The Difference it Makes

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

We are so dehydrated, it's not even funny.  Most people are not hydrated like they should be. If I were a plant, I would be incredibly....well, I would probably look like this:

Okay, so that's mostly dead.   No.  Let me rephrase.  That's ALL dead.   Since I don't get enough water, though, I SHOULD look like that.
All brown and crusty and weepy.    I can think I'm okay, but usually I'm not. 

When I realize I don't have enough water in my body, I notice that I am crabby and exhausted.  Being hydrated helps me  to be focused and to just be more pleasant all around.
 I need to keep water by my side wherever I go so that I can remember to keep drinking.  However, by the end of the day, I am usually bored of drinking water.  So I'm glad when I have Crystal Light or something besides a pop (or yet another glass/bottle of water) to drink.

Being hydrated makes a difference to keep me focused and kind.  I've got 4 little ones to take care of and need to be that if not more!

For more chances at the $100 Visa giveaway, check out the other reviews here.  You can check out more information about Crystal Light and check out the rules to the Crystal Light Giveaway.

To participate in my giveaway, please leave a comment here about your opinion about water and on my other Crystal Light posts.  No only that but you can tweet about my giveaway or blog about my giveaway,choose one or the other please .  If you do that for each of the previous posts, leave a comment for each on the correlating comments' pages to let me know.  Don't forget to leave your email address too so that you can be contacted about winning! 

 My giveaway closes on August 4, so make sure to enter!!!

A Healthy Lifestyle for Whom?

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

As I sit here eating my Culvers Concrete Mixer, I started to think about why I try to have a healthy lifestyle.  I know.  Ironic, huh?
But mostly I try to eat healthy food (at least not too many BAD foods) and I try to keep my body hydrated by drinking water or Crystal Light or juice.  I try to stay away from pop (that's how we say soda in Minnesota) and too many sugary foods.  I am starting to try to get to bed before 10:30 and I try to exercise at least a little bit everyday.

Why do I make all this effort?  Is it for myself? 
Well, technically I will benefit from it, but I think it's bigger than just myself.   There are 3 different motivators in my life.
I am trying to be healthy so that I can enjoy my time with my kids.  I want to have energy to play with them by crawling on the floor and using my imagination.  I want to be patient with them and if I am healthy, there tends to be a better chance of thinking clearly and being kind.  I want my kids to choose a healthy lifestyle themselves, so I need to model it.

I also am motivated to have a healthy lifestyle because I want to be attractive to my husband.  I have had 4 babies, and so my body is not the most ideally fit specimen in the universe.  I know that my husband is thrilled that I am the mother to his children, and he would never complain about my rolls and unslightly blemishes.  BUT I would like to be attractive. And when I am working toward that goal, I feel like I am attractive.  And when I feel like I'm attractive, I hold my head up a little higher and present myself a little better to him.
But most importantly, I am choosing a healthy lifestyle because I feel like it is a way to worship God.  He gave me this life to live.  I want to honor Him by choosing the best options to take care of what He has given me.

For more chances at the $100 Visa giveaway, check out the other reviews here.  You would like to check out more information about Crystal Light and check out the rules to the Crystal Light Giveaway.

To participate in my giveaway, please leave a comment here about who you why you want to have a healthy lifestyle and on my other Crystal Light posts.  No only that but you can tweet about my giveaway or blog about my giveaway,choose one or the other please .  If you do that for each of the previous posts, leave a comment for each on the correlating comments' pages to let me know.   Only 2 more weeks to participate in the giveaway!  Make sure to enter!

Handling Stress as a Mom

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

I am a mom to a 5 year old who is very sensitive and tenderhearted.
I am a mom to a 3 year old who is very independent and opinionated.
I am a mom to a 2 year old who is very (and I mean EXTREMELY) ear piercingly screechy and unable to speak many words.
I am a mom to a 3 month old who just NEEDS me.

I am pulled in all directions: north, south, east, and west.  This is not to mention that my husband needs me, my house needs me, my job needs me, and my friends and extended family need me.  (I could go on, but I will spare you)

So are we talking about stress.
Stress? 
What stress?
Even if I am in the midst of denying it, I still need to do something with it.

Taking time for myself seems to be a luxury that I am not necessarily gauranteed.  Sometimes I read while I'm nursing my baby. Sometimes I exercise--with my baby strapped to me or by myself.  Sometimes I call my mom in the midst of the chaos.   Sometimes I pray and study my Bible.  Sometimes I load up all the kids for a play date with one of my best friends and her kids.  While the kids are playing, then we sneak an ice cream sundae or do a Crystal Light taste test; anything to make us giggle and relax.

I am learning that comfort foods do NOT help me to manage the stress.  In fact, they make me feel worse just by ingesting the extra calories.  So I find it much easier to handle stress if I'm eating healthy, staying hydrated,  and trying to exercise.  It doesn't take the stress away, but I can wrap my head around it and plan for it.

Check out other Crystal Light Reviewers to enter the giveaway 6 more times!  Check out the rules for the giveaways, too!   If you would like to learn more about Crystal Light, you can learn more here! 

To enter the $100 Visa card giveaway, with you email included, leave a comment about how you handle stress on this post and other comments on my other Crystal Light posts that you can find the links on my Crystal Light Homepage .

Mama the camel....Not so much.

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

I am a nursing mama, and I love it! I love that I can provide my baby all the nourishment he needs. I love that he needs me. Well, usually I love it. Not when I'm at my breaking point, but all the other times.

But being that I'm a nursing mama, I am responsible for taking care of myself so that my baby is healthy. This includes making sure that I eat enough nutritious calories and making sure that I'm hydrated. Very well hydrated.

Can I just say that I am thirsty all the time? Thirsty. ALL. The. TIME. I guess this is a good thing as it's important to be hydrated, but seriously! You would think that I have crossed the desert and back without any water because of how thirsty I am! But alas, no. I'm just a nursing mama in a very humid Minnesota summer climate.

I need to make sure that I am drinking something all day long. It could be milk, juice, or water. For a little change, I will throw a packet of Crystal Light into my water. I keep a bottle with me all day long, and I have a bottles all over my house.

However, there are days, like today, when I don't have a chance to wash my bottle after all three older kids had drunk out of it. My travel bottle was not able to be used because I will NOT drink out of a bottle after all that backwash and mostly the possibility one of them might have been sick. Anyway, moral of the story is I couldn't bring my travel waterbottle with me, and all day I thought I was fine. However, once I have been back home, all night I have not been able to get enough water.

So's life, I suppose. I reap what I sow, and this time it was not watered very well.

By leaving a comment, you will be entered into a $100 Visa card giveaway. You will want to check out here for other posts and more opportunities to be entered into the sweepstakes. You will want to know the rules so check it out here, and if you are interested more in the Crystal Light sponsor, you can read about them here!

Sisterchicks by Robin Jones Gunn

If you are in the mood for an easy read and a fun read, pick up one or ALL of the Sisterchicks books. 

Instead of being in the middle of a mid-life crisis, these women (in pairs) celebrate their 50-something years by going on trips of a lifetime whether they were planned or unexpectedly.  Getting out of their comfort zone and experiencing another culture --Finland, England, Netherlands, New Zealand, Mexico, Hawaii, France, Italy--helps them to learn a little bit more about their relationships with God.

As you read their stories, Robin Jones Gunn takes you away on their adventures with them.  It is soo fun.  But as you should guess about me by the name of my blog, I love to travel, so these books were totally perfect for me.  It is one of my biggest dreams to travel to Europe, so these books helped me virtually experience it.

Sisterchicks Thumbs Up:
1.  The different adventures including the funny quirky things that happen when you travel internationally.
2.  The unique characters.  All 16 plus characters in the books are so completely different. 
3.  You don't have to read these books in a certain order.  Each one is a novel of its own.  Some of them are connected by a cameo appearance of a character from a different book, but that's the most they are tied together.
4.  Each main character (there is a main character of the pair) experiences something a little bit different about God.  And it's not cheesy.  It's just part of who the character is.  LOVE it!  I hate sappy, not real God encounters.
5.  They surprised me.  I started to think they would all be about these people going on the vacations of their lives, but that's not what happened.  On their trip to Mexico, the women stopped and stayed a night in a shack in the middle of the country.  In Sisterchicks Go Brit, the duo ends up being stuck in a small English village all the while they want to be in London.

Sisterschicks Thumbs Down:
1.  These trips take a lot of money.  And at times I feel like they were spending so much!  That distracted me a little bit.
2.  I'm ready to read the next one and I don't know when it's coming out!

Father's Day Giveaway and Review

Father's Day is around the corner!
I've got another giveaway for 3 of my awesome readers! (make that 4).  3 are father's day cards and the 4th is a bonus "new baby" card. It is so cute!  Okay, so the overall cards say, "overall you're the best dad."  the crown card says, "king for a day."  And the baby card says, "small wonder."

I have super super LOVED Stamp N Stitch's cards for years!
You can pretty much custom order from any of their packages they offer.  I once ordered a pack of thank you cards and said, "can you make one of those a welcome baby card?"  No problem at all!
If you want to check out their etsy store, you can click on their etsy button on my page OR go to http://www.stampnstitchshop.com/.

They partnering with me and are making it possible for YOU to enjoy their work (or should I say, your dad will).

So if you are looking for a beautiful FREE father's day card, sign up for my giveaway.
You have multiple chances to sign up for this giveaway

leave a comment on this post
become a follower of my review blog
become a follower of a traveling thought's  Father's Day Giveaway page--it says the same thing (exactly!)


This giveaway is open until next Monday, June 7.  I want to get these cards out to you in time for Father's Day. 
Have fun!

Reviewing

As I participate in blogging reviews, I will be using this blog and link to it on A Traveling Thought!