Sunday, August 10, 2014

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

It has been forever and a day since my last post. So much has gone on since early July and while I have a lot on my mind and plenty to write about, I just haven't been driven to share anything. But that's all about to change! Back in mid July, Shane from Whispering Sweet Nothings hosted a giveaway for a blog facelift- something I had wanted for a while but didn't have the money to invest in. Of course, I entered the giveaway thinking it would be amazing to win but really never thinking I would. 10 days later I got an email saying I WON! What???? I never win anything! At least not until recently! I've been on a hot streak with blogger giveaways and I could not be more grateful, especially for this win! Today I can look at my blog and finally feel like I've kind of got something special going on here, something that's important (at least to me,) and most of all something I want to share with the world! As soon as Shane emailed me to let me know I had won, Ashley from The Grits Blog emailed me my questionnaire and bum the ball was rolling! Having little to no experience in the designer/programmer world I felt a little silly when I simply didn't know the answers to her questions but Ashley could not have been nicer with walking me through each step and helping to guide me to the best answer for my blog. The result is magical! The colors are bright, the design is fun, I'm so excited for y'all to see this new lay out and have an over all more fulfilling experience as a blog follower.
Shane, thank you so much for hosting this giveaway, it truly was a dream from true to win! Ashley, thank you for being so sweet and kind to me, so professional and helpful, and most of all for making my blog look absolutely amazing! This has helped to reignite my passion to write, I cannot express how unbelievably grateful and excited I am!
Can't wait to get back in the saddle and start posting regularly again! Let me know what you think! I hope you all love it as much as I do!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Sunday Ponderings- False Idols

I'm willing to bet that a fair majority of you are at least familiar with the 10 Commandments- the set of "laws" given to Moses from God for people to live by. I know they're followed by Christians as well as Jewish people, I'm not certain of what other religions use them as guidelines for everyday living, but they seem to be well known. In case you aren't familiar with them here is a quick refresher:

I'd like to focus on #2- thou shall not make any graven image and not bow down to them, nor serve them. Thousands of years ago people would make statues of their gods, bow down to them, worship them, but God didn't want us to do that. We're to worship him and only him and my understanding of the 2nd commandment is that we're not to worship statues or other man made idols.

So why is it that when you go into a Catholic church there are statues of Mary, Joseph, and any number of saints, with candles and prayer stalls set up before them? Why do we pray to certain saints for certain issues? For example, my nonnie (mother's mother) had me pray to St. Anthony every time I lost something as a child.

Isn't this worshiping false idols? Isn't this directly going against the 2nd commandment? My mother's explanation is that these are God's helpers and we pray to them so that they'll talk to Him for us. Ha! I'm not buying it! I believe we should put away the pictures and statues and focus on the One True God- pray to Him and only Him in our time of need. He doesn't need "helpers."

What are your thoughts?
Do you believe in praying to saints? If so, why?

Friday, July 4, 2014

High 5 for the 4th of July!

It's Friday! It's the 4th of July! I've got a 3 day weekend, how about you?

It was a super, super stressful week so this is going to be short, sweet, and to the point. *high five!*

1. I won fertility friendly personal lube from a giveaway over on the The Amateur Nester! Thanks, Lisa, just hilarious since I'm not even close to trying to conceive right now. Anyone want it? Maybe I'll have a give away on here after I get it.

2. Free lunch! If you follow my instagram you saw that we got free lunch on Wednesday again. This week was Bertucci's and it was delectable.

3. My mom was in the hospital Tuesday into Wednesday. That really isn't a good thing but something kind of sweet happened. When I went to see her she was out of it and kept asking me to get my dad out of there because he was "the mean doctor who yelled at her," he did yell but she was trying to pull out her IV. I asked her who I was and she said I was her best friend. Broke and warmed my heart all at one time. Love my mom, even when we fight, and I'm very happy that she's home and safe. I'm hoping to write more about her next week.

4. Chats on my ride home with my best friend. I love the random texts and phone calls we exchange. NJ is not the end of the world, and thank God for modern technology to keep us connected. Also, unbelievably thankful to have her be so willing to let me yell and cry in her ear.

5. Music that lifts your heart. It was exactly what I needed to hear.

How was your week?
What are you doing for the holiday weekend?

Happy 4th of July! Enjoy your independence!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

The Radio Game

Am I the only one who was basically obsessed with One Tree Hill in high school/college?

Am I the only one who remembers Peyton and Brooke playing the Radio Game?

Well just in case, here is a refresher... It's essentially playing Ouja Board with the radio. Ask a question, turn on the radio, whatever is playing should somehow give you the answer to your question. I've played it many times, without even trying.

I have nearly an hour long commute to and from work, and I find my mind wandering, thinking, moling things over. Sometimes, I'll suddenly come out of my fog and start really listening to the music that's playing and immediately feel like the song is pointing me in the direction that I need to be going in. Now to be honest, I really feel like this is God trying to guide me. People always say, listen and He'll speak to you, and I've often wondered how I would hear Him, and I believe that many times I hear Him through music.

As I briefly mentioned yesterday, things are pretty stressful around here right now and on my way to work this morning I kind of zoned out, thinking about everything that feels like it's crashing down around me when I heard...

Whatever you do, just don't look back.

Oh somebody needs the light you have.

Whatever you do, just don't lose heart.

Keep on pushing back the dark,

Keep on pushing back the dark...

Without even realizing it, I was actually singing along with the song and pulling into the gas station (my car constantly needs gas!) Just that moment of singing this song helped me to feel lighter and better, pulling me out of my funk. I even left the car door open so I could keep singing the song while I gassed up. While at the Exxon station the song switched and I couldn't contain my excitement because it's a song I simply love. I continue to sing and get back in the car.

I go to turn it on and it won't start! Thank God for music...

Be strong in the Lord and

Never give up hope.

You're gonna do great things

I already know

God's got his hand on you so

don't live life in fear

forgive and forget

but don't forget why you're here

Take your time and pray

These are the words I would say

Now I have some friends who are a little lost like me and I think of them every time I hear this song, wanting to share this with them, to remind them that God is with them and will help them through, but today, I was the one who needed that reminder. Still singing as I attempted once, twice, 3 times to turn on my car- literally sitting in the empty gas station, holding the wheel, crying, and singing. The car started on the 4th attempt. Thank God! It started, I drove to work, and I felt much better, turning up KLove for the rest of the ride, which was about 40 minutes.

These songs were my prayers this morning, it's amazing how something as "simple" as the radio with random music playing at any moment could help so much. Makes me wonder how random it really is...

Did you watch One Tree Hill?

Do you remember the radio game?

Do you use music and/or pray to help you through your day?

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Wedding Wednesday- Medu Jewelry Giveaway!

Hey all! I had planned on writing about wedding jewelry today but my mom was hospitalized last night. That on top of the stress I've already got going on from Jim's accident, and just everything feeling like it's coming down on me- I didn't have it in me to write a proper post. Hopefully, next week I'll be back on my game.

In the mean time, here is a review and giveaway brought to you by a fellow blogger, Missy. Enjoy and good luck! xoxo

I recently got to review an onyx bracelet from Medu Jewelry and it had a sterling silver clasps. It has 10mm round onyx with 7 inch long and hypoallergenic. I do not own a piece of onyx so this was nice to add to my jewelry collection. For someone who does not know much about this stone I would like to share with that it is Onyx is a member of the quartz family, and more specifically of the chalcedony group. This is a type of fibrous quartz that displays bands of color within a gemstone. Even more specifically, onyx is a variety of agate, which displays fibrous bands in white and black, sometimes with gray, although most often the stone is dyed so that it appears pure black. While black onyx is the most famous, there is also Sardonyx, which features slim red bands running through the black stone.

My Opinion: I like the piece as it is different then what I already own. The clasp is hard to open and when I put it on it fits just fine.

They offer a free jewelry program with each month you are a member you will get free jewelry where you just pay the shipping cost of $6.99 but the piece you get is worth $100-$200.