What She Wore Wednesday (Little Bean Edition Featuring Gymboree & a Giveaway)

Callie 2 225x300 What She Wore Wednesday (Little Bean Edition Featuring Gymboree & a Giveaway) I’m going to be honest. My daughter (who is almost 3) has a wayyyyy better wardrobe then I do. She has more shoes, almost as many accessories, and some seriously cute clothes. Thanks to to Gymboree, her wardrobe just got even better!

Disclosure:  As always all opinions and statements expressed are those of the author. We likely received compensation for any feature here at A Frog In My Soup. For our full disclosure policy, please go here.

I have been shopping at Gymboree for years, and I have to say that the quality, the cuteness, and the ease of mix and matching has kept me returning. In case you aren’t familiar, each season, Gymboree releases new “collections”. Each collection has a multiple tops, bottoms, and accessories (all the way down to socks and hair bows!) that can easily be mixed to make dozens of combinations. If you are a mom with toddler’s to dress, you know that this can be a life saver!

My little Bean was totally digging the Rainbow Cabana collection, so we went with it!  Above she is wearing the Flower Chevron Striped Top with Flower Pocket Shorts.  We added the Rainbow Ruffle Skirt (below) and the Starfish Friends Bow Tank (from the Surf Adventure Collection) to the group and she now has multiple outfits for the spring and summer! {Continue reading…}

Light Filters In – Moving Beyond Depression

lightfiltersinimg 300x279 Light Filters In   Moving Beyond Depression Depression. It’s such an ugly and nasty word to me, dark and dirty and not something I truly understood even though I’d battled fear and anxiety to some level for most of my life. Time flies by, circumstances and situations in day to day life change, life moves forward at lightning speed, and it’s all we can do to keep up sometimes… what some know and many don’t, is that for several years I didn’t keep up at all, I was fighting a losing battle.

I never in a million years would have thought it was possible for me to sink as low as I did. Nor could I have imagined what depression can truly do to your mind, body and soul – it’s literally like poison. It’s devastating beyond imagination, and the worst part is, I had no idea how bad it was, or how deep, until it was too late.

The Perfect Storm…

There are many different things that contributed to the depression and darkness I went through. My husband and I have spent a fair amount of time talking about it in depth recently. I am deeply analytical, and there have slowly been many pieces to the puzzle made clear to me during the healing process.

The old house was a huge factor, there was a lot more to it than that, but I believe it was one of the main triggers to set everything in motion. My husband and I refer to it as the “perfect storm”, where everything aligned in just the right way to send me spiraling into the abyss. I still cry when I think of what we were living in compared to now. I wish I could have bloomed in the old house, but in many ways I died there instead.

My usual response as I say that, would be to cringe and say that I must just not have been as good as everyone else… those who can make it work, and live, and grow, and be truly totally happy in a situation like that. But the truth is, I’m not entirely sure anyone really could have, and it’s simply just time I stop beating myself up over it.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of how very physically depleted I was, the battle that was raging within my body left my mind vulnerable. My emotions were constantly on edge, life was stressful, and I felt that I was failing in every important area of my life, especially as a parent.

But I wouldn’t let anyone see it…

I can’t fully explain the deep and destructive effects depression has on the heart, mind and soul; the absolute and utter uselessness one feels when going through it, and how unbelievably disillusioned one can be when living in that level of darkness. {Continue reading…}

Tripping Down Memory Lane – Life Then and Now

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I took a little unanticipated stroll down memory lane today as I looked back at some old posts to grab a link to answer a few questions a reader had asked me on Facebook. I started with the crazy days of the Twinkies giving themselves haircuts, but then another post caught my eye about a [...]

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Johnson’s Baby Cares & So Do We!

SpitUp

I can say with 100% certainty, that without my fellow mom friends, I would lose my mind. This became evident to me after spending 8 weeks at home, alone, with my first born. I had popped him in the baby carrier and began to walk up and down my road when I saw another mom [...]

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In the Blink of an Eye

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It’s not often in life that we can look back on a situation and see a clear and definite moment of opportunity that we were given one last chance to bless someone’s life. I can’t say this has happened to me before, but I can say that today, it’s clearer than ever to me how [...]

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Campus Quilts Giveaway

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I have been sitting here thinking about this review and all I keep thinking is how much you are going to LOVE this product!  I am beyond excited to tell you about this company and giveaway!! Disclosure:  As always all opinions and statements expressed are those of the author. We likely received compensation for any [...]

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So Many Males

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Out of the 8 people who live in our home, 7 of them are males. One of them is my husband and the other six of them are our sons. While everyone realizes that this is a lot of males, it’s never more apparent to me than when even just one more male is added [...]

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Ellie – Fitness Meets Fashion

Ellie Review

I firmly believe that looking good while working out makes you push yourself harder.  Think about it – if you go out feeling frumpy, you won’t be likely to get as much done, feel motivated, chat with other people, or smile as much as you might if you dress your best.  The same is true [...]

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Living Gluten Free

Living Gluten Free

I haven’t shared nearly as much as I would like here about my recent health journeys, but living gluten free has become a part of everyday life for me. I will be the first to admit it was (and still is) the biggest adjustment I think I have had to make my entire life. It [...]

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Wherein You Discover that Raising Teens Isn’t Scary

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The time has come to pass on to all of you a little secret. It really isn’t nearly as scary to parent teenagers as people have led all of us to believe. At first, I thought it maybe was just a fluke with my oldest son, but I now have three full-fledged teenagers in my [...]

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