)

TIPS FOR TRAVELING IN THE CAR WITH KIDS:

– Go to the grocery store on the way out of dodge. Buy food bars, fruit snacks, water, maybe some muffins, apples and cheese.

– Make sure the devices are all charged and age appropriate movies are all ready uploaded.

– Bring garbage bags for trash (and other things! YUK)

– Don’t forget the headphones!

– Find a good book to read out loud

– Use the ROAD TRIPPERS app to help you along the way

– Put the shortest legged people in the back, and the log leggers in the middle row.

– Monitor your data use and check your data plan before you leave!

– Budget well in advance for your trip, be reasonable and set a spending plan you can afford. It is much easier to set a budget than to just think “Just don’t spend too much”

This 6000+ traveling vacation will be a test of the nervous system for sure!

The plan:
Sat: San Francisco – Palm Springs
Sun: Palm Springs
Mon: PS – Albuquerque, NM
Tues: ALB – Waco/Dallas, Tx
Weds: Dallas – New Orleans, LA
Thurs: NO – Orlando, FL
Fri-Fri: FLORIDA (Miami, Key West, Gulf Coast…)
Returning home!!

Pray for us! LOL

I Found What I Want…

This is so adorable. It looks rather big… but that’s not bad right? I can see an air conditioner, which is really good. I wonder what our neighbors would think? I think it is bigger than the house we are currently renting LOL.