One thing I love about my elders is that they start their teachings acknowledging that this is the way they do things and it might differ from the way someone else does things. There is a respect for differences in Indigenous cultures. No way is wrong, just different. So this is the way I make fry bread. It might be different than the way someone else will teach you and that's okay. All fry bread is delicious. Indigenous people are excellent examples of making do with what you have. When the settlers started to take the land and moving people to reservations, many Natives began to starve beca ..read more

Boozhoo (Hello)!! Happy Native American Heritage Month my friends! A divine series of events sparked in 2020 has lead me on a transformational journey this year to reconnect to my Indigenous roots. Last year I shared this post during November and since then I have been working hard on getting enrolled in my tribe and embracing my culture. Reconnecting to my culture has been a such a blessing. Despite all the challenges, I really have been able to enjoy a lot of the culture that colonization tried to destroy. I'm truly embracing all that being Native has to offer. I went to my first sweat lodg ..read more

I just crashed. My marriage. My finances. My relationships. My friendships. It seems like a lot came crashing down on me at once and without any warning. The last 4 months have been a blur of activity and emotion that forced me to examine every aspect of my life and prioritize my attention to what mattered the most. It has forced me to look at each of my endeavors and think about how it brought value to my life and my future goals. It has brought about a spiritual awakening in me that I'll share more about some other time. But before this all happened, I had a lot of goals focused on growing ..read more

Welcome to Monday! Welcome to March! Fresh week + Fresh month! How did we get so lucky? I feel energized by today. Any day is a great day to start, but when you start on Monday, there's a special power added to the inspired action you take. Toss in the start of a new month on top of that and it has success written all over it! I'm going to share the two things I do to kick off a successful month. Secure the Bag. On the 1st of the month I like to take inventory of all my finances. I balance all my accounts and I check in on my credit scores. It is important to have a clear understanding of you ..read more

I've shared with you before that I am Native American. 50% A recent Instagram post showed me that you want to learn more about my heritage, and I love it. And what a better time to learn than Native American History Month, right? So yes. I am an Ojibwe native. Ojibwe, at one point in history, translated to 'Chippewa' when European settlers found their way to Minnesota and couldn't speak our language. They are used interchangeably. We reference ourselves in our language as Anishinabe, "The original people". Our history in northern Minnesota dates back to 1400AD and we are the largest native gr ..read more

What a week we just had, huh? It seems like so long ago but last weekend Nick and I took our first vacation since March.* Our good friend just turned 40. Nick just celebrated his birthday earlier this month. Hotel and flights are affordable. Flying is actually pretty safe and we have limited contact with people at home as it is. So we decided to go. We stayed at The Linq Hotel on the Las Vegas strip and had an incredible weekend getaway. I had heard so many great things about this hotel before booking our room and it lived up to all of the hype. The Linq Hotel is surrounded by many of the cool ..read more

It's been March since I last got dressed and drove in to work. A lot has happened this year and I am so grateful for the privilege to work from home. I had a discussion with The Today Show the other day over whether or not WFH will last forever. My hope is that it does. I've established a great way to manage these sudden changes in work environment and I'm going to share them with you today. Establish a Morning Routine Get up. Make your bed. Sit down and breathe for a moment. You don't have to get all chanty and dramatic about it but sit down and breathe somewhere. Focus yourself for the day ..read more

There's a new skincare guru in town and her name is Destinee. I had the opportunity to visit Hello Lovely Skin & Beauty inside Sola Salons in West Des Moines a couple weeks ago and I'm here now to share why you need to book your own appointment FAST. I've never had a real facial before. I've done mini-facials at the hair salon while I wait for my color to process but nothing like the Classically Yours Facial at Hello Lovely. So when, Destinee reached out to offer me a great deal on a big-girl facial, I couldn't resist. First Impressions Destinee's face is FLAWLESS. Her skin was more than g ..read more

It has been MONTHS since I've had a date night with my husband. COVID has had us indoors and dealing with things for too long and we were ready for some time alone. We headed over to Orient, Iowa to enjoy The Wallace Center's Pizza on the Prairie this last Friday and it would be rude to not share our experience with you. Pizza on the Prairie has every great ingredient for a wonderful date night covered: good food, yummy drinks, lovely music, and a little adventure all rolled into one. Orient is just a short jaunt from Des Moines and we enjoyed looking at the beautiful rolling plains of farmla ..read more

This has been a challenging month. And the reality of it all is that I'm not sure if I can do it. About a month ago, our nieces and nephew came to live with us unexpectedly. My sister-in-law has been battling her mental health for a long time. Things just came to a head and the children were removed from her care and placed with us. It has been a whirlwind to say the least. We started the month with our 2 boys ready to end the summer and get ready for school. Things were going great. We had a family vacation planned to the Boundary Waters at the tippy top of Minnesota. Then we had 5 kids sudde ..read more