Back to our roots...

I don't know if it's the 7 year itch of being in Arizona or what but Matt and I have become restless in our daily lives. We feel like we're in a place that we need to grow and find ways of growing our family spiritually and making changes for what maybe to come in our future. We've felt at such a standstill these last few years because it seems like all I am ever doing is "healing"... It's been a very frustrating year trying to get back on my broken leg and it seems like the end maybe in our near future with a promise looking surgery that of course involves another 3 months of healing... :)

In the meantime we've adopted into our house the Daniel Plan.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a program designed by Saddleback's pastor Rick Warren along with a few doctors trying to change the face of our nation and our world. It has 5 focus groups to include - faith, food, fitness, focus and friends.  We just happened to add finances to our focus groups as well.  We hope that all of our family and friends will support us and encourage us as we adapt these changes into our family life.

I'll give you a little glimpse into what these 6 areas look like for us:

Faith - Since being in Arizona finding a home church has been a BIG challenge for us. We've been involved in 4 different churches in the last 7 years. It's been hard for us to find ways to get involved and stay involved in serving or even finding our place in the church. We have finally found a church we feel like we can make our home and find a place to serve and get connected. Now it's just time for us to make it happen. Even though we haven't had the best luck with churches out here we had an AMAZING small group with people that have changed our lives and made us better people. While we no longer meet on a regular basis as a small group they will be friends for life.  Looking for another small group almost seems like we're being unfaithful to them but it's time for us to move forward and find a new small group where we can make some amazing lasting relationships. We are also excited for the youth group that Hunter will be attending they're going through some leadership changes but it's going to be great and we're looking for opportunities to serve there as well like we did back in Ohio. We've missed that so much and since Hunter is in high school now we are ready to make some great memories with him growing his faith. Our goal for our faith is not to be the people that come to service on Sunday and then leave as fast as we can when it's over.  We want to extend ourselves and find the place that God would want us to use the gifts he's given us. To serve the way God wants us to we know that we have to be in better health the way he created us to be.

Food -  Everyone knows that I'm married to a chef and just a little piece of advice... don't EVER marry a chef if you ever want to go on a diet... it's like oil and water it just doesn't go together. After years of his amazing cooking we have found ourselves in a place with Matt's blood sugar levels are out of balance and with me off of my feet for almost a year it's not left us in a good place. Also we've doing some research of how to help my cancer and help slow down and even stop any progressions.  We have found so much research about the chemicals that are in so many of the foods we eat today that are directly related to the epidemic of illnesses that plagues our nation. With cancer being number one on that list. We've felt very convicted about taking care of the temple that God has given us and fueling it with the right foods. So we've been adopting a new habit of reading labels - if we can't pronounce it or eat an ingredient on it's own 9 out of 10 times we won't buy it or eat it. We are trying to base our meals on whole foods that would be found in the garden of Eden. We might fail at this at times BUT if we are doing it 90% of the time then we feel like God will bless that.

A sample of our meals tonight...
 
Fitness - I don't even like this word... a treadmill and Duck Dynasty is what caused my broken leg in the first place. But as the Daniel Plan likes to refer to it anyway it's play time! My kids are ECSTATIC about this. At least four times a week our goal is to play with our kids whether it be walking to the park, playing ball or going swimming. We don't have to be worried about being held accountable to this as our kids are doing a wonderful job! I love the idea of just playing instead of spending an hour in the gym. After this year with my leg injury I don't think I'll EVER own another gym membership anyway. :) It will not only help us to get in better shape but also help keep our kids active. God wants us to enjoy life not dread spending hours in the gym doing a workout we have no desire to do. Some people love going to the gym and maybe one day we will too, but for now playing is an awesome way for us to get our bodies moving and enjoy it while we're doing it.

This is so much easier living in Arizona where it's 70 out and not -30... :)

Focus - This one kind of seems a little redundant because we have so many goals that we're constantly focusing on them. But we feel like if we got the biggest one taken care of which is our Faith and get that where it needs to be the others will fall in line much easier. Everyone diets on their own willpower and most of the time it fails but what if you tried to make a life change focusing solely on the power of Jesus Christ... that could be the huge difference in success or failure. We have some other things that we're also working on like getting Hunter focused and in a college mindset, stepping out and helping others (that we don't know) once a month to make an impact on our community and focusing on making the most memories we can as a family the ones that will impact our children's lives and also the generations that follow.

Friends -  This one is pretty easy - basically just trying to be a better friend. Surrounding our family with positive friends that will help us become the people we strive to be and not keep us in the old habits of what we're trying to move away from. This is a lot where the small group comes into play as well.

Finances - This is actually something that is not covered in the Daniel Plan however we felt we wanted to focus on that as well for 2014. I used to coupon and save a TON of money but have really gotten away from it. So, my goal for 2014 is to dive back in and really hit it hard and save the most I can for my family. Matt and I will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary next year and we really want to take a trip back to Cancun (with the kiddos) where we had our honeymoon. To do this we need to start saving YESTERDAY! :) So using the Financial Peace University tools we really hope to make this a reality. This year we plan to clean out our house and sell everything we don't need or use, cut back on our wants, take a few odd jobs and save as much as we can on our needs.

It seems like a lot but they go hand in hand so much that it seems silly to do one aspect without changing the others. If we don't see what God made our bodies for, how he designed them to work and how he wants us to use them then we really have no reason to get them healthy. I'm excited to see my husband taking this on and being a leader to lead his family to a better place. Hopefully this blog will keep us motivated and give us the support and accountability to keep it up. If anyone is interested in doing the Daniel Plan with us we would love to have you join.  It's 100% free you just have to check out all the information online at www.danielplan.com.

Until next time...