Neglecting Your Faith Life? - I Was

This fall while I was in Quebec, I visited the Shrine to Saint Anne de Beaupre. What a beautiful, prayerful place. On the hillside next to the massive church building, there were statues of the Stations of the Cross. Unfortunately, they were in a serious state of disrepair. The paint was peeling and the wooden posts were rotting. The statues themselves were covered in cobwebs and mold. It was obvious that it had been some time since the people, who built these statues as a sign of their love and affection, had been around to care for them.

As I walked through the woods, I asked myself, "Doesn't anyone love these statues and Jesus himself enough to take the time to clear off the cobwebs and repair the damage caused by neglect?  At that same moment, another thought hit me like a wave so hard it actually took my breath away.  A voice inside my head said, "Don't you love me enough to spend time in prayer with me every day?" At that moment, I knew that even with all the free time I had since I semi-retired, I was not being faithful in my prayer time. I wasn't spending time to build my faith.

I wasn't being truly grateful for all the many gifts I had been given. Sure, I said thank you to God when I felt that He had helped me in a difficult situation.  It wasn't that I had stopped believing in Him. It was that I was taking my faith for granted.  Like any relationship, in order to truly know someone, you need to spend time with them. At that moment, I resolved to spend more time in prayer.  When I went back into the shrine to pray, I found this little card on a table.  It seemed that Jesus was reminding me that prayer is not something I "do" it is a state of "being" with Him.

So, if you think you might have been neglecting your faith life, I encourage you to find that quiet place and spend some time "being" with God.  With Thanksgiving Day just around the corner, take time to remember all God's blessings and truly thank Him.

As the Oola guys have been trying to teach me, in order to have a truly balanced, wonderful life, you have to make sure the other things in your life don't take away the time you should spend on your faith. 

If you want to know more about the Oola guys and their book on finding balance in your life, stop by their website and blog.

Here is a link to just one of their posts on finding gratitude in both the good times and the bad.

What do you do to maintain your faith life?  How do you make the time for prayer?  Share your thoughts in the comments below.  Thanks for sharing.

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 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.

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