Extraordinary Lifestyle Episodes

Every year on our birthdays and anniversaries we love to reminisce and ask ourselves, " Where were we celebrating last year? I wonder where we'll be next year?" Last year we celebrated in Portugal while we were scouting out the country to see if it could be a place we wanted to make a permanent home base. (We did a podcast episode about it because it was so serendipitous .) We could have never guessed then that this year we would be celebrating 22 years together in Turkey on the Aegean Sea! In t...

After episode #211 about What to Eat we received a lot of follow-up questions (thank you!) and were asked to do a follow up episode to clarify some things, such as: What if I'm lactose intolerant? What do you recommend to replace grass-fed milk? What about food storage? I store a lot of grains and legumes. What's the best way to eat them. Where do I find grass-fed meat, cheeses, butters, milk, etc.? How do I know I can trust package labels at the store and that they're actually what they say the...

Thanks for all of the questions! They help us to have relevant conversations in these podcast episodes. If you have a question about anything in life or family, send them to support@extraordinaryfamilylife.com This week’s question is related to full-time family travel vs. home base travel but the answer is relevant for all of us — it’s principle-based and applicable to every area of life . So if you’re not a full-time family traveler, you still need to listen to this episode because you’re likel...

In many of our episodes, we often reference food and its connection to behavior and emotion. So it’s not surprising that we received this request: “I would LOVE to hear an episode on food! YES it is confusing and hard to navigate! We've already made some good changes, but I'd love to hear your specific thoughts about how you implement this both at home and on the road. I'd also love to hear some scientific evidence from books but mainly how you guys apply it… especially when your kids when they ...

We received another question from a mom who was interested in joining my Family Charts & Systems course and community . In an email I sent out, it said: As a mother of seven children, my life seriously changed forever once I learned how to FINALLY get organized. So when moms tell me they don't have a system for chores or study time, I'm like... "Say what?!" I get it. Some of you don't like systems . You'd rather live free-flowing and in the moment. I was that mom too , about ten years ago. But t...

We’re coming to you today from the city of Vilnius, Lithuania. We have loved traveling through the Baltic States. Today we’re going to continue answering some questions (since we were accidentally cut short in the last episode). We were asked about certain types of activities and whether or not our children participate in them because of our unique lifestyle. For example, ballet, piano, gymnastics, sports, and other activities that require mastery. In this episode, we discuss the pros and cons —...

We spent the New Year in Tallin, Estonia! We’re keeping the Denning family dream alive with family adventures . In December, we traveled through NYC, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, & Estonia. We’ve had some questions about the logistics of traveling with a family which we’re going to discuss in this episode. How do we do it? What do we do with our stuff? How do we make it work? We also get philosophical and talk about how travel has been a tool for helping us (and our children) to become asse...

We like to get our podcast topics from issues that really ‘fire us up’ (it makes for better discussions). This week, I was fired up by some comments left on an Instagram Reel I created about allowing ‘boys to be boys’ with audio taken from our recent Workshop on Boys Adrift — The Growing Epidemic of Undermotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men . Some of them said things like: This post really misses the mark. The toxicity that exists around masculinity has nothing to do with children having ...

I remember the first time I realized that humanity’s desire for luxury was actually a driving force for improving the world. Previous to that I often felt that wanting luxury and comfort was wrong or bad… perhaps from generations of Puritanism passed down through religion and culture? But as I lay in the comfort of a luxurious hotel room feeling perfectly at home, I finally understood that this desire was a positive thing. Without (a woman’s?) desire for indoor plumbing, a comfy bed, and the eas...

We’ve all had the experience of being around someone who’s grumpy — even our spouse or children — and then soon we’re feeling grumpy as well. A mother of multiple children recently asked us, “When the people around me (aka my children) are grumpy, negative, or ‘down’, how do I not let that affect me?” Negative emotions and grumpiness are inevitable and a normal part of life. But when those around you are moody or grumpy, how do you keep that from bringing you ‘down’ as well? Is it possible to st...

We are busy people. And so are you. We have a LOT going on, as I’m sure you do too. Human nature often makes us feel that we’re “too busy” to do things like morning routines or rituals. We’re “too busy” to do morning discussions with our family. But because you are so busy is exactly why you MUST do family discussions and devotionals . (When we use the term devotional we don't necessarily mean it as a religious activity, although it certainly can include religion and spirituality.) Daily family ...

Fear is a universal emotion. We’ve all experienced it at some point. It is very real and very relevant. As a teenage girl, Edith Eger was a prisoner in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. She said that after she was released once the War ended, it was then that she learned that the greatest prison is the one in our own minds. Fear makes us prisoners of our minds. With all the people we work with — and through our own experiences — we’ve learned that so many of us are living far below our privilege , p...

Every great story, movie, or book contains elements of what’s been called the ‘Hero’s Journey’ — a series of events and experiences that makes the story meaningful and transformational . It’s the process by which the hero-to-be becomes the hero of the story. The interesting thing is that the same elements which make a great story also make a great life . YOU can become the hero of your own life by living and following the ‘Hero’s Journey’. When you do, you finally get out of the bleachers and in...

All of us have been ‘conditioned’ by society when it comes to things such as HOW to behave and WHAT to care about. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It fact, social conditioning can be very positive . Caring what other people think or how others view us helps us to be law-abiding citizens — which keeps order and civility in communities and nations. But sometimes, social conditioning can cause us to believe and behave in ways that our detrimental to our own well-being . Social conditioning can ...

In our line of work coaching families for the past 20 years, we get an up-close-and-personal look into the lives of many different types of people . It’s a sacred privilege and we learn so much. We often experience a wide range of emotions , from empathy to despair to elation. And not going to lie, sometimes we get fired up or frustrated about the things that people do — or don’t do — especially the things that THEY know they NEED to do . They will receive a clear insight about something they sh...

"I would like to be more confident but my face turns red if I am embarrassed, nervous, shy, afraid, or just talking with someone . Without that handicap, I know I would be more confident, but unfortunately, I let it stop me all too often. But I heard that Mr. Denning used to be really shy and his face would turn red anytime people would even ask him a question in class. I'm heading off to college soon and am a bit overwhelmed. I do the same thing, I am generally an introverted person, but I real...

There is a lot of ‘surface tension’ in the media today -- social and mainstream. Lots of polarity and opposition about intense topics. And it bothers me. Because it paints the picture that there are only two sides to any issue. And that’s just not true . We (as individuals and society) have to look beyond the ‘surface tension’ of topics to the underlying problems and underlying causes of those problems. There is so little we know — we as a society, (and especially ‘we’ as in Greg & Rachel). But ...

You may have seen or heard that we’re planning a move to Portugal — and hoping to travel while making the transition. We received some questions about this: “We would love to travel more , even long term, but I am getting more hesitant because of predictions about downturns in the economy, warfare, etc. I see a lot of people encouraging self-reliance and preparation at this point in time (ie growing and storing your own food). This seems like it would be hard to do while traveling. I want to pro...

Understanding YOURSELF and the other human beings around you is one of the trickiest and most complex aspects of life and relationships — Your personality begins to form from conception, in the womb, and as you grow as a child. You don’t start to become aware of this until much later in life (and some people never gain awareness of who they are and what makes them do the things they do.) For a long time, Greg and I were not fans of personality tests — until Jordan Peterson’s Big 5 Personality Te...

Have you ever had that inner feeling of discontent, frustration, guilt, or dissatisfaction ? (I know I have.) Have you ever thought — what’s the point of setting goals? I’ll just be disappointed. Or have you ever tried to achieve something — losing weight, earning more money, or improving your marriage — only to finally give up and accept yourself and your circumstances ? In this episode we’re going to dive into why many people feel and think this way — and how ‘ accepting things as they are ’ c...

Greg and I just returned from an incredible trip to Portugal to celebrate our 21st anniversary and we’re excited to record an episode about it. We’re going to share all the romance, magic, and serendipity we experienced that surprised even us . It’s difficult for us to put in words the super special experience we shared together during this trip. But we’re going to unpack it for you, explain the key ingredients that made it so meaningful, and outline some foundational principles for creating mor...

Hey everyone. We hope you’re having a great week. I know Greg and I are excited to have some sunshine and warmer weather after two cloudy and cold weeks. Today we’re discussing something which — at first glance — seems overly simplistic. We’re talking about HOW to wake up. And yet, waking up is something every one of us does and we do it every single day of our life . There’s an incredible power that comes when we can learn to do BETTER the things we do consistently . One of those things is waki...

Today we are diving into a detailed look at what living an ‘extraordinary’ life looks like on the day-to-day . The majority of your life — and ours — is spent in daily activities that can be mundane . Dishes, laundry, errands. Even with a travel lifestyle like ours, we spend most of our time sitting in a vehicle on a road trip or waiting in an airport. How do you make the ordinary, routine, ‘boring’ daily interactions more meaningful and purpose-filled? We’ll share specific strategies that we’ve...

Welcome to the podcast! In this episode Greg and I are answering a question about clashing cultures — what to do when the status quo conflicts with your unconventional lifestyle choices — especially if the clash is happening in your own family. It’s not uncommon for someone like you to try to do life differently and then to get ‘thrown under the bus’ by the naysayers and ‘reality checkers ’. Maybe you want to homeschool, travel with your family, eat a different way than you were raised, or to ta...