Friday Fun: Our Christmas Letter To You

Living healthy natural lives is not always the easiest thing, which is why I started my blog - to inspire and help others live their best life healthfully and naturally. Friday Fun is my way of sharing a bit of my life with you, and this post I am going to share a little of what has been going on in our lives this year. Merry Christmas!

In our lives this year...
Our biggest event was finding out we were going to have our fourth child! Woohoo! That was quickly followed by a lot of nausea, migraines and overall fatigue. Now, we are in the last week or so of this pregnancy and hoping to see our new baby soon! No, we do not know the gender, so that will be a great surprise as well.

Our next biggest event was that Adam became a published author!! His book, I Was There When The Giant Fell came out the first day of November, and it was a huge accomplishment for him. After three years, his first book is done and hopefully making a difference in many lives. You can find out more about it at his website: www.AdamNitz.com.

In other news, Malachi is excelling in first grade. Going to school has been a real blessing for him, and as always his hunger for learning amazes me! I think he knows more about many topics than I do! Kailana and Brynn enjoy having girls days with me almost every day. Kailana just turned 4 yesterday, and she is my biggest helper! Brynn is funny and crazy and loves playing with her big sister.

I am working almost every day as a personal trainer and fitness instructor at the Maplewood Community Center, as well as writing for you all on this blog and helping others stay healthy through Shaklee.

We were inspired by...
all the amazing blessings we receive every day from God! We have been really trying to focus on being thankful every day. Still a work in progress...

Our favorite thing this year was...
Well, I am betting our favorite thing this year is going to be seeing our new baby for the first time and finding out if it is a boy or girl.

What's working/not working for us...
Working -We are blessed beyond what we deserve - that is for sure! Both Adam and I have jobs that we love and that take care of our growing family. Malachi is doing really well in school, which calms my missing-him heart. Kailana and Brynn love learning at home with Mommy and going to Story Hour every week. Also, I do not know what I would do without my slow cooker. Since I work in the evenings, I use it all the time to make healthy meals for our family.

Not working - I would like for us to be able to have more family meals where everyone is present. Right now, there are several days a week where Adam or I is working, and we miss dinner with the family.  We would like to spend more time as a family just playing together and relaxing, but it seems we are often busy or on the go doing something.

Questions/thoughts We have...
What gender will our baby be? What goals will we accomplish in the New Year? What exciting things await our family?

We're reading...
Adam has been having his morning devotions, but in the last couple weeks he has also started reading a little for fun. I am reading lots of Christian fiction books. I am also reading Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl, Encouragement for Today by Proverbs 31 team, and still reading through one chapter of the Bible a day, now I am in Acts. As a family, we are reading through Jesus Storybook Bible for our Bible time every night. Malachi loves reading! He reads about a chapter book a day, I think. Right now, he loves Magic Tree House books, and has read some of the books many times over!

I'm cooking...
We are still eating gluten-free and mostly Paleo. It has worked great for our family. We eat LOTS of vegetables, and also plenty of eggs, meat, fish, and fruit and healthy fats. This year, we also added in high fat butter oil, fermented cod liver oil, coconut oil, and skate liver oil into our daily supplement routine. Sounds yucky, but it is a great way to keep strong healthy teeth, brain health, skin health and so much more! For some of my favorite recipes from this year, make sure to check out my recipes.

We are grateful for...
warm heat during this cold winter, two cars that are currently running well, another year of great health (no doctor visits or any serious sickness!), living near family that loves us and making great memories, a successful backyard garden, the support of so many family and friends as Adam published his book, a midwife we love, our Savior and his love and forgiveness, and hopefully soon a healthy baby!

Merry Christmas!!!

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