Finish This Week 22: A Link Up (A Day LATE!)

Welcome to Week 22 of Finish This! This link-up is hosted by NICOLE (Three31) LISA (COASTLINED), JEN (The Arizona Russums), BECKY (The Java Mama) and I and we’re so glad you’re here. If you’ve joined us before, thanks for returning! Be sure to add your post to the link-up. If you don’t have a blog, don’t worry. Simply answer the prompts in a comment. Next week’s prompts are at the bottom of this post.

1. I conquer fear … By praying. There are so many scary things in this world we are living in right now. I just want put Connor in a bubble so he won’t be exposed to all the hate and violence out there. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. I just have to have faith that God will take care of us and protect my family.

2. I follow my heart … I think I lead with my heart a lot. I’m a very sensitive person in general and I care greatly for others. My way of showing I care is by doing “service” for others and it makes me feel good to serve others. In doing this I think you have to follow your heart 🙂

3. I feed my soul by … Praying. Meditating in prayer, talking to God. Quiet time and every now and then throughout the day I’ll just have a soul moment where I feel like it’s God guiding me in a way. I feel Him throughout the day and I’m thankful I have that relationship to talk to Him whenever I want. He’s always there and He is always listening!

4. I used to worry about ____ but then I …

I used to worry about what people think of me so much. If they were judging me or whatever. I have been on antidepressants since I was around 16. It’s just something that unfortunately is in my gene pool. I struggle with worry on a daily basis. Thankfully my faith has helped a lot. As I get older it’s been easier to let things roll of my back. Over the years you sort of figure out what truly matters in life.

LINK UP & VIEW OTHERS HERE

Now it’s your turn. Answer these prompts in a post on your own blog or, if you do not have a blog, simply add your responses in a comment. Join us next Wednesday for another round of Finish This where we’ll answer the prompts below!

Prompts for WEEK 23 (June 11) are: The best compliment I ever received … Wearing red lipstick makes me feel … The best investment I’ve made … My best childhood memory …

Also I’m doing a series on Instagram called #workingwardrobe I’d love for you all to link up!!! Peace out LOVES!

Revolution Foods: The Perfect, Healthy Snack for your Kiddos #MC

“I participated in an Influencer Program on behalf of Mom Central for Revolution Foods. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.”

As a busy, working Mom it’s sometimes hard for me to make sure my family is eating the healthiest options out there. I’m constantly battling with myself about what to put on our table that is filling and also healthy.

Connor loves to build things like any young boy does! I went grocery shopping last weekend and picked up a few meal kids from Revolution Foods.
Revolution Foods was founded by two moms that ignited a healthy food movement in schools nationwide, now offers Revolution Foods Meal Kits, a convenient way for kids to eat meals made with natural, high quality ingredients and no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives (that your kids will actually enjoy!)

I picked up the Ham and Cheddar Meal Kit, Turkey and Cheddar Meal Kit, & Cheese Pizza Meal Kit.
Connor often snacks after school and I love that Revolution Foods kids have no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. Also, each meal kit contains at least 7 grams of whole grains and one serving of fruit.

Connor’s favorite thing about the snack was building his own “sandwiches”. He loves ham and cheese sandwiches so I knew he would enjoy the ham and cheese kit.

Revolution Foods Meal Kits are available at Safeway stores nationwide.

Right now you can get a Revolution Foods coupon for a discount on Revolution Foods Meal Kits HERE.

Favorites+ Working Mom Wardrobe Series

A lot of times I find something and I can’t wait to share with people. Tarte is no longer selling my favorite lipstick, LipSurgence in “Buff”. So where do I look for advice…fellow bloggers. I read about Kate from The Small Things Blog loved BITE lipstick. Of course I didn’t create my own. But I found a color that is pretty similar to what I wanted in a neutral lip color. This is the “Nude Almond”. What I love most about it is the taste/flavor. It’s not overpowering and it doesn’t taste like wax like a lot of lipsticks.

Another item I picked up was Formula X nail polish from Sephora. I really like this neutral lavender for spring. This is my second week wearing it and I’m getting chips, but the first week it held up pretty well.

In my Birchbox for May I received this BB Golden Glow crème. I have very fair skin and actually looks really good on me. It doesn’t give me a streaky fake tan look. Just a nice golden accent to my skin.

Another favorite item is this “Time to Get Stuff Done!” mug from Click & Blossom. I also ordered a really cute t-shirt but it’s way too small…if I can’t return it I may just give it away to one of y’all 🙂 It’s too small for my boobage! Darn.

So, I know there are a lot of fashion bloggers out there and I love seeing how they style things. Honestly, my style is pretty simple & because I work full-time I have to find things I can work into my every day life AND the work week. So I’d love to see how you style your work wardrobe. Follow along on Instagram and TAG YOURSELF #workingwardrobe

Here’s my #workingwardrobe for today. Picture courtesy of Connor 🙂

For details on this outfit visit my Instagram and click on the picture:

Tolalu Kids: Custom Kid Activities & Gifts

I received Tolalu products in exchange for a post about the personalized gifts for kids. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A few weeks ago I ordered some fun items from a company called Tolalu for Connor. Tolalu has beautifully designed, high quality customized products for children and parents.

Tolalu produces a range of affordable, tailor made products:

Calendars, Placemats, Growth charts, Stickers, Storybooks, Items for Mom and more!

At Tolalu you can customize your items by gender, color, & name.

All Tolalu product designs are first viewed by kids for their feedback. Only after getting their approval is the product introduced to customer.

When Connor is old enough to do “major” chores we are certainly going to use this chart. He loves it and keeps asking what it’s for. Right now his chores consist of sorting the laundry by color 🙂

I also created a personalized place mat to use during meal time. He likes seeing the dragon and all our pictures and he knows that’s HIS seat.

There are lots of fun activity books to choose from too. These are great for rainy indoor days where you need some busy work. Everything in the activity booklet is totally customized for your child too.

The last thing I got was some stickers with his name on them. He loves to trade stickers with all his friends at school.

I can definitely tell these are “kid approved” items because Connor certainly approved himself. He enjoyed everything! Tolalu has great personalized items for your children and the prices are SO GOOD too!

Check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Why I Switched From Blogger To WordPress…

I could go into great detail on the reasons why I decided to finally make the leap from Blogger to WordPress, but I’ll give you a list of reasons why I finally did.

I’ve been blogging since 2006. That’s almost 8 years of blogging. This website is my journal and holds many memories. A little over a year and a half ago I heard a lot of things were going to change on Blogger, but I still didn’t really want to mess with changing my blog over to WordPress. I heard it was expensive and it’s a totally different platform than Blogger. Many told me it was hard to learn and to just stick to what I knew and what was working for me. I did for a long time….and I can’t say anything bad about Blogger.com it’s a great FREE site to host a blog!

I’ll list out a few reasons why I switched:

1. My website is now MINE. I own the domain and it’s self-hosted, which means if anything happens all my content, pictures, etc are backed up and accounted for.

2. It was an investment to switch (maybe a few hundred dollars-but that’s for 2-3 years of hosting until I renew) for me I thought it was worth the investment. I chose to go with BlueHost and they have been WONDERFUL! Anytime I screwed something up royally or lost something on my blog they were quick to fix it for me and get me back on my feet. The customer service from BlueHost is great!

3. It took a couple of months to get use to a new blogging platform. I can honestly say there is so much you can DO with WordPress that you can’t do with Blogger. So many plugins and widgets to customize your site.

4. A template doesn’t have to be expensive. I found mine on Etsy. The seller was super nice and I bought my template with Genesis framework for around $40. I would highly recommend Genesis for anyone looking for a WordPress theme.

5. Besides being able to customize your site exactly the way you want it, you also can really customize the SEO for your site. This makes it easier for people to find your content when searching for a specific topic.

My content and photos are more organized in my WordPress account. I can categorize things easily and find posts to link back to with a click of a button. It took a while to learn about platforms, widgets, and plugins. I would never EVER pay someone to convert my blog from Blogger to WordPress. It’s a simple and FREE plugin that does all the work for you. All you have to do is search for the plugin and install! So easy.

Do your research. Decide what you want. Once you decide on a host they’ll set up everything for you. It will take a few days for your host to convert everything over to your new site. You can use the same web address too. Nothing changes-except now I feel like my site is a bit more polished and professional.

If you are a serious blogger I would highly recommend switching. It makes a big difference in a lot of ways. I’m probably not even mentioning a lot right now….just know it’s a lot cleaner and organized way to blog. If you have any questions feel free to email me or leave a comment below and I’ll do the best I can to answer. To get started check out BlueHost and their rates are very reasonable. From that point it’s just converting, picking a theme, and customizing. You’ll never have to worry about losing something on your blog again and I promise you won’t regret the switch.

Five on Friday

1. I know I’m a crazy person and keep changing my blog design. I am legit cray cray!

I bought this “FAMILY” sign while in Arkansas and just love it….hoping to find a place to put it soon!

2. I’ve been using the ItWorks! Hair, Skin, Nails vitamins for about a month and 3 weeks ago I had NO roots. Seriously this stuff works. My hair has grown at least a couple of inches. I’m trying to grow it out as much as I can before my sister’s wedding.

3. I’m seriously addicted to sno-cones right now. I don’t like syrup though….too much makes me gag. So I get mostly ice with a little bit of strawberry on top!

4. My favorite color is green. I found these cute flats that feel like slippers the other day at Steinmart. SO COMFY!

5. Today is my 33rd birthday (or I’m 30 again…ahem….) I am so blessed and thankful for another year of life. My sweet boys made my day and got me a pretty necklace and tonight we’re going out with friends. It’s gonna be a good year 🙂

HAPPY FRIDAY Y’ALL!!!

DFW Blogger Meetup!!! Friday, June 6, 2014

I hope you can all make it! There are only 30 seats available. More information is available through Eventbrite, where you can get your ticket.

If you would like to come please go HERE

Copywright The Java Mama/Becky Branch 2014