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October 30, 2016 · Leave a Comment

My Uncommon Marriage Advice

My husband and I recently celebrated the nine year anniversary of our wedding. I was having a little pity party one night thinking about all that had changed in the last nine years. And then I wrote about it, because that’s what I do.

“I sit here nearly in tears on the eve of our 9^th wedding anniversary. You could say I am having a small pity party. For the last couple of days, Facebook has been showing me memories from that time nine years ago. The pictures from those memories show us celebrating with good friends and laughing without a care in the world. They show us hugging and kissing – blissfully happy and in love.

Our wedding day was perfect.

We also had a perfect courtship and engagement, although it wasn’t easy. For the whole ...
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October 21, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Beef: Why I Include it in My Daily Diet

Why does my family include beef almost daily in our diet?

Sometime around the middle of my college years I decided that my health and my body were pretty important things to take care of. After all, I did choose a career in the health professions, and I have spent the last nine years working and caring for others and helping physicians to diagnose illness, injury, and disease. I see the effects of patients’ lifestyle choices daily. Whether the result of smoking, alcoholism, or an ...
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October 6, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Kindness–This Mom’s Superpower

Right now, in the world, there is war, unimaginable evil, and even social media is filled with haters spewing cruel words. On the other end of the spectrum, there is another hot topic—kindness. It seems bizarre to me that KINDNESS is a hot topic. Shouldn’t this be inherent to mankind? I mean, I can’t think of a much better word to describe Jesus himself than “kind.” And yet, here we are in the 21^st century ...
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September 29, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Better Balance–Literally

We are always trying to achieve balance in life, right? Well today I want to discuss balance in the literal sense. Balance is your ability to remain upright, or to hold yourself in a steady position so as to not fall. How does this fit into the picture of health.

I have been a group fitness instructor since January 2015. We discuss in class the importance of daily movement and what our reasons are for working towards our best health. I often say that one of my biggest reasons for ...
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September 9, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Michaela’s Overnight Oatmeal

What do you think of when you think of oatmeal? For me, it’s memories from my childhood of a huge pot of piping hot oatmeal that took seemingly forever to cook, spooned into a huge bowl and then topped with equal amounts of brown sugar and milk. Not exactly healthy. Tasty, but not healthy.

Or maybe it makes you think of bland, tasteless, gloppy breakfast food.

Whatever your memory, I am here to change your perspective! Oatmeal can be a ...
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August 24, 2016 · Leave a Comment

The First Day of Preschool–What I Was ACTUALLY Thinking

Well it actually happened. I dropped my baby off at her first day of preschool and it went better than I expected.

A million thoughts have been going through my head as summer’s end neared. Thoughts about how the last 4 1/2 years of my life felt shorter than the blink of an eye. Thoughts about how I envisioned this day playing out. So I wrote a letter to my daughter, hopefully capturing some of the love and emotions I have about this day, and about her. And I also ...
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August 16, 2016 · Leave a Comment

A New Use for Spaghetti Squash: Pad Thai

I LOVE this time of year—the air is just starting to feel “fall-ish” in the early mornings and evenings, but yet it still gets hot enough during the day to take the kids swimming, AND there might be whisperings of the much-anticipated pumpkin-flavored everything!

But before we get to that point, let’s discuss what to do with ALL that squash from the garden. I enjoy all kinds of squash and wish it was fresh all year round, BUT usually by the time the garden is ...
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August 3, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Meal Planning 202

Welcome back for Part II of my meal planning conversation. Catch up on Part I here on my friend Terryn’s blog Faith Family and Beef, where I originally shared my basic tips for Meal Planning to help reduce food waste. Today I will go a little more in depth. Part II was also featured on Faith Family and ...
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August 3, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Meal Planning 101

One of my passions is teaching others that healthy eating does not have to be expensive, bland, or complicated. One way I keep it simple is by planning our menu each week, usually on the weekend, and then prepping the foods for the entire week all in one day (or sometimes two). Like anything else, it takes practice and consistency to make it a lasting habit. I started practicing and implementing weekly meal planning and prepping about two years ago, ...
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July 15, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Do what sets your soul on fire!

To some of you, by now, if you follow me on Facebook, I might just be the crazy girl who posts seemingly non-stop about fitness and health and nutrition. And I get that, it’s ok–I embrace my crazy.
But I want you to know that it’s about so much more than fitness. Two years ago, I had just quit my full-time job, was pregnant, and admittedly pretty lost in the new world of stay-at-home ...
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