Balancing the Needs of Family and Full-Time RV Living

It's been over a year since I stopped living full-time in my RV. As Willie Nelson famously sang, "I Can't Wait to Get on the Road Again".  As you may know, I have been living the "sticks and bricks" life again for the past 16 months. I stopped traveling so I could provide full-time caregiving for my two wonderful parents. Just recently, they moved into a lovely, friendly, beautiful assisted living community, so that means I will be moving back into my RV.

I want to use this blog post to thank all of the family and friends who have offered prayers and everyday support to my parents and me during this past year and almost a half. We could not have done everything that needed to be done without you!

If I'm honest, I must admit that I missed my nomadic life traveling the country in my RV. If I am really honest about it, I am excited to be able to get "home" in my RV named Belle! On my way to pick her up, I am stopping to visit family. So, I should soon be sharing photos of my travels again.

If you too are providing care for elderly family members or friends, please know that this time with them is precious. While you might really prefer to do something else, like travel in an RV, know that the blessing that comes from this time with your elderly loved ones is worth the sacrifice. Your dreams of full-time travel aren't dead; they are only deferred. If you can't travel, you may still be able to take camping trips near where you live or where your loved ones live.

When all is said and done, you won't regret the time you gave to the people you love, but you could regret not spending the time with them when you could. That's why my RV named Belle and I are gonna camp near my parents for a while. This way I get the blessings of spending time with them and camping in my "home" at the same time! Win-win!

Oola Life: I Give and Receive LOVE

One of the things we need most in this world is LOVE. Not only do we need to feel loved by others, we need to be sure they feel loved by us. Recently I was challenged to think more about what it means to truly love others. If you read this blog regularly you know I am reading the book, Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World. As part of the book study, I did a quiz to see which areas of my life needed more attention. (See my earlier post for quiz link) Initially, I thought my family area was one of my strongest. Chapter 5 made me re-examine this in light of the broader definition of family.

In Chapter 5, the Oola guys define family relationships using a circle metaphor. The inner part of the circle is your immediate family. For me right now, this is my parents. For you, it might be your spouse and children. These are the people who are nearest and dearest to you and you likely see them daily. The next ring is your siblings, aunts, uncles, and others who you see during the year. The outer ring is your cousins and extended family members who you see occasionally at weddings or family reunions. The intensity of your feelings lessens as you move away from the center of the circle. However, the Oola guys caution us to be sure that all of our family relationships are loving and that we have forgiven any past hurts. Don't think because you only see someone occasionally that you can let that relationship become toxic because one toxic relationship can poison all your family relationships. Now the challenge for me is that I have become neglectful of those in my outer rings. (Sorry cousins) So, to grow in the Oola area of family, I need to commit time to these relationships.

Well, that's enough for now. Until next time, consider your own family relationships. Do you give love, receive love and forgive others to ensure that your family life continues to grow?

Oola Life: I am Financially Free!

When I was much younger than I am now, my father told me that if you want to feel richer you need to spend less than you make. It took me a few years to apply this wisdom to my life, but when I did I discovered a freedom from fear that only comes when you are DEBT FREE! You can experience this joy too. Start today by honestly looking at the "luxury extras" in your life.  For me, that might be regularly staying in resort RV parks that cost $50-$100 a night instead of staying at state or federal parks for $15-$20 night. Now, there's nothing wrong with staying at the resort RV park if you make enough money to pay cash for it. When it becomes a "wrong choice" for me is when I need to charge my RV campsite to my credit card because I really can't afford to pay cash.

Over the years I saved thousands of dollars by eliminating just a few luxuries. Each may seem small and insignificant but together they add up. For example, I no longer get a daily fancy coffee out at a restaurant (You know the place, it starts with an S). If you multiply that daily $5 fancy coffee by 300 days, you will see that this saved me $1,500. So is this small deprivation worth it? For me, the answer is yes! That and many other small choices over the years helped me to save money so I could retire early. It let me pay cash for my RV so I could travel around the United States full time without any debt. It is allowing me now to live at home to provide full-time caregiving to my parents without worrying about money.

My next step in maintaining this sense of financial freedom is to learn how to manage my money better so it goes further. In their book, Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World, Dave, and Troy (the Oola Guys) challenge us to learn all we can about managing money and to apply what we learn to our lives. By knowing more we can make better choices about how we invest, donate, and use our money to make the world a better place for ourselves, those we love and our communities. As I help my aging parents, I can see how important it is that we all know and understand the economy and governments of the places where we live so we can best utilize the financial resources we've worked so hard to earn and save. In the future, if you see me diffusing my Young Living oils in my RV while pouring over financial websites and reading books on how to manage money, you'll know I'm working hard to grow in the financial area of my Oola life.

So, now I challenge you to consider what you can do to bring more financial balance to your life. Do you feel free from debt or are you anxious when the bills come?  Are you using your money in the best ways to serve your needs and the needs of others or is fear holding you back?  If you could change one thing in the way you manage your money, what would it be?

Oola Fitness: Food is Fuel

This post is one of a set of personal reflections on the book, Oola Find Balance in an Unbalanced World. A balanced life requires that all seven areas of our lives are growing. Chapter 3 addresses the area of FITNESS. One of the biggest takeaways for me from this chapter is that FOOD IS FUEL. This made me realize that there are many more reasons why I eat food than just to fuel my body and that these can be obstacles to my being as fit as I want to be. I eat to be entertained; to be comforted and to relieve stress.

Now, I'm not saying food can't be entertaining and pretty. As a matter of fact, I get a great deal of satisfaction out of making food look nice for the people for whom I am cooking. The problem comes when I am eating more food (fuel) than my body is burning. So, the Oola guys make it easy for us to work on our fitness with a simple statement:

"Eat Less than you burn; burn more than you eat"

Since food is supposed to be FUEL, it is important that I put the best fuel possible in my body. For me, that means I need to eliminate grains, dairy, and refined sugars. When I don't eat these things, I know I feel better and have more energy. For example, the yummy pancake and bacon sandwich shown in this post is both gluten-free and dairy-free. You can find the recipe by Nom Nom Paleo as I adapted it and the nutritional breakdown can be found on my Holy Rolling Oilers website.

Below are a few other websites and YouTube channels that helped me to learn to eat better:

Nom Nom Paleo has great Asian inspired recipes and more. Michelle also has an app that allows you to build grocery lists from the recipes you select.

Mind Over Munch incorporates education on food as fuel in each recipe. Alyssia's YouTube videos are fun to watch

Downshiftology shares recipes for gluten-free treats as well as other healthy recipes. My mom enjoys Lisa's calming voice on her YouTube videos.

The Domestic Geek's YouTube channel is just fun to watch. Sara Lynn reminds me of Joy in the Disney movie cause she is just so bubbly and happy. Not sure every one of her recipes is the best "food for fuel choice" so you will need to decide for yourself.

Oola Challenge: Take Time to Pray

Today's post is a reflection on the #OolaforWomen Challenge day 5. Today's challenge focuses on the Oola area of Faith. In the daily email, the Oola guys challenged us to pray every time we think about something that is worrying us. Big, bold, bodacious prayers. For me, that means believing that God will work all things out for the good. Now, that doesn't mean that everything that happens will be good. Instead, it means that when I look back on my life I can see that often I learned the most and grew the most as a person during "difficult times" and that God helped me to see that good came through that or even despite that.

The Oola guys also challenge us to pray daily; first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Prayers of gratitude and humility; asking God to show us our life's purpose. As I confessed in an earlier blog post, my morning and evening routines somehow shifted to using my iPhone to play games instead of taking time for prayer. This is changing TODAY! 

Will you join me in committing more time for prayer?

A Life That's Balanced Is An Oola Life

I don't know about you, but it seems that throughout my whole life I've struggled to keep my life in balance. Here are just a few examples of the times when I knew my life was out of balance. When I was working too much, I worried that my relationships with family and friends were suffering. Now that I quit my full-time job so I can be more available to help my family, I know that my field (job/work) and my finances aren't growing as much as I want. When the first thing I grab in the morning is my mobile phone so I can play one of my silly games, I know my faith life suffers. When I sit around and watch a lot of television or play computer games, my overall fitness suffers. Now, there are many more examples I could share but I think you get the idea. My life is not currently balanced. The chart I posted here shows the areas in my life that need time and attention so they can grow.

It's time to reassess how I spend my time, talent and treasures. I guess that is why I started to read the book, Oola: Finding Balance in an Unbalanced World.  My hope that is over the next month I will get motivated to commit the time and effort it takes to live a more balanced life and to grow in all seven areas. I also hope that this blog post might motivate you, too. So, is your life balanced and growing in all seven areas? The Oola guys can help you figure that out. Take the Oola balance quiz to see which areas of your life could use a little more time and attention. Here is the link to their free quiz - OOLA BALANCE QUIZ.  In the book, the authors show a score of around 700 to be the goal of being more balanced and feeling the "oo la la" in your life.  #oolalife

Be Humble, Not Humiliated

Don't you love it when God uses circumstances in your life to give you a message? Well for me that message is that He loves me and that there is no need for me to feel humiliated or embarrassed when I don't know how to do something or when I make mistakes. (Let's just say I've been making a lot of mistakes lately) Instead, I need to be humble and admit that I am a human being with limitations and weaknesses.

Chapter 2 in the Oola book I am reading is all about forgiving yourself for the mistakes of your past and learning from them. I love the analogy the authors use of the car's rearview mirror and windshield. The rearview mirror is small but sufficient for us to check on the places we've been in our past while the windshield is big and unobstructed so we can spend most of our time focusing on where we are going. One of the authors shared "I am not the person I want to be, but thank God I'm not the person I was". I share his sentiment and thank God for all He is doing to help me to grow and become a better person. 

So, remember it's okay to glance back at your past on occasion so you can learn from the mistakes you made but don't beat yourself up about it. Together we are going to focus on our futures as we work to gain balance in our lives and grow. Our past is a teacher so we can do better in the future!

What is Oola?

So, what exactly is Oola?  Oola is a term created to describe that feeling you have when all seven areas of your life are "in the zone"  What are the seven areas in our lives? They are faith, family, friends, fun, fitness, finance, and field (work). Oola is experienced when all seven areas are balanced and growing. In the first chapter of the book "Living Balanced in an Unbalanced World," the authors use the analogy of the circus artist who is spinning plates on poles. By the time he or she gets to the last pole the first plate starts to wobble and they need to give that plate their time and attention. They keep running back and forth between all the plates until at one point all the plates are balanced on their poles at the same time.

The first chapter also showed me that being balanced doesn't mean that each area gets exactly the same amount of hours in each day, but instead each area gets the time it needs to continue to grow. The balanced aspect is about making sure that the time spent in one area growing isn't at the expense of another area. I am hopeful this book will help me to figure out how to do this better.  I am also signing up for the Oola Challenge for Women. A 21-day email letter that will challenge me to apply what I am learning. So, my blog posts each day may be a mix of what I am learning from both of these. Well, thanks for listening to me ramble on about this first chapter. Let me know if you have any questions about this and I will do my best to try and answer them.

Looking for Balance in Your Life?

Are you trying to find balance in your life? Thinking that if things were different, it would be easier? I used to think that too. When I retired and started living fulltime in an RV I thought it would solve all my problems. I would lose 60 pounds, visit with my family who live all over the United States, reconnect with friends, have time for more fun, ramp up my prayer life, find a cool part-time job and have enough money to do everything without ever having to go back to work in an office.  WELL . . . things haven't turned out quite the way I imagined. What I've learned is that sometimes "the road is uneven and bumpy". Now don't get me wrong, I've had an amazing three months, as you can see from my blog and Instagram posts. But, I've also had a terrible cold, been lost in the mountains with almost no gas, and haven't really gotten my new job off and running yet.


It's amazing what you can learn about yourself by just answering a few questions. So, at the end of this first quarter, I am taking the time to assess my life. The tool I am using is found on a website called "Oola Life". I heard the authors, Dave and Troy, speak at a conference in September and have been trying to improve in the seven areas of my life ever since. These areas are faith, family, friends, fun, fitness, finance and field (work). As I sit here and write this blog post I must confess I've had my ups and downs. Most likely this is due to the fact that I haven't actually written down goals or figured out how to measure my progress toward growth in all 7 areas. (I know all my former colleagues are gasping as I was the queen of the measurement tool). So, you guessed it, I've decided to take this month to find my baseline measures in each area and actually write my goals down for myself.  In the next few weeks, I will share my goals and then you can keep me accountable.  If you are also looking to set some "New Year's Resolutions" and need a tool to help you identify where you have some room to grow, I'd like to recommend that you take the free online quiz at https://www.oolalife.com/step1


(Sorry if this page is weird looking when you try and read it. I've been having some computer issues with Blogger and was waiting to post till I worked it out. Obviously, I haven't worked them out but I wanted to keep you updated on the ongoing Camino Turtle adventures.)