October 23, 2021

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/the-official-greenfield-family-qa-podcast/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:54] Podcast Sponsors

[00:04:47] About This Podcast

[00:11:33] A Quick and Dirty Summary of The Greenfield Family History

[00:19:09] What Are Our Key Rituals/Routines/Comings/Goings?

[00:35:56] Podcast Sponsors

[00:38:08] A Typical Day in The Life of Jessa

[00:52:51] How Jessa Finds Joy/Meaning/Purpose in Being a Wife and Mother

[00:56:56] A Typical Day in The Life of River and Terran

[01:05:17] How do we approach screen time/TV/social media?

[01:09:46] How Ben and Jessa Teach Their Kids to Make Good Diet Choices

[01:15:27] What Supplements River and Terran Like to Take

[01:16:31] Is it weird being “well known” or living with a somewhat well-known father/personality?

[01:20:48] Why does our family seem to be so happy and joyful?

[01:26:00] End of Podcast

Ben:  On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast:

Jessa:  I really don't think people understand the power of a peaceful home, the stability of it, and what it brings to your children into your husband.

Ben:  How do you force screen-time rules?

River/Terran:  We don't.

Ben:  We just don't. We instead focus on educating about the consequences and focusing on what's important in life. And if you're purpose-filled and focus on what's important in life, you don't need rules.

River/Terran:  It would be a little weird to me if the world knew that you're the son of the guy who ate a raw testicle. But, other than that, it's pretty good.

Ben:  Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show.

Alright. So, I've changed my mind on essential amino acids. That's right. Forget everything I've ever told you about essential amino acids. Maybe, that's a little bit dramatic. But, now I have your attention, there's actually some pretty cool information in the realm of essential amino acid, so-called EAAs, I'm pretty darn stoked to share with you. My company, Kion, my supplements company, we recently embarked on a huge undertaking. We worked with a third-party independent research firm. We conducted a meta-analysis of all the most recent solid amino acid research out there. And, lo and behold, we learned a thing or two about how to make, probably, our most popular product ever, our Aminos formula, even better.

So, I just released a banger of an article about all of this research, which you can go read at BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Just go over there and do a search for amino acids. But, I'll summarize the main points for you real quick. First of all, an overwhelming body of research pointed to one amino acid in particular for the incredible effect it has on muscle protein synthesis, muscle repair, recovery, a whole heck of a lot more. And, that amino acid is leucine. So, that's the first thing we did. We bumped up the leucine contents to the dose recommended in the literature, which is 2,000 milligrams.

And then, we added histidine. And, that's always been a hot-button topic in the amino acid community, if such a community actually exists. But, the longstanding belief has been your body could create histidine on its own in the presence of all the other amino acids. But, it turns out that was based on an outdated method of testing. And, we look at the newer research using something called the tracer method, which observes amino acids directly inside muscle. We know the manufacture of histidine inside the body isn't as efficient as it was once thought. So, we added histidine.

And, finally, let's be honest, amino acid supplements are not exactly known to be tasty. And, don't get me wrong, the Kion Aminos were always delicious, in my opinion. But, being the overachievers that we are at Kion, we actually went ahead and improve the flavors even more. And, I promise, you're going to be blown away by how good the new Cool Lime and Mixed Berry Powders taste. The flavor scientists at Kion, we spent months tinkering with only the best natural ingredients to kick these two up a notch, to say the least.

Not only that, but we took the sometimes difficult-to-swallow tablets that I've heard whispers about leaving a bad chalky taste in some people's mouths, and we went ahead and upgraded those, too. So, they're all new Kion Aminos capsules. They're easy to swallow. They're made of 100% natural plant ingredients. And, whew, that was a lot. I hope I didn't lose you.

But, anyways, you can get them now. GetKion.com/BenGreenfield. The performance, the recovery, the gut nourishments, the sleep, the crushing of appetite cravings, there's pretty much nothing essential amino acids don't seem to do. So, if you don't have these in your lineup, add them, all-new Kion Aminos. So, go check them out and try mixing them with our brand-new protein powder. Make yourself a smoothie with the vanilla whey protein and the Kion Berry Flavored Aminos. And, that's like recovery on steroids. So, Get-K-I-O-N.com, GetKion.com/BenGreenfield.

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Hey, for everybody listening in, you've got the whole Greenfield family right here.

River/Terran:  It's finally happening.

Ben:  It's finally happening. It's happened before. 

River/Terran:  It has?

Jessa:  It has.

Ben:  I feel like we've been able to herd all of us cats together before and get down in front of the mics. But, I was supposed to be in Austin, Texas all week this week and wound up hurt my knee and having to stay home. And, we decided we wanted to sit around our giant dining room table here, which is made up — what's it made out of again, I forget? It's hard.

Jessa:  It's pine.

River/Terran:  Wood.

Jessa:  Pine.

Ben:  Pine.

Ben:  Obviously, it's wood.

River/Terran:  Yes, it is hard.

Ben:  Pine, faux wood. It's a giant pine table. Maybe, even later on, we'll get to talk to folks about some of the cool functions of family dinners and rituals and routines we have around this table. Although, I just made it sound like we sacrificed little baby birds or something.

River/Terran:  No. It's not a thing.

Ben:  Not those kind of rituals. But we have some good times that happen here at this family table. And, we decided we'd sit down and record a podcast for all of you. And, we put out a post on Instagram and on Facebook asking you for questions that you would want to ask us if all four of us Greenfields were just sitting around answering your questions as a family.

My wife, Jessa. Say hello, Jessa.

Jessa:  Hi, there.

Ben:  Of — I don't know.

Jessa:  [00:06:12]_____.

Ben:  We used to have a membership inner circle for the Ben Greenfield website, remember that?

Jessa:  Long time ago.

Ben:  When I realized it wasn't a good idea to go into business with your wife.

Jessa:  Yeah, it wasn't good for us, no.

Ben:  At least not for us.

Jessa:  It works for some people, didn't work for us.

Ben:  But, if you guys have probably seen Jessa before in the cookbook and online, also, in my Instagram post soon.

Jessa:  I very seldom maybe once in a while appear.

Ben:  I think you actually have an Instagram channel that you post once every few months to.

Jessa:  Like, a year.

Ben:  Yeah, because people follow you. 

Jessa:  Sorry, if you're my friend on Instagram and you're disappointed because I don't do anything.

Ben:  You're one of those people who put a Twitter account and posted once in 2004.

And then, of course, River and Terran. Say hello, guys.

River:  Hello.

Terran:  Hello.

Ben:  I got to figure out the pretty link that we'll make for this podcast. Sometimes, I make it up over recording. What should we tell people to go to for the shownotes, BenGreenfieldFitness.com/?

Jessa:  BestFamilyInTheWest.

Ben:  That's way too long. Greenfield4, Greenfield, the number “4,” because there's four of us. So, go to Greenfield4 if you want the shownotes for today's podcast, because every time we talk about something, I have a crack team on the other end who keeps track of everything. And, any books we talk about, any audiobooks, any podcasts, any resources, anything we mentioned, those will be available at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/the number 4.

Ben:  River and Terran, you guys want to quickly and shamelessly plug your podcast, too, people dig what you're doing?

River/Terran:  Shamelessly?

Ben:  Or, shamefully.

River/Terran:  Okay, GoGreenfields.com. It's a food podcast. We make lots of cool foods and recipes.

Ben:  Food, yeah.

River/Terran:  It's fun.

Ben:  I know. It makes my life good. I always eat well on the days you guys record those podcasts and recipes.

Jessa:  Yes, you do.

Ben:  So, we, anyways, like I was saying before I got sidetracked, on Instagram and on Facebook, I put out a post where we asked for all of your questions. And, we got some good ones. So, in today's show, we're basically going to reply to as many of your questions. And, we literally got hundreds of questions. But, we picked, I don't know, probably, a dozen or so of them. And, some questions, Jessa will probably be talking more. Some River and Terran more. Hopefully, me not so much, because I talk all the time on this podcast and I get sick of it.

Jessa:  We bear you all the time.

Ben:  And, before we get going, I should also open my Zevia, of course. Everybody always thinks this podcast is sponsored by soda.

River/Terran:  I love the sound.

Ben:  But, it's just me drinking my guilty addiction zero-sugar, caffeine-free, stevia flavored Zevia. I interviewed them once. I interviewed the CEO. His name was Paddy. I interviewed Paddy way back in the day because I wanted to know if these cans have metals in them and where they get their stevia, if it's actually — And, actually, it's pretty good stuff. It's not fake healthy food. It's actually healthy.

Jessa:  Nice.

River/Terran:  This totally sounds like a sponsor.

Jessa:  It do.

Ben:  Favorite flavor of Zevia, go.

Jessa:  Root beer.

River/Terran:  Yeah, root beer.

Ben:  It's ginger root beer.

River/Terran:  No, root beer.

Jessa:  That's the only one I like. But, I don't like sodas.

Ben:  Ginger root beer with coconut vanilla ice cream is actually a pretty good root beer float.

River/Terran:  I don't really sodas very much, but root beer would be my favorite.

Ben:  And, we'll warm-up. Since we're on the root beer float question. One of their warm-up question for the podcast that we're going.

Jessa:  Okay.

River/Terran:  Okay.

Ben:  What's everybody's favorite dessert?

River/Terran:  Ice cream.

Ben:  Ice cream. No, but more specific.

Ben:  Like, Moose Tracks, Ben and Jerry's, Chunky Monkey, Avacoco.

River/Terran:  There's one that we had in Italy. It's called Sweet Milk.

Ben:  Sweet Milk flavored gelato.

River/Terran:  Yeah, it's really good.

Jessa:  It's just honey and milk.

River/Terran:  I don't know. It's really good, though.

Ben:  That's so unfair that you get named the desert that people have to go all the way to Italy to get.

River/Terran:  Oh, wait. There's one more that we also got. How do we do this?

Jessa:  They're really chewing your gum, babe.

Ben:  Sorry, so she took my gum out.

River/Terran:  I don't remember where we did it, but it was another type of gelato, but it's a honey gelato, so there's honeycomb. It was really good.

Ben:  Honeycomb gelato, I remember that also.

Jessa:  Land of milk and honey, that's what they should call that.

River/Terran:  Gelato is milk?

River/Terran:  Yeah, it is.

Ben:  Mine is going to be the gluten-free carrot cake that you guys make me on my birthday and on Father's Day.

Jessa:  How about the apple crisp?

Ben:  The apple crisp is pretty good, too. But, that's a new one. So, I haven't quite decoded how much I like that compared to the carrot cake. But, I like it a lot. How about you, Terran? You're honeycomb or Sweet Milk?

Terran:  I'd say, probably, a gingersnap cookie. I like those.

Ben:  Gingersnap cookie?

Jessa:  Supposedly, my mom makes probably black bottom pie, which nobody would even know what that is.

River/Terran:  That's good. Or, creamed apples.

Ben:  What is black bottom pie?

River/Terran:  Exactly.

Jessa:  It's a vanilla chiffon on the top. And then, there's this really dense chocolate on the bottom. And, it's a pie. It's really good. And, you'll never ever get your hands on it because my mom is the only person I know who makes it. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Ben:  I'll bet I could Google black bottom pie —

Jessa:  It won't be like my mom's.

Ben:   — and find a bastardization of that recipe somewhere. That's actually a great segue.

Jessa:  To what?

River/Terran:  To what?

Ben:  Which I never knew what segue meant, because I'd see this word when I'd read, spelled S-E-D-G-E-W-A-Y.

River/Terran:  Sedgeways?

Ben:  And, I'd read like SEDGEWAY. Is that a scooter?

River/Terran:  Sedgeway.

Ben:  Or, is it a form of transportation?

Ben:  And then, I realize it's the same word that I use all the time in my own binocular, segue.

Jessa:  It transfers you to a different conversation.

Ben:  Yeah, it transports us.

Jessa:  So, you're right.

Ben:  It seamlessly and gracefully transports us to the first question of the day, which is what is a quick and dirty summary of our family history?

River/Terran:  Dirty?

Ben:  Where did we even come from? Well, I mean not dirty like that. Even though, I guess, I don't know, maybe the part about making babies is a little dirty.

River/Terran:  Ranchers.

Jessa:  It's not dirty.

Ben:  It's not dirty. Alright. So, quick and dirty summary of our family history. Jessa and I met in second grade Sunday school.

Jessa:  Yes. Well, I think it was third, actually.

Ben:  You had a crush on me?

Jessa:  For a week.

Ben:  Yeah, for a week. And then, what happened?

Jessa:  I'm a jock and you were a nerd. And, it just wasn't going to work out.

Ben:  That's true. Mom was a jock.

Jessa:  I got bored.

Ben:  Mom was a jock. Dad was a nerd. It's not flipped around now. But, I would say, if people were to look at us, they'd probably think I was more of a jock than you, even though you're way better of a jock than me.

Ben:  I got to try really hard for it.

River/Terran:  You're 50-50.

Ben:  And, Jessa doesn't. Yeah, I'm like nerd-jock. And, Jessa is — I don't know.

River/Terran:  A jerk.

Ben:  Jock Queen?

Jessa:  I just do it, like they say, Nike.

Ben:  So, second grade Sunday school. We went to the same church. And, even though she decided that I wasn't cool, once she realized that all I did was play violin and chess and read books —

Jessa:  Read books.

Ben:  And, I really wasn't a lady's man.

Jessa:  Which is great, I know.

River/Terran:  How romantic.

Ben:  Yeah, it was very romantic. Anyways. So, we knew of each other.

Jessa:  Our whole life, basically.

Ben:  And then, at University of Idaho — We knew each other's families, and we see each other occasionally. But, we started hanging out together in college at University of Idaho when we were in lifeguarding class together. And, we really weren't attracted to each other romantically, but we realize we liked hanging out. And, I was working as an intern at the Strength Conditioning Facility. And, I would see Jessa every day. They're lifting because she ran for the track and field team. And, we started studying together and hiking together, and hanging out together.

Jessa:  We had friends that we're dating, too.

Ben:  We had friends who we're dating. And, we're just kind of besties. We just hung out a lot.

River/Terran:  Cool.

Ben:  And then, over the course of, probably, a week and a half, I started to fall for your mom.

River/Terran:  That was a book.

Ben:  I actually started to find myself physically attracted to her. I remember one night, we all went out to a play with some of our friends. And, mom was there, and she was wearing a nice little red skirt and white top. She looked all sexy. And, I was sitting by her.

Jessa:  I thought you remember [00:14:12]____.

Ben:  I remember. And, like, “Oh, geez. I think I'm falling for this girl.” And, I was attracted to you. And then, I was kicking myself after we left the play for not hitting on you.

Jessa:  For not making a move.

Ben:  And then, the next night, same thing. We all wound up at a movie theater with a bunch of friends. And, it was this old movie. It was alien movie. I still remember what it's called.

Jessa:  It was terrible.

Ben:  It's called “Evolution.”

Jessa:  “Evolution,” it was terrible. That's the worst movie ever. I'm not even joking.

Ben:  We got halfway through that movie. And, I did the pinky lock on mom. I just snuck my hand over and rubbed my pinky on hers and grabbed it. And then, she latched on. And, from there on, it was game over.

River/Terran:  What?

Jessa:  We were tethered from there on.

Ben:  We were tethered.

River/Terran:  Where's that pinky lock?

Ben:  We had our tongues in each other's mouth by the end of that movie.

Jessa:  Remember that trick, boys.

River/Terran:  Grandpa taught it to us.

Jessa:  Grandpa taught it to you?

River/Terran:  No.

Ben:  So, anyways.

Jessa:  We're just [00:15:10]____ pinky.

Ben:  We dated for, what, a year and a half.

Jessa:  Yeah.

Ben:  And then, we got married. And then, I graduated University of Idaho with my master's degree. You graduated a year before me.

Jessa:  And, we got married when we were 21. We both had one year of college left. And then, you got master's.

Ben:  Yeah. So, we got married when we're 21. And then, I got my master's in that last year at Idaho right after we got married. And then, I moved up to Post Falls to work in hip and knee surgical sales. Mom stayed back in Moscow, Idaho. Although, she eventually moved up to Post Falls to join me because it's hard for a newlywed couple to not even be living in the same city together. And, I worked at that job for less than a year, hated it, started getting back into what I'd done all through college.

Jessa:  Actually, you changed your mind about medical school.

Ben:  Yeah, changed my mind. I want to go to medical school, which I had planned on, everything. And, I just decided I love fitness, I love physical culture. This is what I want to do, is physiology and biomechanics and training people and nutrition. So, that's what I did. So, mom moved up to Spokane. And, we lived in Spokane for how many years before we had River and Terran?

Jessa:  Three or four. Three, I think. It's three.

Ben:  We lived in Spokane. And then, we had you guys when we're 25, which I highly recommend to any —

Jessa:  Oh, that's not true.

Ben:  How old?

Jessa:  I was 27.

Ben:  Twenty-seven. I'm doing the math, though. You said it was three or four years after we're 21.

Jessa:  No, we lived in Moscow two years or a year and a half. Then, we moved to Spokane. And, it was three or four years then.

Ben:  So, it was four or five years after we got married, we had twins.

Jessa:  I was 27 when we had kids.

Ben:  It was a week after I'd race —

River/Terran:  Mom remember as well.

Ben:  It was a week after I'd race one of my first Ironman triathlons. I think we conceived the very first time we actually tried to conceive without birth protection.

Jessa:  Yeah, I think so.

Ben:  And, what is that?

River/Terran:  Ticking noise.

Ben:  Ticking noise, that's from my knee. I got a PEMF thing on my knee. And so, anyways, I thought, maybe, since I just race an Ironman, I was going to have a bunch of messed up genetically modified sperm and we'd have some crazy three-headed baby.

Jessa:  You're wrong again. You're wrong.

Ben:  We had twins. I'm wrong?

Jessa:  Your first Ironman was after they were born.

Ben:  No, I said one of my — No, it was my first time.

River/Terran:  [00:17:36]_____.

Ben:  Yeah. Right, but we conceived after I raced.

Jessa:  That's true, okay.

Ben:  That's what I'm saying.

Jessa:  They were okay. They were three months old when you did the Ironman.

Ben:  I did the Ironman, then next week, we're like, “Let's try to have a baby.”

Jessa:  No, you didn't do the Ironman.

Ben:  Yes. So, now this is —

River/Terran:  Something's happening.

Ben:  I guarantee. I guarantee. I raced the Ironman. And, a week afterwards —

River/Terran:  Something happened.

Ben:   — we decided we want to have a baby.

Jessa:  Something happened.

River/Terran:  That's all.

Ben:  But, we wound up with two babies.

Jessa:  Yes, sure.

Ben:  So, the answer to this question is getting really long. So, we promise —

River/Terran:  [00:18:08]____ and dirty, not the long and dirty.

Ben:  Quick and dirty. So, anyways. So, we had River and Terran. And then, we were living in — Well, we were living in Liberty Lake. And then, when we had River and Terran, moved to Spokane. And then, we have lived in Spokane ever since. And, for about a year after River and Terran were born, I was continuing to work managing on my personal training studios and gyms and everything. And then, I decided that I wanted to move into the house and spend more time with you, guys. So I started doing a lot more of what I do now, which is speaking and podcasting and writing and just reinvented this whole new job for myself. And, really, that's what I've done ever since. And, our family just grown along the way. But, that's where we came from, was Jessa kicking the back of my chair in Sunday school.

River/Terran:  Oh, yeah.

Ben:  And, that's the Greenfield family history in a very, very brief nutshell.

Jessa:  Very brief.

Ben:  Now, I thought this question was really good, but it's, basically, somebody wanted to know what our key rituals and routines and comings and goings are. And, I thought this was a great question because our whole family, about a month and a half ago, did something really magical. Even though we've always really valued traditions, everything from family dinners to what we do for Christmas or Thanksgiving to just little things, our morning meditation and devotions and evening meditation and devotions and story time, family games, we'd never actually really systematized that.

River/Terran:  Solidified something.

Ben:  And, do a playbook, a playbook for the Greenfield family, which I think is a great idea. It's similar to what a business might have, a logo and a brand and a slogan and a mission statement. Why not have that same type of thing for a family? And, we met this guy named Rich Christiansen, really cool guy. River and Terran, you guys were recently on his podcast.

Ben:  Super cool dude.

River/Terran:  What's in the podcast? It was like [00:20:10]____.

Ben:  It's a video show.

River/Terran:  It's like an event. An event.

Ben:  Yeah. Folks can Google him, or I'll link to him in the shownotes. It's Rich Christiansen. And, what he specializes in is he takes families together and he helps them develop everything from — We went down to his cabin in Salt Lake, even though —

Jessa:  Yeah, it was awesome.

Ben:   — they do a lot of this work just online with people. But, everything from each family member's spirit animal and color and logo, and what values that the family holds dear. And then, we weave that all together into a mission statement and a logo and a crest and this whole playbook that says, “When the kids are eight, we do this; when they're 16, we do this; when they're 25, we do this.”

And, it's really cool because — And, we have it now as a Word document. We're getting the big crest that we designed over the fireplace. But, it's a great way to develop this deep sense of legacy for a family. And, as a part of that experience, we did have a chance to sit down and think about, well, what do we do right now that we feel has really bonded us or formed us as a family as our key rituals and routines and habits that we hold dear? And so, I thought we could share a few of the ones that we have found to be really helpful for our family to maintain togetherness and tradition. So, the first one is when we wake up in the morning.

River/Terran:  Meditation?

Ben:  Yeah, meditation. That's probably the first time we actually come together as a family. Because up until that point, I get up usually anytime between 4:30 and 5:30. Mom's lazy ass stays in bed till 7:00.

River/Terran:  Wow.

Jessa:  I'm actually up. You just don't know I'm making bed and cleaning the kitchen.

River/Terran:  7:00?

Ben:  You stay in bed for a good hour after me. But, granted, I take an afternoon nap, and mom doesn't. So, I always tell myself out of that.

River/Terran:  You're the only one that takes afternoon nap.

Ben:  I'm going to get to force her to get up with me. Plus, I like my morning a lone time. Mom knows that. If mom gets up at the same time as me, I've got my blue-light-blocking glasses on, and I'm walking through the house after her.

Jessa:  His requirements that I —

Ben:  I'd turn off the lights.

Jessa:   — I don't have.

Ben:  So, the house is dad's domain early in the morning. But, usually, when everybody is up and everybody had their coffee or fed the goats and chickens —

River/Terran:  Coffee?

Ben:  You guys don't do coffee, but mom and I often do. We come together as a family typically sometime between about 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. Dad gathers the family. And, that's the first time that we have an official structured thing of the day, in most cases. I've talked about it before on a podcast. But, we meditate together.

River/Terran:  Or, listen to a song.

Ben:  Sometimes, we listen to a really uplifting song.

River/Terran:  Spiritual disciplines.

Ben:  Yep. Sometimes, we'll go through a chapter from our Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, which is wonderful. What was these mornings on?

River/Terran:  It was on hourly. 

Ben:  Having times of the day, like when we're in Dubai and we hear the bells go off, and that's for the Islam religion, and everybody bows to, I think it's the north, the south, the east, and the west. Hopefully, I'm not totally messing up my description of this. But, they have certain prayer times. And, that's what this morning's lesson was about. It was try this for a week, having alarm go off, whatever 7:00 a.m., noon, and 6:00 p.m., that reminds you to just stop and say the Lord's Prayer, for example. But, we go through these disciplines each week. But, most mornings, we just meditate. We use the Spiritual Disciplines Journal. We write down what it is we're grateful for, who it is we want to pray for or help or serve that day. We play the meditation bells and we breathe. And, we do some tapping and some gratitude. And then, we finish with a prayer.

River/Terran:  And, a hug.

Ben:  And then, a giant family hug.

River/Terran:  My favorite.

Ben:  Giant family hug. And then, that's how we start the day. And, sometimes, we'll have a quick family meeting about when are you doing this? When are you doing that? What's the plan for the day? When are we having dinner? Who's cooking? What's for dinner? And then, we all scatter to the four corners of the planet, doing all of our things all day. And then, what happens at — Even though it's not we're total shifts in the night because dad works from home and mom's a homemaker.

Jessa:  We're all at home.

Ben:  And, River and Terran are unschooled. So, you guys are at home a lot of the time. And so, we're all seeing each other.

Jessa:  We all have our own stuffs that we need to get done.

River/Terran:  We see each other, but it's not like —

Ben:  Little catch-ins and catch-ups. But then, at the end of the day, and I think this is really important for a family, we all come together at the end of the day. Some families do this for breakfast. Others will have lunch together. But, we have these big family dinners. And, that would be the second thing that comes to mind for me, in addition that morning meditation, is our big family dinners. What happens at the family dinners, guys?

River/Terran:  We start at Bible, reviewing what we read for the Bible today, or our memory verse, or something like that. And then we sing a song, most of the time, not always. And then, we do a prayer. Usually, dad finish up cooking or something. But, we pick out games.

Jessa:  Gets all his sauces.

River/Terran:  Yeah, gets all his sauces and stuff up.

Ben:  Usually, these days, dad does the meats and somebody else does the sides.

River/Terran:  And, someone else is taking out sauces.

Ben:  We put out a great big old spread of food. And then, what do we do?

River/Terran:  A game.

Jessa:  A lot of times, we play a game.

River/Terran:  It's a lot of games.

Jessa:  We like games.

Ben:  We have a massive game closet.

River/Terran:  Yeah, I'm not sure which one our favorite is.

Ben:  And, we're always buying new games. Our family rarely buys movies.

Jessa:  I don't think we bought a movie ever.

Jessa:  No. We rarely watch movies, but the thing that we just don't even think about budgeting and don't even think twice about spending money on are probably books and games.

River/Terran:  Games, yeah.

Ben:  And, we'll buy a game for 25 bucks from Barnes & Noble or Amazon. And, it'll be the best 25 bucks we spend all month because we'll just have this game that we gather around and laugh with and play. And, it's cool because nobody is thinking about being on their phone during dinner. Nobody is thinking about what they got to do next after dinner. We're just all immersed in laughter. And, also, excuse me. I was thinking about this. I'm belching my Zevia soda. Game theory, this idea that — because I've watched you guys, River and Terran, become really good at stuff like logic and rhetoric and math and reasoning and argument.

River/Terran:  I don't know about logic.

Ben:  Just via game theory. Even logic, if you're unstable, unicorn is in your stable at the beginning of your turn, then XYZ activates. That's all logic.

Jessa:  All logic.

Ben:  Same like computer programs work. But, it's in a very fun learning environment. And so, we spend — We typically eat dinner around 7:00 or 7:30. And, we're usually not done playing games till 8:30.

River/Terran:  8:30, sometimes 9:00.

Ben:  Yeah, sometimes later if we play —

River/Terran:  If it's a long game.

Ben:   — what's that new game we're playing right now? Fork.

River/Terran:  Fork.

Ben:  For example, a longer game.

River/Terran:  Soon to be [00:27:15]_____.

Jessa:  I still don't get that one.

Ben:  You'll get it. You'll pick it up. But, that's the cool thing about games, too, is there will be some new game that looks super intimidating that you're like, “There's no way I'm ever going to learn all the rules and how to play this.” And, within a week, you feel like you've grown new brain cells just learning this new game. So, it's great for bringing family together. It's great for learning. It's great for game theory. And, I think that's another big thing that brings our family together. That's a definite keeper for a ritual or routine.

Jessa:  Definitely.

Ben:  And then, occasionally, we'll say, “Let's watch MasterChef.”

River/Terran:  That's there occasionally.

Ben:  And then, afterwards, we're always like, “Why did we do that? Watching TV sucks during dinner. We just like to play games.” And then, what about after dinner?

River/Terran:  Cleaning up.

Ben:  And, another kind of bookend.

Jessa:  Everybody cleans up together.

River/Terran:  Sometimes, literally a bookend because we're reading books. And, basically, let's say we clean all the dishes, go upstairs. And then, we all meet, usually, in our room and we read some sort of book. I think during Christmas we read “A Christmas Child.”

Jessa:  “A Boy Named Christmas.”

River/Terran:  “A Boy Named Christmas,” that was a good one.

Ben:  We're not incredibly consistent on story time, but we like to when we can have story time.

Jessa:  When we find a good book.

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Ben:  When we find a good book. And, it's difficult to find a book that's a really good book to read together. But, the “Boy Called Christmas” was really good one, we read over Christmas.

River/Terran:  That's a good one.

Jessa:  Was it?

Ben:  We have a whole bunch of collections of short stories, like “The Book of Virtues.” Who wrote that one, William Bennett.

Jessa:  It was a compilation.

Ben:  Yeah, it's a compilation. But, it's assembled by someone.

River/Terran:  There's a lot of strange poems in that.

Ben:  I find the sweet spot — Usually, if you can find a story that you can read in 10 to 15 minutes, or longer book with chapters that take 10 to 15 minutes to read, this a sweet spot for story.

Jessa:  There's that one night grandma and grandpa [00:28:59]____ about you other one the “Wild West” one. That one was interesting.

Ben:  That was a good one. Stories of the Wild, Wild West.

River/Terran:  And, “Half Magic.” “Half Magic” is good.

Ben:  I just think “Half Magic” was good. I think it's great for families to have a collection of books that you can just grab and read at night. And, we don't know how much longer we'll keep doing that. We had that discussion on a family hike a few weeks ago. I asked River and Terran, are you guys sick of dad reading you stories at night?

River/Terran:  No.

Ben:  You said, “Not yet.” I said, “Well, I'll keep asking that when you say —

River/Terran:  We don't do it very often now.

Ben:  We haven't been doing it too much lately.

Jessa:  The book's got to speak to us.

Ben:  It's easier when there's a season coming up like Christmas, and you're just going through Christmas book together or something like that. So, I would say, maybe, 40% of the time, we do a story. But, almost all the time, we do a song.

River/Terran:  Meditate.

Ben:  We do a prayer. We get our Spiritual Disciplines Journal again and do the evening part of that, which is what, guys?

River/Terran:  Basically, reviewing what you did for the day, what you did good, bad. about your purpose.

Ben:  Not what you did bad, what could have done better.

River/Terran:  Better, yeah.

Ben:  What you failed from, you could have done better.

River/Terran:  What you learned from.

Ben:  And, where were you most purpose-filled with your life. And so, we've got our morning meditation. We've got our evening meditation. We have our family dinners. And then, I would say another couple of things that come to mind for me would be, almost every week, we'll have some type of gathering at our house where we have a whole bunch of people in the community over. New friends, old friends, family members with a barbeque, we'll cook stuff up. Sometimes, it's potluck style, everybody bringing something.

River/Terran:  A theme.

Ben:  And, that's pretty cool to be able to, not only serve others and share what God has given us with others but also, it's a really, really cool way to meet new people and to foster community. And, to me, I don't know what you guys think about it, but I just feel like we've been doing that for probably four years now. And, we started doing it even more intensively during COVID. And, it's just a cool way to bring people together.

River/Terran:  My favorite was the popsicle party.

Ben:  Yeah. And, a lot of time, there'll be themes, like music, or we got new a karaoke machine. So, the next ones karaoke.

River/Terran:  Oh, yeah.

Ben:  Wear your funny socks or funny hat. But, yeah, doing themes is fun for these family dinners.

Jessa:  It is fun.

Ben:  So, I would challenge folks listening in, if you don't have a group gathering at your home in a regular basis, it is cool to bring people together. And, it's different than the family dinners when you have a whole bunch of other people.

River/Terran:  We've only done two questions.

Ben:  What else? We have. That's okay. We're going to get through as many questions as we can. We have family prayer board.

Jessa:  Probably, answering some questions.

Ben:  We keep one big prayer board on a whiteboard in our pantry where anybody that we've said we're going to pray for we pray for. And, a lot of times, those prayers are part of our morning prayers or our evening prayers. That's another one. Family tennis.

Jessa:  Yeah, that's fun.

Ben:  One to two times a week, we have a certain evening where we go out and we play family tennis, typically, before dinner. A lot of times, dad will put some on the smoker and the sous vide, and we all get in the car…

Jessa:  Go down.

Ben:  …and pile in, drive 10 minutes to the tennis court. Sabbath Day, that's a big one for us. Every Sunday is more rest, relaxation, frisbee golf, hiking, cornhole, hot tub, whatever seems to be a little bit more relaxing. I would say that some of those things we've just rattled off would be —

Jessa:  Those are our daily, weekly.

Ben:  And then, when we travel, what are the two things we try to do when we travel that's a Greenfield thing when we're in a new city or a new location?

River/Terran:  Eat gelato.

Ben:  Gelato, that's one.

Jessa:  I didn't know that one.

Ben:  But, escape rooms is what I was thinking of.

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Ben:  We usually will always try and hunt down an escape room in whatever city we're in.

Jessa:  Double the fun.

Ben:  And then, a cooking class, especially, if we're in a different country. That's the Greenfield thing is when we go to a different country or a different city…

Jessa:  Learn something.

Ben:  …we try to find a local escape room and a local cooking class.

Jessa:  The last room we did was in Holbox.

River/Terran:  Holbox.

Ben:  Holbox, Mexico.

River/Terran:  Holbox something. [00:33:08]_____ accent.

Ben:  And so, what we do with Rich Christiansen in this Greenfield family playbook was we just mapped out, what are the rituals and routines that River and Terran might want to do with their children growing up? What do we do at Christmas in terms of the Christmas Eve dinner, the advent calendar leading up to Christmas? What presents get opened first on Christmas morning? What do we eat on Christmas? And having that mapped out for each holiday. And then, the logos that we can put on hats, and T-shirts for family reunions when we got a billion grandkids gathered around. You two guys got to have a half-billion kids for us to have a billion grandkids, just doing math. I would say just spit-balling or answer to some of the key rituals and routines that have been meaningful to our family, that you're feeling.

Jessa:  And, a lot of them have stemmed from traditions and rituals that have already pre-existed from our families, my family and Ben's family.

Ben:  Right. And, every family passes this down.

Jessa:  Because the point of writing it down is so that it gets passed down and not forgotten. I think it creates a lot of unity and a little bit of pride of where you've come from, to not forget that kind of stuff, and realize that it's been passed down by people, some people you've never met and some people that you hold dear.

River/Terran:  Really.

Ben:  And so, I think that, really, the main thing I would love to get across to our listeners is this idea of not just loosey-goosey having at the back of your mind what type of things your family might do together, but actually having — it might sound almost too systematized or too cold and scheduled to actually write these things down, but it is important.

Jessa:  I think it's really important for young kids, too, because they're all trying to figure out their place in life and trying to figure out how to wield their strengths and whatever. And, sometimes, it can come out in anger and aggression because nobody is paying attention. But, when you have these things in place where they really do feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves, I think it's really healthy for kids to have that because it's a security thing.

Ben:  Every business has a playbook and values and branding statements and mission statements all written out. And, I think that not enough families do the same thing for their families. So, I would challenge our listeners to think about doing something similar. And, I'll link to that, guys. I don't have any financial affiliation with him or whatever. But, that Rich Christiansen guy, he does a really good job with this stuff.

Jessa:  He does a really good job. And, he's super passionate about it.

Ben:  You don't have to go to Salt Lake and do it with him in his cabin. He's got it scaled online to little book he sends out. It was pretty fun.

River/Terran:  That was fun, though.

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So, a lot of people are curious about Jessa and about River and Terran. So, a typical day in the life of Jessa Greenfield, a typical day in the life.

Jessa:  Oh, geez. I feel like it changes pretty regularly.

River/Terran:  Staples.

Jessa:  And, seasonally, it's very different. What I do in the summer is very different than what I do in the winter.

River/Terran:  Staples.

Ben:  Yeah, like, what do you do when you get up? What time do you get up? Do you have a morning routine?

Jessa:  So, I get up between 6:00 and 7:00, not 7:00, like Ben said. But, I'm just quiet. And, I just generally stay in my room. And, a lot of times, I will wait to come down before my coffee. I'll do my prayer time. I'll come down to have coffee and then put on some incense and nice soft music because I really like this idea. It's not just women, but I think women are the curators of the home. They really set the stage and the mood. And, I think that's really important in the morning. So, I put on soft music and put on incense because I want our day to start off.

Ben:  Yeah, you make the home really nice, pleasant place to be.

Jessa:  Peaceful. I like our kids to wake up to that. This is one thing I really do not miss about you boys going to school is getting up in the morning and just rushing like crazy people.

Ben:  Chaos.

Jessa:  To get to the bus stop. It's just so chaotic feeling. And, I don't feel like it's the best way to just ease into the day. So, I really like setting the stage for the day. And, that's one of the reasons why I like to pray before I come down because I feel like I am in a much better spiritual place. All my cares and all my worries have been brought before the Lord and not to my family. Not that my family can't help me in those areas, but–

Ben:  I get jealous of you sometimes because you're up in the bedroom and I walk in. And, a lot of times, you have earplugs in, that you have this special…

River/Terran:  Chair.

Jessa:  At my little chair.

Ben:  …spiritual meditation devotion chair. And, sometimes, you're up there for an hour and a half.

Jessa:  It depends on the day.

Ben:  Just deep with God every morning, which is so special.

Jessa:  So, that's how I start my days in prayer. And then, I come down and light incense and get the music going. And then, if the boys haven't gotten up, within the half-hour, I will be like, “It's time to get the going. We got to get started.” What?

River/Terran:  What half-hour is that?

Jessa:  It doesn't happen as much anymore. You guys are actually really better.

Ben:  Well, you have your sunrise alarm clock. We'll get to River and Terran's day later. So, keep going, Jessa.

Jessa:  And so, then, a lot of times, I'll just poke around the house and tidy up things, because I'm a clean person. And, peace and cuddliness are really important to me. So, I'll just anything that didn't get taken care of the night before, I'll take care of. And then, the boys and I will go out to the animals and will take care of the animals. We have a pregnant goat right now. My money is that she's going to have her babies today.

Ben:  It could happen during the podcast.

River/Terran:  We made bets.

Jessa:  We made bets. River and Terran have lost, good for them.

River:  Yeah, me and Terran have lost.

Ben:  And so, with the first podcast, we're going to have background noise of the goat in labor.

River/Terran:  I said Saturday.

Jessa:  And, I said today. So, we've been going out and working together, which I really like doing with my — I think it's great to do with kids just in general, is rather than bossing your kids around and telling them what to do, going out and taking them out and doing it with them and learning with them. So, we've been learning with Toughy…

River/Terran:  Geez, Toughy.

Jessa:  …on training her on a milk. She's a tough, stubborn goat. Tough Toughy.

River/Terran:  Toughy.

Jessa:  Getting her on the goat stand or the milking stand and fondling her, basically, and getting her comfortable with that. And so, that's been a fun thing to learn together. And, I'm really excited to see the fruits of that and what will come of that because we've worked on that for so long. And, I know that it's going to be good, even though I had a dream last night. I think I was a little stressed out about it.

River/Terran:  We're just going to lose your bet.

Ben:  So, you meditate, you pray, you come down to the intense music, you go out with River and Terran and take care of the animals.

Jessa:  To the animals. And then, a lot of time, River and Terran and I will have breakfast together. I know because Ben's humming around, getting things ready for the day.

Ben:  I'm not a group breakfast guy do.

Jessa:  No. River and I will do breakfast.

Ben:  I do a quick smoothie, along digging on emails. And you guys do more a proper breakfast.

Jessa:  Yeah, we normally have breakfast together. And then, that's when all our paths part.

River/Terran:  We disperse.

Ben:  I think a lot of people think or wonder in the morning if you're timing your intermittent fast and doing your supplements and your biohacking type of thing.

Jessa:  No, I'm not at all at that.

Ben:  No, not at all. You do yoga.

Jessa:  Yeah, but even that's not scheduled. It's just whenever I can squeeze it.

Ben:  You just randomly go to the hot yoga class.

Jessa:  It meant a lot to me, so I do squeeze it in.

Ben:  Yoga does, you mean?

Jessa:  Yeah. And so, if something means something to me, I will do it. But, if it's just, yeah, I should do more of that. If there's a “should” in front of anything, I don't really like to do it. So, I'm not a very scheduled person. I'm an artist, and that's my personality is I'm much more free flowing. And, I'm trying to get into this supplement thing, trying to take my vitamins. And, that's been really hard for me.

Ben:  I try not to be the person to remind you to do that kind of stuff.

Jessa:  I really am trying to do better.

Ben:  The shoemaker's wife wears no shoes, as they say.

Jessa:  I do take supplements.

Ben:  But, you wear your shoes sometimes.

Jessa:  Yeah, but it's a lot harder for me to remember those kinds of things because, like I said, it's not, even though my health is important to me–

Ben:  People want to know, though, do you work work? How would you describe to people what it is that you do if someone sitting next to you on an airplane, what do you do? What's your mission in life?

Jessa:  My mission in life is to serve my family. And, that's it. And, that sounds so simple.

River/Terran:  It's not.

Jessa:  It's not. I don't think people put enough emphasis on what that means for the rest of the world and for myself. To me, it's super fulfilling when I see my kids and my husband fulfilled in their work and I can do things that make that possible for them.

Ben:  It's that idea that I think women, especially, in our day and age are expected to have a career or encouraged to go out and build a company or join a company or generate income when, in fact, when it comes to one of the things that a woman can do that last time I checked, although, there's some controversy about this now, no other being on the face of the planet can do, is to bring forth children and new offspring into the world and then equip them and empower them to go forth and be impactful people that change the planet. And, I think, a lot of times, women feel like staying at home and just being with their children or educating their children or influencing their children is a cop-out, that you've given up and that you're just at home, whatever, barefoot in your dress, hunched over a kitchen grill, making [00:45:51]_____.

Jessa:  Here's the deal, though. I think you could think that way. But, to me, it's the power of ruling over your spirit rather than your spirit ruling over you. It's like you take ownership. There have definitely been taste where I do laundry and I'm like, “Oh, my goodness. This is insane. These kids wear five outfits a day and go through five towels, and duh-duh-duh.” There definitely are days like that. But then, I have to think about, well, I'm really grateful for the two legs that go in these pants and for little spirits that fill up this home. You know what I mean? You can definitely be a housewife and be begrudging and hate it and resent your husband and your kids and all those things. I'm like, you could definitely do that. But, to me, it's, I don't know, you have the choice, I guess. And, you really do have the choice. And, like I said, there are days where I definitely fail. And, there are days that are really great.

And, like I said earlier, I really, really don't think people understand the power of a peaceful home, the power of a intact home, the stability of it, and what it brings to your children and to your husband or your wife, whatever, however that dynamic looks for others. There is no price tag you can put on that.

River/Terran:  It's priceless.

Jessa:  It's priceless. It is priceless.

Ben:  Price tag-less.

Jessa:  Because we're putting out these young people into the world who have security and peace and a firm foundation. And, we need a lot more of that, in my opinion.

Ben:  So, you are mostly here during the day.

Jessa:  I'm here a lot.

Ben:  When you leave, you do hot yoga, you do tennis.

Jessa:  But, I do a lot of things. I don't just sit and serve my family all along. I play tennis.

Ben:  Tell people what you do during the day. That's what they're curious about.

Jessa:  I love to play tennis. So, I'm on a tennis team. And, I'm the youngest one. They're all retired women, which is hilarious because some of the things that come out of their mouth are shocking.

Ben:  Like what?

Jessa:  Older women just talking about sex and wine. And, I'm just like, “Well, I never thought that would come out of my mom's mouth.”

River/Terran:  It doesn't.

Jessa:  It doesn't, exactly. So, it's just funny. I love playing with my older ladies. They're fun. And, I do yoga. And, I do it. I love to garden. So, I spend a lot of time doing that. I'm getting better at canning. I love to ferment. So, I like to be self-sufficient. I like to do things for myself.

Ben:  Spend a lot of times preparing in the kitchen, fermenting and soaking and sprouting.

Jessa:  I like to know how to do things that, if things went sideways, I know that I have all — I am equipped.

Ben:  You do a lot of hiking.

Jessa:  I hike a lot.

Ben:  You do volunteering. Tell people about that.

Jessa:  Yeah, I volunteer at a place here in Spokane for crisis pregnancies. A lot of times, young girls or girls in bad home situations or bad relationships that need to be protected from their boyfriends. And then, also, a lot of times, there's men involved. And, they try to equip those men to be supportive of a crisis pregnancy or, perhaps, an unplanned pregnancy.

Ben:  Men who could step in and be a father.

Jessa:  Yeah. So, it's not just about the women and the babies. It's also about men because I really believe that if we can intact and have an intact family, that's the best thing we can do for society. And then, also, in my opinion, if they have got it, that's even better. 

Ben:  What about in the evening? Obviously, we explained what we do with dinner and all our families all together. So, it's what you're doing in the evening. But, do you have any special– Again, a lot of people listening are in the biohacking and the evening routines. Do you have things that help you sleep at night? Do you have wind-down routine? Do you have things that are non-negotiables for you in the evening or on a regular basis that you do as nighttime activities?

Jessa:  Not really. Magnesium works really great for me. I know it's so boring, but —

Ben:  Do you use a Chilipad?

Jessa:  No, I don't use anything. Honestly, and this is part of my personality, is I don't like to be dependent on anything. I don't want to be dependent on having to have a glass of wine, even though I love wine and I really do enjoy it. I also don't like to be dependent on coffee. And, I'll take periods of time where I will just totally cut those things out of my life to make sure that I am actually in control and not the other way around. I don't like to have to have a Chilipad that put me to sleep. If I want to be cold at night, I just stick my feet out at night.

Ben:  Actually, I think that in the biohacking community, well, let me put it this way. I've had people come over here who are just their world is going to end and go to hell in a handbasket if they don't have their blow-dryer in the morning or their special sleep app to put them to sleep at night.

River/Terran:  Blow-dryer?

Ben:  And, I think that it's a laudable goal. Even though it's fun to have all these tools and toys and technologies and hacks and supplements that help life be better for you, you should be able to go off camping in the wilderness and just have a blanket and a knife and just be able to just chillax.

Jessa:  When you guys sleep in those debris hut things, I don't know if I could do it.

River/Terran:  It's perfect.

Ben:  Well, that's a survival thing, ideally, without a tent.

Jessa:  I know. I don't like it.

River/Terran:  It's warmer than you think it is.

Jessa:  It's not the warmth. It's all the pokey things and spiders.

Ben:  For people who don't know what a debris shelter is, when River and Terran and I'd go out and we're just doing no-tent camping, we'll spend four or five hours basically building a giant shelter that's a bunch of bark and dust and dirt…

River/Terran:  Not giant.

Ben:  …and padding it on the bottom.

Jessa:  It is very low. Does it give any claustrophobia?

Ben:  Let me finish. It's covered with a bunch of branches. And then there's palm fronds and bark, whatever else we can find on top of that. And then, a bunch of dirt. You're basically building a giant human-sized squirrel nest. And when, you all climb in there and you're all bundled up together, it's actually surprisingly warm.

Jessa:  I could do it. I just would not prefer it.

River/Terran:  It would be enjoyable.

Ben:  Matter of fact, last time we did it, we were way up above Sandpoint, Idaho. And, it was a super cold night. And, I had to get out of the debris shelter and sleep under the stars because I was so hot, snuggled in between River and Terran.

River/Terran:  We're really warm.

Ben:  So, leading off on that question, Jessa, people want to know if you find meaning and joy and purpose and passion, or how you find meaning and joy and purpose and passion. And, this is going to sound, maybe, wrong for some people, but just being at home all day. How do you even just find purpose in that?

Jessa:  I find purpose in it because I believe that God has loaned these children to me. They are not my own, but He has entrusted them to me. And so, to do that well, that is one of the greatest callings that I can have. I don't just birth children into the world and not care for them, and in a way that I know is meaningful and really full. So, caring for my family, and then, also, my husband, being able for him to have confidence in me to care for our family. So, when he leaves, because Ben travels, knowing that things are going to remain intact, like our meditations and things like that, I want my husband have full confidence in me to be able to continue all of this that's happening here, along with a lot of other help. We have a beautiful people who help us here at the house. I'm not doing everything. But, I want my husband to not worry when he leaves. I want my husband, when he comes home, to just want to come home. I want home to be a sanctuary.

Ben:  You don't mean when I come home from work. You mean when I'm out traveling?

Jessa:  Yeah. I want our home to be a sanctuary. I want it to be a place that people want to come back to. It's comfortable. It's peaceful. It's joyful. There's gratitude. We all work hard, you know what I mean? Nobody is slacking off here. We all have things that we're working hard at. And, I like growing things in my garden because it provides for my family. It's amazing to be able to give that to your family. That's amazing to me. So, I just like to give. I'm a giver.

Ben:  Well, I can say just objectively from my standpoint that your days are so jam-packed with just…

Jessa:  It's random things.

Ben:  …making this home an amazing and beautiful place and being with River and Terran, that I would say the only loss of purpose or loss of passion or loss of joy would be derived from you feeling as though you weren't doing what all the other women are doing and building a career and working on your webpage and building a brand.

Jessa:  I've done that, and I'm okay with not doing that anymore.

Ben:  And, again, I think that sometimes, in our society, the importance and vast meaning of being a mother and a matriarch and a homemaker is sometimes something women feel like it's not what they're supposed to be doing when, in fact, it is probably the most important, most meaningful thing that a woman can do.

Jessa:  And, honestly, my prayer is always that my kids will grow up into these mighty men of God who love Him and forsake the world and seek after God. And, the only way that that is ever going to happen is if they learn it from me and you. And, if we're not constantly growing, our kids aren't growing. And so, even though I'm a stay-at-home mom, it's a constant growth and constant progression. The way I dealt with stress three years ago is not how I deal with stress now. And, that, I'm hoping, is apparent to people all around.

So, even though you're at home, you're constantly learning and you're constantly growing. And, it's not like you're just this stagnant person who just fold laundry and cooks meals. I spent a lot of time growing myself.

Ben:  You do fold a pretty good darn good towel, though, to tell you. You fold towels very symmetrically.

Jessa:  Thank you.

River/Terran:  What?

Ben:  Well, I want to make sure that we have a chance to address some of the other questions as well. So, River and Terran, you got a similar question. A lot of people is like, what's this whole unschooling, homeschooling thing look like? And, not only that, but what's a day in your guys' life look like? Similar to how mom explained, how does a typical day look like for you? Even though I know it's not the same, just like dad's day isn't the same every day. But, what are some staples that you would say really define what your day looks like, as far as when you get up, how you get up, what do you do when you first get up, what are some of the things you do during the day, what do you eat? A lot of people want to know what kind of things you eat.

River/Terran:  Food.

Ben:  So, fill us in on what a typical day in the life of River and Terran looks like. I know you guys are sharing a microphone, but I'll let you figure that out.

River/Terran:  It starts usually 6:00 when our alarm clock — It's a bird alarm clock, and it goes off.

Ben:  Sunrise alarm clock.

River/Terran:  Sunrise clock, yeah.

Ben:  Which is great. I think that's great, especially, for gradually waking up if you do need to use an alarm, the gradual light that flows in from the alarm clock.

River/Terran:  So, 6:00. And then, I get up slowly, just because I don't like getting up really straight away. So, I take 10 minutes snuggling the dog, just stretching and stuff. And then, usually, it's Bible reading till 6:30, 6:40. After that —

Ben:  Read your Bible while you're laying in bed?

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Ben:  Snuggling with the dogs?

River/Terran:  Yeah. After that, it's just do whatever you want. Just fun with dogs is also a big part.

Jessa:  It's a big part of your life.

River/Terran:  Yeah. Do whatever you want, really, until we do meditation. And then, usually, after meditation, sometimes before, we do the animals.

Ben:  You mean the meditation that we talked about that we all come together to do as a family?

River/Terran:  Yeah. And then, it's breakfast. And then, we start school.

Ben:  And, what's breakfast look like for you, guys?

River/Terran:  Oh, breakfast. There's times it's a Dutch baby, which is a sugarless awesome pancake thing. That's not a pancake, but it's also at the same time like a pancake.

Jessa:  It's a very eggy protein pancake.

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Ben:  Yeah, they do.

River/Terran:  And, we have a little egg. So, if you see something there [00:58:52]_____ too many eggs. 

Jessa:  Or, too much milk.

River/Terran:  Or, too much milk.

Ben:  You guys are real big eggs, bacon.

River/Terran:  How about eggs? Oh, yeah.

Ben:  What might be considered to be versus dad's weird superfood smoothies. If people saw it on the table, they'd be like, “It's a traditional American breakfast, except without the orange juice and toast and chocolate cereal.”

River/Terran:  [00:59:10]_____ toast, sourdough bread.

Ben:  Sourdough bread, yeah.

River/Terran:  Occasionally, Magic Spoon cereal.

Ben:  You do do cereal, which is occasionally do that Magic Spoon.

River/Terran:  It's more of a snacking thing.

Ben:  Or, overnight oatmeal. We do that sometimes.

River/Terran:  Overnight, yeah, we like oatmeal. Or leftover. It's just breakfast stuff. So, it's mostly breakfast things are also leftovers, if we don't have time.

Ben:  And then, between breakfast and, let's say, lunch, just using meals as an easy way to partition the day for you guys, even though again it's very different from day to day. But, what are some of the key activities that you guys are doing during a day of unschooling, meaning — And, I've explained this before. I've got big podcasts on unschooling. But, essentially, very, very quickly, the best way I can describe it is that homeschooling which is how I was raised typically involves you've got a set curriculum, you're sitting around the kitchen table all day with books, taking tests, learning. Essentially you're doing the equivalent of what someone might do at public school, but at home, and then, sometimes going to activities or group learnings with other homeschoolers in the community. Whereas, unschooling, it's a lot more of just doing life and learning from life experiences with still a little bit of curriculum thrown in, like math or Spanish.

Jessa:  Spanish.

Ben:  Like you were doing this morning.

River/Terran:  Guitar, piano.

Ben:  But, for the most part, a little less structured and a little more experiential-based, right?

River/Terran:  Mm-hmm.

Ben:  So, what are the type of things you're doing between breakfast and lunch?

River/Terran:  Unschooling, lots of unschooling. Usually, planned classes are in the morning. Planned classes —

Ben:  You mean if you are going to do a math class or a Spanish class, those are taking place in the morning?

River/Terran:  It's like planned classes, homework, and art.

Jessa:  In the morning.

River/Terran:  And then, lunch is usually some type of sandwich or leftover. Most lunches are leftovers or sandwiches. We like our sandwiches. Or, a dip with something like crackers [01:01:05]_____ crackers that we have now. So, it's usually things that we just have that we're going to work together real quick. And then, we go outside and go outside with dogs, play with friends or something for 30 minutes. And then, we come back in.

Ben:  Hod you guys even have friends if you don't go to school? People wonder that.

River/Terran:  We have these friends named Auto and Gavin who come over. And, they help their dad [01:01:26]_____.

Ben:  So, are those your only friends?

River/Terran:  No. No, they just come over. We still have friends from school that we used to go to that we [01:01:31]_____.

Ben:  Friends from school that you've gone through in the past, friends from church, jiu-jitsu friends, tennis friends. What else? What other places do you see or hang out with your peers?

River/Terran:  It would be at tennis, jiu-jitsu, church, our old-school friends, Moscow, people that come people around from the house, people from Moscow, people down the road.

Ben:  You guys are with other peers or kids just about every day, in some sense or another. It's just you're not sitting in a classroom with them. You're just organically seeing other kids whether it's at a jiu-jitsu or a tennis class that you're at, or whether it's people swinging by the house to play, or other people who are homeschooled or unschooled in the community who might have similar schedules who can hang out during the day. I feel like you guys actually do see a lot of other peers.

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Ben:  And then, for you guys, what are some of the main activities that you would say you learn from whether we're talking about Kamana and wilderness survival, stuff like that, or you would consider to be part of your education that aren't just math or Spanish or learning from a book or online?

River/Terran:  Usually, cooking class. Our podcast, one. Our podcast is pretty, you'll learn a lot. We paint murals on our wall. Yeah, lots of painting. We like painting and drawing and stuff like that. Kamana, like you said.

Ben:  Explain to people what Kamana is.

River/Terran:  It's a wilderness awareness thing where you can do sit spots or animal tracking or plants. It's basically learning the analog world through forests and animals and like that.

Ben:  So, it's a whole series, a multi-year series of wilderness awareness, wilderness immersion, and wilderness survival. And, your guys is facilitated by the Twin Eagles Wilderness School. So, you have calls every month with the guy who runs the school. You go out there sometimes for camps and classes. And then, you have these books where you go out. Tell people, for example, about the sit spots that you do.

River/Terran:  It's basically a spot. And, we sit there for like 15 minutes. It's a spot in the forest where you know and you try to stay really quiet so you can see animals or see how your spot is changing. It's basically just being in a place that's special, so you can see the changes and what the forest is doing.

Jessa:  Observing.

River/Terran:  Even if it's not a forest. If you like the middle of the river, but I wouldn't try that.

Ben:  And, what are some of the other things that you guys are doing, for example, in the afternoon that you would consider to be learning or education or school-based activities?

River/Terran:  Usually, sports [01:04:13]_____ in the afternoon, like tennis and jiu-jitsu. And then, we have youth group on Wednesdays. That's not exactly sports. Just games. But, we do music in the afternoons, sports in the afternoons, any catch-up work or reading work or homework that we have to do to sometimes, not fully done with that.

Ben:  How often are you reading?

River/Terran:  Night, lunch, morning, night.

Ben:  How many books a week would you say you guys read?

River/Terran:  It depends. We have a lot of books that we read a lot. So, I'd say we have a lot of comic books that we like reading, like Tintin and Calvin & Hobbes and Asterix.

Ben:  You guys are into both creating graphic novels and comic books and reading them.

River/Terran:  I'd probably say two to three. I'd say it depends on the size of the book. I probably really two, three pictographic novels a week, but chapter books I read one a week. So, probably, four books a week.

Ben:  I would say you guys are probably reading probably a good two hours a day, easily.

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Ben:  Which is about — dad's usually reading about two to three hours a day.

How about screen time, social media, phone?

River/Terran:  No social media.

Ben:  People want to know. People are always like, how do you limit social media in your home? Or, how do you encourage healthy eating in your home? I could speak to that. So, I use my phone for work a lot, everything from the social media apps that I need to use or emails I need to send to my team. I probably use my phone more than anybody else in the family for business. I joke with people. I don't really know what people are referring to when they say they scroll through a feed. That's a foreign concept to me to actually just open my phone and open up a feed and scroll through it. If I open up my phone, it's almost purely for utilitariative, business-based purposes and work.

Mom is usually music or listening to an audiobook or something like that. And, River and Terran each have iTouches that you guys use for your podcast, for photography.

River/Terran:  Yeah, it's not really anything else.

Ben:  For listening to music, occasionally. But, our family, our use of phones has always been very purposeful and mindful. And, we don't have any screen time rules in our house at all. There is no rules on TV watching time. There's no rules on video game time. There's no rules on phone time. But, the thing is our family has never really been in our family…

Jessa:  It's not a priority in our family.

Ben:  …that just mindlessly consumes content or looks at screens. And so, there is no rule. There's no hours — Look at screens as much as you want, but understand that the amount of time that you spend on those or how you use them is time. How you spend your days, as we were talking about this morning, how you spend your life. And, we really don't have a lot of rules in our house.

Jessa:  No.

Ben:  People think that we're like, “Don't touch that. It's got gluten in it,” or, “You get one hour a day in the screens.” Basically, Jessa and I have always had the parenting approach of have a very purpose-filled life in which you are self-actualized and love what you're doing so much that other meaningless things that distract you from that aren't even attractive to you. And then, understand the consequences. River and Terran understand that if they eat a whole, whatever, Pizza Hut pizza, they're going to feel like crap the next day. We've taken anatomy and physiology.

Jessa:  They'd get big fats in on their nose.

Ben:  But, they both know that if they walk in here with a large Pizza Hut pizza…

River/Terran:  Which I don't.

Ben:  …it's totally up to them if they want to just punish that whole thing and follow it up with a pint of Ben and Jerry's. There's no rule like dad's going to walk in and say, “No, don't eat that.” It's just like, “Do it, but here's how you're going to feel tomorrow.” Or, same thing with phones. Neither of you guys have a phone, but you both know if you wanted a phone right now, dad told you, take your money. Go buy a phone. Use it responsibly. It's your budget. And, it's totally up to you.

You guys also know that if you wanted to go downstairs for this podcast and watch TV the rest of the day, there's no rules. You guys could totally do that. But, you don't because I think, A, you understand how that could potentially turn into an active just wasting your life because how you spend your days is how you spend your life. And, B, that's not what mom and dad do.

Jessa:  Yeah, that's not what they see their parents do.

Ben:  At the end of the day, we're playing family games and reading books. And, when dad's got downtime, I've got a book in my face. And, if I'm whipping my phone out and just scrolling through my phone, I'm doing work on it.

People are surprised because we have a surprisingly low number of actual nutrition rules and I was like, “Don't eat this, don't eat that.” It's more concepts of, well, this is just what we do. We eat healthy food. We don't burn out eyeballs out on screens all day. I can't think of many hard-and-fast rules in our home that go beyond just the 10 Commandments, like don't murder, don't lie, don't steal. Those are the kind of things that are rules in our home.

But, aside from that, we got so many questions about how do you get your kids to eat healthy food?

River/Terran:  We fix it.

Ben:  How do you force screen time rules? We just don't.

River/Terran:  We don't.

Ben:  We instead focus on educating about the consequences and focusing on what's important in life. And, if you're purpose-filled and focused on what's important in life, you don't need rules for all the other stuff.

Jessa:  Plus, I think, I'd like to speak a little bit to the eating. Our kids have always been allowed and involved in the kitchen, which I think was super formative for them because when they were young enough to peel labels or take stickers off of produce or wash produce, they were always invited to be in the kitchen with us. That was not an off-limits thing. And, honestly, now, they took almost all their own meals. I don't have to cook a lot of them, other than dinner. And then, we do breakfast together. But, always allowing them to be a part of or they're contributing to–

Ben:  Understanding food. When we go out to a restaurant, for example, and let's say we go to Wild Sage and you guys get polenta fries, this isn't some foreign object in front of you. You know what corn is. You know what polenta is. You understand that some corn is GMO and some corn is non-GMO. You understand all the subtleties of that wonderful — what's the spicy berry sauce that they bring out with it, or the lavender butter?

River/Terran:  It's so soft.

Ben:  It's like the best way I can describe it is if you can sit down in front of any meal and understand how to reverse-engineer that and what went into it and how it was created because you spent time in the kitchen creating, food becomes something that you're not afraid of, food becomes something that you understand when it comes to knowing what it may or may not do to your gut, to your cells, etc. But, a big part of that is just freaking cooking from an early age, just understanding food doesn't come from packages and containers. You make it from scratch. I think that's the best thing that we've done with River and Terran, is they've just learned to cook from scratch. And, they understand what's in food isn't just this mysterious thing.

Jessa:  And, that was always really important to me, specifically, because if you don't teach your kids how to cook and eat, that's basic self-care. If you can't cook for yourself, you can't eat for yourself, and then you are at somebody else's whim. And, they can put whatever the heck they want in there. It can be the chief stuff. It can be the good stuff, whatever. So, it's just like anything. You have to learn that stuff to be able to care for yourself. And so, that was always very, very important to me that they knew how to cook and that they could do those things for themselves because when they get out from under my roof, they're going to have all kinds of things available to them. And, I want them to feel confident enough and the kitchen to be able to produce.

Ben:  Teach a person. It's like with fitness. So, people who are working with a personal trainer their entire life, either, A, are doing because they did the motivation and being able to outsource and they'll have decision making fatigue and just wake up in the morning and they'll work out as they're supposed to do. But, an ideal scenario, and this was always my mentality when I was doing a lot of personal training with people, and still do, I'd rather teach a person a fish. I'd rather say, “Well, you know this week you need to do a hinging movement, a squatting movement, a pressing movement, a pulling movement, some mobility, some VO2Max and mitochondrial work, and some lactic acid work. So, if you didn't have someone to write out your workouts for you, you know what you're supposed to do.

And, it's the same thing with food. It's like, you should be able to just open up any diet book or cookbook on the face of the planet and automatically know, or at least know pretty quickly, this is going to agree with me and this could be useful and this could be tasty and also healthy. And, if you start, whether you're a child listening right now or a parent, if you just start to begin to make things for yourself and make meals for yourself in the same way you start to program some of your own workouts, you're going to be able to decode that a lot more quickly.

Jessa:  Plus, kids are more likely to eat the things that they've made because they just start because they get excited about it. Kids do really like to be in the kitchen. It's fun. And, when they make something, they're generally more likely to eat it.

River/Terran: Yeah.

Ben:  And so, I think that people could probably see the type of things that River and Terran are cooking and discovering and learning and educating other people about in the food environment if they were to go, shameless plug, go to listen their podcast at GoGreenfields.com. I think, this is also going to be a podcast on Go Greenfields as well. So, it'll be cross posted on both those platforms.

But, so many people are curious about the rules and how do you get the kids to do this, and how do you keep them from doing that. It's not about that. It's about empowering with the knowledge of both what goes into any given activity whether it's screen time or social media or food. And, also, the consequences of the wrong decisions in that department, rather than setting up all these rules, which, of course, creates, and I don't think this is a mystery to anybody, forbidden fruit.

If we're sitting around the dinner table you guys, and dad, mom bring out our glass of wine and say, “You guys are not allowed to touch alcohol until you're 18,” it creates a totally different mental scenario than if dad pours you some of the wine with a shot glass and says, “Taste this. This is a Bordeaux from the western side of France. It says, “From this organic farm.” And, here's a little QR code we can scan and actually see where it came from. Here are some of the tasting notes you taste that.” It's not you're going to sneak a bottle of wine away from our wine cabinet when you're 16 and go get drunk in your bedroom because you've never had wine before. It's all about just having a deep intimate relationship with your food and from an early age.

So, I know we're getting close to the amount of time, but we're going to rapid-fire a few other questions. Rapid Fire. River and Terran, do you take any supplements? And, if so, what supplements do you take?

Terran:  Fish oil, glutathione. River takes Stress Movers, too.

Ben:  Liver capsules?

River/Terran:  Yeah, liver capsules. We take Kion, is it, Kion Aminos?

Ben:  Yeah. And then, Stress Mover, we had a nutrigenomics analysis recently with a doctor, or with Teri Cochrane. She recommended a few different supplements to you guys based on your nutrigenomics analysis. But, yeah. You guys take lion's mane, because both you and dad need help with making more brain-derived neurotrophic factor. You take glutathione to help with some of the glutathione pathway that we discovered that your genetics need help with. And then, you take a liver just as in nature's multivitamin. I think those are the main ones that you guys — And, just real whole food.

River/Terran:  And, hot water. And, water.

Ben:  And then, like dad, you wake with a giant Mason glass full of really good water.

So, let's see. Another, well, maybe, a rapid-fire. Somebody asked this. I thought this was interesting. I saw this comes through twice. Is it weird living in a family where some of your life is in public, like having a dad who is a social media guy or who's on videos and stuff or TV or are out in public, if somebody knows who your family is, how does that feel for you?

River/Terran:  Well, it's not like you're videoing us sleeping or something. It depends.

Jessa:  Well, we are used to now.

River/Terran:  You don't know everything. So, it's not that bad. 

Ben:  But, I guess, life as a public figure or life living with a family because not every family is just sitting doing a podcast on the Monday that a bunch of people are going to listen to, do you think it's weird to, I guess, be known, to a certain extent, or be a part of a public family?

River/Terran:  It will be a little weird to me if the world knew that you're the son of the guy who ate a raw testicle. But, other than that, it's pretty good.

Ben:  Testicle boy.

River/Terran:  Now, they all know.

Ben:  Now, they do know.

Jessa:  Through you. You let them all know.

River/Terran:  Well, if you're helping people, then it's nice. It's not super weird.

Ben:  It's weird for me. The last time we're in Las Vegas, we couldn't walk through any casino without somebody wanting a photo or to stop and ask me a question or something. And, that's still super weird for me. When I'm going through an airport and somebody walks by me and takes my book out of their bag and wants it signed because, for me, personally, I said about to do what I do, to take information that I thought was really cool and whenever I come across stuff, I'm like, “So many other people should know this. I got to tell them somehow.”

And so, I did the podcast and blog to do that. But, it's weird for me, especially, being a private introverted guy when people know who I am. It doesn't annoy me. It's just weird. I'm like, “How does this person even know who I am? This is just so odd,” because I don't work on my business in a sense of wanting to be seen by a lot of people, as much as put a lot of helpful information out there. I don't know. What about you, baby? Is it weird for you?

Jessa:  For River and Terran, it's all they've ever known.

Ben:  Yeah, that's true.

Jessa:  So, it's not you don't know what you don't know, and you know what you know.

River/Terran:  Yeah, we don't know a lot of people who know us.

Jessa:  I think it was hard for me at first because my dad, he was just such a quiet humble person, not that you're not humble, but you would not — You know what I mean? And so, that's what I grew up with. He would go work. My dad was a rancher, he would go ranch. He would come home. We'd have dinner. And, it was just very normal, very, very traditional family. So, it was hard for me to come into all of this with you, initially. Because, to me, that's not what I grew up with. And so, I was just like, “What is this? Who are these people?” So, I grew up with a very just different–

Ben:  But, even from the time we got married, for me being just a personal trainer in the local community, we'd be eating dinner and people would come up and look over my plate and be like, “What's Ben eating?” “Hey, you have fries on your plate. What's going on there?” I think it's always been that way, to a certain extent, not knowing anything that's super different. Your husband has always been traveling around the world, doing races and bodybuilding and all this. So, sometimes, it's just the norm of what you became accustomed to. But, for me, it is weird just because I'm not an actor or something. It's not my desire or prime goal to be a well-known public figure. But, it just happened as a result of putting information out there. So, I don't think it's weird as much as it's just, I don't know, it's just I'm expected sometimes.

Jessa:  It took me a while to get used to and be like, “Why do people care?”

Ben:  Here's another one. This would be a good one to wrap on because I actually have to go get an MRI on my knee here in a little bit. What is it that you guys think allows our family to be in a good mood? We get that commonly. You guys seem like you're in a good mood. You're happy. You're joyful. We don't seem like we're a sad family.

River/Terran:  We don't.

Ben:  Or, we seem like we're savoring life quite a bit. What would you guys say allows you to be happy and joyful, or makes you feel as our family is a happy family?

River/Terran:  God. Doing what I love to do and stuff like that.

Ben:  So, self-actualized, God.

Jessa:  I don't know. I just feel like there's always so much to be grateful for and to be joyful for. It's not like we haven't had hard time. So, I'm like, I don't want people to think that at all. I was like, it's not like we don't ever get down or have a hard time.

Ben:  I just thought of this. Maybe, it would be a good way to — and, it would also be a nice way to put a bow on this podcast. Maybe, we should just read people what our Greenfield Family Mission Statement is.

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Ben:  Would you guys be game for that?

Jessa:  Yeah.

River/Terran:  Yeah.

Jessa:  To give some insight in what makes us tick.

Ben:  Do you want me to read it? So, I'll read you guys our mission statement. And, we'll leave you packing with this. But, we'll put all the shownotes at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Greenfield, the number 4. But, I would say us having a mission statement and being really connected to these elements of our mission statement, I think, for me, that's what fuels us, keeps us happy, and just gives us almost confidence and an inner knowing that everything is going to be okay because we know why God put us on this planet. So, here's how our mission statement goes. Do you guys want me to do it?

River/Terran:  Yeah. Sure.

Jessa:  Yeah, you got it in front of you.

Ben:  “We are the Greenfields.”

Jessa:  [01:22:42]_____.

Ben:  We are the Greenfields. That's actually an old cartoon. 

Alright. “We are the Greenfields. We live to faithfully shine the light of God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice to the world by savoring and sharing His Creation. We believe in the absolute truth of God’s word and commit to daily immersing ourselves in the wisdom of Scripture, prayer, and communion with God. We are lovers of life and savor all of creation with a spirit of curiosity, adventure, light-heartedness, community-building, and sharing our joy with everybody, knowing that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. We know that each of our blessings are gifted through grace for us to steward, to share, and to enjoy with an abundant spirit of generosity. In all of our relationships, we prize, prioritize, and commit to love, sacrifice, forgiveness, radical honesty, transparency, and truth. We know that we are uniquely created in God’s divine image and called as makers to intelligently create beauty that shines forth His glory. Our yes is our yes, our no is our no, and we are dependable leaders who endure and persevere through all, learning to be content with a spirit of gratitude and peace no matter our circumstances. We embrace in a spirit of full humility our interdependence and need for a deep, present connection with our ancestors, our community, our planet, and our legacy. We fully trust that as fruits of our faithful obedience, God’s promises and blessings will extend to our family, our children, their children, and a thousand generations beyond, so that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.”

Jessa:  Amen.

River/Terran:  Amen.

Ben:  That's our mission statement. So, I think for me, it's just knowing my purpose, being connected to God, and then having, like we were talking about earlier, all these little rituals and habits and routines, there were few we didn't talk about, like mom and I always pray together before we fall asleep at night.

River/Terran:  I like that.

Ben:  And then, our morning meditation and our evening meditation, and our family hug in the morning and our family dinners, those are the little things that just stack, that build up. And, I think the times when I'd feel most down or least connected from my life's purpose is when I've been traveling a whole bunch. And, all those little rocks that hold our family together throughout the day get neglected or aren't as consistent a part of daily routine. That's about the only time I feel as though there's a hole in my soul, like I'm a disconnect. But, man, when we're doing all the little things that we shared with folks today and [01:25:13]_____, I just feel like it's hard not to be happy.

Jessa:  I agree.

Ben:  Well, any last statements everybody want to throw in there?

River/Terran:  No.

Jessa:  No.

Ben:  No? Well, I hope this has been helpful for people and not just us shooting this so-called chat around the kitchen table. But, again, if you guys have questions, comments, feedback, stuff you want to hear that maybe we didn't talk about, River and Terra, and Jess and I, we'll go look at the comment section after. And, all of us can pipe in and reply to you guys. But, just go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/Greenfield4. That's Greenfield, number 4. And, thank you for listening in.

Jessa:  Yeah, thanks.

River/Terran:  Thank you.

Ben:  And, everybody say goodbyes.

River/Terran:  Goodbye.

Jessa:  Goodbye. Have a good day.

Ben:  Alright, everybody, later.

Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the shownotes, the resources, pretty much, everything that I mentioned over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful, “Ben Recommends” page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormones, sleep, digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more.

Please, also, know that all the links, all the promo codes that I mentioned during this and every episode helped to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. So, when you listen in, be sure to use the links in the shownotes, to use the promo codes that I generate, because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.

 

 

In this special family Q&A podcast, Ben Greenfield sits down with his wife Jessa and 13-year-old twin sons River and Terran of GoGreenfields.com to answer all your burning questions about parenting, cooking, traditions, legacy-building, family game nights, and much, much more!

During our discussion, you'll discover:

• Podcast with Paddy Pence of Zevia:
  • A “Healthy Soda” Super-Special: Is Diet Soda Good For You, Stevia DeMystified, Sugar Alcohols, Natural Flavors & More, with Paddy Spence.
• Zevia zero calorie soda

-A quick and dirty summary of the Greenfield family history…11:08

• Mom was the jock, dad was the nerd
• Married at 21
• Ben changed his mind about medical school after working in the medical device industry for a year

-What are our key rituals/routines/comings/goings?…19:08

• Rich Christiansen, who helps make a family legacy playbook (use code BEN40 to save 40%)
• Meditation, listening to a song in the morning around 7:30 am
• Spiritual Disciplines Journal
• End of the day, come together for family dinner, sing-alongs, games, prayers
• The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett
• Weekly gathering with neighbors at the house
• Family prayer board in the pantry
• While traveling: escape rooms and cooking classes

-A typical day in the life of Jessa…38:15

• The woman is the curator of the home
• Begin with incense, prayer
• Ease into the day, school, etc.
• Sunrise alarm clock
• Take care of animals, have breakfast with the boys
• Jessa's mission in life is to serve the family (not as simple as it sounds)
• Play tennis, yoga, gardening, canning
• Volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center
• Magnesium at night before bed

-How Jessa finds joy/meaning/purpose in being a wife and mother…52:45

 

• The children have been entrusted to her by God
• Want to make the home a sanctuary, a place her husband loves coming home to

-A typical day in the life of River and Terran…56:45

• Wake up at 6 a.m. with sunrise alarm clock
• Read the Bible in bed
• Breakfast: Dutch baby, eggs, bacon, Magic Spoon, overnight oatmeal
• Unschooling activities:
  • Planned classes in the morning
  • GoGreenfields podcast
  • Painting on walls
  • Kamana Wilderness Awareness School
• Podcast on unschooling:
  • The Ultimate Guide To Unschooling: Top Tips To Create Free-Thinking, Resilient, Creative Young Humans Who Can Thrive In A Modern World, with Judy Arnall.
• Afternoon: music, sports, lingering homework
• Read 2 hrs per day on average

-How do we approach screen time/TV/social media?…1:05:16

• Ben uses his phone almost primarily for work issues
• Jessa for listening to music
• Scrolling on a feed is a foreign concept
• No rules on screen time, video game time, etc.
• Understand the consequences of unhealthy choices

-How Ben and Jessa teach their kids to make good diet choices…1:10:30

• Teach kids to cook at as young an age as possible
• Teach to reverse engineer food; know what's in what they're eating
• Teach a person to fish, rather than give them fish
• When someone cooks something, they're more likely to eat it

-What supplements River and Terran like to take…1:15:30

• Kion Aminos
• Glutathione
• Liver capsules (10% discount automatically applied on checkout)
• Fish oil
• Lion's Mane

-Is it weird being “well known” or living with a somewhat well-known father/personality?…1:16:30

-Why does our family seem to be so happy and joyful?…1:21:00

• Greenfield family mission statement: We are the Greenfields. We live to faithfully shine the light of God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice to the world by savoring and sharing His Creation. We believe in the absolute truth of God’s word and commit to daily immersing ourselves in the wisdom of Scripture, prayer, and communion with God. We are lovers of life and savor all of creation with a spirit of curiosity, adventure, light-heartedness, community-building, and sharing our joy with all, knowing that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. We know that each of our blessings is gifted through grace for us to steward, to share, and to enjoy with an abundant spirit of generosity. In all of our relationships, we prize, prioritize and commit to love, sacrifice, forgiveness, radical honesty, transparency, and truth. We are uniquely created in God’s divine image and called as makers to intelligently create beauty that shines forth His glory. Our yes is our yes, our no is our no, and we are dependable leaders who endure and persevere through all, learning to be content with a spirit of gratitude and peace no matter our circumstances. We embrace in a spirit of full humility our interdependence and need for a deep, present connection with our ancestors, our community, our planet, and our legacy. We fully trust that as fruits of our faithful obedience, God’s promises and blessings will extend to our family, our children, their children, and a thousand generations beyond, so that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

-And much more!…

Upcoming Events:

• Keep up on Ben's LIVE appearances by following bengreenfieldfitness.com/calendar

Resources from this episode:

– GoGreenfields Podcast

– Podcasts:

• A “Healthy Soda” Super-Special: Is Diet Soda Good For You, Stevia DeMystified, Sugar Alcohols, Natural Flavors & More, with Paddy Spence.
• The Ultimate Guide To Unschooling: Top Tips To Create Free-Thinking, Resilient, Creative Young Humans Who Can Thrive In A Modern World, with Judy Arnall.

– Book:

• The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett

– Food And Supplements:

• Zevia
• Bacon
• Magic Spoon
• Kion Aminos
• Glutathione
• Liver Capsules (10% discount automatically applied at checkout)
• Fish Oil
• Lion's Mane

– Other Resources:

• Spiritual Disciplines Journal
• Rich Christiansen (use code BEN40 to save 40%)
• Kamana Wilderness Awareness School

Episode sponsors:

–Kion Aminos: Building blocks for muscle recovery, reduced cravings, better cognition, immunity, and more. 

–Organifi Gold: A new take on an ancient secret: Pain-soothing herbs, incredible antioxidants, and phytonutrients all in one delicious, soothing “Golden Milk” nighttime tea! Receive a 20% discount on your entire order when you use discount code BENG20.

–Magic Spoon: A brand new company that has reimagined all your favorite childhood breakfast cereals. Low carb, keto-friendly, ZERO sugar, and tastes just like you remember. For free shipping on your order at Magic Spoon, use discount code BENGREENFIELD.

–FUM: FUM is an all-natural, no smoke, no vape, and no nicotine inhaler made in Canada. All-natural, sustainable, and it works!