Small Victories Sunday Linky {15} – The One Full of Surprises

Welcome to our Small Victories Sunday Linky!

This weekly post will recap for you the reading, cooking, health and personal goals I have been working towards this week and the achievements I’ve made both big and small. Each small victory brings me closer to achieving my personal goals for 2014. Focusing on my small victories has helped me gain a healthier and more positive attitude as I juggle my 3 boys and the physical impairment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (a chronic and incurable illness). I thought Sunday would be a perfect day to reflect on the week that passed and look forward to the week ahead. Please join me by linking up to 3 of your favorite family-friendly posts!

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This Week’s Co-Host:

Amy from The Mindful Shopper.  The Mindful Shopper is a beautiful blog to help you find fun, unique gifts that are inspiring and beautiful.  Just check out the Kitchen Organizing and Adorable Easter Baby gifts that she has linked up with us in the past. Be sure to welcome and follow Amy, she was named a Top 100 Shopping Blog! Read more about Amy here.

Ways to follow Amy: Subscribe / Facebook / Google + / Pinterest / Twitter

Recap of Last Week:

We had just over 60 great posts linked up last week for Small Victories Sunday Linky {14} – The One With Spring Break! Thanks to each and every one of you! Some of my favorite posts were:

• Link #17: Driftwood Gardens’ post Ten Things about Compost – I had no idea and as we discussed on my blog Facebook page, I’m gonna need a bigger compost bucket!
• Link #21: Domain of the Mad Mommy’s post The Weight of Honesty – a heartfelt post about her weight and her quest to get healthier with the #1800minutechallenge. Be sure to encourage her on this important fitness challenge.
• Link #36: More than a Mom of 3’s Cadbury Easter Cupcakes – easy to make, chocolate, cadbury eggs and frosting, do you need more of a reason?
• Link # 61: Scruggbug Corner’s Beginner’s Guide to Helping Young Children Cope with Chronic Pain – Sadly, kids have autoimmune arthritis too. Must read for parents of kids with juvenile arthritis and useful tips on how to help them deal with chronic pain. Useful too if you know anyone with an autoimmune illness or chronic pain.

This Week’s Featured Blogger:

I’m happy to announce, the Featured Blogger this week for most number of clicks from the party, is Brandi from Being the Imperfect Mom for her post How to Earn Extra Money Part 1. Five simple ways to make a little extra money. Congrats Brandi, be sure to grab the Featured Blogger button to display on your blog and thanks for supporting our linky.

Make sure to visit my co-host Amy, to see who she featured!

My Weekly Recap and Next Week’s Goals:

READING:

I finished reading What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin. Talk about a cliffhanger, I got to the last page on my Kindle, I’m all into it and SURPRISE, there was an error and I couldn’t read it! That hasn’t happened before and luckily tracked down the pdf the next day so that I could read the last two paragraphs to find out what happened. It was a lighthearted and entertaining read. I loved Molly, the main character and her sarcastic, cynical sense of humor.

I bought the updated version of Easy SEO For Bloggers for $1.99 since Google changed their Keywords tool. Again Steph’s book simplifies a difficult concept and makes it easy to understand. I printed up the checklist for reference and am using her tips in my posts now. I’ll be tracking my Google analytics a little better to try and figure out what my readers like and how they find me.

I won Where’d You Go, Bernadette? from Bookmark 2 Blog during last May’s Armchair BEA (Book Expo America) Event. It’s also the selection for Moms’ Reading Book Club and we’ll be discussing it on April 30th, 2014 on Facebook. Since I owned it already, I figured I had a good reason to join in and get it done.  Enjoying it so far, unique format and story.

COOKING:

After being spoiled by my mom for Spring Break last week, I just wasn’t in the mood to cook. I was still working hard getting unpacked and our house back in order so I made easy, yet some of our family’s favorite meals.

• Bourbon Mango Pork sandwiches with salad (lettuce from our garden) and tater tots
• Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
• Buttermilk Waffles and Perfect Bacon
• Fish Stick Tacos
• French Bread Pizzas
• Tuna salad melts

Next week’s menu plan includes:

• Philly Steaks
• Tilapia with Lemon Butter, Rice and Broccoli
• Easter dinner will be Ham with Chutney Marmalade, Cornbread Casserole, Green Beans with Bacon
• Carrot Cake Muffins
• Easy meals, maybe tacos. Weather is getting nicer out so I want to get some outdoor yard work done and get these kids’ clothes tagged and for sale.

BLOGGING:

Last week:

• Clean Sweep ARC Reading Challenge May 2014

• [16 Apr] Throwback Thursday Linkup {7} – Updating My Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge
• [19 Apr] Small Victories Sunday Linky {16} – The One While the Mice Are Away, Mommy Cooks and Cleans!

Next week’s blogging plan:

• For all you book lovers, Armchair BEA sign-ups are starting soon. Get involved in this fun online version of the Book Expo of America. Discuss great books, meet authors and bloggers from all over the world. I’m on the planning committee and will be recruiting cheerleaders/commenters soon! Stay tuned for this great event.
• Co-hosting Throwback Thursday so get your pins and old posts ready!
• Updating categories to capture all book reviews in indexes
• Updating recipes in plugin
• Book review for Plan 2 win @ Parenting

THANKFUL FOR SMALL VICTORIES:

• SURPRISE! Julia from MiniVan Dreams featured my Easy Rotisserie-style chikcen cooked in a bundt pan on her Tasty Tuesdays linkup
• SURPRISE! After meeting with our health insurance rep at Superhubby’s work, two kids and I made a SURPRISE visit to the kids’ museum and had a great time. We came back to our car to discover, (SUPRIRSE!) a flat tire. Luckily, we were parked in Superhubby’s parking deck still so my knight in shining armor was able to come change it for me to find out that SURPRISE, the spare was flat too. Luckily, his co-worker had a pump so he could inflate the spare enough to get it to the shop. This was on book club meeting day, the craziest things happen when we are supposed to meet!
• SURPRISE! I won two giveaways from Create with Joy, Wishing for Buttercups and a box of balance bars and J.R. Watkins soap and cleaner arrived last week.

Now It’s Your Turn to Share Your Favorite Posts and Small Victories!

Linky Rules:

• I’d appreciate if you grabbed my Small Victories Sunday button and place it in your sidebar or the post you are linking up.
• Share up to 3 of your favorite family-friendly blog posts you want to share. Enter your link below and let’s celebrate our small victories together!
• Visit as many of the other participants as you can and cheer them on. Please visit at least 2 others for every link you enter.
• By linking up, you are giving me permission to share your post on my social media pages to let others know of your awesomeness too!
• By linking up, you are giving me permission to email you notifications when the linky is open. You can unsubscribe to emails at any time.
• Stop by our Small Victories Sunday Linky Board on Pinterest and like and repin the posts to your boards.
• Spread the word! The more you share about the linky, the more visitors you will get to your content too.
• Need inspiration? Click here for Small Victories writing prompts, but the sky is the limit.
• Interested in Co-hosting? Send me an email at tanya{at}momssmallvictories{dot}com.

See my Blog Hops and Linky Parties Page to see where I’ve linked up this post.