Favorite Things about March

It's the end of March which means I'm linking up with Ashley at Dancing with Ashley for Favorite Things link up. 

March was much better than February. (Thank goodness!)

Here are my favorite things from the month:

1. TRACK OUT
I work at a year round school which means I get 4 breaks a year. My break in March was short, but a break is a break.

 
2. Spring Cleaning
I cleaned out our pantry, our closet, and our spare room. I love when things are clean and organized!


3. Changes
I had time to sit back and think about my blogging and what I wanted to do differently because I'd been very dissatisfied. I've made some of these changes and I'm feeling better already. You can read about these changes here and here.

4. Camelbak Bottles
I finally bought myself 2 Camelbak bottles and personalized them. I love using them to take my water to work and around my house.


5. Youtube
When I was in college, I spent more time than I should have watching videos on Youtube. One thing just leads to another with their recommended and related videos in the sidebar. Since I was on a break from work, I had a chance to waste time watching Youtube videos this month. I especially enjoyed watching A Very Potter Sequel and A Very Potter Senior Year. If you like Harry Potter, musicals, and spoofs, I recommend these videos. Another fun series I found was the people react videos where they have either kids, teenagers, youtubers, and elders react to various videos.

 I also had a lot of time for reading this month. Check back Monday for my March book reviews.

What was your favorite thing from this past month?

Petition Kraft Foods

WELL..... I had planned on writing a post soon about my convictions and thoughts about eating "real" food. I wanted to explain my reasoning and let you know my plan of action. Then, I wanted to use my blog to share with you what I was learning, how I was doing, and tips and recipes I found. 

I still plan on doing all that, but today I want to share something with you that I've learned in my research. 

One of the first sites I found about real food was 100 Days of Real Food. I love this site! It has so much useful information. It's realistic and user friendly.

They recently posted about their petition to Kraft to remove harmful additives that are removed and sometimes banned from their products in other countries.

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Maybe you're like I was and are thinking I don't care.

I'll give you a couple of quick reasons why I do care now:

-This isn't the way God intended us to eat. 

-Processed food has only come around in the last 50 or so years. In recent years, people (particularly children) have more and more disorders and sicknesses than ever before. Could there be a relationship between the two? I think so. 

I look forward to sharing more of my thought with you soon, but until then I'd encourage you to check out the original post on 100 Days of Real Food and consider signing the petition. You can also read about Kraft's (unimpressive) acknowledgement of this petition.

There's an ecard for that....

Happy Monday (Is that an oxymoron?!?)

Today, I am happy to introduce you to Crystal. Before I decided to do away with paid sponsorships, I decided to add a larger ad space. I gave one away and was so happy when Crystal won. I had recently found her blog and was loving it. So, I truly mean it when I say you won't regret checking it out for yourself. 

Read on to learn more about Crystal as told by ecards. 

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Hey y'all! I'm Crystal, and I blog over at My Ramblings.  I'm so happy that Megan asked me to guest post today. I've loved reading her blog and getting to know her over the last few months.  I was a little stumped when I started thinking of what to write for a guest post, and then Megan shared a post that she wrote on Tales of a Twenty Something with me, and I loved it so much, I decided to steal borrow the idea.

Here is my life through e-cards!  I've loved these e-cards forever, and I find so many that I relate to. Hopefully these will give you a little more insight into who I am, and what you will find on my blog.

I will be turning 28 this year. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I am now in my late twenties, and that I'm barreling creeping towards thirty. I feel like I should have my 'stuff' together by now, but 

I am single.  I struggle with this one a lot.  Some days, I'm OK with it, and other days, I feel like it will never happen for me. I try to remain hopeful, but sometimes, it is hard, especially on days when messages like these show up in my inbox on dating websites. 

I'm fat. It's alright, I'm OK with using that word.  Like being single, this is one of the things that I struggle with. Some days are a lot better than others. Weight has been a struggle for me my entire life, and something that I will always have to work on.

This e-card kind of goes a long with the first one. Sometimes, I feel like everyone around me is in a different stage of life than I am.  I'm still in college... yes, 10 years after I graduated from High School.  I took a break for a while, while I worked full time. A couple of years ago, I made the transition back to school while working full time. School has been a real struggle for me, and I'm so ready for it to be over. 

So what am I in school for?  Elementary Education... For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a teacher. I used to play school a lot. I even had a full sized chalkboard mounted to the wall of my playhouse. To complete the whole playing teacher thing, I had old copies of teacher's manuals and student books (my mom worked at the school) and even a desk. Playing school back then was fun. I loved teaching my imaginary students. Now, the students are real, but a lot of the fun has been sucked out of teaching for me. (I'll go head and step off of that soap box before I go too far...) 

I'm southern to the core. I'm a North Carolinian, born and bread. I have the heart of a Southern Belle for sure. 

I'm not a morning person at all... unless you count 2 am as the 'morning.' I rock 2 pm like nobody's business. I am most productive when it's dark outside. 

I may not have children of my own yet, but there are two children that definitely are my heart.  They are my nephew, Parker, and my niece, Maggie. I absolutely love being an Aunt. I talk about these kids like they are my own... because that's how I love them! They are pretty awesome kids, and I believe that I've had a big part in that. 

I'm a Tupperware Consultant. Last October, I took a huge leap of faith, and quit my full time job, to do something that made me happy. It hasn't always been easy, but I'm making it. 

As you can tell, there are a lot of 'areas' in my life. Somehow, I juggle them all, without too many plates breaking. I'm 'good' at a lot of things, but I'm not really a 'master' of anything. I love to craft, but I'm not really a craft blogger.  I like to read, but I'm not really a literary critic. I like to cook every now and then, but I'm not a foodie. I plan lots of parties, and even though I've considered opening a party planning business, I am by no means a professional. And at the end of the day, I like to give back to my community, but I won't be the 'Volunteer of the Year,' any time soon.  Did I mention, that I can do most of those things in a cute dress? (Still, not a fashion blogger.)

So there  you have it, ramblings of my crazy life, as told through e-cards. If you've stuck with me this long, consider following my blog. You never know what you're gonna find over there, but there should be something for everyone.  Thanks again to Megan for this idea and for this opportunity!  

What's in a name?

That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

Names

They're kind of important.

Names used to hold a lot more significance. A name said something about a person. 

If you have ever read the Bible or heard Bible stories, you know that many of the people in the Bible had a name change to reflect something that had happened in their life.

Last names started as a way to describe a person's occupation, where they're from, or characteristics. 

I've always been one of those girls who dream about baby names. I always thought I'd name my children names that I simply like. The older I get, though, the more I think I want to choose names that mean something (one day).

So, today I thought we'd Skip the Small Talk and talk about our names. In case you missed the first one, I described how I wanted to create some posts where we got to know one another better, but it doesn't work if you don't participate.  

How does it work? 

I'll pose a question and answer it. Then, I want you to answer in the comment section. If it's something you want to elaborate on, feel free to write a whole post on it and leave me the link. I only ask that you link back to me in your post. 

Ready? Let's go! 

What does your name mean? How did your parents choose your name? If you have children, how did you choose their name(s)? 

(Feel free to answer one or all of these questions)

My name is Megan Kimberly. 

According to Baby Names, Megan is a Welsh name. It means "pearl." It was most popular in 1985 which was a few years before my parents gave me the name. 

I like this meaning because pearls are created when a foreign substance gets inside an oyster and irritates it. The oyster takes this irritant and creates something beautiful. I hope I live up to this name and can take the struggles in my life and turn them into something beautiful. 

My mom chose this name after she read The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. This is a complex story, but it's basically about Meghan Cleary who falls in love with her family's priest, Ralph. The story spans many years. It's actually one of my favorite books. In the book, Meghan is called Meggie. My mother actually wanted to call me Meggie. Thank goodness she never started that! (Sorry if you or someone you know goes by Meggie.)

via

Kimberly was chosen as my middle name because my dad's name is Kim. Although, Kimberly is no longer officially my middle name. I use my maiden name as my middle name.

Now it's your turn. I want to hear from YOU!

How Social Media Has Affected Our Lives

If you're reading this, then you remember life before the internet.

I remember getting a computer in our house. I remember setting up my first email address (I thought I was so cool). I remember chatting with my friends on AOL Instant Messenger. I remember being so mad that I had to get off the internet because my dad was on call (Ugh! Dial up!). 

My first experience with social media was with Xanga. Did anyone else have one of those? Then, I got a Myspace. 

When I went off to college, I started hearing about Facebook and how I had to get one. I didn't want one. All my friends were on Myspace. I gave in, though, and set up a Facebook. This was when you had to be a college student to have a Facebook. Pretty soon, though, everybody had a Facebook. After college, I started blogging and a whole new world was opened up to me.

Now you also have Twitter, Instagram, and Google +. I'm sure there are also other things I don't know about.  What will they come up with next? 

So, my question is "how has social media affected our lives?"

There are many positives to having social media.

-You can easily keep in touch with family and friends (and acquaintances and people you met one time in college).

-It allows you to share things you're passionate about and believe in.

-You can keep up with what's going on in the world. I personally don't sit around and watch or read the news. But...I can stay up to date on current events based on people's status updates and tweets.

-You can get ideas on a new recipe, a fun craft, the best place to eat Mexican food, how to remove a stain from the carpet, a good book to read, etc. just by asking.

-In the case of blogging, I have been able to "meet" all of you other wonderful bloggers which in turn allows me to learn about other people's lives and living in other parts of the world. Even though I may never visit certain places, I can feel like I have through you.

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However, there are also some not so great things about social media. 

Such as...

-We think in statuses. Everything you do and think is a potential status update.

-We have to read what everyone else is thinking and doing all the time.

(And I swear I don't know what I'd do if I didn't get to see pictures of what some of my "friends" have for dinner every night.)

-People say things on social media that they'd never say in person. Social media is one of the worst places to be during an election year and also in my case-football season. People don't think before they type. Before you know it, you have a full fledged argument because people are very passionate about their religion, politics, and football. 

-Drama, drama, drama. And that's from adults. I can't tell you the drama I've seen on Facebook from ADULTS! It's crazy.

-Facebook is also not your diary.

-Social media is just another way for people to be bullied. Cyber bullying is now a part of our lives. We hear about it all the time. As I said earlier, people are braver on social media. This is a sad trend and I don't know what the solution will be.

-People are addicted to social media. I think this is the biggest problem of all. The internet is easier to access than ever. We've come a long way from the slow dial up internet of my youth. Now, you can access the internet wherever you have phone service. Unfortunately, people don't realize when enough is enough. We're so "plugged in" to our social media sites that we forget to actually be social with the people we're with. I'm afraid that this trend is only going to get worse. 

I asked you to weigh in on this issue {via social media of course}. Here's what some of you said to "How has social media affected our lives?"

Natalie from At Home with the Hinkleys says: 

"Both positively and negatively. I love being easily connected to those who are far from me (friends and family) I am certain I wouldn't be as close with my extended family as I am without it - also I wouldn't be able to keep up with all of my friends and their goings on if I had to call or email back and forth and visit. The downside of course are that real relationships easily get turned into more cyber-based and it is easy to make a minimal effort to befriend someone. I worry that the future generation will have no interpersonal skills because they never interact with people outside of a computer. Being a blogger is also tough because I feel like I 'need' to be active on social media. When it feels like a job, I start to dislike it more..."

Cody from Catching Cody K says:

"Honestly, I never cared about social media and if it wasn't for my blog I would just have facebook. I have just about all social medias that are out there and just for the sake of my blog. It isn't bad but sometimes I feel like it's almost to much and never enough. Sigh. Guess that's how America works."

Keith from Musings of an Unapologetic Dreamer says:
"I use social media (FB, Twitter, etc) wayyyyy too much :)"

Jeannette from Jeannette with Two Ns says:
"I love social media and get annoyed with social media.
Love:
My mom met her birthmother who she had been separated from for 48 years because of facebook. My stepdad found my mom's birthmother and my mom was able to have a lot of questions answered and they are starting to have a relationship. It's beautiful that they could finally find one another after years of on and off searching because of this simple tool. I now have a grandmother I never knew! Here is the news article.
However - social media is frustrating. It makes us so connected that we're addicted to having he next best thing and we have to constantly be doing something. It's all about what you're doing, being seen doing it, and people seeing who you're doing it with. I have to use social media for work too so I feel like I'm constantly connected to my job in an unhealthy way." 

Stephanie who is a real life friend and sells Origami Owl if you're interested says:
"I feel like social media has both positive and negative points for me personally. I really like that I can connect with people that I do not live close to or get to see often. (It's also a good way to communicate when you have a screaming baby in your arms!) I enjoy the sharing of pictures. It's an inexpensive way for people to enjoy the images of loved ones. I also like it for selling Origami Owl. I can reach more people in less time with announcements, etc. The negative part is that it is kind of addicting. I feel that I could put my time to better use instead of sitting on the internet." 

What do you think?

Share the Inspiration

Don't you love when a quote really speaks to you? 

Do you have any words that you've claimed as your life motto? 

What inspires you?

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from the movie Titanic. {Actually, the whole movie Titanic really inspires me.}

The character Jack Dawson says this when he's having dinner with the first class characters. Despite your opinion on the movie, you have to admit this is a great quote. 

Life is a gift. We don't know how much time we have or what will come at us next. I never would have imagined that I would have dealt with the things I've dealt with in the 2 and a half years we've been married. 

Briefly for those of you who don't know- My husband has GI problems which have led to depression/anxiety problems. I can't tell you how many days we've spent in a hospital. I can tell you that we would go months at a time without normalcy. There were times that I literally spent every weekend taking him to the ER. I would go months without my husband being himself. We live 10 hours away from our families. There were times I felt so alone. If you're interested, I've wrote on this subject a lot (although not nearly as much as it has happened). You can read more about the first time we dealt with psychological issues here, my thoughts while sitting in the ER here, how this Psalm spoke to me here,  Lee's thoughts after a rough summer here, how this book spoke to me here, and how he got sick when I was preparing to go to Mexico here and here.

The point being, when you get married a major illness is not what you have in mind. Most couples don't deal with this type of thing until they're way older. Which goes to show you that you don't know what hand life will deal you next. You have to make each day count. One way I try to do this in my life is to think of all the things I have to be thankful for. It's so easy to complain, but it does no good. At first you have to make a conscious effort to find things to be thankful for, but after a while it becomes second nature. 

In second place in the favorite quotes category is this one:

This quote comes from Harry Potter and it is told to Harry by Dumbledore when Harry begins spending a lot of time in front of a magical mirror that shows you your deepest desires. Again, regardless of your thoughts on Harry Potter, this is a great quote. 

I am a big daydreamer. I also think we all are guilty of wanting a certain phase of our life to be over so that we can move on to the next phase. When you're in high school, you're ready to graduate. When you're in college, you're ready to get a real job. When you're single, you're ready to get married. When you're married, you're ready to have kids. It's a never ending cycle of wishing your life away.

The point of this post is to get out there and live your life. Make each day count. Don't get so wrapped up in dreams and thoughts for your future that you forget to live your life now. Today is all you have. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. 

Well, if that wasn't inspirational enough for you, here's more:

 Nicole from Treasure Tromp finds this quote inspiring because "This quote reminds me to bring enthusiasm and excitement to everything that I do. It especially inspires me as a professor - if my students see how much I love my subject then they tend to enjoy it more as well!"

 Niki from Dreaming is Believing finds this quote inspiring because "This quote always inspires me to seek and then cross my boundaries.That's a big challenge for everyone isn't it?"

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What about you? What quote inspires you?

I'm a Literary Junky



I've been wanting to participate in this link up, so I figured why not today....

1. What are you currently reading? Tell us about it.

I just finished reading The Shoemaker's Wife and will be giving a fuller review in a few weeks. I really enjoyed this book. It's a historical fiction taking place in the early 1900s. It centers around Enza and Ciro whose journey through life takes them from Italy to America where they have to struggle to make their way in the world. However, their journey continually crosses their paths but never at the right time. If you love historical fiction and romance novels, you'll love this.

I'm also reading When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself. I know that's a long title! This is a book my husband was given for his seminary class, but it caught my attention. I love helping others, so I wanted to see what the best way to go about it is. I think the title's pretty self explanatory of what this one is about.

2. Recommend a book that has changed your perspective on life.
My top 3 "these books changed my life" books are Radical by David Platt, Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis, and 7: an experimental mutiny against excess by Jen Hatmaker. If you've read my blog for a while, you've probably seen me mention these books.



3. What book do you recommend the most to people?
I probably recommend the 3 books I just mentioned the most to people. I also have recommended the Gone series and the Mark of the Lion series a lot. If someone asked me, I would also recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns and A Walk Across the Sun. I just love to read and have read so many great books. It's hard to only pick a few. If someone's never read the Harry Potter series, I'd recommend it too.


4. What are the top 3 books on your “to-read” list?
I'm going to start a book called Orphan Justice soon. I also am waiting on the newest and last book in the Gone series called Light to come out. I'm also excited that the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner has written a new book called And the Mountains Echoed. I'm already on the waiting list at my library for these last two books.
    


5. What do you “do” while reading? (i.e. listen to music, eat) Any weird reading habits?
I don't have any weird reading habits. I just like to curl up in a chair, on the couch, or on my bed with a blanket and then let myself get swept away.

All images are from Amazon

What are you currently reading? Do you have a good recommendation for me?

More Changes

Ok.

 I know some of you are probably sick of reading my writings about being dissatisfied with my blogging and making changes. 

 But....I need to write it out. It helps me get my thoughts together and it helps me stay accountable to what I want to do.

My #1 goal for my 13 in '13 goals was to make my blogging more about me. I've already made some changes and I'm feeling better already. 

I also revamped my "About Me" page and added a page telling my blog's mission. I'd love for you to check them out. 

After this, I think I should have things the way I want them for a while. Since I've been on break, I've had a lot of time to think about blog things and I've decided to make one more change.

The last change I want to make is to sponsorship.

I wrestled with the decision to start sponsorship and I've wrestled with it ever since. I've always wanted to treat sponsors the way I want to be treated. I've tried to do things that I wish people would have done for me. I've tried to think of new and better ways to incorporate and promote my sponsors.

It's been a LOT of work.

I think sponsors may be one reason I've been so dissatisfied. If I didn't have a full time job outside of the home, having sponsors might be easier for me. How things are now, though, I feel pressure to be sure and give my sponsors what I promised them. I usually also feel like I'm not doing enough. 

Another problem has been that some people are HARD to promote. I don't want to sound cruel and I've only had very sweet people sponsor me. {BUT...Here's a blogging tip for you:} YOU have to promote yourself as well. A person you sponsor is not a miracle worker. It's so much easier to promote people who post regularly and post good, quality posts. That being said, I've also had some wonderful bloggers sponsor me who've been very easy and fun to promote.

After a lot of thought, I've decided to do away with paid sponsorships (at least for now). 

The main reason I decided to go ahead and take sponsors in the first place was to try and earn some money so that I would have money to sponsor other blogs. I'm a little sad that I won't be able to do that. Instead I'm going to try and focus on promoting my blog in other ways. I also want to focus on writing good, quality posts that make other people want to spread the word about my blog posts.

I always viewed taking on sponsors as a way to help others. I don't want to stop doing that. 

So...what am I going to do?

I will continue to offer button swaps. When I first started blogging, button swapping was my advertisement of choice. I don't care what size your blog is, I will swap with you. 

Other than that, I want to start promoting blogs that I enjoy. Blogs that I truly think are worth reading. These blogs could range from blogs that have 10 followers to blogs that have over 1000 followers. These may be bloggers who don't even follow me. Some blogs may show up over and over again because they're everyday reads for me. 

I want to choose blogs to put on my sidebar every month that I want to try and promote because I enjoy them. I want to tweet, post on Facebook, or pin blog posts that I think are worth reading. I want to ask people to guest post on my blog simply because I think they have something worthwhile to share. 

I also want to use my sidebar to promote causes I believe in. I also hope to continue to use my sidebar and posts to help families who are trying to adopt.

The best part about all of this is that it will be flexible. There will be no timeline that I have to follow. If someone stay on my sidebar for more than a month, it will be ok. If I forget to tweet about a blog I love, it will be ok. I really need that flexibility right now. 

I will finish out sponsorships with the people who are already in my queue and then I will put these changes into place. 

Thanks to those of you who read through this and who have been supportive of the changes I'm making. I honestly have felt so much better about blogging recently and I know it's because I'm getting back to doing things I enjoy not things I feel like I need to do.

Have a great day!

Bloglovin Bandwagon & Some Friday Funnies

Today I'm doing something I haven't done in a LONG time. 

I'm writing this post and then publishing it. 

When I discovered how to schedule posts, I began writing all of my posts and scheduling them ahead of time. 

But today I'm feeling spontaneous! :)

First of all, I woke up yesterday to blog post after blog post and tweet after tweet about Google reader going away this summer. 

To be honest, I don't use Google reader and I don't really know how. So......I didn't think this was a big deal to me. BUT.....everyone was either creating or promoting their Bloglovin accounts. I've been hearing about Bloglovin for months now, but had just never got around to creating an account and looking into it. I figured now was as good a time as any. 

 

Follow me on Bloglovin, please. :)

Because it's Friday, let's have some laughs. Here are some fun things I've found on Pinterest lately. 

(If you're interested, you can follow me on Pinterest too.)

Didn't know my beloved bear all stuffed with fluff had a dark side. 

Sorry Garfield. You were also Grumpy Cat before the internet.

 

Hipster Disney-I think Pocahontas, Belle, and Mulan are my favorite. 

I seriously need to do this for my parents. When I try to explain our remote to them, it's like I'm explaining {insert really complicated theory here}. 

Some fun and very true ecards:

Children are a blessing and they don't ask to come into the world the way they do, but I couldn't resist this last one.

If you like any of these and would like to repin, you can find them in my Laugh Out Loud board.

Happy Friday!