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And welcome back to another episode of the y ‘all are crazy ranch podcast today We’re gonna be talking about making your summers count with your family with your kids and how to do that Yeah, so like the title of this episode is you don’t waste your summers with your kids I think it’s a you know, we’re coming we’re in summer now or but I would say not yet
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Right.
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It’s not officially summer yet.
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He would correct actually. Yeah, what is summer June 1st?
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It’s actually June 21st.
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I think oh, okay.
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They’re out of school now. So we are in we’re on summer break Okay, thank you Benaiah, but but I would correct you and say it’s not officially summer yet But now you said last night Riley said, you know, why do you know? Why do you always know everything and he said because I have an answer book in my brain There you go, he was I guess he was serious too when he said it so he’s got an answer book in his brain Legit and I swear he does so if you know him at all, he knows sometimes we have to be like we understand It’s not officially summer, but you’re on summer break. So we’re calling it summer. It’s okay
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Yeah, he said something else the other night, too. I was trying to oh, we were had that bag of jalapeno Cheetos Remember that we called it jalapeno. He said no, it’s a Jalapeno and I was like no, it’s jalapeno. He goes there’s no H Things like that really bother him and he just I mean he wasn’t gonna let it go.
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He was you know, he’s right He’s like there’s no H You know jalapeno Okay Sometimes with him, you know, you can explain things like that because it’s in Spanish like it’s a different Pronunciation you can go down that road, but sometimes it’s easier to just let it go.
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Yeah. He’s gonna let it go
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But, you know, in the summertime, I know as a parent, especially with us having seven kids, it can mean that there’s a lot more for you to handle, right, if they’re not at school for however many hours a day, now they’re with you or, I don’t know, in childcare or with family members or whatever. But sometimes I think parents can look at summer as like a burden, you know, and maybe they plan one trip a summer and outside of that one week, the rest of the summer is just kinda, eh.
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And we’ve done a Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast already on making your summers count and like scheduling ahead, putting things on your calendar. So we’ve already done that. So I think today we want more of it to be like how to really pour into your kids this summer.
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Yeah, because I think you can use the summers as.
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to your advantage to teach them things, maybe teach them some adult habits, right? Some adulting and what that’s gonna look like. And because if we don’t teach them any of those things, I mean, how else are they gonna learn?
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Exactly.
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They’re not gonna learn, so.
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And summer goes by very fast. And if you don’t do these things, you’re gonna be like, oh, now it’s back to school time and we didn’t do what we wanted to do.
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Yeah, so like as one example, we’ll start off with an easy one. With my boys, well, with the older ones, I wake them up at 5 a .m. They go work out with me in the Barna Gaines. And last year, it was Bowen and Baker. And then this year, Benaiah is eight years old. And so.
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You know, he wants to go. He wanted to be like his older two brothers until it’s like, okay, so those three boys, you know, wake up at five in the morning and get ready and come to the gym and work out and and and what are some of the lessons I’m teaching them? You know, they’re young. They’re fit. They play sports like they don’t, you know, they’re in great shape, but I’m trying to teach them the habits. I tell them the habits of a successful father, right? I’m not saying I’m successful. I’m just saying good habits. Habits that successful people do one of those can be making sure you work out every day, and sometimes as a as a father, you have to wake up early before you go to work to get it in. Because when you get home, you’ve got your family to take care of or be with, and you don’t want to be away from them. So you got to work out why they sleep sometimes.
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And so I’m just teaching them those lessons. And then when you get older, you don’t have a coach and you don’t have sports anymore. So there’s nobody making you exercise. And if you don’t exercise, you’re not gonna be healthy. That’s right. Yeah. And so they’re learning all those lessons.
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Yeah, and I wanna say just from a mom’s perspective, something that I’m doing this summer, I have been consistently doing half marathons or 10Ks regularly. And the kids, the big two have been doing those with me, which has been fun for me to have them to train with and to do those with and then great memories for them. It’s very easy for them. Like you said, they’re in great shape.
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However, if you’re doing a half, about mile 10, they get pretty mentally worn down, so it’s good for them to learn to push through. But I, this summer, am working on walking and jogging three miles, four days a week, and doing my light workouts in the morning. And I think for a mom, it’s really easy to be like, I don’t have time to do that. I have to do this for my kids, and I have to be with my kids, and I have to do this in my house, and I’ve got laundry, and I’ve got, and that’s very easy to do as a mom. But I do think it’s really important to focus on being healthy for your body, because it’s gonna make you a better mom, and a better wife, and a better, your job and everything you do, if you’re healthy, your body’s healthy, it feels good. You’re not gonna get sick as often. You’re going to feel better. Your clothes are gonna fit better, which is gonna make you feel better about yourself, which is gonna make you a better mom.
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So, take that time out to exercise each day and to be active and bring your kids along with you as much as you can. You know, our kids, sometimes they’ll come out and work and walk and jog with me. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I’m by myself, most of the time I’m pushing the baby in the stroller why I do it, which is fine, he is used to it, he loves it. And that’s just what I do and my kids know it. And they expect it and they’ve grown up knowing like mom walks every day. And I think that’s gonna make it normalized for them.
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Yeah, it does. And then Briley’s watching your habits. And also too, when your kids get a little older, and I mean like eight or you know, whatever. And sometimes if you have only one or two kids.
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You can connect with them even earlier as far as them being able to tag along with you and do things. But it’s like, they will enjoy doing that stuff with you. And anytime you can spend extra time with your kids, that’s a win, you know? And I think sometimes as adults, we get in busyness and we think that we have to always separate from the kids to go do whatever it is, working out or playing a hobby or something like that. It’s like, man, bring your kids along. You know, we have, you know, a 13 -year -old and a 12 -year -old and 10. And it’s like, they’re getting to that age now where they’re a lot of fun to hang out with, you know? They can do most things.
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That’s kind of a different level of parenting that we actually like they’re kind of becoming really good friends.
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It’s definitely weird We’re going on a trip next week Which this will by the time this airs will have come back already But we’re going to the bahamas next week and we’re taking our five big kids. So barlow’s almost six So let’s say six and up, but I tell people they’re like, oh are you taking all your kids? I’m like just five and they’re like just just five like that’s a lot and i’m like yeah But when you’re only taking the five out of seven, it feels like oh man, this is gonna be a piece of cake Yeah, you don’t have to have a stroller. No stroller. No garcy Although I miss the babies so much when we don’t take them. It’s gonna be very hard for me But I know it’ll be a easier trip and it’ll be so great to connect with our big five Yeah, that’s true. Yeah
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So but yeah spending time with the I call them the teens. They’re 13 and 12. I feel like Bowen is already Oh, so much like a teenager which makes me sad But yeah, I got to spend all day with those two yesterday and they just are hilarious The just talking to them you get to have fun with them now.
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I told you they’re still kids Yeah, I’m still having to correct them discipline them Teach them constantly but you do get to have fun with them now You do you know and so like the the oldest three boys will work out with me in the mornings throughout the week and then they come home and like we’ve I’ve taught Bowen how to make eggs and She makes extra cast iron skillet, you know three times a day And so he gets home from the workout and he knows like you got to feed your body good protein And so he gets to making him some eggs and then he’ll make some for his brothers you
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And then I’ll make mine and and so it’s funny to watch them just start to build and mimic like my morning routine You know take their shower. Yeah.
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Yeah, they read their Bible You know, it’s like man, but you got to teach them that stuff What is funny though because if they do like they mimic what you do for sure, but also you have to teach them I do think it’s funny watching the boys because they do do what you do You know a big thing that you do a lot is you carry an EDC pack, which is for you women. I did not know It’s an everyday carry right every day carry and he watches YouTube videos on this and
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It’s it women do this too. I just didn’t know this was a thing men do but they pack their bag Yeah, they’re packed then it’s a small. It’s a pack But you you put your stuff in that and you carry that a lot Well now the boys have started doing it Yes And like they have fit like Barlow has a fanny pack a lot of them have the sling bags that go across their Chest and they put packet with their snacks their water Our two oldest have like Multi -tools and they’ll put that in there and just things that boys like.
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Oh, yeah, you got to have your multi -tool You know, you got to have a good pocket knife. Maybe some pliers You know for me I can still carry guns a lot kids obviously
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Aren’t but they’re you know that it’s just funny to watch them act like you know I might put a book in mine because I have different size packs depending on where we’re going But yeah, they’ll just get their little pack and I’ll see him walking with it And it’s just it just cracks me up.
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It was also funny as brand. She’s three He doesn’t do this yet, but he does have a fake gun. What does that gun called a little cap gun? Yeah, yeah, you know it sounds like an orange cap on the end He’ll carry that gun around and he’ll go I shoot that deer and it’s like he sees you Yeah, and he just wants to be like you.
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It’s too funny. Yeah, it’s great. And so Take your kids along on whatever your whatever you can do, you know Your job might not allow you to take them to work obviously, but if you can take them some or if you can’t, you know carve out some time in the morning and the evenings and
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Teach him something. So another thing that we started yesterday was a Bible study for the summer that you bought the books for yes I reached out to them still waiting for them to come in and sponsor the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast.
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Oh, really systematic theology But these books I think are gonna be excellent. I ordered them online and It’s systematic theology for adults and then there’s a kids version So we got those for our four big kids So ages 8 and up and we sat down yesterday morning. I would say it took us less than 30 minutes Yeah for sure and it’s a 52 week study, but we’re gonna try to do it this summer Because we want to get it done this summer, but also I think it’s very doable We just have to do it probably a few chapters each time and then perhaps more than more than one day a week
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So we’ll see how how how it that moves along. We’re gonna be on vacation next week So we’re gonna bring it and hopefully do it almost every day.
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Yeah, but something like that is Really a very small thing, but it’s a it’s an impactful thing.
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So taking 20 minutes You know to sit down and go through a workbook together as a family on a Bible study That doesn’t take a lot of effort, but you do have to be intentional Buy the book and you got to carve out the time to do it and then do it and start your day with it I think it’s important like start it early When you guys got back from your workout and had your breakfast had your shower I think we sat down at eight and did it so and it was kind of first thing We got pretty lucky the baby was still sleeping and so that we were able to knock that out It was great And really the reason we wanted to do this study is because it teaches us and our kids how to defend our faith you
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Yesterday’s study was about explaining how creationism points to God and how the world did not just form out of nothingness, like there was a creator. And so it kind of gives them an objective of somebody would say, you know, well the Big Bang Theory just caused this and it teaches them how to explain, no, God created the world and here’s why.
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So very important, very important stuff because obviously in the school system today, they are not taught any biblical knowledge that’s been removed from our school system. So they teach just random Big Bang Theory like God didn’t cause it, it just happens. And then billions of years things evolved and here we are and everything just magically works together. But there was no creator. They don’t talk about a creator.
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our kids need to know how to defend their faith because we believe there was a creator we believe God created it he spoke it into existence and boom here we came I’d love to do a Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast on that just on defending your faith kind of the basics of that so that’s coming up yeah and so anyways I think that’s a good stuff to go through with your kids you know we know a lot of Christian families that obviously criticize the school system and that they’re not taught this and they’re taught worldly views and this that evolution different things and that is true but as parents it’s our responsibility to teach our kids what we want them to teach the Bible calls us to raise them in the way they should go that’s right well this is one of the ways that you could do it that would help is
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Yes. Educating your own kid. We’ve gotten away from educating our own children. I know the homeschool movement in the past few years has exploded. People are educating their kids more. But even if you don’t do homeschool, you can still educate your kids.
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That’s right. We’ve noticed about sixth grade. We’ve had two sixth graders now. They are really teaching evolution and science class.
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Yeah.
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So both of our kids were grounded. They knew the truth. They were able to tell other kids the truth. And so you can’t, there’s no starting too young. By the time they get in sixth grade, they’re being taught this. So they need to know prior to that the truth. So that’s why a study like this is so great.
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What did you?
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What did your your grandma your Mimi said to that one lady that one time she said your your grandma might have been a Monkey, but mine was it Yeah, my Mimi was a character and she just told people what she thought we have so many great stories is my great grandma And this guy was telling her like oh we all came from monkeys anyway, and she said well your mama might have been a Monkey, but mine wasn’t So good Like and I got a lot of who I am from her yeah And so she did so many good stories with her She just told it like it was and why can’t we all be like that why can’t we all be like? That’s just not true. Yeah, it’s just not true, and this is why it’s why the Bible is true and accurate So our kids need to know that and don’t think just by taking them to church occasionally. They’re gonna know
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Yeah, they’re not I mean church does teach them things and church has this place for sure should be in your weekly routine But you know as they get older a lot of times they’re with their friends or socializing They’re not paying attention as much they’re still absorbing stuff But nobody can teach them, you know, like a parent can on a consistent basis, right?
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And so I think we can all do better at that Yeah, and so something like this and you don’t have to do this exactly But we like it because everybody has their own workbook And we have the kids read aloud eat like different sections We read aloud from ours and then we answer questions together and you can write down your answers. So it’s simple It’s pretty easy to do it’s to the point and you don’t need to over complicate it.
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Honestly No, you make it pretty easy
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I think another thing that we do in the summers is we give our kids jobs. They’re gonna have to have a job one day, you know? And I think we should all start getting them used to working, and we give our kids several little jobs. It might be weed eating, it might be mowing. This summer they’re gonna paint a lot of fence, you know?
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Yes, it’s gonna be interesting.
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Briley helps you with the house a lot right now.
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Briley helps, I mean, right now dishes are her daily job.
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And usually twice a day.
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Yes, and then something else she’s been doing for us is that we have an Airbnb on our ranch. And on weekends, since she’s been out of school, she’s been going over and cleaning the Airbnb by herself. She has a checklist and takes her two to three hours. And she goes and cleans the Airbnb, it’s great. And she actually enjoys it.
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And she usually takes her dog Walter with her, I think for a little protection, she feels better having him. But it’s right around the corner from us. And so it’s been great, and she enjoys it, gives her responsibility, and she makes a little money.
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Yeah, yeah, and you know, you can see in the kids and you teach them how to work hard, and then they get a little reward, you know? Maybe you pay them a little bit, maybe you take them, I don’t know, to a bowling alley or whatever, or something that they like to do that’s fun.
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And you know. Something that they really love, is we’ve done this several times, is like, okay, you get $50 to go to Walmart and buy whatever you want. And when you do something like that, they love it, because they’re like, whatever I want.
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Yeah, and it turns into like an experience, right? So you gotta give them time and patience and let it be an experience.
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So we go to Walmart and it might take 30 minutes, might take an hour because they’re looking up and down the aisles, you know, and they’re I’m teaching them how to read the price tags, you know, and how much is something. If they have $20, you can’t buy something for $19 .99. They’re like, it’s $19 .99. And I was like, there’s taxes. They’re like, taxes? You know, they’re like, well, that’s a rip off. We’re like, yeah, I’m like, yeah, but it used to say that it says $19 .99. But after taxes, it’s about probably $21 .50. And they’re like, what?
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They’re learning.
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Yeah. So I’m like, if you have $20, you got to spend about, you know, 17 and a half, 18, you know, then you can then you’ll have enough to buy it.
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And they’re like, and so a lot of times they’re like, oh, that’s too high. I’m not buying that. I’m like, it’s different when it’s their money. Like when they’ve earned it and they know they have this much, they’re like, never mind. I or I’ll save it to go towards something else. Yeah.
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Yeah, so that’s one of the things we do and so And our boys will go to work with our ranch manager a lot and this week They picked up what pipe and metal and and Bowen told me yesterday.
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He’s like mom You know, did you see where we picked up all this pipe?
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He was really proud of it Yeah, yeah, cuz that’s that’s the way we’re wired to do, you know we’ve said it before on the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast but like God gave Adam the the first thing he gave him to do was to tend to the garden it was like he God created us to work and have a purpose and build things and And so those kids need that if your kid just sits at home all the time and plays video games and watches TV
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I mean, they’re gonna feel like they don’t have anything going on now. They’re gonna want to do that because it’s fun to them They get it, you know dopamine in their brain and stuff like that, but that’s not healthy for them In small doses, but not all the time.
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Yeah, and we talked about this on the other Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast talking about summer But just to kind of touch on again Important things for kids to do during the summer keep up your church routine keep going every Sunday If your kids are like sixth grade and under find some VBS is to send them to there are lots of those locally and those are Free things that you can send your kids to in the summer to learn about the Lord be with friends be in a church Plan a family vacation. Even if it’s like a weekend trip to do something fun plan more than one if you can and
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Find some camps for your kids to do if they’re in athletics Those are pretty easy to find our boys are doing football camp wrestling camp. Our daughter’s doing cheer camp So just find things like that and I think besides all that Find do fun things together, you know I’ll take the kids to the pools a lot this summer or I’ll take on hiking or I’ll take them You know, we just kind of have a plan of we don’t have many days with nothing to do. Yeah now some days Yes, they’re staying home and they’re painting fence or they’re working But the day but I carve out days to do fun things, too I just don’t want them having days of like nothing, right?
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Yeah, and if you do Bowen’s gonna wear you out on like well, what are we doing today? Well, what time well where we go What I mean, he can’t stand and not always kind of like his mom.
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Oh, yeah, so there’s that Yeah yesterday. I took him and Briley with me and We went to the venue and did touch -ups all over the place and we touched up painted and we Clorox, we know all the tables and chairs and your teenagers can be very helpful Now you still have to watch them because they’re still kids But they can be very helpful if you give them jobs to do and if you put a reward at the end of that job Even better. So I had them help me do that at the venue yesterday We got a lot done and then I was like, okay, we’re gonna go buy you guys some new shoes we have a trip coming up and their shoes are like
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Worn out they had them all school year long and they’re out growing them So the reward was help me do all this and then we’re gonna go get you a new pair of shoes and they thought that was Awesome. Yeah, it’s like I was gonna buy them shoes anyway, but I feel like they felt like okay We got to work at this. We got to get it done pretty fast We can’t linger all day and then we get to go do this And so we did that got groceries and ate at Qdoba and Bowen was like that was such a fun day Yeah, and they’re learning important lessons, you know I think these are important lessons if a kid never learns how to work or learns the habits of an adult as They’re growing up man.
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They’re gonna graduate high school and if they go straight into the workforce force It’s gonna be like a hard dose of reality Like getting used to that.
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Yeah, and I think them seeing us work and do things is so important Briley is with me quite a bit in the summer and Bowen was with me yesterday and it’s like they got to hear me talk on the phone to clients all day. Yeah schedule
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Showings I had a new listing go active. It was kind of blowing up So they got to like watch me do everything I do and a lot of times Bradley’s like I never want to do your job You have to talk to people way too much And I’m just like well sis, that’s just how it is and I enjoy it and I get to help people But they get to watch you they do and you know She gets to hear me have these conversations and sometimes she’s just like man mom you handled that really well I couldn’t have done that and I’m like, well, I’ve learned it over time sis gotten better and I think it’s just important to not hide what you do of like Mom has to go to work dad has to go to work. It’s like no I get to go to work This is what I do and they get to watch it.
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Yeah and teach them lessons
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I’ll take them with me on these real estate projects and let them see the remodel progress or they like that how bad the house is to start off with and find treasures and i’ll teach them yeah find treasures and i’ll teach them some of the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business side of it too you know um they’re not going to understand all of it but i you know break it down to them a little bit why we doing this and why are we buying houses and i teach them you know to buy houses and not new cars and i’m like you know one is a liability and one is an asset one grows in value and pays you monthly the other one loses value and costs you monthly and just those little lessons and then they start to they start to see it and understand it and it’s very powerful for you kids so don’t waste your summers on just letting the kids exist and just can’t wait for the start back up so they can go back you know find ways to
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To add value to them and teach them the ways of adulthood a little bit.
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Yeah, you know on their level Absolutely something else we’re doing this summer is we’re doing aspiring girls program again And we’re also adding our Ironman program and I say that to say we’re not only pouring into our kids but we’re trying to pour into other kids in the community and We’ve had so many kids sign up for this They’re excited about it and we get to once a week pour into girls and boys in our community teach them good habits Share the gospel with them and give them something to look forward to each week So if you’re able to do something like that You know, it’s not just about us. It’s about pouring into others and I think God gave us such a
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high calling and We we need to answer that calling and and share the gospel with others Yeah, yes, maybe the first year you do it for we do it for boys And so I’m kind of anxious to see how that goes. It’s gonna be good.
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It’s gonna be really good we’re teaching the boys the sword of the spirit and teaching them each piece of armor, which I think is gonna be so good for boys because a big thing for you is You wanted it to be about like making them into strongmen, right? Yeah, I wanted to call it brave boys and you were like I want them to learn how to be men even though these are like 7 to 13 year olds.
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Yeah. Well, they still got to learn, you know and
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You know, I talk about that there’s been an attack on masculinity a lot in society, and we don’t have strong men in great numbers as like we used to. And so, we got to, how else you gonna do it if you don’t teach the youth? You know, they’re the ones coming up. And so, we’re gonna teach them good important lessons. I want to teach them how do you actually give a good handshake? How do you look somebody in the eye? How do you look somebody in the eye when you talk to them? You know, how do you follow through with your word? And if you don’t follow through with your word, what does that mean? How does that affect your reputation or your opportunity in life? Just a lot of important lessons in manhood. I think that that’ll be good for them.
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Absolutely. So, we’re excited about those. I’m sure we’ll be sharing more about those programs as we get going and the results of that. It’s gonna be great.
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I think when you give God, when you open your hands and say, God, use me, he will use you and you better be ready for that because he will use you in ways you could not imagine.
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That’s for sure.
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And watching, and your kids watching you do that is going to show them. We want our kids to do far more than we’ve ever done. So we’re trying to let God use us and use us for his ways, for his purpose. But we want our kids to see what we do and take it to another level. Like that’s the goal. So we once heard, you know, you want your ceiling to be your kid’s floor. And I thought that was really good because like, if we’re up here, we want our kids to take it another step and serve God in even bigger ways. So that’s the goal.
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Yeah, so use your summers wisely and teach them as many lessons as you possibly can. Whatever you want to teach your kids, you know, use that time to teach them. Doesn’t take a lot of time, doesn’t take a lot of effort, but it does take just a little bit of intentionality.
[00:29:14.000]
Yeah, get your kids outside, get them in the sun, get them in the fresh air and let them play in the mud and be kids. That’s important.
[00:29:24.800]
Very important.
[00:29:26.500]
So hopefully this was helpful. You still have summer time left. So be effective, be efficient and make your summers count.
[00:29:34.400]
That’s right.
[00:29:35.200]
See you next time.
[00:29:35.900]
Until next time.