Win a Teething Necklace Prize Pack! RV over $60!

Sponsored By: Mommy's Touch

Hosted By: Love, Mrs. Mommy

3 Winners Will Receive A Mommy's Touch Silicone Necklace Prize!

Grand Prize: 

Winner will receive all the following silicone necklaces:

Black Shark Tooth

White Shark Tooth

Hawaiian Fish Hook

White Fish Hook

A $62.96 RV Prize Pack!

First Runner-up:

Winner's Choice of 2 silicone necklaces from the following options:

1 - Shark Tooth Necklace (Black Shark Tooth or White Shark Tooth)

1 - Fish Hook Necklace (Hawaiian Fish Hook or White Fish Hook)

Up to a $31.98 RV!

Second Runner-up: 

Winner's Choice of 1 silicone necklace from the following options:

Black Shark Tooth / White Shark Tooth / 
Hawaiian Fish Hook / White Fish Hook

Up to a $15.99 RV!

Open To US entries and must be 18+ to enter

Giveaway Dates ~ 8/27 9:00 AM EST through 9/24 11:59PM EST

Entry-Form

Disclosure: Love, Mrs. Mommy and all participating bloggers are not held responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill their prize obligations. This giveaway is in no way endorsed or sponsored by Facebook or any other social media site. The winners will be randomly drawn by Giveaway Tools and will be notified by email. Winners have 48 hours to reply before a replacement winner will be drawn. If you would like to participate in an event like this please contact LoveMrsMommy (at) gmail (dot) com.

What happens when you lose sight of who you used to be?

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Do you ever feel like you've lost your way... or more accurately, lost yourself? I suspect that a lot of moms with younger children feel that way. There are just so many demands on you that you barely remember what made you tick before... before middle-of-the-night feedings, trips to the grocery store with three little ones in tow, endless packing of lunches, reading blog posts about parenting and vaccinations and school choices and breastfeeding, and juggling everyone else's schedules, and... and... phew, it's exhausting just thinking about all the ways you're no longer who you used to be.

Don't fret, mama, there will eventually be a time when you feel like you again. Maybe not the same you as before, but a better you. After all, motherhood, while exhausting, fulfills you in a way nothing else does.

Right now, I'm sort of in the same boat. No, I don't have little ones pulling me in different directions, but I do have a new, and unexpected, career that has taken me away from the me I used to be. It was never my goal to run an in-home senior care company. Never even on the radar. After working from home for most of my adult life, heading into the office every day is new to me. But, after 21 months now, I've adjusted. And I actually enjoy the job. I love working with my daughter. I enjoy knowing that we make a difference. But lately, I've been antsy. No, more than antsy... I've been depressed. And this past week, I figured out why. 

It's because I lost sight of who I was. As I was adjusting to a managerial role, I had to let go of some of the things that made me me. And I missed me. You know what I mean? I missed the me I used to be. That's not to say I want to go back to being the me I was before I started this job. Not at all. Just like you don't want to go back to being the person you were before you had kids... not if it means giving up those kids, right? I don't want to walk away from anything. But I need to walk toward the things that used to infuse me with life, with joy, with energy. 

So I've made a plan and started enacting it. I'm reconnecting with my writing friends... my old tribe. And I'm writing again. I'm going to refocus on my novel and make writing a priority, like it once was. When people ask about what I do, I want to go back to saying, "I'm a writer." And then I can add, "And I run an in-home care company." I may put more hours into the company, but I want to put my heart back into what I believe God created me to do. Does that make sense? 

The me I was had to be dormant for awhile as I readjusted my priorities and refocused my attention on a new pursuit. But I woke from my hibernation with a feeling of discontent and now I understand. 

Hang in there, mama. You are still you under the surface. And parts of you still shine through, even when your clothing is stained with spit up and you haven't had a shower in days. You're still beautiful and radiant and worth your weight in precious gems. 

While you may think the older generation doesn't understand your struggles, take it from me, we do. We really do.

Sharing my heart,

Back to School Giveaway! Enter to Win a $45 Amazon Gift Card!

Proper hydration is vital for kids who need to stay alert during the school day. This is something that is often overlooked when trying to figure out what is causing the problems for some kids at school. Their concentration levels are off and doctors are quick to prescribe pharmaceuticals to 'solve' the 'problem'. But what if the problem is as simple as your kids just having enough water to drink?

What is Gululu? Gululu was developed by Bowhead Technology as an interactive water bottle that keeps children hydrated while allowing parents to monitor daily water-drinking progress through an easy to use smartphone app. Gululu provides a technology-enabled solution with a learning-through-play mechanism to address issues pertaining to children’s well being.

The water bottle tracks hydration and encourages the child to drink with the help of an educational pet-growing game DIRECTLY ON THE BOTTLE! As kids consume more water from their Gululu bottle, their virtual pet grows and unlocks new worlds and adventures at the “Gululu Universe." Gululu also has an automatic software and content update system that continuously rolls out new features to keep children engaged.

Gululu's Greater Purpose:

Gululu's mission and contribution is to help children all over the world stay healthy and hydrated! To advance their goal, for every Gululu bottle purchased, a child in a developing country will be provided with clean drinking water! This initiative was created through a partnership with Generosity.org, a humanitarian organization that provides sustainable solutions to the global water crisis, one community at a time. Joining forces with Generosity.org has allowed Gululu to offer programs focused on educating kids on social responsibility and initiate water-well projects for developing countries.

Want to know more? Gululu has been featured in leading global media publications in over 20 countries. Among them are TechCrunch, Yahoo, Vogue, and Forbes that declared Gululu as a “Top 5 best kids’ gadgets.”

Enter to Win a $45 Gift Card from Gululu!

Gululu is giving away a $45 Gift Card to one lucky winner to

help you prepare for the upcoming school year!

Quick Features!

Gululu is an amazing interactive water bottle that provides children with an entertaining reminder to stay hydrated. Parents love it because it doesn't require anything extra from them. All you have to do is wash Gululu after each use, allow it to air dry (baby bottle racks are a great drying solution to keep the lid and bottle together). Kids can easily charge Gululu overnight or between sips as the bottle just rests on the charging cradle when not in use. Take a look at the quick features that highlights why you'll love Gululu too:

• Monitor children's daily water-drinking progress through your smartphone
• Grow and evolve with a virtual ‘tamagotchi-like’ virtual pet
• Experience continuous content updates through an automatic software update system to keep children engaged
• Parents can utilize “Do Not Disturb” and “Bedtime” modes to be sure the Gululu Pet isn't distracting during learning or rest times.
• Learn-Through-Play, embark on a journey of health, rewards, and adventures within the “Gululu universe”
• Connect with friends by syncing to nearby bottles and stay connected with the cloud-based app. Durable, safe, and waterproof with a modular design and easy-to-clean spout that makes maintenance simple BPA-free

Other important features:

• Monthly themes: Every couple of weeks, Gululu introduces additional features, such as new online campaigns, drinking animations, pet accessories, sound effects, and more. These exciting additions are all automatically updated into the bottle through the cloud.
• Gululu Universe Journey: Children can redeem accessories for their pets with the virtual coins collected along their journey of discovering the Gululu Universe.
• Virtual pets: A fourth virtual pet, (Donny), was released at the end of March. More characters are expected to be added soon to expand the population of the “Gululu universe.”

ENTER TO WIN!

One lucky reader will win a $45 Amazon Gift Card from Gululu!

The giveaway is open US Only, 18+

The giveaway ends 9/1 at 11:59pm EST

Be sure to come back daily for more chances to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The evil of 301. Plus one.

Jesus wept

My emotions are raw tonight. I feel tattered, bruised. There are over 1,000 innocent children who have come into the light as adults, revealing that which was hidden in darkness. A confession of sorts, but it is not the victims who need absolution and no amount of Our Fathers or Hail Marys will erase the dark blot of sin perpetrated by so-called men of God.

The Grand Jury released its report today, naming 301 priests in Pennsylvania who have been accused of sexually abused boys and girls in their parishes. Over one thousand boys and girls. This is unthinkable.

The live feed came across Facebook today as I sat at my desk and I allowed it to play in the background as I worked. But it could not, it would not, remain in the background as I heard the stories -- the horror stories -- of what happened to some of these victims. I heard of lives destroyed by these evil, evil men. And I wept. I wept for the children. I wept for the brokenness of the nation. I wept for God, knowing that many would place blame on Him, the very one who was broken and died for our brokenness.

And I wept for my younger self... the child I was before such evil befell me as an eight-year-old. No, it was not a man of God who hurt me, but it was a trusted neighbor. And my parents were oblivious as they left me in his care, as he molested, raped, and threatened me.

"If you tell anyone, you won't go to heaven when you die. You know that, right?"

My innocent little heart believed him. Heaven was conditional and I really wanted to go there someday. So my tainted lips were sealed. And my bloody underwear was buried underneath rotting tomatoes in the garbage can in the garage. My mother never asked what happened to the pretty white underwear with the yellow stitching.

And today, I wept. For strangers' children. And for the little girl I used to be. I haven't felt the need to revisit this part of my life in a long time. But today, uninvited, it covered me with its heavy cloak and at times I felt like I couldn't breathe in its darkness.

I don't have answers. Today, I just have an overwhelming feeling of grief.

Sharing my heart,

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com