Written by Jenn, Contributing Writer

I LOVE summer food! Anything tastes better on the grill and our family can’t get enough of the in-season fruits and fresh veggies!

If you’re planning a 4th of July get together and want something other than hotdogs and chips, here are some great ideas for Independence Day recipes that are both delicious and healthy! And really, you could make them anytime during the summer! Just click on each link to find the full recipe.

Snacks/Sides/Appetizers
Easy 4th of July Fruit Kabobs (top photo in collage)
Grilled Corn & Peppers Salad
Cookie Cutter Fruit Salad
Blueberry, Strawberry & Jicama Salsa (in collage above inside blue & red bowls)
Watermelon & Spinach Salad
22 Potato Salad Recipes
Citrus Fennel Coleslaw (in collage above)
Grilled Corn with Chipotle Butter
No-Bake Baked Beans
Karen’s Chicken Cabbage Salad
Grilled Potato Wedges

Main Dishes
Grilled Pizza with Pesto, Tomatoes & Feta
Sweet & Sour Chicken Drumsticks
Open Faced Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches (bottom right photo in collage, could also be a side dish)
Sugar Free Barbeque Sauce (for any meat)
Inside-Out Cheeseburgers (in collage above)
Healthy Chicken Parmesan Burgers
Teriyaki Chicken Wings (gluten & refined sugar free)
Health{ier} Hot Dog Recipes
Sizzling Summer Fajitas

Desserts
Berry Bliss Rocket Pops (we have the exact popsicle molds she uses so these will be so much fun to make with the kids!)
Red, White & Blue Muffins (a vegan recipe, but delicious even if you’re not one!)
Raspberry Almond Crumb Tart
Martha Stewart’s Frozen Blueberry Pops
Red, White & Blueberry Cupcakes (gluten free, bottom left photo in collage)

Beverages
Homemade Lemonade (we use honey to make this instead of stevia)
Strawberry Honey Lemonade
Lemon Shake-Up with Honey, Stevia or Agave Nectar
Vanilla Ice Cubes (this does have some granulated sugar but you can substitute)

Do you have any favorite healthy 4th of July recipes to share?  If you liked these ideas, please feel free to pin them for others to enjoy!

The post Healthy & Delicious 4th of July Recipes appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

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Yay, summer! I love summer and very much enjoy seeing the green grass, trees, flowers and garden plants springing up from the ground. Unfortunately along with the joys of summer come the annoyances, like ticks and insect bites.

There are a lot of ways you can repel ticks and treat your insect bites but most of them are very chemical in nature. DEET, for instance, can be very dangerous, especially for young children. I’ve looked around for some more natural options and here’s what has worked for us so far, as well as some ideas I have yet to try!

photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net/SweetCrisis

Natural Repellent Ideas to Keep Away Ticks

• Garlic pills – found at the health food store or local pharmacy, garlic pills are said to repel ticks. It’s mostly the smell that repels them, and, hey, it repels me too! You could definitely try taking odorless pills to see if that will keep the smell off your breath.
• Tea Tree Oil – mix one part tea tree oil and two parts water in a spray bottle. This can be sprayed safely on humans, and is especially effective on your pant or shirt cuffs where they like to jump on. You may need to adjust the water/oil ratio as you go because tea tree oil is very potent. This is what we’re going to try this summer!
• Essential Oil Mixture – I found a recipe on Facebook the other day and and it says it works for both dogs and humans using lemongrass and eucalyptus. Check it out and give it a try!
• Cover Up Your Skin – One of the best things you can do to prevent ticks from staying on your body is to cover up your skin. Kids don’t like to do this but I always have my children wear pants tucked into their socks and shoes or boots if they’re going into the deep woods at my parents’ farm (it doesn’t get incredibly hot where we live). By cinching your shirt and pant cuffs and making sure you have some repellent on your face and body, you can really keep them away!

Natural Repellent Ideas for Mosquitoes

freedigitalphotos.net/piyato

Natural Care for Bug Bites

• Baking Soda Paste – About a year ago, I was stung by a bee that flew under my skirt (and my skirt wasn’t short, I don’t know how he got under there!) Anyway, I remembered that my mom said to calm the burning and stinging, I should apply a paste of baking soda and water to the injured area. It really helped reduce the swelling and stinging! This is also effective for other insect bites and is a frugal alternative to store-bought remedies. **Do not apply this mixture to open wounds.
• Lavender and Tea Tree Oil – Wash with warm water and then carefully swab the area of the bite with lavender and tea tree oils, which will both disinfect the area and help the swelling go down. You may choose to dilute the oils with a little water.
• Mud Paste – I personally have never done this, but applying mud to bites is how my grandmother used to treat bites. It’s worth a try!
• Ice Packs – After you have treated your bites or stings, you can try applying a cloth-wrapped ice pack to soothe any remaining burning or swelling.
• Honey – Drizzle some honey over your itchy bites! It has natural anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties and if you can use local, raw honey, that’s even better!

How do you protect and treat yourselves when it comes to the summer bugs?

The post Keep the Bugs Away Naturally {Plus Natural Care for Bug Bites} appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

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Before you pick up the limp head of lettuce in the produce aisle, consider this: “fresh” fruits and vegetables aren’t always fresh. 

Depending on the time of year, the head of lettuce you are consuming may have been grown south of the border, traveling hundreds or thousands of miles before making it to your grocer’s shelves. By this time, the nutritional value of this lettuce has greatly diminished or disappeared.

Instead of eating tasteless long-traveled lettuce, you can provide your family with tasty produce by shopping for foods by the season. Eating seasonally appropriate fruits and vegetables maximizes your nutritional intake, reduces energy used to grow and transport foods and can support the local economy. And they just taste better too!

How to Find Seasonal Produce

A great resource for finding seasonal produce in your area of the United States is Sustainable Table, which lists fresh foods by state during each month of the year. When you do visit the grocery store, you’ll likely notice which fruits and vegetables are in season by their price. Many times seasonal produce is cheaper and fresher looking. Some grocery produce does come from local growers, so check that out too before you completely discount a visit to the store.

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Eat Locally by Growing a Garden (or helping someone with theirs!)

An easy way to eat by the season is to grow your own garden. This can be done in planters and pots or in a typical garden plot. Planting cool and warm weather plants at their appropriate times ensures that you can eat produce throughout the spring, summer and fall. In many places you can grow a garden throughout the year. For those of us who have a chilly fall and hard winter, canning or freezing at harvest time is a great way to preserve the “fruits” of our labor for the off-season.

If growing a garden just isn’t an option for you, supporting local farmers is an easy alternative. Nutritionally, it gives you produce that is freshly harvested and at the peak of nutrition. It is also helpful to the environment because it eliminates most transportation costs and supports the local ecomomy. The Locavore’s Handbook: The Busy Person’s Guide to Eating Local on a Budget by Leda Meridith is a helpful book that talks about growing and preserving food, budgeting for local foods and shopping for produce according to your local climate.

Nutritional Advantages of Eating Locally and Seasonally

Eating food grown locally (which by virtue is likely grown in the correct season) gives you the benefit of consuming produce picked at its peak of ripeness. Food that is transported long distances is picked before it is ripe. Although it will ripen during transport, the nutritional value of produce comes through the stem. The vitamin and mineral content deteriorates each day the fruit or vegetable spends sitting in the truck or on the shelf. The flavor and texture of freshly harvested foods is also much better when purchased or grown locally.

It may take some time to transition to this type of eating, but growing and buying local, seasonal fruits and vegetables is super beneficial to your whole family!

Jenn is a pastor’s wife and a mother of 3 beautiful children.

Join Jenn at The Purposeful Mom where she shares how she is learning to live with purpose in the spiritual, financial and practical areas of life. Her desire is that we would all :encourage one another and build each other up” 1 Thess. 5:11

The post The Benefits of Eating Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

One of the things I remember most from my childhood are the Bible verses and songs I learned in Sunday School, VBS and at home. In Bible college, I committed many Scripture verses to memory and they still come back to me, especially in the difficult times, when the Spirit brings them to my mind.

At the same time, I wish I’d had the opportunity for more intensive Scripture study as a child, not only memorizing verses but understanding them in context and learning how they apply to my life. There are plenty of Scripture songs I missed out on too, as many of the music available now wasn’t made yet when I was a a little one.

Now that my husband and I are raising our own kids, we have a deep desire to instill these Words of Life in our children’s heads and hearts.

And this begins at home!

No Sunday School curriculum can replace what a parent can teach their children about the Lord and His Word! I spent some time looking at some Scripture memory verse programs or systems but couldn’t find exactly what I wanted.

I was hoping for a way to teach the same verses to both my older and younger children at a level where they could learn alongside each other, using verses that could be memorized in the shorter and longer version. There were specific truths we wanted to impart to our children, most importantly God’s plan of salvation.

Also important to me was finding some very simple and straightforward ideas for learning and memorizing the verses. I’m not super crafty, and it seemed like many of the activities I saw online required craft supplies I didn’t have or activities I didn’t have time for or didn’t mix with a 7 year old, 4 year old and busy 1 year old.

I also knew from experience that Scripture is easily learned when paired with songs! So I decided to combine all these elements and create my own system, which is working very well for our children. Thanks to some encouragement from a blogging friend, I decided to turn these ideas into an eBook, which is now available for you as God’s Word in My Heart: A Scripture Learning Guide with Memory Verses!

This eBook includes:

• Ideas for teaching Scripture to your children, from the baby on up
• List of Songs and other Go-Alongs for learning Scripture
• List of specific songs that go with the memory verses
• Printable Scripture memory verses {presented in short and long form for all ages} for use at home, school or church
• ABC Memory Verses
• Verses on Sin and Salvation

• ESV (English Standard Version)
• KJV (King James Version)
• NASB (New American Standard)
• Variety (ESV, NIV 1984, NASB, NKJV)

I created this book so that it can be used with kids of any age {even those of us who are “big kids”}! It is designed primarily for toddlers through the elementary ages, but the printable verses make it a great springboard for junior high and high school memory work as well.

God’s Word in My Heart is regularly priced at $3.99 but you can get 25% off using code DAY2DAY at checkout!  

PLUS, I am giving away a copy of my eBook (in your choice of version) to one of Rachel’s readers! And feel free to buy a copy for yourself and enter the giveaway–if you’re the winner, I’ll refund your purchase price!

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Jenn is a pastor’s wife and a mother of 3 beautiful children.
Join Jenn at The Purposeful Mom where she shares how she is learning to live with purpose in the spiritual, financial and practical areas of life. 

Her desire is that we would all :encourage one another and build each other up” 1 Thess. 5:11 

The post God’s Word in My Heart: A Scripture Learning Guide with Memory Verses {Plus a Giveaway} appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

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One of the things we would like to encourage in our children is having a servant’s heart. It’s been said that to be a great leader, you must first be a servant!

The Lord Jesus himself served the disciples by washing their feet in the upper room. Galatians 5:13 says, “serve one another humbly in love.”

Since Valentine’s Day is all about love, I want to share some ideas for acts of service that children can do for others during this season of the year. We’ve enjoyed doing these with our children, and even the littlest ones can help!

Collect items for a food pantry
Last fall our church collected much-needed food and toiletries for families who utilize our local food pantry. They really appreciate donations all year round, not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas! This would be a great way to show the love of Christ around Valentine’s Day and a lesson in recognizing how we can provide for others because of the way we’ve been blessed.

 

Write a letter or draw pictures to send to a far-away family member or shut-in
My mother-in-law has what she calls a shut-in letter that she sends to older family and church members who aren’t able to get out as often as they’d like. It’s so popular, she says people who hear about it request a copy for themselves! Everyone loves getting mail and my grandparents especially like cards and pictures from our children.

Bake Valentine’s Day themed treats for a neighbor or some friends
You could try these Valentine’s Day Cookies with a Surprise Crunch or White Chocolate M&M Valentine’s Day Bars or of course any basic heart-shaped sugar cookies recipe!

Make a “Things to Love” card for a member of your family
Based on Richard Scarry’s book of the same name, we wrote down several things we loved about each other, drew pictures and exchanged the cards just for fun. Sometimes we forget to show love to our own family! You can see details about how we did this with our two oldest children here.

Inspire your children to acts of love and kindness with a craft
I love this Valentine’s Day Countdown Acts of Love activity from Make and Takes. This would be a great project to put together as a family and the little things you can do for others each day can really show God’s love in a purposeful way.

How do you encourage your children to “serve one another in love”? 

Jenn is a pastor’s wife and a mother of 3 beautiful children.

Join Jenn at The Purposeful Mom where she shares how she is learning to live with purpose in the spiritual, financial and practical areas of life. Her desire is that we would all :encourage one another and build each other up” 1 Thess. 5:11

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The post Acts of Kindness for Kids {Serving One Another in Love on Valentine’s Day} appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

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Sometimes I come across blog posts or magazine articles about eating “real food”. Real food is basically foods that are natural, whole, unrefined and eaten as close to its original state as possible (i.e. a banana rather than banana flavored cereal). This definition does not include highly processed and refined food products, fast food and stuff out of boxes with more than a few ingredients.

Often these articles advocate an all-organic, all-the-time policy and while I think that’s a wonderful goal, I have realized that I can’t actually eat this way every day {unless I wanted to deprive my children of shoes, and when you live in a place where it can get 30 below zero in the wintertime, that’s not a good idea}.

So what’s a gal like me to do when she wants her family to eat healthy, real food but also lives in the real world with a budget?

I give to you seven realistic ways to eat real food on a budget. These have worked for my family, which includes my husband and I and three young and hungry children. I hope they are helpful to you as well!

Make room in your budget for real food

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to sit down and create a budget for your spending {here are some tips for creating one that works for you!}. If you are committed to eating more real and whole foods this year, writing down how you currently spend your money will give you a chance to cut out spending in one area and then apply it to buying healthy food!

Grow a garden {or something as close as possible}

This is probably old news, but having your own garden is really the best way to get real food on a budget. There are a few start-up costs like buying seedlings, seeds, gardening tools and containers but they really can be purchased for a very small price or gotten for free. And get your kids involved  If you don’t have a lot of room, a great book I’d recommend is Vertical Vegetable Gardening which is an excellent resource for small-space {and large-space} gardening! Other things to do if you can’t have a garden:

• Join a CSA, a community supported agriculture group where you get a share of fruits and vegetables throughout the year. 
• Help someone with their garden in exchange for produce. For a few years we helped plant, weed and pick vegetables on a friend’s farm and were able to get a lot of food for our labor!
• Shop at a farmer’s market. If you go towards the end of the day, many vendors are happy to bargain with you on a price.

photo credit

Join a co-op or buy fresh food in bulk

We currently order from Azure Standard, a family-owned business dedicated to providing customers with high quality organic and natural foods and products at a good price. Many times you can get organic fruits and vegetables for less than what their conventional counterpart costs in the grocery store! They sell organic flour, oats, rice and beans in bulk as well as many other natural products. We order most months and pick our items up at a nearby drop point.
Eat in-season fruits and vegetables for maximum savings
When you buy foods that are in-season, you can get them fresh and full of nutrients! Alternatively, you can freeze extra fruits and vegetables for later. Each summer, we buy a large amount of blueberries and portion them out into freezer bags so we can enjoy them all year. Find seasonal produce in your area of the United States at Sustainable Table, which lists fresh foods by state during each month of the year. 

Get meat, dairy and eggs from a trusted source at a reasonable price

Even if it’s not certified organic, local meats and eggs from local chickens are still much better than the store-bought roll of ground “something”. If the prices seem steep for a quarter beef, for example, you could split it with a friend. Ask around the community: more and more people are raising chickens and grass-fed animals as well as selling their raw milk when allowed.

Start small and do one thing at a time

It’s not necessary to jump in full force, especially if your budget is limited. Choose one type of whole/organic/real food group that’s most important to you and your family’s health and make that your focus. It’s really worked for us to take small steps away from some of the processed things we like and toward a home where we eat {almost} all real food.

Make basic meals with your real food

My mom always cooked from scratch growing up even though were on a very limited income at the time. I’ve always enjoyed cooking from scratch myself but unfortunately I’ve let more processed foods sneak into our home than I should have. In getting “back to basics”, I’ve focused on making very simple meals: seasoned chicken, rice and a salad, whole wheat pancakes and sliced peaches and crock-pot taco soup with shredded cheese for example. Staying away from expensive spices, foreign ingredients and complex recipes keeps eating whole and real food affordable, even the organic variety.

What tips do you have for eating real food on a budget?

The post 7 Realistic Ways to Eat Real Food on a Budget appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

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One afternoon, as the whining and complaining from my children again increased in frequency and volume, I sat with my head in my hands wondering how to address the behavior that most grates on my nerves.

Aside from hollering, “Be quiet!”, and sending them to their rooms to pout, I didn’t think anything could make them stop. But maybe it wasn’t just about stopping them from whining: calling a temporary cease-fire that would continue, without a doubt, as soon as I released them from their time outs. Perhaps the whining was simply a symptom of a greater issue: the lack of gratitude in my children’s hearts.

photo credit: felixco/freedigitalphotos.net

Encouraging gratitude in our children isn’t something that can be hammered into their heads or commanded from them in an instant. Pointing my finger and saying in my best gruff voice: “You better be thankful, kids!” isn’t really going to do the trick.

It’s a process, much like anything in parenting! Thankfully, there are a few things we can do to help our children recognize their blessings.

Be an example. I often fall into the “do as I say, not as I do” category. I can be very ungrateful sometimes, because by human nature it’s easy for me to look at what I don’t have or how bad my day is going and get a little pouty and whiny myself! I find that daily asking God for the grace to recognize my blessings and consciously thinking of and speaking about what I am thankful for throughout the day can be an encouragement to my children as well!

Speak over your children with Scripture. Many of the Psalms call on us to “give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!”. In your devotions or maybe in the morning during breakfast, try speaking Scriptures of thankfulness over your family. This month we have been going through this thankfulness calendar with lots of great Bible verses that help us see how we are truly blessed!

photo credit: graur razvan ionut/freedigitalphotos.net

Make your child aware of the needs around them. We often share with our children stories we read or hear about others in need. We pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child each year, read through the Prayer Point we receive every few months in the mail from Samaritan’s Purse and donate as a family to many organizations close to our hearts. Maybe you’ve been on a missions trip or something similar! I think it’s also good to note that as we show our children that others have needs, that we remind them that the people in need aren’t necessarily unhappy, because “stuff” doesn’t make you happy. It’s simply that we want to bless them by helping to meet their physical and spiritual needs when we have been given the means to do so. It helps my children to recognize where they find true joy!

Don’t give your kids too much stuff. I feel that this is a big part of why children can sometimes become ungrateful: they have so much that they don’t appreciate what they are privileged to have. Gifts given on special occasions mean more when kids aren’t constantly provided with whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Much patience, self-control and diligence have been learned in our house when, for example, we have our children earn a reward for doing some chores (apart from the daily chores they do as part of the family). Persistence and hard work pay off and that is something I want to instill in my children (as well as remind myself of often!).

Even though the whining and complaining will never completely come to an end (I still do it and I’m a grown woman!), giving gentle reminders of the blessings and gifts God has given us and creating opportunities to share those blessings with others can go a long way in helping our child develop a heart of thankfulness.

What do you do to encourage gratitude in your children?

Jenn is a pastor’s wife and a mother of 3 beautiful children.

Join Jenn at The Purposeful Mom where she shares how she is learning to live with purpose in the spiritual, financial and practical areas of life.

Her desire is that we would all :encourage one another and build each other up” 1 Thess. 5:11

The post Encouraging Gratitude in Our Children appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

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It doesn’t have to be that way! As wives, we have the potential to make this holiday perfectly wonderful by romancing our husbands! Maybe this sounds counterintuitive, but hear me out. I’d like to share how I’m learning to change my attitude when I feel my husband neglects meeting my expectations and also some fun ideas for rekindling the fire with your spouse this Valentine’s Day.

photo credit

When you were first married, what sweet things did your husband do for you? Did he write you poems or cute notes, give you sweet compliments or surprise you with flowers? These things all happened at first in my marriage but at some point they began fading away. Was it my husband’s fault? It certainly was, so I thought. But maybe, just maybe, I had something to do with it too!

Let’s switch perspectives: How did you act around your husband as a newlywed? When Kirk and I were first married, I was thrilled to be in his presence and would always greet him with a warm smile and kiss. Because we were both in school and working, I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible outside of those commitments and so we purposed to make the most of our days together. I was enthusiastic in my endeavor to “cozy up” our little apartment and make into a home. My mind was on how I could make our new life together enjoyable and fun. We made it fun because we were each other’s top priority and were committing to spending time together.

Life became more complex when our first child was born and my priorities subtly began shifting to being the best mom I could be. I began putting lots of time and energy into sleep schedules, making my own baby food and reading books to my son. I didn’t even realize that my husband was no longer being treated as the most important person in my life. This continued to happen as we brought two more children into the world.

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In Scripture, God calls us to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22). To be earnest means to be:

• serious in intention or purpose
• zealous
• showing depth and sincerity of feeling

It eventually dawned on me that I absolutely loved my husband just as much as when we were first married but the way I demonstrated that love was no longer as earnest as before! There came a point when it was necessary for me to come to God and ask Him to help me to zealously express my deep feelings for my husband and put him back in his rightful place as the most important person in my life, just as I had in the “honeymoon” stage of our marriage.

As I began putting my husband back on the top of my priority list, I found to my surprise that all the things I’d nagged him to do for years (in the emotional department) began happening again! The sweet words, compliments and flowers returned. I was thrilled! And I began to understand that when I acted on my feelings for my husband, he was more responsive to my feelings. It wasn’t the nagging that made the difference in his actions; it was the change in my attitude.

Obviously, I still slip up in this area often and will continue to through the rest of my marriage. We can’t be perfect, but that’s okay! If we struggle in this area, God gives us the grace we need and slowly changes our hearts. We can depend on Him to gives us the creativity and joy we are looking for as we show love to our husbands.

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So in the spirit of these thoughts and of Valentine’s Day, I’d like to offer some simple suggestions that we wives can do as we play our part in the romance!

• Get up with your husband and chat with him in the morning before he leaves for work (if he’s normally up before you and you like to sleep in like me, this will be a good challenge!).
• Pack a lunch you know he likes and tuck a love note in his lunch container.
• Call him at work at an unexpected time and giggle as you sweet-talk him.
• Buy him his favorite candy bar (you know, the one you don’t want him to eat because it’s unhealthy)
• Praise your husband, both privately and publically. This is one thing that has such a huge impact both on our marriage and on my husband’s reputation with others.
• Sit by him on the couch at the end of the day with no computer in your lap and just be there for him (ahem, note to self!).
• Build up his confidence throughout the day by telling him things you love about him.
• Write him a love letter.
• Resist the urge to correct him when he’s with the kids and just let him be the fun dad!
• Flirt with him!
• Grab his hand when you’re out in public or just passing by him at home.
• Find the most romantic Valentine’s card you can (that suits you and your husband’s style) and give it to him on Valentine’s Day before a candlelight dinner (or dinner out if you can manage it). Write something intimate inside and enjoy his response to your flattery
• Make Love Buckets

I hope these thoughts have been an encouragement to you. We really can have the best Valentine’s Day (and every day) possible by just a change in our thinking and a little extra effort. And we just might find that our own hopes and expectations for romance are met in the process!

How do you show your husband that you love him?

The post How to Rekindle the Romance in Your Marriage appeared first on Day2Day Joys.

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It’s about the end January but I’m just now getting motivated to start some new “resolutions.”

One of the things I want to focus on this year is eating more whole foods and trying some more natural remedies for the sicknesses that tend to hit our family this time of year. I got to thinking that the new year is a great time to evaluate what we can do to improve our overall health. There are some very simple, no fuss ways you can take steps toward a healthier you (and your family will benefit too!) And so I bring you nine of the many ideas that have been running through my head:

1. Start Each Day with Time in God’s Word
When we think of improving our heath, we usually think of our bodies first. It’s important to nourish our spiritual health as well! I’m definitely a work in progress, but I find that when I begin my day with devotions and spend some time in prayer that I am a more peaceful, relaxed and purposeful mom and wife. There are lots of great devotional books or you can simply study a book of the Bible, like I am doing right now with the Good Morning Girls Ephesians study.

2. Try One New Organic or Local Food
Let’s face it, the only local foods that can be found in my part of the country right now are the red berries hanging for dear life onto the bare tree branches in my backyard. But if you’re blessed to live in a region where you can shop at a farmer’s market all year long, try one fruit or vegetable that’s new to you. Find out a tasty way to prepare something like kale or artichoke and you may just find a new family favorite. Organic is great and local organic is even better! But don’t bypass your local grower’s stand just because he isn’t certified organic. It could be that he uses organic growing practices but isn’t classified as such just yet.

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3. Make One Homemade Cleaning Product
Homemade cleaning products are frugal, easier on your clothes and dishes and typically more eco-friendly than their conventional counterparts. It’s very simple to make your own homemade powdered laundry detergent and you can use some of the same ingredients for Angela’s recipe for dishwasher detergent. Simple ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, lemon and olive oil can be used for all types of cleaning.

4. Exercise 10 Minutes a Day 
Oftentimes, it’s hard for us moms to carve out an extended period of time during the day to exercise. Studies show that heart-pumping exercise for even 10 minutes at a time can improve our health. In the past, I’ve used 10 Minute Solution workouts, “jogged” up and down the stairs for 10 minutes and hopped on my elliptical for that short time. There are plenty of everyday activities that can give you a workout too—gardening, scrubbing the floor (with great fanfare) or playing tag with the kids, for example.

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5. Eat a Healthy Breakfast
The next time you feel the urge to go to the cupboard for some boxed cereal, make a bowl of oatmeal instead. Old-fashioned oats can be made in just a few minutes or you can use steel-cut oats that are soaked the night before. Homemade yogurt with fruit or eggs and whole wheat toast keep you fuller longer and kids will eat them too! You can find some more healthy breakfast ideas here or some reasons why breakfast is important here.

6. Increase Your Calcium Intake
Getting plenty of calcium is super important, especially for those of us who are pregnant and nursing mothers (the recommended amount is 1200-1500 mg per day). If you’re not getting enough, your baby will take what he or she needs and you may end up with brittle nails or leg cramps (Charlie Horse) among other things. I noticed these symptoms in myself about 6 months into nursing my third baby so I upped my intake by consuming more dairy, drinking calcium-fortified orange juice and eating some extra broccoli and spinach!


7. Drink More Water
This has been said by many but bears repeating (if only to myself): we need at least 8 glasses of water each day to keep ourselves hydrated and (ahem) regular. Drinking lots of water has helped alleviate my headaches and keeps up my nursing supply. An easy way to make sure you’re getting enough is to post a notecard on your fridge with a picture of 8 glasses, crossing one off each time you drink.

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8. Try One New Supplement or Herbal Treatment
Last year, we began taking elderberry to strengthen our immune system and found that we got sick less often. This year I’m researching what supplement or herbal treatment I can use as headache remedies–I’d love some ideas in the comments!

9. Add One New Type of Rice or Bean to Your Diet
We weren’t really into rice or beans up until a few years ago but learning to live frugally changed all that! Now we actually like using black beans, kidney beans and brown rice in meatless meals. I’m still getting up the courage to try something even better like quinoa, pinto beans or basmati rice.

What are you doing to improve your health this year?

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