Posts by Rachel Spoelhof
Eat Clean for April
Happy first day of April, and first day of our eat clean challenge. I am so excited to focus on nourishing foods for myself and my family and to start some life-long healthy habits. Our family has always been into health, but with the growing issues of toxins in our food and environment, gaining health savvy has never been more important.
Making changes of any kind are only going to stick if you have your mindset ready and willing to accept change. What do I mean? You can just say you are going to do something and hope it sticks. No! You need to write down your goals, looks at them every day, and assess and evaluate your progress.
Here’s my challenge for you: Every morning when you wake up set an intention for the day. What is ONE (only one) thing you can do to move you toward your health goal. Is is something you are going to do, something you are going to not do, something you will think or say to yourself? Write it down. Commit to that one thing for the day. Keep a journal of your daily “thing” for the whole month of April and keep track of how you do. Share your progress with us on social media and be sure to tag us in your post!
Here’s to the next month of the rest of our lives!!
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Spring Clean Eating
With the change of season to Spring comes talk of “spring cleaning.” While your house, like mine, probably needs some cleaning, I’m going to instead use this change of season to make a renewed focus in healthy living with CLEAN EATING.
Why Clean Eating?
Clean eating incorporates natural ingredients, promotes cooking from scratch, and loading up on fruits and veggies. I also like that it isn’t a “diet.” Rather than eliminate entire food groups, it focuses on making foods taste good without additives and tons of sugar.
What Is Clean Eating?
Simply put, clean eating is the practice of avoiding processed foods and building your meals around whole foods. Food is a powerful tool to fuel our bodies, protect our bodies, and even heal our bodies when we use it properly!
This article from Eat Clean for Dummies has a great explanation of what clean eating is along with easy spices to add to your recipes.
How Do I Start?
My advice? Just start. Set a goal. Choose a few meals or a few items you eat regularly and revamp them to make them clean. You will be amazed at how great you feel, even just mentally, right away by making the switch. Making small changes you can stick with will give you the confidence to make more changes until eating clean becomes second nature!
The Gracious Pantry has 5 tips for getting started, as well as lots of recipes to help you along the way.
- Define what clean eating is to you and define when/how you will enjoy occasional treats.
- Clean out your fridge and pantry and stock with clean foods
- If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Plan your shopping list and prepare foods ahead of time.
- Pack your food for when you are on the
Finding Peace Through Healthy Living
Over the past year and a half I have found a place of peace by making health a priority. Not only have healthy choices had a physical effect of peace, but knowing that I am making positive choices has the effect of mental peace. Our bodies are a precious gift from God and should be taken care of. We should not obsess over food and exercise and outward appearance, but we can and should care about our health.
One way I have found peace through healthy living is with exercise. Mayo clinic lists the top 7 benefits of regular exercise as weight control, combating disease and illness, improving mood, boosting energy, better sleep, improved intimacy, and FUN.
Another way I have found peace through healthy living is in healthy friendships. Jim Rohn states, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So choose to spend time with people that support and encourage your healthy habits. You will have accountability AND friendships based on healthy shared interests are fun and likely to last.
One of the most important ways I have found peace in my health is through nutritional cleansing. Nutritional Cleansing provides a solution for environmental impurities we cannot avoid and nutrient deficiencies in our food. Knowing that I am helping my body detoxify itself and nourishing my body as I strive for long term health gives me such peace as I navigate a busy life and learn to be a healthy role model for my family. As a parent, we have so much responsibility in our children’s health. I want to show my girls how to make healthy choices and live the way God designed us – happy and healthy. Feeling great and having energy is such a source of peace and something …
Read MoreCookie Cutter Puppets
Last week the girls wanted to do a craft on a rainy day. I gathered all my craft supplies too see what we could make at the last minute. (You know I’m a “last minute mom” crafter!). I LOVE Pinterest, but sometimes it stresses me out and I get lost in the rabbit hole of ideas. This month we are focused on PEACE, this fun last-minute craft was easy and easy = peaceful in my house!
We came up with these fun cookie cutter Easter puppets.
Supplies:
Paper
Easter Shaped Cookie Cutters
Markers and Crayons
Fun paper straws
Hot glue gun
Any fun crafty things to decorate your puppet
Instructions:
- First we traced our cookie cutters. If we had more time for drying it would have been fun to paint and stamp with the cookie cutters first.
2. Color your shape.
3. Cut out your shape and add decor. Big kids would have fun cutting out their shapes by themselves.
4. Use your hot glue gun to glue your puppet shape to the straw.
5. After your puppet has dried it is time to enjoy and play! My girls turned their puppets into fairy wands.
We had a lot of fun with this craft and I hope you do too!
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Read MoreCelebrate Your Differences
My three girls are SO different. Yes, they look alike, but they each have beautiful and unique personalities.
I am constantly reminding myself to CELEBRATE their unique gifts, talents, and interests and above to NOT compare–not to their siblings, and not to other kids. I want my kids to know the most important thing in their life is that God loves them and I love them.
In the spirit of celebration, I want to highlight my second little sweetie pie and Birthday Girl, Hanna! She has a tender heart, happy spirit, and is full of joy. She makes every day so fun and silly.
Today I challenge you to celebrate something unique about each of your children or something special and unique about you!
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Love Challenge for a Great Marriage
This past Sunday at church we heard a powerful sermon titled, “5 Keys to a Great Marriage.” I loved the sermon and took lots of notes since these words on marriage are direct from the marriage expert himself- G-O-D.
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” -Genesis 2:18
1. Marriage is God’s Design
Did you know that marriage represents THE most important relationship of all: the relationship between Christ and His church.
2. Treat Your Spouse with Love and Respect
It is important to remember that love is a cycle, a relationship between two people. Often when we aren’t getting something we want, it stems from us not GIVING what the other person needs. It works like this: wives want love and husbands want respect. If a wife isn’t getting the love she wants, rather than think, “My husband isn’t loving me like I need him to.” Think about your role. The only person you can control is YOU, so take a look at what you are doing. Are you showing your husband the respect he needs so that he can in turn show you the love you need?
3. You Need a lot of Forgiveness
You and your spouse are flawed. Show them grace and forgiveness because there is FREEDOM in forgiveness.
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I also loved the challenge the pastor gave us at the end. He told us to do these 2 things:
1. Say one nice thing to your spouse every day. “I love you because…”
2. Do one nice thing a day for your spouse.
These might seem like simple things to do, but sometimes it’s the simple things that can have the greatest impact. Sometimes it is easy to get in …
Read MoreLove Your Kids By Being Present
What do our kids want most? They want our attention. They want our focus. They want our love.
I’m sure like me, sometimes you just want to tune out. Keeping track and caring for littles can be exhausting-physically and mentally. And how do we tune out? Our phones.
I’m guilty of this all too much. “Just let me finish this.” “I just need to check something.” And so on and so forth.
So before you continue reading, make sure your kids aren’t around, that you are being present. This can wait. Everything else can wait.
Hopefully now you are alone and ready to spend a little “you” time. So let’s learn how to love our kids by being present together!
First, read these two articles by Hands Free Mama:
How to Miss a Childhood update
My sister and I had a wonderful conversation the other day. We were sharing back and forth, offering advice, when she gave me a wonderful…no, LIFE CHANGING idea on how to be more present. She asked if my husband and I took our girls on dates. I told her I loved the idea, it was just hard to figure out the logistics of when to do it and what to do. She told me this idea she heard from Hands Free Mama: to spend at least 5 minutes a day one-on-one with each of your kids. I thought, “YES! I can do that!”
I set up my younger two with an activity and read an entire magazine with Ellie. We did all the “search and finds,” read every poem, every story. I was astonished by what those 5 minutes meant to Ellie…NO. What they meant to ME!
Sometimes to break bad habits we need to start small. Here’s what I …
Read MoreDIY Valentine’s
I love holidays. LOVE holidays. BUT…
I also have a huge panic attack when I realize that holidays = parties = expectations that I’m a super awesome Pinterest mom who can whip out the cutest ever gifts to exchange. (This expectation is 100% self-imposed).
Well, I’m here to tell you that you can be SUPER AWESOME without braking the bank or losing your mind trying to come up with crafty crafts because there are super-talented moms that have done all the work for you. GOD BLESS PINTEREST (sometimes).
We have 3 different exchanges to prepare for, so I picked 3 seemingly easy to prep DIY Valentine’s with free printables and allergy-free snack options.
How cute is this CUTIES Valentine from Happy Money Saver? I love cuties. They are good for all occasions, right?!!
I instantly fell in love with this BEAR HUG Valentine from Bloom Designs
And how cute is this DIY craft? I’m totally going to have the girls make this for family members!
I am feeling 100% better and more prepared after my search and I am glad I was able to find some ideas that fit my needs.
What Valentine’s do you plan to make this year?
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Fun With Grandparents
My girls are SO blessed to have in-laws that live close by and a large loving family to care for them so that I can get some much needed breaks and date nights with my husband. Mommy breaks are so important for a mom’s well-being and it is so important for kids to foster a relationship with their family or other caregivers.
My in-laws are THE BEST. They are so creative and willing to do whatever the girls want.
I wanted to help out and set up a little fun for everybody for today when I sneak off to Disneyland with my girlfriends…SHHHH!! Don’t tell.
A friend shared a DIY play dough recipe and I figured it was the PERFECT time to try it. 2016 is all about stepping out of my comfort zone to try and learn new things! I decided to put this Play Dough recipe from Imagination Tree to the test!
Ingredients:
2 cups plain all purpose flour
2 TBS vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
2 TBS cream of tartar
Up to 1.5 cups hot water plus food coloring
Directions:
Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl. Add food coloring to the boiling water. (I definitely could have used A LOT more color!! So don’t be shy). Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky dough. Allow the dough to cool. (This only took a few minutes). After the dough is cool take it out of the bowl and knead until all of the stickiness is gone. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP SO KEEP ON KNEADING! Add a touch of flour if the stickiness doesn’t go away. ENJOY your new creation!!
It truly was FUN and as easy as promised. Nothing like a successful Pinterest craft to make you feel …
Read MoreHave More Happy
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.”
Proverbs 17:22
I’ve been learning a lot about how important it is to take care of yourself and pour into yourself so that you can better serve and love on others! One of the best ways to do that is to be filled with joy and do things that make you happy!
One thing that fills my heart with joy is going to Disneyland with my girls. We just love it. Yes, it takes a lot of work to pack up our food and gear and make a day of it. Yes, it makes me tired. BUT sharing the experience together and seeing their happy faces makes it worth it to me.
It is the same way with exercise. It’s never easy to make that time, but the rewards outweigh any excuse I might make. And fitness makes me so happy. It is one of my passions.
Here are a few of my favorite ways to Have More Happy:
- Be Grateful. Start your day with gratitude so you are focused on all the blessings in your life.
- LAUGH! Do things that make you laugh, hang out with people that make you laugh. Watch a funny movie. Watch funny clips on YouTube. I recommend Jimmy Fallon Hashtag skits. They are hilarious.
- Add value to others. Give, serve, tell someone you love them, connect and listen.
- Take care of yourself. Drink water, get sleep, nourish your body. When you feel good on the inside it shows on the outside!
- Surround yourself with joyful people. Who we spend the most time with has a HUGE influence on our attitude and behavior so choose wisely.
- DREAM. Make plans and goals that you can get excited