Creating a Healthy Mind and Body

Great News! You can shop healthy, and on a budget!


I just bought a ridiculous amount of groceries, including 5.50$ organic milk, raspberries, 2lbs of spring mix lettuce (which is a gigantic amount considering its loose leaf-huge bucket), 4 grapefruit, eggs, bread,and a few bags full of groceries, all healthy, for only 30$. I KNOW RIGHT?! Ok, maybe you have to be here and see it, but trust me, it's pretty awesome.


If you havn't heard, Trevor and I are on a quest to be healthy. Although I'm more strict about what I eat, we both have been making an effort to eat healthy, which for us means more veggies and fruit, healthy protiens, and fiber. Trev is amazing at drinking water, I on the other hand...am working on it. I have had some questions about my meat eating, and for those, I'll clarify a bit. I am not a vegetarian, but I will only eat meat that I am aware of how it was treated both before, and after killing. Many many slaughter houses treat animals cruelly, and contaminate their product after killing. I personally don't want to put anything in my body from these companies after reading first hand accounts from people who have worked in commercial slaughter houses. It's awful, and not nearly as healthy as meat you can get from other sources (such as organic or local farmers) or if you hunt, then from your own labor. It's kinda the same with milk, now Trevor and I drink organic milk. It's expensive, but the taste is absolutely delicious and fresh. I don't think that drinking milk from commercial brands where the food being fed to the cows is probably not healthy and/or covered in pesticides and ferilizers, what the cow eats translates into the milk and also dont treat the cows humanely, and therefore the milk is lower quality. Anyways, thats my spiel, don't have to agree, but that's me.

Also, Trev and I have signed up, and now regularly attend a YMCA gym near our house. I am training to do a half marathon next summer, and Trev is working out and gaining muscle. I have started to see the differences in our bodies, and I'm happy that we can both prioritize being healthy (and hey, who doesn't want to look healthy and attractive?). For me, it helps to keep motivated when I think that my body is not my own, but it's a body that God blessed me with, and that I want honor Him with. I think that when we eat healthy, and work out, it honors God, and shows that we are good caretakers to the body He has given us.


There are a lot of reasons to be healthy, and right now I'm feeling the effects from our efforts and am really excited to see how it continues to effect us. Well, that's my 2 cents for today, everybody stay warm and safe with the coming snow!

Beginning of Fall...

Ah, the magical season where leaves turn into shades of amber and crimson, where mornings are crisp, and evenings filled with blankets and hot drinks. Fall is my absolute favorite season! Trevor has us stocked on apple tree wood for our fires, we have started winterizing, and we're getting ready for the holiday season. I won't lie, I have plans to put up christmas lights soon...(just because I don't wanna do it when my fingers will freeze). 

Trevor and I also have plans to have family pictures done. I love the colors of fall, so I'm pretty excited to get some prof. pictures done outside (by the same guy who did our wedding, he's awesome). So be expecting a picture of us within a month or so!

For those who havn't heard, (or those who have) I have made the decision to refrain from eating meat, that hasn't been ethically treated and slaughtered. It's been tough the last couple weeks, but after watching If Slaughter Houses had Glass Walls, Everyone Would be A Vegetarian, I just can't bring myself to eat anything commercially grown/processed. I just don't trust anything I havn't investigated anymore. For Trevor, I imagine it's been difficult because I tend to make more vegetarian meals now, but I still sneak in a turkeyloaf now and again for him, and he does adore salad like me. BUT, my wonderful husband has...wait for it...SHOT HIS VERY FIRST DEER!

Isn't he awesome!?

Meat is back on the table! Or should I say Venison is now on the table! So now we have a deer that lived happily and naturally, and died quick and painless. I'm pretty happy, Trevor is ecstatic. I'm hoping the hunting season will keep us pretty stocked on meat that I can actually eat.

Our days are still filled with school and work, but two or three times a week, I get to go to a boarding stable, and go horseback riding. It's an absolutely amazing feeling to be able to do something I'm passionate about, and I love being able to just go the stable, tack up, and ride. I have started groundwork with an abused horse, and he is beautiful and so willing to please. I'm building trust so that one day he will be able to have his feet handled, and to be bridled. I hope to get a video of lunging him so you can see how pretty he is!

Well that's the update for now, for those in the Tri, we hope to see you soon when we visit for our neices birthday!





Oh Dave Ramsey, you tease you!

For anyone who has taken the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class (from here on on reffered to as "FPU" [I have cleverly decided to pronounce "fuh-poo"]), you will understand this blog post more than others. For those of you who havn't enrolled in FPU, I urge you too join asap! We're on lesson 4 and I love it!!

Ok so from last lesson we have created a very detailed budget (almost zero balance), so that *ahem "every dollar has a name before you get it". Today was kinda crazy scrambling back and forth from the bank (3 times between my hubby and I) making sure we have cash for our envelope system, and the right amount of money in the bank for online payed bills. To make it even more entertaining, I might have not heard Trev when he mentioned he already took out money for rent...so naturally I also took it out, then had a melt down for a full minute wondering what happened to 500$ in the bank!! It's all good folks, we got it figured out (I know some of you were worried).
But as crazy as it is today, and making sure all the math adds up, and too not forget to add in my parking expenses for work...it is incredibly liberating/freeing/relaxing to know that all the bills are budgeted for and to not have to double check that everything is getting paid. We even have date money, and seperate spending money to use however we want without checking to make sure we have enough money for bills. Although it may sound too finicky, we know that every bill is accounted for, and we know that when we splurge for a restuarant that we have a seperate budgetted amount of money for that as well.

I would like to make a seperate paragraph to thank all the family members who helped/suggested us to take this class!! Thanks especially to those who contributed to the class registration fee, you know who you are :) This class is amazing, and fun, and it's really nice to be able to take it so young so that we can nip any money problems in the bud and really start investing in our future (PARIS, kids, a house....not in order of importance!)

OH!!! and just so you know, our (late) thank you cards are soon to be on their way! just missing a few addresses, but, I promise we have not forgotten all of you and your wonderful gifts! :) ta ta for now!

Here we go!!

Ok, so I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so bear with me, plus, Trevor and I don't have a lot of exciting things going on, but I figured I should catch on to this blogging fad and give family and friends who arn't near a look into our daily lives.

Let's catch up to now shall we?? Trevor and I got married, he moved in with me, Will moved in, Wednesday plus dog moved in, Will moved out, and now we're caught up. Like I said, we're exciting people.
Trevor is in his final year of nursing school (woo!), he will be graduating in May and soon after will take his test to become a Registered Nurse. I recently decided that I am going to follow my dream of becoming an Equine Veterinarian and I have so many steps to follow to get on the right track, but the fact that I have made that decision, is pretty big for me. I have another year or so of getting my A.A., then I gotta get a bachelor's in biology (or hopefully animal science), then I can apply to Vet School.

"How are the first few months of marriage?" you ask?? As of right now, Trevor is in the bedroom working on homework, I am writing this, while simultaneously listening to Dave Ramsey FPU because I missed a class, and Keira is outside playing in the mud so she can dirty my floors. We are a pretty happy family. Although we're busy working, going to school, taking a financial class, and stressed out from all of the latter, I couldn't feel more blessed. Sure it would be awesome to have our own place, for Trevor not to have to work two jobs during his senior year, (for me not to have to pay to park for work-I hate downtown), but honestly I feel so blessed by God that I have my husband, and my family and friends. It's hard now, but soon Trev will be a RN, with one job, and I will be a full time student concentrating on not failing chemistry (really, when did a 'mole' change from furry creature to a mathematical equation of elements??)

I would like to add a big Congrats to our close friends Will and Liz for becoming recently engaged! We're so excited for you two and are happy to be apart of your big day! :) It's awesome having a wedding of friends to look forward to!

Ok, I am all blogged out now, I can only be creative for so long before I run out of things to say. But I'm sure as time goes on there will be more stories and things to share, so until then everybody, thanks for enduring this and I'll write again soon!