Total Mom Makeover - Intro

A few weeks back I mentioned my lunch with Libby's and motivational mama Hannah Keeley.  Within that post I mentioned I received a copy of Hannah's book Total Mom Makeover.  AND I had promised that I was going to start the program and share my progress with my readers.  Well the day has come, I'm kicking off this program today!

*** Before you read on, please consider a small donation to the right over there --------> in the Libby's Feeding America box!  I don't usually ask for such things but really, $5 can provide a whole stack of food to hungry families and children in need -  yep 5 bucks! The amount of a latte and a muffin from your favorite coffee shop!  Skip the excess for one day and share the wealth with folks in need.  Thank you! /end promo plug

Back to my post here and please note, yes, I received this book for free but my choice to share this endeavor with you is unprovoked by Hannah.  I see a worth while adventure and I am merely sharing like I usually do.

(OK really back to business here) The cover of the book states it is "The Six-Week Plan to Completely Transform Your Home, Health, Family, and Life"  I want to first point out that I'm in no way unhappy with where I am in my life!  I love my family and taking care of my children, I love my social life and for the first time EVER I love my job (the one outside of being a stay at home mother).  However, those of you who are close to me know that there are some aspects in my life that I need to work on.  Keeping house, ranks up there at the top! Taking care of myself and my needs, both physically and mentally are also in the negative space here. Most of these negative spots come from we will say an very strong urge to procrastinate.  I'm quite organized, I can set up a file system and keep that going and I keep my work very organized, it's the stuff that I can stash away in my home, like laundry and dust and papers from my kids school that get stashed into the roll-top desk and my inability to plan a meal before 5pm on a daily basis these are the things that keep rearing their ugly heads and making my day-to-day home making an utter disaster most of the time.

As I mentioned, Hanna's book is a Six-week plan, she suggests to step 1, get a journal (this here blog is going to serve as my journal), step 2, set aside a specific time each day to read that day's section in the book and at the end of each day I will have a few exercises to complete in my journal.  They will be quick lists to make and/or thoughts to help reflect on, these will be my short posts that I'll share with you here.   As I progress, I may or may not to share EVERY single day with you.  I'm pretty open about myself and my life so It won't be a matter of the content being to private but instead it may not be worthy of a post.  I may also combine days into one post to keep things less cluttered around here.  I also want to add, I'm crazy busy here these days.... I hardly have time to sit and tune out over a cup of coffee and blog reading... so if my journal posts are full of typos and messed up grammar, please don't hold it against me, they are journal entries and well dammit they aren't going to be perfect!  Because I just don't have the time to be perfect....

If you are interested in trying this plan too, Hannah's book is available via Amazon over there in the right column of my blog.   Again, this is NOT a paid post and all future posts about my advances in the plan will remain that way as well.  I'm sharing link love with Hannah and her book merely because she is a good person, an inspirational mama and friend!

Giveaway: Libby's Gift Pack

Remember a few posts ago I wrote about the wonderful afternoon I spent with some fellow local mama bloggers?  We put together 30 meal kits for families in need located in the local Pittsburgh area and enjoyed a lunch together talking about how we all do our best to have family dinners and quality time together around our dinner tables.  We will be continuing our conversation TODAY (September 28th, 2010) at 1 PM ET via a text based chat.  You can join us here before noon if you're not able to make it at that time, leave a question or suggestion and then feel free to follow up with our conversation later in the day!  OR feel free to join us LIVE at 1 PM!  Hope to see some new faces there!

Well, now it's time for me to give back to YOU!  It's giveaway time!

I will be giving away a Libby's tote bag with Libby's product, a state-of-the-art can opener and a copy of Hanna Keeley's book "Total Mom Makeover: The Six-Week Plan to Completely Transforming Your Home, Health, Family, and Life".

How you can enter:

Required for Entry -
* Leave one comment below sharing your tips about how you and your family are "getting back to the table", INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN! 

Bonus Entries (you'll get ONE EXTRA ENTRY for each of these below, just be sure to leave a separate comment for each of them noting what you did AND INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!) -
*Create your own virtual can drive HERE. Once you've created it, live a comment here with a link to your can drive INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

* "Like" Libby's on Facebook, leave a comment here letting me know you "liked" them INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

* Follow Libby's on Twitter, leave a comment here letting me know you followed themINCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

This giveaway will run until Friday, October 8th at 11:59 PM ET.  The winner will be announced Monday, Oct 11th!

Lunch with Hannah Keeley and More on Feeding America with Libby's!

 Photo credit TheMotherhood.com

Last week I had the honor of lunching with some awesome Pittsburgh bloggers.  We were there to meet with author Hannah Keeley and to work with Libby's to create meal kits for families in need.  Libby's provided us with lunch and LOTS of cans for our meal kits which will be distributed to new homeowners of homes provided by Habitat of Humanity Pittsburgh.  Us bloggers provided items to help each new family start a kitchen and to encourage them to bring their families back to the table.  Items included conversation cards, oven mits, recipes, kitchen utensils and a lot more!  Putting the kits together was a great part of the lunch and I'm happy to know that my work and time will be help someone in need.

You too can help a family in need by supporting my virtual can drive right over there ----> Even a donation of $5 will provide a meal to 35 families!  Every little bit helps.  If you're wishing to get involved too feel free to set up an account and host your own can drive on your own blog!

In addition to lunch and meal kit building we were treated to a discussion with Hanna Keeley.  Wow, impressive woman, mom of SEVEN, wife and writer!  We talked about how she encourages her family to enjoy their time at the dinner table.  She talked about time saving tricks to get a wholesome meal on the table too and I'm pretty sure that inspired all of us to try some dump recipes so that we're prepared and able to make wholesome meals even on those busy days! (which is almost every day isn't it?)

As a thank you gift Hannah gave us copies of her book "Total Mom Makeover: The Six-Week Plan to Completely Transform Your Home, Health, Family, and Life" 
I've started to read this book and let me tell you I'm excited about it!  I have decided that upon my return home from the Type-A-Mom conference that I'm attending this week/weekend that I'm starting this makeover.  My family and I all deserve a home that is organized and a mom who is less stressed out.  I'll be blogging some of my daily journal entries (this is part of the makeover process).  I haven't decided if I'm going to do that here or if I'll start a separate blog...  I'll be sure to let my readers know.


*****I was compensated for this event but my feelings and thoughts are all my own.*****