Early Riser Mom?

Awhile back, I wrote about the Maximize Your Mornings Challenge over at Inspired to Action. It was basically a Challenge that I read about that challenged moms to get up before their kids in the morning to spend precious, quiet time with God, get some kind of workout in, and start to plan their day. There was some awesome accountability on Twitter, opportunities to study the same things in the morning, and just that mom camaraderie of being intentional together to make our health and relationship with God a priority. Over the years, I have gone back and forth between getting up early and sleeping in. But I must say, when I get up early, I have a head-start on my day, and when I sleep in, the day seems to run me.
With all my responsibilities these days, I really need to get up before my kids, spend quiet time with God (the key word being quiet), get my workout in, and know what I need to get done that day. It seems so simple, and yet the concept is so profound. I want this to be a new habit this year. To consistently get up early. Not just now and then. Not just 2-3 times per week. But that my norm would be to set that alarm for 5:20 or earlier, and be disciplined enough to get going. On the Maximize Your Mornings Challenge, they even encourage moms to not hit the snooze button. To be disciplined enough to just get out of bed when the alarm goes off. Is it possible?
I think being a stay-at-home mom affords me the opportunity for many freedoms in how to run my day. I am in charge. I am in charge of so many things. I am in charge of the house, finances, homeschooling my children, our CC community, my Beachbody business, the menu for the day (so essentially, the health of my family!), and so many more little things. It gets busy. I think when things get busy and overwhelming, the tendency can be to get lazy. To sleep in. To stay up late to "relax" but then struggle to get up in the morning. And these bad habits may be contributing to my "depression" and "anxiety" that have plagued me this last semester. I put quotes around these words to sort of label my feelings but not necessarily diagnose a super serious version of these things.
So, as a New Year's Resolution of sorts, I want to commit to getting up early. And in doing that, to put my relationship with God and my health as 2 of my first priorities in my day. I get up, spend time with God (usually doing my Bible Study that is over the book of Galatians) and then do my workout for the day. I seem to be more motivated to get up when I know I am not working out right away. I get to drink my coffee and pre-workout formula, and just relax in God's Word in the quiet of my house! That kind of motivates me to get up!!
The key to making this a reality is to plan the night before. If I don't lay out my pre-workout formula, coffee, Bible Study, workout clothes, tennis shoes, workout dvds, and water bottle the night before, then chances are I'm not going to get up at 5:20 and dig around for those things.
I have to plan. I have to plan to succeed. And THAT is what I plan to do.

How do you start your mornings?

My Personal Weight Loss Challenge

Okay, this is a risky, scary, put it all out there blog post, and I'm excited and scared to post it!! A lot of you know that I'm a Beachbody Coach, but a lot of you may not know that I struggle with my own weight. I, like a lot of you, struggle with emotional eating, and it's been an emotional semester for me. I have had a lot going on, and have been the busiest that I've been in awhile, not to mention emotional struggles that have been through the roof. That has reflected in my weight, gulp, gain over the last semester especially. But I know that for my health, as an example to my children, as a leader and a health and fitness Coach, that it's time for a change. It's time for me to publicly commit myself to what I want to help others do - get healthy. I have the tools for success. I have the Challenge groups, the most amazing meal replacement shake, phenomenal workout programs from Beachbody trainers, and now it's time for me to put that all together for my own success story. I do best with a high level of accountability, and this is going to be it. This blog. You all.
 I am going to post weekly how I did, my results, and my weight loss. Maybe eventually I will feel comfortable posting before pictures and weight amount, but for now, we'll just stick to weight loss amounts. Yes, it's scary having this kind of public accountability, but it's what I need. I need to get healthy and treat my body the way it is meant to be treated. As the temple of God. I need to run the race in such a way that I take care of myself so I can be the best mom, wife, homeschooling mom, Coach, Director, friend, and most importantly, the daughter of the King.
So, who's with me? Does anyone want to commit themselves to this scary Challenge? Whether or not you want a Beachbody Challenge Pack and Facebook Challenge group or you just want to publicly declare that you, too want a change and are committed to putting it out there for accountability sake!! This is my big moment to commit. Are you there?

I am going to be doing the 21 Day Fix container system for my nutrition and T25 for my workouts. I plan to follow the T25 schedule for the next 10 weeks and then pick another program. I want to be more active, so if that means sneaking in a run, a Zumba class, playing at the park with my kids, or just adding in some extra squats or push-ups throughout the day, I want to strive for excellence!
What's your plan?

New Year, New Me! New You?

I, for one, am so glad to have the holiday season over! I do love the holiday season, and everything that goes with it. But I'm also glad when it's done and ready to declutter my house of Christmas decorations, get back to our regular routines, and not have so much going on and things that need to be done in preparation for Christmas!
Our Christmas season was filled with lots of fun things, memories made, and time with those we love. We only have a few days before we go back to school, CC, Bible Study, and the regular swing of things. I'm savoring these last few days of vacation!
One thing I want to get in gear for is the classic weight loss plan that follows the holiday season! Yes, we all do it, and we all come up with plans, resolutions, join gyms, try it for a week, and then give up for the rest of the year. But what if there was a way to get all you need in a package that made sense, was easy to follow, and was proven to work??
I'm talking about the full Beachbody package. I'm a Beachbody Coach and we have amazing plans that work for people. Busy moms, hard-working people, people who need to lose weight, maintain weight, or need to start slowly for a large amount of weight to lose.
The way it works, is that we have all kinds of workout programs to choose from. P90X, Insanity, T25, PiYo, Insanity Max 30, and the list goes on!!!
But one of our most popular programs is called the 21 Day Fix, and it is on sale this month!!!!!!!! The 21 Day Fix Challenge Pack is on sale for the month of January and this is how it works:

Workout program: Comes with workouts for every day of the week, plus some extra workouts, all 30 minutes each.
(always a modifier with every workout)
Shakeology: Our superfood meal-replacement shake that tastes awesome, curbs cravings, and is proven to aid with weight loss (Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Greenberry, and Vegan flavors)
Fix Container system: Portion containers that teach you how to measure out your food daily, eat clean, and not count calories. It's genius!!
Challenge group: Daily accountability in a group of other people who are also going through their program, daily posts, and encouragement!
Me as your Coach: I am committed to following you through your program and being your cheerleader as you work hard, get results, and have questions along the way

So if you, like me, are ready to make a change is 2015, then let's chat!! Fill out my form, and I will get in contact with you so we can figure out which program is best for you, how you can capitalize on your time this year, and how you can feel better by making better choices that will change your life!!

Link to fill out my form: https://steph4given.wufoo.com/forms/z1vf6znx03uidy5/

I will be starting my next Challenge group on Monday, January 19. This is the day that can change it all for you. Time to start getting rid of all the holiday junk in your house! Change is around the corner!! I'm here for YOU!! Are you ready?

Grateful for Christmas Break

Ahhh. The day after Christmas. Time to unwind, clean up, and relax. I was so ready for Christmas day. For all the craziness of the season to finally be over. Not in a bad way, just ready to relax and enjoy versus the days leading up to Christmas that were filled with hurrying around, millions of trips to the store (with 3 kids in tow), and last minute projects like Christmas cookies and Christmas cards. Each thing is enjoyable in its own right, but when all is said and done, they are big projects that Mommy ends up finishing herself. I'm excited for this week between Christmas and New Years. I am hoping to relax, get some projects/deep cleaning done that I don't usually have time for, and do some fun things out of the ordinary like playdates, playing with Maddy during nap time, and playing with the kids with their new Christmas toys!
These days, there isn't much "down time" where we can just relax, catch up on stuff, or work on projects. Life has been full of lots of busyness but also lots of blessings. This summer, while on vacation, I was really trying to take that time to think, pray, and counsel with people about what "things" I should keep in my life for the next school year. I have lots of opportunities to do things, be involved, and serve. But the reality is, I can't do them all! And when I try, I end up frustrated, miserable, and exhausted. I am still in the same boat. I think after all that thinking, praying, and counseling, I dropped 1-2 things out of our hectic schedules. It was good that I actually did drop 2 things, but I could probably do better. I just don't like being the frantic mom who is always running behind, stressed out about something, showing up early to everything because I have to prep, plan, prepare something. This semester, Thursdays were my favorite day of the week. I have bible study on those mornings, and it was the one place I could go, be around godly women, socialize, make new friendships, and just be. I didn't have to serve, work, show up early, coordinate, or run around. I could simply partake and take in what was being offered.
Now, I'm not saying that I just want to relax, be on vacation, and take instead of give all the time. I'm just saying that sometimes it feels like I am just go, go, going all the time and rarely have the time to just be. That's why God knew He had to include the "Be still, and know that I am God" verse in the bible. Just for me. And maybe you.
Those moments of being still and quiet are so rare, and yet so vital to our relationship with God. We forget that. Satan tempts and lures us with all these "things" we need to be apart of, serve in, and do, and yet God tells us to just "be still." Now, of course we are to serve, love, care, give of ourselves as a living sacrifice, and I get that. But hopefully not at the expense of our still moments.
So this next week, I am hoping to get some of those still moments. To relax, and to get some reading time in. I am looking forward to reading the appropriate book for my life season right now by Lysa Terkeurst called "The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands." Hopefully I will get a book review out about it once I finish it!!
So, Happy Holidays, my fellow exhausted, weary Moms!! Get some rest and some still moments in soon, and let God speak to you about what you should keep in your life, and what you may need to let go of!! Blessings!

Almost Summer!

 

I can't believe we are almost done with another school year!! Phew! That was a busy one!! I, for one, am so glad that some activities are ending for the summer, so we can rest a little more and not be out every night of the week! There have been lots of changes lately!!

The kids are doing well, finishing up the school year, and growing so much!! Madelynn is finishing up her second grade year, and just finished up her second year of Classical Conversations!! She has been having fun playing outside, enjoys watching Judah and Ruth and helping with them, and has learned so much this year! She is my big helper! She has even started making some of her own food, including scrambled eggs with peppers and sausage, by herself! Tad has been teaching her how to skateboard, and they have been going on long bike rides together. She is getting so big!

Judah is doing preschool this year, and he has done really well. He enjoys sitting at the table and having his own school to do alongside Maddy! He is left-handed, and has learned how to write pretty well this year! He did a few sessions of swim lessons and loved it, especially when Tad got in the water with him on the last day of swim lessons!! He would be beaming the whole time!! Tad has also been teaching him how to skateboard, and he loves that! He is a joy!

Ruth is getting so big! She is now speaking in sentences, and can definitely get her opinions across! She is tiny but loud! She is my sweet cuddler and likes to encourage and make people happy! This week she told me, "I like your ponytail" and "you did good on your workout." She makes my day!!

Within the last few months, I have become a new Team Beachbody Coach. It is so fun to help people on their journey towards health and fitness, as I am on my own journey as well! I just finished up my T25 workouts, and started the 21 Day Fix, which is a workout program that comes with different sized containers, and it tells you how many you can eat of each a day (the different food groups) and also comes with workout DVDs. You get to eat so much food, are not starving, and the weight easily falls off. People have had such great success with it! It was on backorder for a month because it was so popular, but it is now back in stock! Let me know if you want more details, or details about a Fitness Challenge group!

About a week after I signed on as a Coach, I was asked to be the Director of the Classical Conversations in our area! So a lot is going on right now! I am so thrilled for the opportunity, and excited to embark on a new area of work with CC! I have enjoyed tutoring the past 2 years with CC, and this will be a fun endeavor as well, and an awesome ministry opportunity!

We have been busy at our church as well. Tad and I both sing on the worship team, Tad leads the worship team, and we enjoy doing other things there as well. We have been blessed with a vibrant congregation and a Pastor that preaches the Word diligently! What a blessing!
So, as we get ready for summer, and look forward to a family wedding/vacation this summer, we are feeling blessed. Tad is still enjoying his job as a mailman, and has lost a ton of weight running around the neighborhoods delivering mail! He loves being outside, so it is the perfect job for him! Hopefully we can see many of our Ohio friends and family this summer, and enjoy some time off of school! Happy (almost) Summer!

The Classical Model of Education

If you homeschool, then Dorothy Sayers "The Lost Tools of Learning" is a valuable read. If you homeschool and participate in Classical Conversations, then it is an even more valuable read! I just finished reading this essay, and in it found why Classical Conversations is such a crucial program for our young ones, and as they grow up in this program.
There are three basic tenants to classical education: the grammar phase, the dialectic phase, and the rhetoric phase. I didn't always quite understand what classical education was, but these three tenants pretty much sum it up. The grammar phase is our Foundations program through CC, and it involves memorizing lots of facts and information, such as history sentences, history timeline, geography, Latin charts, math equations and formulas, English definitions and grouping of words, and science data. At first glance, it might seem unimportant to memorize all this information at such a young age when they don't understand half of what they are putting to memory. And mind you, a lot of the information is put to song, so the kids love it and it is easy to memorize, even for the parents!! And Classical Conversation's model is that a homeschool parent teaches all the subjects in the class, showing the parents that we can teach our children all the subjects, and we don't have to wait for or expect an "expert" to come teach our children these subjects, we can teach them!! And all this information is just one stage in the 3-part Trivium and all of these information "pegs" will be useful in the future as they begin to remember and interact with this information in the dialectic phase. This first stage is the knowledge phase, and is appropriate for the younger ages, approximately 4 years old through 6th grade.
The next phase is the dialectic phase, in which the child starts to interact with all that information that they memorized in the grammar phase. As they get older, they become old enough to think through this information, to start to question some of this information, and to have questions about life. This is where we can direct a child to ask appropriate, respectful questions and to discuss this information in a logical way. Students have a class on logic, learn to form their own arguments, and to dissolve illogical arguments. This is the understanding phase. The students wrestle with information, learn how to debate, and learn to form a solid foundation of truth, and not just to believe whatever they are told or hear. As stated in her essay, Dorothy says, "History, aided by a simple system of ethics derived from the grammar of theology, will provide much suitable material for discussion." They also learn to write essays, and to really be able to put their thoughts and knowledge into valid writing.
The final phase is the rhetoric phase, in which there is a lot more freedom as far as what they learn.
Another quote from her essay is as follows:
"Indeed, at this stage, our difficulty will be to keep subjects "apart," for Dialectic will have shown all branches of learning to be inter-related, so Rhetoric will tend to show that all knowledge is one."
This phase is the sort of culmination of the first two phases, as the student has learned the information, how to grapple with that information, and can then focus on more specialized fields of interest, stemming from his study of Theology, hopefully, and can even begin to study a language other than Latin. Throughout the Trivium, the student will learn the construction of the language of Latin, which will help him to not only learn other subjects well, but in itself is the derivation of many terms and words we used today in our language and other sciences.
Dorothy says, of her digesting through the Trivium, "I am concerned only with the proper training of the mind to encounter and deal with the formidable mass of undigested problems presented to it by the modern world." Because as she compares modern education, at the time this was written, with a sort of mediaeval education that she is trying to return to, she realizes that there will be some differences between the child with modern education and the child with a classical education, but the child with the classical education will, no doubt, be able to apply the tools of learning that they have received to any new study that they will encounter. They learn the integration of subjects, meaning that each subject relates to the other subjects as they all relate to God. There isn't such a hard divide between subjects where the student couldn't see how they worked together as part of the beauty of the creation of God.
So, I hope that this gives you a little glimpse into what classical education is, how Classical Conversations works and what they base their education model on. I didn't always understand what it even meant for someone to have a classical education, but now that I have learned more about it, I am astounded by how beautiful the Trivium works together and how the finished product, i.e., the student who has been trained by these 3 branches, is a wonderfully educated and cultured adult who has the tools to discern and interact with a world with lots of differing views and philosophies. We don't have to worry about the classically trained child, for they have found the lost tools of learning, and are hopefully able to take those with them wherever they go.

If interested, here is a link to Dorothy Sayers "The Lost Tools of Learning," from which this blog post was based off of, and where Classical Conversations gets its basis.

Fitness Motivation for Summer!!

Hey, guys. Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately!! I have been so busy with all kinds of new things going on!! One of them is that recently I became a Team Beachbody Coach. This means that not only can you get awesome Beachbody products from me, like Insanity, P90X, TurboFire, Combat, and T25, but I can also coach you along as you use the products to get the best results!! And my favorite Challenge pack is on sale this month!!

Last summer I started doing Combat, and did the whole 60 days, and saw incredible definition that I have never seen on my body before!! I was losing weight, feeling strong, and looked forward to my workouts!! I still go back to those workouts because they are so fun and effective!!
Some other coaches and I are starting a Challenge group starting on March 24 and it lasts 60 days. It basically is a private Facebook group where you get support, accountability, motivation, and can post your goals and successes!!

I am participating in this Challenge group as well and planning on seeing amazing results just in time for summer!! There are other Challenge packs on sale as well, like Les Mills Pump (which Tad just ordered and is super excited about!) and Ultimate Reset!! Plus a myriad of other workout programs not on sale but they are awesome, including the 21-day fix that was so popular last month they sold out!!

So really, you are getting a great deal to get a Challenge Pack and start this 60 Day package because it is a COMPLETE package. It includes everything to help you get on track and get into the best shape of your life for summer!

Come on, let's do this together!!!!!