I Love My Online Friends Monday Hop!

 This is my first time participating in the 'I Love My Online Friends Monday Hop'!  

So here's my first blog post for this hop!  And did I mention, I really DO love ALL of my online friends :-)

Can I get a big YAY! for social media ?!

Praising Him ANY time!

I just wanted to take a quick minute to Praise the Lord. 

I've been praying so hard over a long period of time - for Landon to start going to church with us.  He's always had a problem going, since we started going, and well...

After weeks, even months, of not going to church regularly, I finally decided to get all 4 of our butt's into gear this morning and GET TO CHURCH! 

AS A FAMILY!

Landon went right into his Sunday school class with no problems. I was SO thankful and all I could think of was how I needed to Praise my Lord for answering my prayer! 

I'm not sure what it was today that just gave me that 'get up and go' mood - really, it was God :-) but I had it and I feel a good week coming ahead. 

Eliza on the other hand....let's just say we have now made it clear that we WILL be going to church every Sunday now, and getting more 'plugged in' with our church family. 

I'm so tired of just sitting around talking about what I want and what I want to do, instead of DOING something about it & putting myself it to work!

James 2:22-25  "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.  For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror.  He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like.  But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does."

Progresso Soup Review & Giveaway!

Recently, I had the chance to try out 2 different kinds of Progresso soup!

I had NEVER had any Progresso soup before.  And boy was I definitely missing out!  It has the perfect blend of seasoning/flavoring.  Not only do their soups taste good, they are also nutritious!  Another plus for our family, my son's school collects Box Tops for Education and Progresso supports them, so we're able to use the labels!  

 Progresso has 4 different lines of their tasty soups;  Progresso New World Recipes, Progresso Light, Progresso Reduced Sodium, and Progresso High Fiber.

Progresso® New World Recipes™ – Inspired by Mexican recipes, explore one of the fastest growing ethnic cuisines by giving the Progresso New World Recipes line a try. Made with authentic Mexican ingredients and seasonings, four new Progresso soups will be hitting grocery shelves near you - Chicken Tortilla, Meatball & Rice, Black Bean Jalapeno and Chicken & Vegetable.


Progresso Light - America’s number one Light soup just got better, as all 13 existing Progresso Light varieties are now packed with bigger pieces of white meat chicken, more tender pieces of beef or added vegetables. Need even more to talk about? Progresso Light New England Clam Chowder is the first creamy Light ready-to-serve soup that holds true to the Progresso Light name with just 1 Weight Watchers® POINTS® value per serving!


Progresso Reduced Sodium – With 49 percent of shoppers concerned about high cholesterol1, Progresso understands the importance of soluble fiber and reduced sodium diets. New Reduced Sodium Tomato Parmesan soup is one more tasty option that has a delicious blend of flavors and carries the “May Help Lower Cholesterol”2 benefit. In addition, five additional Reduced Sodium soups also carry the “May Help Lower Cholesterol”2 benefit.


Progresso High Fiber – With 9 out of 10 Americans not getting the recommended Daily Value of fiber, Progresso High Fiber line of soups are packed with 7 grams per serving. Giving you one more thing to talk about, Progresso brand’s first Chili Soup just joined the High Fiber family!


For more information about the new and improved varieties of Progresso soups as well as great recipe ideas, visit www.progressosoup.com today! Also, check out Progresso on Facebook to “Like” the brand and keep up with the latest news on your favorite Progresso products, both new and old!

Along with sending me what is pictured below (soup can rack, 2 cans of Progresso soups, bowl, spoon and spoon rest) to review, I have also been given the opportunity to host a giveaway for my readers!  One of you lucky readers will have a chance to win what's included in the picture, as well :-)

Here's how to enter:
Leave a SEPARATE comment for each method of entry to increase your chance of winning!

1. Go to www.progressosoup.com and tell me what flavor you would like to try.
2. Become a follower of It's A Mom Thing
3. 'Like' Progresso on Facebook
4. Blog about this giveaway
5. 'Like' It's A Mom Thing on Facebook

This giveaway will end MONDAY MARCH 14 at 12:01 AM!


**The product(s), information and prize packs were all given to me from Progresso through  MyBlogSpark.**

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Here's a quick and easy recipe for chicken cordon bleu.

-chicken breast

-bacon

-ricotta cheese

-butter

-baking dish

You will first need to butterfly fillet your chicken breast.  Then fill each with ricotta cheese.  We love cheese.  I mean LOVE cheese, so I like to stuff it full! 

Rub butter over the chicken breast & then you will wrap your chicken with the bacon!  And pop in the oven :-)

I baked this approximately an hour at 350 degrees.  Your time may vary depending on how many  you are cooking.

Lots to talk about!

Boy do I have a LOT to talk about! 

You'll all just have to wait and find out what I'M talking about :-)

I've got a few posts coming up:

• RECIPES
• CRAFTS
• BEFORE/AFTER
• COUPONING/SAVING MONEY

AND.......2 GIVEAWAYS! 

CSN Stores!

CSN Stores is THE place to go when shopping for...well, ANYTHING!  You can get anything from swingsets to kitchenware!

I have been given the opportunity to giveaway a gift certificate to any of their 200 online stores!  More details to come :-)

Hanging On...

We lost a VERY amazing woman today.  Our hearts are full of sadness, but we continue to think of just how happy our Monnie is.  She's home with the Lord our Father and her husband, who has been waiting for her for the last 20 years.  

I won't be posting much this week, so please forgive me until then.  I only knew Monnie for a short 6 years.  She was my husband's grandmother.  Words cannot explain how much of an impact she made on me.  She is the one who finished my grandmother's job, in finding God.  My relationship with the Lord now, is because of Monnie.  She truly was my 3rd grandmother.  

I will be posting some about her this week though, I'm sure.  I still have not grasped the fact that she is gone, physically.  I know she's still here in spirit.  Please pray for my family during this very difficult time. 

V-Day Wall Hanging

Here's a simple Valentine's Day wall hanging!  

Supplies:

Mod Podge

Scrapbooking paper

stickers

wooden plaques

ribbon

hot glue gun

I had already used my Mod Podge to put the scrapbooking paper on.  But basically, you will need to measure the area needing to be covered with the scrapbook paper.  Then use as directed on bottle!

My first time using a bottle of Mod Podge!  I bought this awhile back because I had seen quite a few tutorials calling for this.  Man is this stuff awesome!  As you can see below, I put little punch outs on top of my scrapbook paper using the Mod Podge. 

Here's all 4 laid out and finished!  As you can see, I had already added my stickers.  They came in the pack of scrapbooking paper I got at Walmart, $5. 

 

You'll hot glue some ribbon onto the backs of the plaques. Make sure you have 2 pieces of ribbon shorter than the other two.  Only about an inch or so shorter.

Of course, you'll need to have your entire family helping out! 

Finally, hang your work of art on the wall!  

I got those picture hanger thing - a - ma - bobs from Walmart by the hardware section.  I'm trying to figure out what to put on them to kind of 'hide' them. 

Love Never Fails

I'm going to talk about families and relationships for a quick minute. 

When my husband and I first met, we got a long so well.  When our son was born, we were both new and young parents.  Neither had really been around babies a lot, we just knew we had wanted kids. 

Needless to say, exhaustion, fatigue, depression, anxiety, hormones; it all played a part in our relationship as husband and wife.  We were now including one more person to the picture and it took a lot of adjusting.  During our hard times, I would always call my family crying.  Crying about how awful things were and how badly I wanted to come back home. 

You see, I believe the major problem with me being a new mom was this: my family was no where near me.  I couldn't call them and ask them to come over and help with the baby.  My family is 2 states away!  It took a major toll on me. 

For quite some time things were going down hill, but my husband and I never gave up.  Although it felt like we wanted to at times, we stuck through it all, and together.

Of course, because I included my family into my relationship with my husband, they are unsure as to what to think about him.  Now, there are only about 4 people that I know of, who are on edge about him - because of me and my loud mouth.  I will tell you however, it IS VERY difficult living with your husbands family and not having your family and friends around you.  That is no lie.

Because of their feelings towards him, I actually 'unplugged' from my family for quite some time last year (2010).  It was a MUCH needed break and I'm every bit positive that God had a play in that 'break'.  It gave me time to look in front of me and see what I was.  What I was, was actually happy, and with my husband. I was just too busy trying to please everybody at the same time. 

Remember, there is One you should live to make happy, and that's the Lord our Savior!  Then, our husbands.  We choose to make a new family when we marry, and that becomes our priority. It's easy to get off track when it comes to our priorities as a Christian woman/wife/mother, we just have to seek God's guidance! 

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

 

Feeling Stuck. Like in mud.

Do you ever just feel stuck?  In life?  Like a truck that gets stuck in mud.

That's how I've been feeling lately.  Stuck.  Oh, I want so very badly to help others.  Using my experience, as an attempted suicide survivor, to reach out to others who may feel they too want to end their lives.

I just KNOW it's what God is wanting me to do.  I'm getting goosebumps this very second typing this post.  I feel Him running through me, but I'm having such a hard time of getting to the point of knowing....

where to start.

See, that's my problem.  I get such great ideas and it is so hard for me to find a good place to start.  Then, I can't even finish it.  Seriously.  It seems like I can never finish anything.  My husband can vouch for this one: I can't even finish my last bite of food most times.  Isn't that horrible?

Why am I here telling you all this?  Well, I'm here to ask for you, my readers, to please help me.  If you pray, please pray for me to find the answer I'm looking for.  The answer is here, I am having a hard time grasping it. 'Taking it and running with it.'

Sweetheart Topiary

I finally got off my lazy tush motivated enough to actually make that sweetheart topiary I posted about last week.

Here's my make on it:

You will need:

• Red Shredded basket paper
• small flower pots
• wooden dowels
• Styrofoam balls
• Hot glue gun
• Sweetheart candies

Of course, don't forget your helper :-)

First, you can paint your Styrofoam ball red.  Then, continue to burn fingers hot glue your sweetheart candies onto the ball.

Now, hot glue the inside bottom of your pot.  Stick your dowel in there and hot glue some more sweetheart candies.  This helps keep it a little more sturdy. 

This isn't pictured, but after this step you'll put hot glue all around and put the red shredded paper in there as well. 

All that's left is - sticking your Styrofoam sweetheart candy ball onto your dowel!

There you have it!  A pretty topiary!  I'm thinking about painting a couple of red hearts onto the pot.  I may have Landon get into some paint and decorate it.  We will be giving one to his teacher & we'll keep one at the house.

Crafting Fun This Week!

I've decided to post a couple of different Valentine's crafts & tutorials.  I'll be posting these throughout this upcoming week.  

Here's a sneak peak of the supplies (of which I'll be using for the tutorials) I've collected throughout the last couple of weeks.  

So, do you think you can guess what all we will be crafting this week?

Cloth Diapering IS fun!

Betcha don't think about that every day, now do ya?!

I first caught onto cloth diapering about 2 years ago now.  I started out actually sewing some and making them on my own.  

That didn't work out as much as I had hoped, so I finally convinced the husband that it was time I bought some brand name cloth diapers.  Boy am I SO very happy he agreed!  What?  It's not like he changes diapers that often anyways!  LOL

My first set of cloth diapers were from Kelly's Closet:

6 Kissaluvs

1 Marvels Kissaluv diaper cover

Diaper Potion spray (for baby wipe)

12 cloth wipes

2 pail liners

3 Fuzzi Bunz one size

1 Thristies diaper cover

Total for package: $207

Then, I checked out Diaper Swappers.

Basically, Diaper Swappers is a huge forum with a bunch of cloth diapering mommas, buying/selling/trading NEW & USED cloth diapers!

I bought my 2nd package which included:

2 Monkey Doodlez

1 Bum Joy

1 Bumgenius 2.0

1 Katydid

The total for that package: $40

And FINALLY!  I bought my 3rd package of 'fluff mail' - as us cloth diapering (CDing) mommas like to call it:

4 Bumgenius 2.0

1 Happy Heinys one size

1 GroBaby (my all time favorite thus far!)

1 Bummis Whisper rubber pant

Total: $38

I spent just a little under $300 on all of that!  Now, I do still use disposables at night...I have yet to find a diaper that works well during the night time for us.  

I'm assuming Eliza will be in diapers for another year. We've already been cloth diapering for 2 months now and it's been awesome!  

I just love everything about cloth diapering.  It may not be for everyone, but in my household, I'm the only diaper changer, therefore I want to!  

Do any of you cloth diaper?  If so, what do you like/don't like about it?  When & if we decide to have another baby in the future, I do plan on using cloth again.  Only next time, I will use cloth diapers from beginning to end!

Home Decorating Idea(s)

We are currently in the process of decorating/remodeling our home.  

I'm so excited we're finally able to do this.  The wait has definitely been worth it, and WILL be (since I'm sure we won't get it done all at once!).  I thought I'd share with my readers some things I have planned to do.  These posts will also help me keep track of the ideas I've seen around the internet :-)

Here is the first room we've begun decorating.  Notice the ugly flooring?  That's going to change soon, VERY soon I hope!  I LOVE the built in bookcase.  Bed on the floor?  Not so much.  

So, we aren't 100% on what we want to do with this room.  There are 3 bedrooms.  Surely the kids will want their own bedrooms, at least they will soon enough.  I thought about making this room a playroom for the time being. And put a twin sized bed, or pull out sofa/love seat, maybe even a futon in there - for when we have guests they have somewhere to sleep.  

Now, I'm thinking we may just make it Landon's room and Eliza will take over Landon's current room.  There is no closet in this room, so the kids would share a closet.  It isn't a big deal now, I'm just thinking for in the future.  Yea, I should probably just stick to thinking in the NOW! haha 

Enough with the chit chat.  Here's an idea I would really like to put into play here in the room, 

Photo credit, Mama Notes

She made this shelf out of a rain gutter!  What a FANTASTIC idea! 

Weakness Made Strong

W
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.



2 Corinthians 12:8-10 "...delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties."  Instead of looking at our weaknesses in negative ways, we should be delighting in them.  For through those hard times, we will become stronger for the next one.   Do you ever remember hearing these words?
"This too shall pass?"
All of our hard  ships WILL pass!  It's true, and this verse makes me realize that we can pick ourselves right back up again, after falling. 
We may  feel like we are constantly asking God "Why?"  And we get so tempted to just give up on Him.  But in fact, when we are in that very stage of hopelessness, HIS power is made perfect!  He is standing right there next to us, we just need to take His hand and realize that with Him, anything is possible!