Out of the Wedding Bubble My new husband, Matt, and I have officially emerged from our wedding bubble after over a year of planning. When it was time to return to work, many people asked me how the wedding went. I was giddy and responded with clichés such as, “It was the best day ever!” While there were a few things that didn’t go as planned, those moments added a bit of character and made the wedding weekend even more personal to who Matt and I are. Honestly, we wouldn’t have changed a thing! Prior to the wedding, I spent …

I hope this issue finds you doing things you enjoy with people you love. For me, that’s preparing and sharing meals together. I recently had an opportunity for some fresh scallops and served them on some homemade pasta to highlight the seafood. Cheers to summer! Bon Apetit, Lanette Seared scallops with pasta INGREDIENTS • 28 oz scallops • 2 tablespoons salted butter • 5 ramp stems and bulbs, chopped • 1 small yellow onion, diced • ½ cup white wine • 5 oz jarred sun dried tomato strips in oil, drained (reserve 1 teaspoon of the jarred oil for cooking) …

By Katie McKy The popularity of the show, “Call the Midwife,” might be partly responsible for the uptick in women using midwives, but there are myriad other reasons to tap the talents of a midwife. For example, the Ohio Association of Advanced Practice Nurses reports that women who use midwives have “a higher level of care satisfaction, a decreased risk of a cesarean birth, reduced rates of labor induction, and reduced risk of regional anesthesia,” among other positive outcomes. Additionally, the American College of Nurse-Midwives says that the “benefits of receiving midwifery care include decreased infant mortality rates, decreased risk …

I ran up the stairs and jumped into my mom’s bed, “That was the best first date I’ve ever been on. I am going to marry him.” I’m not sure if she believed me, or if she thought it was the Spotted Cow talking, but I was right. I get to marry that boy in 50 days. Our first date was in December of 2021, but our story starts in the summer of 2019. I was going into my junior year of college. School was my top priority, but I admit I became slightly distracted when a cute boy from …

If you want to change the world go home and love your family- Mother Theresa As I sit down to write this editorial for the June/July issue of 5ive for Women, I am filled with a mix of emotions. My daughter, Grace Theisen, has been a valuable contributor to our publication for many years, bringing her unique perspective on faith, family, friends, fitness, and finance to our readers. However, as she prepares to embark on a new chapter in her life as Grace Pulver, I am both sad to see her go but also excited for the journey that lies …

With an emphasis on equilibrium and personal growth, 5ive for Women encourages the on-the-go gal to pause for self-nurturing, through insightful articles and thought-provoking features – supporting the not-so-simple balance between faith, family, friends, fitness, and finance. At 5ive, we are advocates of healthy priorities and fitness for life, while striving to motivate, energize and inspire camaraderie of the Chippewa Valley sisterhood. VIEW THIS ISSUE [ in this issue ] 8 Midwifery in Menomonie 10 The Valley’s Giver & Gift 12 Cracking the Code: Understanding Dyslexia in Children 14 Bold and Beautiful Things to Do In the Valley This Summer …

Shotgun Lovesongs By Nickolas Butler This is a tale about five friends from Little Wing, a small town in Wisconsin near Eau Claire. Henry, Lee, Kip and Ronny are the four male characters in this novel. Beth, the only female, is married to Henry, but their lives are all intertwined. A wedding brings the now 30-somethings together again. A secret is shared, and lives begin to fall apart. Will a marriage persist? Will forever friends remain friends? You will find the answer when you read this well-written story. Having grown up in small town America, I was really able to …

I am excited to marry my faith with my love for food to create a recipe that embodies this edition’s theme “mindfulness.” Lent, which starts February 14th this year according to the liturgical calendar, has me thinking about mindfulness and love. To me, the most important message of Lent is to slow down, reflect and appreciate. Don’t rush through life without stopping to think about all the gifts we’ve been given, and maybe even share them with those you love. We northerners tend to find ourselves wishing for warmer weather to accompany Easter. The sunny flavor of freshly-squeezed orange juice …

By Katie McKy For Ann Brand, the founder of Ann Brand Mindfulness, mindfulness is academic, personal, and professional. Brand earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with an emphasis on child development and families. She was studying “experience and expression of emotion” at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD. There, she plumbed the research that shows “mindfulness supports attention and memory, emotion regulation, stress reduction, and positive relationships among other things.” That’s when it became personal, for Brand was “suffering from grief after her mother’s death.” “The experience of grief after the …

While putting away a few Christmas gifts this year, I found a note my grandma wrote. My grandma’s words warmed my heart, but what I found on the back of the note caught my attention. Grandma likes to recycle her daily quote calendar pages. This one read, Comparison is the thief of joy. –Theodore Roosevelt. A simple, yet profound quote. Recently, I told my mom that if a spot opens at her medical sales company that I would like to apply. If you know me, you probably know that I am a much better nurse than I would be a …