Loose weight, Get Healthy and Feed the Hungry!

I know I know you have been missing me!  OK, just joking you have probably been just fine without me.  I haven't been blogging as much this last week as I have been working on starting up my natural health consulting business again.  


For those of you who don't know I have a Masters Degree in the Science of Natural Health, and am passionate about healthy living!  I love good food and making it with whole foods that bring healing and health.  As a mom of 4 little ones (7,5,3, & 2) I work hard at incorporating whole foods, natural living choices and herbology into our lives on a daily basis.  I am also passionate about Jesus, missions,orphans, and the hungry and am hatching a plan to make the first month of my business work to feed this hungry family you see below !

.I am very excited to be getting back into consulting and have been working all the details out.  Now here comes the fun part for you guys..


I am planning on setting up some online skype and phone consulting options so those of you who want to get on top of your health or weight can still participate no matter where you live!  


I plan to focus on weight loss, whole foods, sports nutrition, and holistic lifestyle changes.  While I am sorting out all the details PLEASE let me know if any of you would be interested and what price ranges and subjects interest you.  Since I have 4 small kiddos, and homeschool I am wanting to focus in on providing services for the topics mentioned above as well as offering whole foods cooking classes in your home if you live in Trinidad Colorado!  Now if you are not in my area I will be setting up a whole foods online or phone consulting plan to help you move into whole foods to better your families lives!


The best part is that for the ENTIRE whole first month of business ALL proceeds will go straight to helping support this family in a way that helps them eat and become self sustaining! 

Their photo is currently hanging on a poster we made in our hallway with a envelope for spontaneous giving and as a reminder to pray for them.  We give through an organization called F.O.V.C that is very faithful with the funds they receive and because it is run mainly by volunteers there is VERY VERY little overhead.  I chose to do this because we support the baby that is in this photo on a monthly basis, but want to do more for the rest of the family even though our monthly income is small and variable.  We wanted to be able to support the whole family above from Ethiopia for a year, so that is our goal! I want to do enough consults the first month and enough whole food cooking classes to support them.  After that I plan to give 10% of all my income to hunger projects like this once this family is fully funded for the year.

So pipe up... Let me know what you think... What could I help you with?  Let me help you to help them!


Pinning this on Pinterest, shareing on facebook, and sending to friends will help too!  Thanks!  I really look forward to hearing from you all in the comments, by email, and through facebook!

Easy to Follow Strength Training Guide for Women

I love getting more bang for my buck!  Whether it is a dinner that doubles as a whole new meal the next night with a few tweaks, or a reversible dress I love getting more for less!  In working out I feel the same.  If I can get a better workout in less time then I am all for it!  I love weight lifting for that reason.  When you lift weights you burn calories, build muscles, and raise your heart rate all at the same time.  This easy to follow guide gives you a great overview for working out the major muscle groups.  A good rule of thumb is to use weights that weigh enough to fatigue your muscles by the 8th-12th rep. Then do 3 sets of 8-12 reps.  Give your muscles a day of rest in between strenuous workouts.  This is when the muscle repairs itself and builds strength.  If you plan to workout every day then alternate muscle groups.  For instance work upper body then lower body the following day to allow your muscles to rest.  So print this out, grab 20 minutes and work those muscles!  You will feel it!

Photo from  believe-in-your-beauty.tumblr

10 Workouts to Tone Your Trouble Zones!

It is that time again.. Summer is almost here and you have to working out now if you want to be feeling good in your shorts, suits and tanks!  So here are a few workouts to knock out muffin top, back fat, bulging butts, and other trouble spots.  Read on and get after it!

1) Top 10 exercises to Train Your Trouble Zones!

Need to get rid of saddlebags, arm flab, or a muffin top? Use these moves to fight flab at home—and win! Get this great workout by Shape magazine HERE.

2) 7 Quirky Moves for Flatter Abs

"Conventional ab exercises get results—but let’s face it, they’re boring as heck. To help you rock a flat belly in a bikini (or anytime of the year), we found easy, fun ways to tone your belly at the office, while cooking—even at the beach!" Get the workout HERE.

3) Fit in 6 minutes- Arm sculptor.  

Found on PInterest and I could not source it

4) So Long Spill Over Spots! Trouble Spot Toning Workout.

Want to blast off back fat, bra rolls, muffin tops, and more? These targeted 5-minute 

workouts will have you sleek and toned in just 2 weeks.  

Click here for Prevention Magazines trouble spot toning workout.

5)  Dr Oz's "Saddle Bag Workout"

Watch the simple to follow "Saddle Bag Workout" by Dr. Oz for 4 easy moves to get rid of saddlebags.

6)  15 Minute Bye-Bye Arm Jiggle Workout

This was posted on Pinterest and there was no source available (even after digging around).

7)  10 Minute Workout- Hips, Hips, Away!

"This express workout targets a favorite trouble zone: your hips. Do this 10-minute workout developed by Marcus Minier, exercise physiologist at The Gym in New York City, three times a week along with five days of cardio, and we guarantee that you'll have the slimmer hips you deserve in no time!" Get this workout from Fitness Magazine Here.

8)  Dr. Oz's Fat Butt- Busting Workout

If you want a good butt workout I would do multiples of these exercises above in one workout for a while to see results much faster than one exercise a day.

9)Flat Abs Fast-The Core Strengthening Workout

These belly-flattening exercises work your core from the front, sides, and back for strong, sculpted abs.

Get the whole workout from Fitness Magazine HERE.

10)  Bikini Body 8 Week Program

Ok so if the other workouts were not hard core enough this may be the workout for you! I checked it out and bikini wearer or not this WILL shape you up! Check it out here.

Hope you found some workouts that will help.  Have a favorite you want to share?  Just post it in the comments.  I love hearing from you guys!

EASY Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas Step by Step

I enjoy eating delicious healthy homemade food which necessitates learning how to cook healtthy homeade food.  While I really don't mind cooking and can quite enjoy it at the right moments. However, I just don't seem to have a lot of time with 4 small children aged 1-7, homeschool, and housekeeping.   So I was excited to find a great recipe on budget bytes for easy homemade tortillas.  I love food...and homemade is always better and if it is fast and easy too I am that much happier! 

 I found my inspiration recipe here from Budget Bytes. I love this blog with all the easy photo tutorials of recipes with all the price breakdowns and yummy food.  She definitely puts gourmet, delicious food within reach of even the poorest average Joe!  I changed up her tortilla recipe because I wanted to get rid of the white flour and didn't mind adding a little more oil to keep it soft and moist while it became 100% whole wheat.  So here is the super easy recipe. 

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp olive oil or melted coconut oil

3/4-1 cup warm water  (depending on the moisture content of the flour you use)

Mix your dry ingredients together till well blended.  Next combine your melted coconut oil (read here on the health benefits of coconut oil) or olive oil and warm water.  Gradually add the liquid in a slow steady stream to your dry ingredients.  Knead it all together till you have a ball and continue kneading once it has come together for about 1 minute.  Now let it rest covered with at damp towel for about 10 minutes.  

Split the dough up into 12 even pieces, and roll them into small balls.  The easiest way to get them divided up evenly is to start by breaking the dough up into 4 equal pieces and then dividing each of those chunks up into 3 even pieces leaving you with 12 small balls. Once they have been shaped into balls let them rest for 10 more minutes.

 You will most likely look at those small balls of dough thinking they are way too small to make 6" tortillas.  However, as you continue to roll them out they will stretch out to the right size.  In order to get the elasticity needed be sure not to forget either of the rest periods mentioned in the directions.  They should be about the thickness of poster board according to Budget Bytes.

 Now just throw on a hot dry skillet over medium heat and watch the magic happen!

 Once the bubbles start to form  flip them over and cook until both sides are done.

You will soon have  a delicious stack of homemade tortillas that taste fantastic and are completely healthy! Be sure not to cook them too long or they will become brittle as opposed to soft.

You can store them in a zip lock bag in the fridge.  We like to throw them in the toaster to warm them up and they make GREAT open faced peanut butter sandwiches, delicious bean or breakfast burritos,  as a stand alone snack with butter or coconut oil on them and a touch of honey and cinnamon.... There are endless possibilities.  One of my favorite things about them is that you can make them in no time flat.  No more dependence on store bought bread or tortillas.  You can save a bundle by cooking them up yourself!  Let me know what you think.

Easter and The "Party Dress" with photos and tutorial link

We had a great Easter today.  After church this morning we spent the afternoon at a close friends house eating together and watching the kids hunt for eggs.  What a blast! 

 I wanted to make the girls Easter dress' this year as I haven't really made much  clothing in the past, but I do love to sew.  I am really trying to learn more about sewing clothing as in the past I have mainly made home decor projects, baby items, and other crafts, but haven't really gotten into sewing a lot of clothing.  I am hoping to change that and thought this would be a good start.  So before this Easter I was searching high and low to find great Easter or spring dress' to sew for my two girls (we have 4 kids, 2 boys and two girls). I created a whole post on all the awesome options I found out there for Spring dress tutorials with free patterns.   After looking them all over I chose "The Party Dress" from The Cottage Home. I love this blog there are so many free patterns and great tutorials.  I love how the dress' turned out!   I made Bella my soon to be 3 yr old the same dress as Dahlia my 5 yr old.  I just used different fabrics.  The pattern and tutorial was easy to use and that fact that it was FREE was great as well.

 Bella wasn't into the photo taking and was ready for a nap so I took what pictures I could as quick as I could!.

 I love the sweet little covered buttons and big bows!

 The sashes and big bows as well as attention to detail like covered buttons and lining are what made these dress' so special in my opinion.

They absolutely loved their dress'!  Can you tell? Bella wasn't so into modeling the dress for photos, but Dahlia was loving it!  I made the hair clips as well and will share a tutorial on that later.

 Here are some shots of the dress in action!

So in case you missed it I got the FREE pattern and tutorial HERE at The Cottage Home who I want to thank once again  for sharing this amazing dress pattern with us.

I know tons of pictures of the girls and hardly any of the boys but they were too busy running around and getting dirty!  Happy Easter!

Homeschool and preschool Easter freebies and ideas for the week before Easter!

Every season and holiday holds exciting new options for fun things to study with your kids in homeschool.  With
Easter just around the corner I wanted to share these links to give you some fun ideas for homeschool this week.

Veggie Tales creator's blog "What is in the Bible" series for Easter week "What is Holy Week".
A great explanation of all the church history that goes with this week.  A great way to focus on Christ this Easter season and learn Biblical history.

Make an Easter lent garden with your kiddos as a visual parable.  You complete different parts on the corresponding days of Holy Week.  It has clear detailed directions.  This one is from an EXCELLENT blog called A Holy Experience written by a homeschool mama who wrote the book called One Thousand Gifts an amazing book on gratitude.

You can find a ton of Easter and Spring printables for tots here at 1plus1plus1equals1. It is GREAT homeschool blog with tons of printables, great ideas, and inspiration.

Here are some great learning activities and ideas from  the blog We are That Family to make sure Easter is celebrated for what it is...a celebration of Christ's Resurrection. Teaching our kids the reason we celebrate is a great way to spend your homeschool day.

Great printable worksheets for Easter from Mama's Learning Corner that work for pre K to 2nd grade.

This is an Easter learning roundup that includes crafts, worksheets, games, etc... from My Delicious Ambiguity.  She has a lot of fun things on her blog so you will have to check it out.

Two Teaching Mommies has a great lesson plan with a ton of free printables to go with it.  There is a printable memory verse with picture, worksheets, number maze, clip cards for math, etc... Hope you have some fun with it!

Two Teaching Mommies has created a 12 days of Easter lesson plan as well that coincides with  resurrection eggs for a 12 day lesson on Easter for your kiddos.  What a fun way to go through the meaning of Easter with your little ones and have them really get it.  They recommend combining Days 5-9 have been combined for those that are younger and will find the topic of Christs suffering too much to spread out over those days.  So you still have time to get this lesson done before Easter!

I hope this has helped you get a few new ideas for the week before Easter, so you and your kids can enjoy the deeper meaning of Easter and learn at the same time.