a colorado camping trip

We weren't planning to do much of a vacation this year (or one at all) after our epic summer last year of Disney World and a cruise.  But then we had some long distance friends ask if we wanted to go camping in Colorado with them.  We almost said yes, and then almost said no, and finally said yes.

And we're so glad we did.

We put the kids in the car at 4am to get on the road.  Our friends had gone the day before so we wanted to get there fast.

There is just something about the view of the mountains after traveling through the flat flat state that we live in. 

I couldn't help but think of these lyrics...

"Mountains bow down and the seas will roar,

at the sound of Your name.

I sing for joy at the work of your hands."

Seeing the mountains with our kids for the first time brought a renewed awe and wonder of His amazing creation.  Although I had been a bit nervous about the "roughness" of this camping trip, as we approached the mountains, I felt a sense of peace to just be smack dab in the middle of all of the beauty.

We had no idea where we'd be camping. We just knew we were headed to the Grandby/Grand Lake area. Our friends picked the spot and we had been told it may not be a campground.  Now, I'd say we are pretty good campers.  All 3 of our kids have camped since babies with us in Winfield for the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival, but we've been in a camper ever since we added children to the mix.  We've tent camped with Taylor and Mason at a local lake.  And I grew up tent camping with my family.  But always in campgrounds.  You know, a bathroom a short walk away, even showers sometimes, water hookups, other people in the vicinity.

So we were a little anxious to find out where we'd actually be for the weekend.

We were given an intersection that our friend would meet us and take us to our spot.

 It was not a campground.  We were pretty much just on the side of a mountain.

Ya know, with black bears on all sides of us.

But it was pure beauty.

I couldn't stop taking pictures.

This was our view from camp.

It was the absolute best that our kids had 2 others kiddos, who they had just met for the first time, to play with the entire time.  Pretty sure they all had the time of their life.  Mason may even tell you it was better than Disney World.

One of my favorite parts of camping is the food.

Oh yeah, that clean eating challenge I'm in?  I'll try to tell you about how I balanced all of that later. 

But for now, I'll just tell you about the yummy chili and cinnamon rolls.

And this harvest skillet dinner which has become one of our go-to camp dinners.

 Mornings consisted of hot chocolate, a skillet full of eggs, sausage and hashbrowns, pancakes and sausage cooked over the fire.

And of course we indulged in the camping must. 

We weren't at camp all that much.  Our days were full of adventure.  But when we were, there were kids constantly exploring, playing in dirt, doing gymnastics on the logs, whittling sticks and tending to the fire.

Gavin is obsessed with this silly Mickey Mouse hat.  We got it at Disney World because Mason lost his sunglasses.  We didn't want the hat, we just wanted the sunglasses that were attached to it.  Mason wouldn't be caught dead in this hat. 

But his brother thinks it's the most awesome hat ever.

 Mason was in his own world getting to poke sticks into the fire and using his knife to whittle.

We slept in 3 layers of clothes and covered up with sleeping bags and extra blankets.

The first night it got down into the 30's.  It was so cold I couldn't move. I laid awake at night worrying so much about the kids getting cold.  But they never woke up once during the night, the entire trip. Awesomeness.

Be ready for picture overload as I show you our adventures next. It's really hard to stop taking pictures when you're in such a beautiful place.

a father's day hike

We decided Father's Day weekend would be a great chance to cross off the hiking path on our summer list.  We packed up a picnic lunch and headed out. 

 This is the first time in awhile that I've got my big camera out.  I missed it.  I need to keep it back out in sight instead of put away in my bag.  I used to use it so much more when it was within reach.

 I guess the kids missed my camera too.

 We came to the creek that runs through the trail and you'd think we had just arrived at Disney World.  They kids were pumped when we told them they could wade in the water.  They could have stayed all day.

Skipping rocks lessons from Dad.

 

 They walked away and said "that was the funnest thing ever!"

It was definitely fun watching them too.  I wish we didn't forget about this hidden little spot all the time.

It was a great, low-key weekend celebrating this amazing daddy and all that he does for us.

Maybe some day one of my children will look like me.

{for those of you who are local, we were the Sand Creek trail at Bethel College}

back in april {taylor's sharing chapel}

Way way back in April, Taylor's first grade class had their day of  Sharing Chapel.  Each grade level gets one month a year to share their talents, quote scripture, and perform for their families and the rest of the elementary classes.  

 

This year, Taylor and her friend Ellie, sang Amy Grant's "Thy Word".

 

 It was seriously precious hearing those two sweet voices singing 

"Thy word, is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path..."

It never fails, I get teary eyed listening to these kids sing praises to the Lord and memorize scripture.

And just like that, first grade is over.  We are enjoying our summer so much!  It feels so good to not be on that strict school year schedule.  But things are about to get b.u.s.y.

Hopefully I'll get my big camera out a bit more this summer and get over this writer's block of not knowing what to blog about.  Because goodness gracious, otherwise my blog is going to turn into a health/fitness blog, and we can't have that can we?  

I kind of want to roll on the ground laughing at that because it's so far from the "normal me" than I can even imagine!  But hey, that's where I am right now.  So thanks for sticking with me as I shared some of my journey.  And thanks to those of you who texted, emailed or left me FB comments/messages of encouragement. I never ever want to come across like I'm saying everyone should do what I'm doing.  No way HOSEA!  Believe me, I sat there and didn't care one iota about this kind of stuff ever before.  But for those who have reached the point that you are ready, wanting, and needing change...I hope that little ole', bad habit, Pepsi drinkin', ranch dressing douser, batter lickin' me, can be an encouragement to you just like others were for me.

And in case you were wondering...I made it. 

5 days of raw foods only.  Fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds.  I didn't starve, I didn't just nibble and snack. I ate more food this week than I have probably ate in 1 week in my entire life.

I never thought I'd do it.  It was more mental than anything.  But I'm learning that I can be more disciplined about food than I ever thought I could be.  And that is going to be a life-changing skill.

 I've never been so excited to wake up and eat eggs or oatmeal.  Heck, I think I'll be having both.

the exercise part {and some thoughts on sugar}

Before I get to the exercise part, I wanted to tell you that day 4 of the 5 day raw challenge is almost over.  I WILL MAKE IT!!  I honestly didn't have high expectations for myself.  I've never in my life ate this many fruits and veggies in one week and when I heard that day 2 was the hardest, I didn't expect to get past that day.  Day 2 definitely WAS the hardest.   I had a detox headache all day long.  I felt queasy, learning that I needed to eat a lot more than I was. It was a looooong and hard day.  But I made it.  And since then, I have felt pretty good.  This is the hardest and most disciplined thing I've ever done with food.  I've had greens for 9 of the 12 meals I've eaten this week.  There were meals I choked down my spinach and kale salad and even today, I couldn't even swallow my smoothie (which was really pretty yummy!), but I didn't give in.  My lifesavers  have been guacamole, salsa, watermelon and cherries.

In the beginning of the week I dreamed of my 2 cheat meals this weekend.  As the weekend gets closer and closer I've thought less and less about steak and cheese fries and more and more about eggs and oatmeal.  Seriously, who am I!?  Changes like this in my mind set makes me believe that anyone can do this. I can totally see how this trains our brains to think differently about food.  I can almost guarantee if I do go crazy with the cheat meals, I'll more than likely pay for it.  I don't want to screw up everything I worked for this week.  

So moving on...

 For the 90 day clean eating challenge, we get daily points for working out for 20 minutes or more.  This part of the challenge alone could have killed me a few months ago. Not that working out for 20 minutes would kill me, but just making a routine of this and figuring out what I could successfully do without late night gym visits again.

Last year (or maybe it was earlier this year) a friend from my hometown posted on Instagram that she was participating in the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge.  I didn't pay too much attention to what it was.  I've never had any luck doing any types of workout routines from home.  But in April, she posted that another challenge was starting.  This time I was in.  And I told a handful of friends about it and they wanted in too.  That's what REALLY helps.  To be able to check in with friends and complain about mountain climbers and burpees.

So I'm now on week 5, or maybe it's 6, of the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge 2.0.  You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and her blog.  And it's FREE!  She'll post her daily video on Facebook, YouTube and you can even sign up through her blog to get it emailed to you.  It alternates between cardio days and strength days and the only equipment you need is a set of dumbbells.  It is so easy to fit a 20 minute workout into my day.  Even if it gets late, I still find myself getting it in before I head to bed.  In just 5 weeks I've noticed changes in my body.  And my hubby has too.  That's always the best when someone else can tell.

 This picture was day 1.  Dave was sick and I made him turn around so he couldn't watch me.  I'm sure I was a bit painful to watch.

My kids love it too.  They get pretty upset if they find out I did it without them. And sometimes Taylor turns it on by herself and leads her brothers.

You can start anytime.  You can pick up on the current day's video, but if I were you, I'd start at the beginning.  Each week changes, and gets progressively tougher.  You can find the entire list of videos here on YouTube.   That way you can start at Day 1 if you want to.

But here's what I'm most excited about.  I used to think that I could overcome my food habits by working out hard.  But that led to some frustration.  I worked out so hard last spring and didn't really get anywhere. I saw some changes. But there wasn't really any weight loss. I got in a good routine of running for awhile, and I hardly saw many changes to my body at all.  But you read it in my last post, that ever since I eliminated a lot of sugar and processed foods from my diet, I have seen the biggest changes to my body.  I am closest to my pre-baby body (but still far away) than I've been in 7 1/2 years.  I am FINALLY convinced (and am about to get even more convinced) that food is where my focus needs to be.  I need to exercise too, but food comes first!  Food will get me to where I want to be. And it was so fun to read this blog post from a friend that's been on this journey for the last year, it will REALLY inspire you!  I am finally convinced that SUGAR is the biggest culprit to all of us moms (and really everyone) who think we will have to live forever with these mommy pooches.  Diets don't last, the shakes and pills get expensive, we workout like crazy and it's still there.

I learned yesterday that in 1900 the average American consumed 10 pounds of sugar a year.
by 2010, the average American consumed 156 pounds of sugar a year, that's the same as 50 teaspoons a day.  Something is obviously wrong here.

This isn't just the chocolate bar you grab, or the pop you order at lunch, or even the gatorade that we are tricked to thinking is healthy, or the dessert you have after dinner. While those are obviously full of sugar, that's the sugar we usually KNOW about.

 But, I've learned there is SO much more.  We consume tons of added sugar into things we don't even realize have sugar in them.  I won't try to explain it all to you, just watch this.
It's everything you grab from your fridge and pantry that comes in packages and bottles, from your ketchup, salad dressings, that "healthy" cereal for breakfast and jar of spaghetti sauce.  Sugar is everywhere. Even in the things with labels that make you think it is a "health food".

When I'm all done with this challenge, I know my eating habits will be forever changed, they already partly are. But when I make the choice to enjoy a cupcake or have ice cream with my family, I want to know that it was the only sugar I ate all day long.  I want to know that I chose that sugar.  I don't want my body to have been fed sugar all week long that I didn't even know about.  That ultimately wreaks havoc on my body.  I want the control in my hands.  Because that will be how I can get the results I want.

Do you have any other good workouts that are free?
I'll finish the BBM challenge while my clean eating challenge is still going, and will need something to continue.  I could always start repeating some weeks, but I'd love to know if there are other awesome things out there.  Or if you are doing BBM too!

raw week.

Okay, so RAW WEEK started today. And yes I was freaking out.  I'm  the gal who needs a nightly plate of nachos.  Or who loves to make brownies or chocolate chip cookies at 10pm at night and indulge with my hubby.  I would add my daily/nightly Pepsi also, but I gave that up in April.

But this is also the gal who is ready to get her body back. And to feel better all around.
If I keep doing what I'm doing, I'll keep getting what I'm getting.  (seems to be something I've been hearing a lot of lately).

So the deal is that we attempt a 5 day raw challenge.  If at any point we want to stop the raw challenge, we then just begin the clean eating challenge.  I honestly cannot believe I'm really doing this.

So this week it's veggies, fruits, more veggies, raw nuts, and more veggies. 

I'm not really sure how this "non" veggie girl is going to do.

Why raw??  Lots of reasons...

It will detox my body, get a kickstart on weight loss, get my body ready to DO THIS, help me start to develop a taste and desire for veggies, and give me a jumpstart on having energy and feeling good.
And now that I've completed day 1, I'm realizing that it is going to make clean eating seem like a breeze!!!

I chopped tons of stuff on Sunday.  Which made it so much easier to have things ready fast for smoothies, salads and snacks.

So today's menu was pretty simple:

Smoothie for breakfast:  spinach, kale, banana, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, carrot, chia seeds and ice cubes.

Snack: Carrot and watermelon

Lunch:  Well, lunch is when things turned bad...

 It looks good, I know.  But I tried the mixed power greens (mizuna, chard, kale, spinach).  There was something in there I didn't like at all.  I doused it with salsa, which I think will be my saving grace this week for my salads. But I had to swallow almost every bite with water.  Tomorrow I think I'll stick with spinach and kale.
I used this recipe for the salsa.  The Gracious Pantry is the best place I've found to get any clean eating recipes.

Snack: handful of raw nuts and cherries.

Dinner:  Same smoothie as breakfast just BIGGER, but this time I did the power greens in it, and I didn't taste them at all!

Plus I made sure to get all my water down (half my body weight in ounces) and got my workout in.

What are my thoughts on day 1?
It was doable.  I felt full most of the day. I had a few people that made comments about me being hungry all day, but I was surprisingly full.  But I ate big servings.  Because when you're eating fruits and veggies, you can!  I will save the power greens for smoothies only, and tomorrow I'll be dousing my salad with guacamole also.  I had greens for every meal.  First time in my lifetime.  It's a mental game.  So much of this is training my brain and thinking of food as medicine, what my body NEEDS, not what my body wants. 

To end a day knowing that I put nothing but good stuff in my body feels pretty good.

 I have no clue how long I'll make it.

Wednesday I'm hosting a lunch and playdate for a bunch of my Premier girls, I will be making them yummy ham and cheese sliders.  I've had this planned long before I knew this would be raw week.  So yeah, if I make it past Wednesday, it will be a miracle.

I was smart today.  I put together roast, carrots and potatoes for my family in the crockpot last night so I don't have to prepare a dinner tonight while I'm trying to stick to my raws.  Now if only I can be on top of things the rest of the week.  Then we'll all get on the same menu for the most part.


I've had a lot of people ask me if this will be a one time challenge or if it will be offered again.  YES! It will be offered again.  Probably one in the fall and then again in the winter.  So if you're thinking it's something you want to do, just watch for announcements, I'll be sure to let you know. And start changing some habits now, it will make it much easier! The challenge is based out of Ohio/Indiana, but there are teams from a handful of different states. There is tons of support and learning involved in the challenge, plus coaches that can answer all of our questions and help us on this journey. We aren't given a meal plan but are given ideas.  We are being taught how to just eat clean.  Buy whole foods and not processed.  A good starting point for me was just figuring out how I could take our normal meals and make them clean.  I would never realistically be able to follow someone else's meal plan/recipes for the long haul.  This is about learning how to do this for more than just a few weeks or months.  If you're at all interested in the next challenge, let me know and I'll start a list of people who want to know when the next challenge starts and try hard to make sure you know about it.

I won't continue to post daily about this challenge, I know that would annoy some of you greatly.
But I will try to update you from time to time.   I have one more post about something else I'm doing for my health that I'll tell you about in the next few days.

Bring on Day 2 of raw.

some changes

So I wanted to tell you about some changes that I'm making to get healthier.  Mostly to hold myself accountable.  But also because I'm getting a lot of questions and I figured I could explain things better here.  And, because I know that there are probably some of you out there that are exactly where I was, stuck in your ways and not caring too much about changing habits.   I'm not trying to persuade you to change. I just want to say that I was right there.

When it came to anything health and food related, I would say I was just simply uneducated and didn't care all that much to be educated. I didn't care what I was eating, as long as it tasted good.  I do like to workout.  But I can count on one hand the number of months I've consistently worked out in the last 10 years. I got in a 3-4 month routine of going to the gym last year, and I felt AMAZING and saw some changes in my body.  But 1-2 hours at the gym every night just wasn't feasible to continue for the long haul.  The phase wore off.  That workout phase was the first time since college I had done much, other than train for 3 weeks one time for a 5K.  And with that phase, for the first time I actually wanted to eat better.  I was working hard to look decent in my swim suit for our 2 vacations last year.  And when I work out, I am motivated to eat the right foods.  The minute I stopped working out, I started eating crap again.

I wasn't really finding anything that would work for me, exercise or diet, for more than a short period.  Everything always wore off eventually. I'm guessing I'm not alone in that. 

This year started a new journey to become healthier.  At the beginning of the year I attended an essential oils and clean eating class.  Both of which left an impact on me and nudged me into changes.  Before this, I hadn't really heard the term "clean eating" all that much.  Mostly because I didn't care.  I had my stubborn opinions about food.  But to put it simply, this is what has stuck with me...
"80% of the way we feel has to do with the food that we eat".

Hmmm??  Well I know I don't feel the best most of the time.  I don't ever feel like I have much energy. I seem to get sick pretty easily.  And we just finished the worst winter ever with sickness in our home.  Now, I realize that could be our stage of life.  Little kids who are in nurseries and preschool classes, and who bring all the yucky germs home.  I realize it may not all be in my control and that we could take every precaution possible and still get sick.  But, I am willing to do what I can with what is in my control.  And then ultimately, I'm ready to not only feel better, but also feel better about myself.  It's no fun at all feeling like a frumpy mom, trying to hide her body all the time because of baby weight that I've been dragging around for several years.  And let's be real...wearing a spanx cami every single day of my life is just no fun.  And when it's 100 degrees outside, it's pretty much miserable.

So here's the deal on clean eating...
Everyone you talk to may give a different explanation. Some forms of it are pretty extreme, and cut out things like dairy and meat completely. And clean eating is not the same as paleo.  Some versions include only eating fresh picked produce (which means you better have the ability to grow all your own food).  I'm totally fine buying my food at the store.

What I like about clean eating is that to an extent, you make up the rules that work for you and you are comfortable with, but the basics are always the same.  And it's not a crash diet.  And I don't want a diet that makes grocery shopping impossible.  I pretty much never leave this town to get groceries, so I need to be able to get everything here locally, and I'm finding that to be completely doable.  It's not meant to be something you just do for a short time.  It's more about a lifestyle change than a diet.  That's great for me.  I don't want a diet that I end up quitting after a month or so and then go straight back to where I was. 
Based on my cooking, grocery shopping and eating habits, I was in need of a lifestyle change.

I don't feel like I have to commit to "all clean, all the time".  I'm not going to stress out on holidays and times I'm out with friends.  And realistically, even at home, things are not going to be 100% clean.  But what I've noticed already, in the last 6 months is that I think differently about food.  When I'm eating the yucky stuff, but the oh so good stuff, I think about it.  I know it's not good for me, I know I can't fall into a habit of it.  These are not things I used to think about.  When I grocery shop I automatically read every label.  I can't even help it anymore. I don't care about the nutritional facts.  I just care about what's in my food.  If the list is long, with a ton of things that I can't even pronounce, I know it's overly processed and full of things I don't need nor want in my body, or my kids' bodies.
Once I started educating myself and actually learned what that extra stuff in our foods does to us, it was hard to ignore it.  It’s scary to look at an ingredient list and realize you wouldn’t want to breathe in or touch most of the chemicals listed.

Clean eating for us is eating whole foods as close to their natural state as possible. It's stopping myself from grabbing all the convenience foods and just making things myself when I can (like salad dressings, sauces, using my own seasonings, etc).  It's been about changing some of the things we used on a regular basis to the cleaner version. And about not eating out so much. They aren't changes that are just going to last a short time, they are changes that will continue.  I really felt like this was a good explanation for me...

So Monday I'm starting a 90 day clean eating challenge.  I'm participating in the challenge with about 200 other people, all placed on teams for accountability and support from a handful of different states.  The challenge includes coaches available to answer questions and help us learn how to do this, including a doctor specializing in natural and functional medicine and clinical nutrition, clean eating classes, and a community of support to help us keep going.

I was scared to commit, I really was.  And I almost didn't do it. 90 days is a long time.  It would have been a no brainer had it been 30 days.  But what I realized is that 90 days will help change habits, and not just pick up changes that will last a month and then fall back into old routine.  90 days is enough time to see huge changes to overall health, when 30 days is about the length of time someone may barely begin to see changes.  After 90 days, I will know how awful I felt before.  It will give me the chance to 100% prove to myself how food affects my body and the way I feel.  That's what I need.  I need the proof.   Weight loss isn't the #1 goal with clean eating.  But those that have been a part of the challenge before have definitely dropped major poundage.

I'm not going into this cold turkey.  There is actually no way I would be able to do that.  We've been eating much much cleaner since January.  And guess what!?!  If we want to simply make this about weight loss (which it is actually way more than that), I'll tell you that I am about 8 pounds lighter than I have been for years.  Last year, even when I was working out, my body changed, which was great, but the pounds didn't seem to go anywhere. I completely contribute the number on the scale right now to the changes I've made in my food since the new year.  No calorie counting, no crash diet.  Just eating cleaner.  And that's without adding the workouts in.  I've only started working out again in the last 5 weeks.  So I'm super pumped to see where I can get when I have both the food and the exercise going for me!

 So I've had about 6 months to baby step into this.  Baby steps is what I need.  We slowly switched our white rice and pasta for brown.  We slowly stopped using the cheap maple syrup and brown sugar in our oatmeal and switched to honey or real maple syrup or no sweetener at all. We slowly stopped opening the cupboard to look for snacks, and instead are learning to grab fruit and other healthier snack options. We slowly began putting more veggies on our plates. I am NOT a veggie eater, so this has been a challenge.  I stopped drinking pop at Easter and hardly even think about it anymore.  And we very very slowly transitioned off cereal (even the "healthy" stuff is full of sugar), something I honestly didn't think my kids could do.  Next question everyone asks...what in the world do your kids eat for breakfast then?  We eat eggs, oatmeal and smoothies.  That's pretty much it.  On weekends, every once in a while I'll make whole wheat pancakes.  I would have said you were crazy to think I could get my kids off cereal, they ate it every morning and pretty much every night for a bedtime snack.  But they did it!  And it's really been so neat to watch them learn to make better food choices and take pride in the choices they make.

I am the only one in my family 100% committed to the 90 day challenge.  I know there are going to be times I'm just not going to be able to keep it clean for everyone all the time.  But because we've been working to this point anyway, they know they challenge is coming, they know they will be participating too, and they are all for it. They just begged to have more cheats than the 2 cheat meals I get each week.

We'll have several trips during this challenge and I just told myself I'm not going to stress.  If I don't have good point days during those trips, it's ok.  But getting back on track when I get home is what will matter.  I'll fail some days I'm sure.  But my goal is to start each new day fresh, do better than I did the day before.  This if for the long-haul, not just something trendy and short-lived.
After the challenge is over, I know I won't be as hard core as I will have been for the challenge.  We need cheat meals, treats, even cheat weeks. But I have a feeling after experiencing the results of eating clean, it will be hard to go back.

It's crazy the responses I've gotten already as I've approached this challenge.  Some people think it's crazy.  They roll their eyes. But that's okay.  I probably would have been one of them a year ago.  Some people don't get it, don't understand the whys.  That would have been me too.   Some people automatically define it as impossible.  I would have felt the same way had I not taken the last 6 months to slowly get us here.  And some have just wondered why not just eat clean on my own, why participate on a team, in a challenge.  I have been mostly eating clean on my own for the last 6 months.  But for me, the team, the points, the support, the extra education, and motivation of a challenge is what will help me go ALL IN.  And going ALL IN means I'll get to experience all of the results that I don't necessarily experience when I'm just "mostly" eating clean.

I want to know what feeling good really feels like.  It seems like we just learn to cope with the way we feel sometimes.  We think it's normal.  We don't realize how low on energy we are until we experience what energy really feels like.  We don't realize how bogged down our immune systems are until we strengthen it.  And we don't realize how many health issues we deal with on a regular basis that are completely connected to the foods we eat.  I'm ready to care about it all, and I'm ready to make changes.

 I'm ready.  I'm nervous, but I'm ready.  I have friends doing it along, which I know will help so much!
Week one starts off with a 5 day "raw" challenge.  I'll tell you more about that soon.
If you have questions, feel free to leave them for me!

The countdown is on...3 days to go.

some things never change.

 I snapped this picture the other day and the second I looked at it, I just knew I had taken this same shot before. 

May 13, 2014

So I went searching for it.

Aug. 13, 2013

A few things have changed for sure, but some things never will...

 Drubers will always be one of their favorite places, and this will always be one of their favorite spots.  (except for the spot with Papa and all his buddies).