Healthy Living

Welcome to Week 4 of Mindful May! I'm sitting outside on my deck feeling pretty content at the moment. I woke up feeling refreshed at 6 am this morning and decided to take advantage of some time outside before the heat and humidity take over for the day. I spent a couple of hours finishing up the last area that needed to be weeded while listening to Bon Appetit's Foodcast. It was quiet and comfortable outside and actually an amazingly peaceful way to start my Sunday (I started writing thi…

Welcome to Week 3 of Mindful May! It's kind of hard to believe we're already half way through the month. Although this weekend is HOT in North Carolina, so that's making it feel like summer already. If you're following along, the focus of this week is a fun one: spending a little undivided quality time with your pet. If you don't have a pet, you can choose any activity that you enjoy doing but want to focus a little more on being present like gardening, cooking, or even eating dinner toget…

Welcome to week 2 of Mindful May and Happy Mother's Day! I just finished a delicious unsweetened almond milk latte that Matt made for me and a couple of salted chocolate coffee energy balls so I am caffeinated and READY TO GO. My energy level may not be entirely appropriate for the topic of Week 2: setting a screen-free bedtime ritual (including a bedtime yoga sequence!). However, I AM pumped about Mindful May as well as the idea of potentially getting a little more quality sleep this week. …

Today I'm sharing a roundup of my top ten favorite kitchen tools that are under $25. These are items that I use frequently and that have made my life so much easier in the kitchen. With Mother's Day around the corner, these also make for a thoughtful yet inexpensive gift. Even better, use some of these tools to make her a wonderful treat! These tools are also perfect house warming or wedding gifts.

1. Spiralizer

In case you missed my introduction to Mindful May, I'm devoting this month to focusing on doing a spring cleaning of "brain clutter" and making an effort to be more present. Mindfulness is something I really struggle with, so I have planned on adding one small habit each week to make the process enjoyable instead of a burden or obligation. This first week I'm committing to giving meditation a try at least once a day. I'd love for you to join me!

Meditation: the ultimate state of mindfu…

You know that little nagging voice that you sometimes ignore? Matt would say yes, and that the voice is mine. But what I'm talking about is that inner voice in the back of your mind that's usually right even though sometimes you don't want to listen. It might be telling you to finish that thing on your to-do list you keep putting off, that maybe you could be eating healthier, or that you’re spending too much time on your phone. Lately I've been ignoring the fact that I should be getting a littl…

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been wonderful. I feel like I really started to notice how much lighter it's getting later into the evening this week and along with the warmer temps I'm getting some summer vibes. Yayy sunlight. Once again I'm checking in to share some of the things that I'm loving this week. As always, I'd love to hear what things made you smile this week in the comments! Thanks for stopping by. <3

New veggie Breakfast bowl creations

I shared this on Instagram ear…

8 Tips to embracing taking a deep breath

I'm a first born and my parents named me Amelia. In Latin, Amelia means "industrious". Basically, this means that a synonym for my name could be Type-A. I'm only now realizing how appropriate that is given the first letter of my name. All of this to say, I feel like my constant need to be productive and setting goals and difficulty JUST RELAXING was kind of inevitable.

For the most part I've accepted and embraced that. But accepting my person…

When I made Matt try a spoonful of this nut butter he smiled and his eyes lit up. "You like this?!", he said. At that point, I knew I had a winner. By that he means that this delightful nut butter tastes way too decadent to be healthy. But, it is! And yes, I like this. I love this. On everything, including straight from a spoon. Every time I open the refrigerator.

I try to take collagen almost every day. Now that I'm in my thirties my knees snap crackle and pop every time I squat do…

Happy Friday! How was your week? I'm checking in once again to share some of the things that I'm loving or that have made me smile this week. I didn't think I had much to share, but turns out I have a lot to say about tropical fruit and other random things. I'd LOVE to hear what made you happy this week in the comments. Thanks for stopping by. <3

Papayas

Google told me that these are also called pawpaws, which made me excited because how adorable is that?! Upon further investigation (go…