Posts by Rachel Spoelhof
Release Your Stress
If you know me you know that I love fitness.
Probably one of my favorite fitness activities is yoga. I love yoga. There is yoga for strength, yoga for energy, yoga for stretching…you name it–there’s yoga for it!
Today I want to encourage you to set aside 30 minutes for some relaxing, stress releasing yoga. Enjoy this video and enjoy releasing your stress!
Yoga with Adriene – Yoga for Healing and Meditation
What is your favorite way to exercise to release stress?
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Reveal Your Destination
This quote came up on my Instagram feed today and it was so perfect. I am working in my mentorship group with casting a vision for our lives. I’ve written out song lyrics, quotes, and words that inspire me and I plan to use these words to cast a vision for how I want to live my life.
In order to achieve our dreams we must be consistent in our daily actions and yes, FEARLESS!
So what sets your soul on fire?
What are you doing every day to get closer to your goals?
Are you doing every day what others are unwilling to do in order to achieve your dreams?
Here’s a challenge for you:
Write out your dreams. Be specific with your description and give it a destination. Look at it every day. Write what you need to do every day in order to achieve that goal or dream. When you reveal your destination-where you are going-you have a path to follow. Now make a plan to move forward on that path every day to make it to your destination!
Psalm 139:14-15 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your words are wonderful. I know that full well.” We were created for big things. God has a plan and a purpose for each of us. So knowing who you are (God’s perfect creation) and where you are going (casting a vision and a destination for your life) you can pursue “what sets your soul on fire!”
If you want more guidance on how consistent daily actions can impact your life read the book, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.
I would love for you to share a dream you have. Be specific. What is the destination when that dream becomes a reality?
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Memorial Day Fun and Crafts
I love our preschool co-op. Yesterday I hosted and the theme was “Memorial Day.” Just in time to share some fun decorations and crafts with you.
Decorations:
I was very excited to pull out this Red, White, and Blue Felt Garland that I made last year for Fourth of July.
Attire:
Free Time/Sensory Time:
I made Star-Spangled Slime combining the idea from icanteachmychild and this helpful video from about.com.
Here’s how I made the slime:
You will need glue (clear glue for transparent slime or white glue for opaque slime), borax, water, food coloring (optional), and star confetti.
Mix 1 tsp borax in 1 cup water and stir to dissolve. In a separate bowl, combine 1 container of glue with 1/2 cup water. You can add food coloring if you want your slime to have a color. Mix the two solutions and add the confetti. HAVE FUN. Store the slime in an air tight container or zip lock bag.
Circle Time:
To introduce the theme I shared with the kids that Memorial Day is a day to honor the men and women who died serving our country. It is a day for peace and prayer. I introduced some vocabulary words about Memorial Day and had the children take turns matching the words and pictures to the words and picture on my easel.
I passed out small flags to the children and we sang two flag songs from a great pdf file I downloaded from oopseydaisyblog.
We counted to 70 using groups of 10 stars. I used simple star stickers that I purchased at JoAnn’s.
Snack:
For snack I had the kids make their own flag designs with graham crackers, blueberries, strawberries, and marshmallows.
Crafts:
1. Flags
We sang a song about the American Flag to teach the kids …
Read MoreOh! The Places Your PackIt Can Go
I love my busy, fun, on-the-go life with my girls. Sometime it gets a little crazy, but I find that we work better when we get out of the house every day. This is why I love my PackIt and why it is such an essential part of my every day routine.
Packing lunches for myself and the girls keeps us healthy and nourished throughout our day. I love to fill our PackIt with our cold food and snacks. Our family favorites are cheese, nuts, sandwiches, veggies, salads, scrambled eggs (yep I’ll eat them cold!), and fruit.
I have a small Lunch size PackIt for most days or days i just pack snacks, and my Picnic PackIt is essential for day trips.
We love to fill our PackIt with our favorite snacks and you can join our Wellness Wisdom Campaign to get your free Growing Weisser snack list printable here.
Experience all the places you can go with PackIt by getting your own! BUY A PACKIT.
We want to see where you take your PackIt and how it fits into your life. Post a picture of yourself and your PackIt adventures on social media with #packitandgo and tag us @growingweisser and be sure to add #gwwellnesswisdom anytime you enjoy one of our favorite snacks!
AND Click the link below to be entered to WIN A PACKIT.
Mickey says, “Oh boy. These PackIts sure are swell! Make sure you get one and see ya real soon.”
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Read MoreREVEAL Your Potential — Be Mentored
I had the opportunity to be mentored recently and it was a truly life changing experience. I wanted to encourage you to seek out your own opportunity to be mentored. It’s really simple: find someone who is successful and do what they do.
What areas of your life are you looking to improve? Do you want to be better at your job? Find someone in your field or at your place of work and find out what they do. Do you want to be a better spouse, a better parent? Find someone you admire and find out what they do.
What are the benefits of being mentored?
1. You will identify your strengths and weakness. By learning what your strengths and weaknesses are you can learn to celebrate your strengths and focus on improving your areas of weakness.
2. You will build belief in yourself.
3. Create a vision. Know that you can accomplish whatever you want sometimes you just need to know where you are going and how to get there!!
4. Identify distractions. You will learn what is keeping you from your goals and how focus and organization can get you where you want to be. Finding success is simple. Simple steps every day can get us to our goals. But these things are easy to do, and just as easy not to do.
5. Get to your WHY. Your why is what fuels you. A mentor will help you identify what motivates you and that WHY will keep you going when the going gets tough.
6. Get out of your comfort zone. Change and growth isn’t always easy, but it is good for us to see what we are capable of. A mentor can help us identify where we can grow and change as we learn new …
Read MorePuzzle BOGO!
My girls LOVE puzzles. This is one of their favorite quiet time activities.
Our favorite puzzles by far are Melissa and Doug puzzles. That is why I am so excited to share this! Click the link below to start saving!
The deal is buy one puzzle get one puzzle 50% off. Just use the code PUZZLEBOGO at checkout.
In addition, you can get free shipping on orders over $40 with the code FF40 at checkout.
The puzzles shown here (Left to right) are Safari Chunky Puzzle, Barnyard Animals Jumbo Knob Puzzle, and Farm Chunky Puzzle.
Happy Puzzling!
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Beautiful Butterflies
A few weeks ago I visited the San Diego Zoo Safari Park butterfly exhibit with my mom, my grandma, and my 3 daughters. It was a wonderful experience!
It was great timing because we had just visited one of Ellie and Hanna’s sweet friends that had her very own butterfly garden! The girls were very interested and excited to see her caterpillars and it reminded me of when my sisters and I used to have our own butterfly gardens when we were growing up. It is such a neat and fun way to teach kids about science and life cycles.
I decided to get the girls their own butterfly garden so that they could observe the caterpillars growing and moving through the different stages of their life cycle. They have really enjoyed checking in on the caterpillars each day and watching them grow. We bought this garden from Insect Lore on Amazon and it came with a coupon to get our 5 caterpillars for only $5.
It was also perfect timing for me to teach a lesson on butterflies for our preschool co-op. In addition to our regular curriculum here are the butterfly and bug specific activities that I shared with the kids.
Circle Time:
During circle time I incorporate these fun movement/action songs:
“Butterfly Butterfly flutter around
Butterfly Butterfly touch the ground
Butterfly Butterfly fly so free
Butterfly Butterfly land on me
Butterfly Butterfly reach the sky
Butterfly Butterfly say good-bye”
“Five little butterflies by the door, One flew away and then there were four
Four little butterflies by the tree, one flew away and then there were three
Three little butterflies up in the blue, one flew away and then there were two
Two little butterflies out in the sun, one flew away and then there was one…
Read MoreRevived by Family Time
I was so blessed growing up to have family living close by for most of my life. I have wonderful memories of spending time with my aunt and uncle and my grandmas and even my great-grandparents. The older I get and the more people I meet I realize that this is not the norm and I grew up very blessed.
It makes me so happy that my girls are also growing up really knowing their family. Even our family in Michigan has made the effort to come for visits. Although some of us are spread out, we try and make good use of technology and Facetime when we can. The girls love to be silly when we chat and run all around the house dancing and singing, often hanging up the calls accidentally with their kisses.
Last week we were thrilled to have my mom and grandma, Grammie Rozie, come for a visit. My Grammie Rozie is a wonderful grandma and just loves to learn, teach, do art, and read books. I am proud to say that these are many of my favorite things to do too! We had a wonderful time reading new books she brought to share and doing art projects.
We even took a fun trip to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park to see the annual butterfly exhibit. This was a real treat and if you haven’t been, definitely something to do next year!
The trip was a wonderful reminder about the blessing of family and the joy of sharing memories together.
Do you live close to your family? What do you like to do together? If your family is far away how to you keep in touch?
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Revived Mindset
Do you Instagram? I just love it. There are so many people doing awesome projects to encourage others it fills my heart with joy.
I particularly like the #30DayVeggie Challenge from The Body Dept because it is all about MINDSET! I love what contributor Karen Psiask says when she writes, “I’m tired of always being told what NOT to do when it comes to health and nutrition. Don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. This is bad for you. That is bad for you. Most of it is good, accurate advice, but after a while, all that negativity starts to become overwhelming! So this spring, I’ve decided to change my way of thinking by focusing on what I WILL do.”
This type of mindset is so key in any area of our lives. Focusing on the positive, on things we can control and change, rather than the negative.
So the challenge is simple: eat vegetables at every meal. YEP! EVERY meal. I have been doing the challenge for two days and I love it. I have identified some weak areas when it comes to eating vegetables — mostly lunch time — and I realized how easy it is to have some veggies at every meal.
I would love for you to join me the rest of this month to eat veggies at every meal and revive your mindset about healthy eating. Just be sure to use #30DayVeggie in your post and tag me @princessessandprotein and the original challenge creators @thebodydept and @karenpsiask
Happy Veggie-ing!
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Saved by Smart Planning
Today I took my girls to Sea World with some friends. We loaded up my awesome van–even took my friend and her daughter–and drove down to San Diego. We had an amazing time.
I have learned a lot taking these small trips to fun places with my girls and I feel like I have finally got a good system down for saving time, money, and sanity when doing trips with kids. Here are a few of my tips:
1. Carpool – save on gas, split parking, and enjoy the time with another adult!! (That is something so precious in this stage of life). I LOVE my Toyota Sienna van and we recently put the two big girls in the back row together. They love it, and it easily frees up one of the captain’s chairs and our removable 8th seat for guests if and when we need it.
2. Pack your own food – I treated myself and my friend to a Starbucks for the drive, but other than that purchase I spend $0 today (not including gas). I pack lots of snacks, lunch, more snacks, water, and I ALWAYS bring my own treats for incentives. I like to occasionally reward good behavior with a little treat and they come in handy for unexpected wait times (such as our 1 hour wait today in the hot sun to redeem our passes! yikes!). I also try to pack the kid’s favorite meals and snacks to let this day be all about easy fun. Their favorite snacks are fruit snacks, pirate booty, raisins, freeze dried fruit, and pouches. They love lollipop so I usually throw in a dumb dumb lollipop for them.
3. Along the same lines – Pack your own treats! Like I said, little treats can be great incentives …
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