Austin 3.5 years old!

What on earth is going on? How did this baby go from this….

to 3.5 years old?

Austin is kind, caring, smart, funny, imaginative and has the most contagious laugh. His current likes are dinosaurs, transformers rescue bots, paw patrol, puzzles and books. He is still a super picky eater- he would eat snacks all day and no meals ever, if he had his way. He is sleeping SO much better...finally. We are in the midst of dropping his nap but it depends on the day! He is 98% potty trained. He loves having his friends over or playing with neighbors outside and loves spending time with his cousins. 

We are so blessed by him and his sense of humor. The full conversations we can hold with him and learning from him is amazing. 

I am so lucky to be his mom. 

-STATS-

Height: not sure

Weight: 35lbs

Shoe: Little boy 9/10

Clothes: 3T/4T

-LIKES-

Playing with Daddy

Helping feed Ghost

Playing with friends and neighbors

Transformers, Paw Patrol and Dinosaurs

Playing chase with McKenna

Being outside (when it is warm)

-DISLIKES-

Eating full meals and vegetables 

Being woken up

Sun in his eyes

 

 

Can I educate you?

If you're like me you want to do what is best for your body, want to provide healthy options for your kids and want to feel good. Being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle has always been super important to me BUT I have just been scratching the surface! 

In the past few months, I have found myself reading more and more about natural healing and living. I am questioning things that I never had even thought about in the past. Finding answers and yet, not knowing where to begin to make the changes. 

Have you heard of Candida Yeast? No, it isn't a way to make wheat bread and it isn't baking yeast. Candida yeast is a fungus that we carry in our body and it is needed in small amounts. However, given the proper environment it can multiply out of control.

More commonly known candida infections are thrush, vaginal yeast infections and diaper rash. BUT what happens when the candida in our belly is given an environment to multiply and take over??

CANDIDA YEAST OVERGROWTH

What causes this?
The healthy or ‘good’ bacteria in your gut typically keeps your Candida levels in check. However, the Candida population can get out of hand if a round of antibiotics kill too many of those friendly bacteria, you have a diet high in refined carbohydrates and sugar (which feed the yeast), high alcohol intake, are taking oral contraceptives, or any number of other factors including a high-stress lifestyle. Even a diet high in beneficial fermented foods like Kombucha, sauerkraut, and pickles, can feed Candida causing an overgrowth.

Here are some symptoms...

Let me say this...I am ALL for modern medicine. I use it when needed and understand the time and place. However, it seems to me most docs treat the symptoms so we feel better for a time being, but not the root cause. Getting to the root cause of issues like this takes time and intentional effort! 

So NOW what? Do you see symptoms that you struggle with? I sure did!   So what to do? 

Changing your diet can help tremendous. Eating foods that don't add to the candida growth and repopulating your gut with good bacterias.  (Candida Diet)

Plexus can also help. The entire premise of the products is to heal the gut. The unique blend of the Slim, Biocleanse and ProBio5 (Triplex) is geared to weed your gut of the bad, seed your gut with healthy good bacterias, feed those bacterias and protect! The side effects of healing the gut are all those symptoms above start to go away. It isn't a miracle...it is the way God designed our bodies to work!

Join me and get a healthy gut in 2018!

Information found:
Here and Here 

This Home- Organize

I mentioned in a previous post that I am on a mission to organize my home. Our storage room in our basement is overflowing. We have stuff stored in our garage and every which where in between. So, I am working slowly. I showed you our kitchen junk drawer a while ago and now I am showing you my work space. 

I spent about an hour going through and filing all the paperwork I had been collecting, going through each drawer, cleaning and organizing my work space so I have a clean space to focus. 

BEFORE

Paperwork!

AFTER

My collection of fun pens.

I can't say it lasted like this for that long. Life happens and things get put down. Having the time to get back to them and put them away is the challenge. I am trying to follow the "one touch rule"- I can't recall where I heard about it but it makes total sense. Just put it away in one touch. Don't put it down or somewhere it doesn't belong....put.it.away.

Making sure everything has a place and a home so that it can all be cleaned up allows me to free space in my brain to deal with other things. So getting the house organized and in order is one of my goals for early 2018. I will keep you updated. :) 

12 weeks with Plexus!

I can't believe it has been 12 weeks already. It feels like a so long ago and yesterday all at once. 

Months and months ago I felt a tug to get myself back into the health and fitness field. I wasn't sure what that meant but I knew I wanted to do something while I am home with the kids. So I explored blogging and tried to figure out how to monetize my blog...well, it would have taken years! So I asked questions about teaching fitness classes but found that I'd have to spend hundreds to get certified and wasn't guaranteed a job- we didn't have money to gamble like that. 

So I prayed and my heart slowly changed. You see, I had said NEVER WILL I EVER do a marketing company. I judged and wasn't educated. I didn't want to annoy others or sell to family/friends. So I knew if my heart was going to be in the right spot, I'd have to do some hearty research. I also knew we couldn't invest much because we didn't have it. 

Enter Plexus. I had two friends from separate areas of my life posting about it. I knew NOTHING but my heart said to listen. So, I asked questions, listened and learned. I learned about gut health - which was some on my radar due to McKenna's constipation issues. I knew probiotics worked (I also knew there were many to chose from). I asked about the business and compensation plan. I asked about the investment amount. 

I was BLOWN away. I went home and said to Dan, "this is the one we have to do! This may be the real deal, and if it isn't we can get our money back!" 

I can't stop. I don't want to stop... 12 weeks later..the products helped me clear the post-pregnancy fog I have been living in, they helped me not rely on coffee and have energy to workout everyday! They helped me lose inches and pounds and to sleep soundly. The helped my moods and decreased my sugar cravings to almost none (I still like chocolate and coffee, don't get me wrong)!! 

The business is one in a million. In less then 3 months I have been able to build a small but growing team. I have happy customers who feel better and have energy or are just starting to see results. It has covered my and dans supplements plus vitamins for our kids! It also has allowed me to give to others this Christmas season and to pay some bills down! These guys in the picture below are why I do this!

The experience in 12 weeks has been so incredible that I can't seem to handle what a year down the road may look like. I pray daily that since God opened these doors that he would bring the right people in. He would allow someone who is silently struggling to read a post and find hope. Someone who needs a little help financially to see a way. Or someone who just wants to feel better to know it is an option!  

Please continue to follow me. Or ask me questions. Or join me. You honestly have nothing at all to lose and maybe SO much to gain! 

Thursday Thoughts

I have been working very slowing at organizing every drawer, every closet and each space in my home. We have so much nonsense that has accumulated and the clutter makes me feel overwhelmed. From the bins of kids clothes, to the bins of mommy's clothes in pre-baby, maternity, immediate post baby and post, post baby. :) The toys...ALL THE TOYS. The junk drawer(s). The closets. Under all the sinks! You get the idea.

So here is what I worked on recently...our kitchen junk drawer.

BEFORE

AFTER

Makes me feel much better now when I open this drawer and can actually see what I am looking for. On to the next area in desperate need of organization.

Monday I took Austin up to the hospital for his eye check up post surgery. His eyes are doing fabulous. I am thrilled with our doctor and so excited to continue helping him! Glasses are still needed but his eyes are not crossing at all anymore (praise!).

So the experience was a new one for me...you see, McKenna threw the most monumental tantrum in the hospital lobby. She got upset about the muffin I bought them to share. She wailed. She flung her body to the ground and she screamed. Oh, so loud. (Austin was NEVER like this, hence, the new realm of parenting). She got muffin all over the place and she unleashed her new talent of the ability to make all her bones and muscles go to jello. I struggled to pick her up, to get her in the stroller and to get out of there as fast as I could. Embarrassing. To think...all because I broke the muffin in half to share between them. (Dear Lord, please help me when she enters puberty.)

The hospital story continues to after his appointment, I had walked the uphill football field out to the visitor parking lot and had loaded up the stroller and McKenna in to her carseat when Austin mutters, "I have to go poop". (SERIOUSLY!) Picture this...mom of 2, double stroller, backpack diaper bag bouncing on my back, running in boots the 100+ yards back into the hospital lobby (scene of the tantrum), praying no one is in the only stall large enough for my stroller, telling him to hold it.

By the grace of God, we made it without an accident. To say I was proud of him is an understatement. I always have clothes to change if needed, but it would have just been adding insult to injury.

Doing a giveaway for a 7 Day Slim Challenge! I mean it is FREE. So pop over to my Facebook and comment on my video & maybe you'll win. Then you can see why I love it so much!