Ultimate Blog Party Time! April 5th through April 12th

Ultimate Blog Party 2013

It’s Party Time! I’m linking up with 5 Minutes for Mom for my first time partying at the Ultimate Blog Party!

Hi, I’m Tanya and the mom behind Mom’s Small Victories. Welcome to my blog if this is your first visit. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis which is a chronic illness that impacts my joints worst in my hands and feet. I am also a mom of 3 active little boys and a full-time employee. As a way to cope with my busy life and keep a positive attitude, I started my blog to focus on those small victories in my life. I write book reviews, recipe reviews and nifty things I find that help make my busy and sometimes overwhelming life a little easier.

Here are some of my most popular posts if you’d like to visit and get to know me better.

Book Reviews
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana deRosnay Book Review
Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge

Recipe Reviews
Emeril’s Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

Motherhood/About Me
You Know You’re a Mom When…
My Life List: A Bucket List but Better
Contact/About Me

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
First Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Day
Gift Guide for RA Patients
My Weekend with RA: Like an Episode of “Survivor”

Why Are these Small Victories?

Find me all over the web:
On Facebook
On Twitter
On Pinterest
On Goodreads
On Google+
On Klout
On Bloglovin

Well that’s my blog in a nutshell, what about you? Let me know what we have in common and what you love to blog about! Leave me a link with your blog and I’ll be sure to visit!

Similar Posts

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain. A captivating, suspenseful story about a mistake and how far one woman goes to protect her daughter.
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Book Review: The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

Blurb: 5* – I LOVED it! – The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain explores the depths a mother will go through to protect her child. Another thrilling read by Diane Chamberlain.   Synopsis from Goodreads: “An unsolved murder.A missing child. A lifetime of deception. In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later,…

47 Comments

    1. Hi Cascia, well if you hang around long enough, you’ll see I’m a sporadic blogger, I do what I can when I can. I wish I could be more consistent for sure and my blog to-do list is always expanding. One step at a time 🙂

      I’ll be sure to stop by your blog, I can use all the help I can to get healthier!

      Reply

  3. Tanya ~ Thanks so much for stopping by my blog … my husband also suffers from RA. It took us a crazy amount of time to actually get that diagnosis but, were were so glad to finally know what was going on.

    You have a great blog and I am so glad to get to know you!

    Alicia@ Joy in the Everyday

    Reply

    1. Thanks for stopping by Margaret. My small victory today was starting our container vegetable garden and had the kids help! What was yours? Hope you had a great day!

      Reply

  7. Thanks for stopping by my blog. So exciting to find another bookworm mama like me. I added you on goodreads as well. I consider myself having a positive attitude towards obstacles of live and love to be around people with similar mindset. I will be following you.

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much Practical Mama! Glad you found me on Goodreads as well, I seriously love that site, as you might be able to tell from the gazillion books in my to-read list. We gotta stay positive, there are too many obstacles that can bring us down and life’s too short to not have fun!

      Gonna find you on Goodreads 🙂

      Reply

  8. Hello! I’m finally able to pay you a visit back… was out of town when the party started but here I am now. 🙂

    Wow…. I love your blog focus. We all could try to focus more on the small daily victories and positives with so much of the negative in the news all the time and from the “Negative Nancies”!

    I am wondering something which you may feel is too personal since we are just “meeting”… but do you think it is possible you could have food sensitivities? My family discovered we ALL have some and they can do a number on you with all kinds of symptoms or making illness worse than it has to be. Just something I wanted to mention because changing our diet has made a big impact on our overall health and we notice a big difference in symptoms that we had before. Feel free to email me if you would like: theluckywife (at) thesaturdayeveningpot (dot) com.

    Hope you have a great first UBP and so happy to have met you! 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hi Anne,

      I appreciate your kind words and paying me a visit. I actually was tested for food allergies and don’t have any. I have tried going on a stricter diet and while going on something like a Paleo diet has helped many, giving up certain foods doesn’t alleviate my symptoms entirely. While I certainly feel better eating healthy (and keeping off pounds is easier on my joints), limiting foods won’t completely keep me in remission. I would love to know what kind of diets you’ve tried. My RA symptoms don’t seem to be impacted too much by food. I know it’s different for everyone but my RA flares seem to be triggered more by stress, hormones, and the weather. I always welcome new ideas and I’ve tried lots of different ways to cope and see what helps. Let me know what sort of diets you’ve tried and works for your family. The RA diet seems to exclude nightshade vegetables, fried food, animal based fats and proteins, dairy, white flour and refined sugar, just about everything I like to eat. I do notice a difference with fried food and sugar but not so much by giving up dairy or nightshade veggies. Anyway hope that wasn’t TMI in my response. I appreciate your concern and it’s a valuable discussion to have. I know many RA patients who try diet and who it helps. I wish it helped me more. Thanks for stopping by and glad to get the chance to know you!

      Reply

    1. Thanks Mel and it’s the easiest cookie to make. I don’t make individual cookie anymore. Why bother when making one giant cookie is so easy? I need to work on my decorating skills but the cookie cake disappears and always gets rave reviews.

      Reply

  11. Hi Tanya,

    Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am trying to make it around to everyone, but I get so distracted reading everyone’s great posts that it’s taking me forever!

    I loved your “you know you’re a mom when” post. So true. I do the kiss too, and many times I have bought extra “favorite” toys to avoid the meltdowns. *LOL* I thought I was the only one to do that!

    So nice to meet you!

    ♥ Melissa~

    Reply

    1. Aw thanks Melissa, glad you could relate to my You Know You’re a Mom When…post. The UBP has been fun, been meeting lots of great bloggers. Thanks for stopping by and hope you’ll return again soon.

      Reply

  12. It’s great that you celebrate the small victories! That kind of attitude makes such a difference. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to work, parent and have RA. I only have arthritis in some of my fingers and when it flares up, I find it a challenge. I’m a mom and a blogger and this is my first year participating in the blog party. It sounds like you and I have similar taste in books!

    Reply

    1. Hi Sharla, thanks, I try to focus on the positive and have learned to try not and compete with other moms who appear to have it all together. I gotta just do my best for my family and my body. If I overdo it, my body just shuts down and forces me to rest. My RA symptoms appeared when my oldest son was 6 weeks old, and worsened until I was finally diagnosed with RA when he was 7 months old. It definitely makes parenting more difficult and unfortuantely, I’ve had it since becoming a mom. The RA is worst in my hands and I can empathize with the challenge it is.

      I hope you visit often and discuss books you’re reading with me. Stay tuned for my Monday posts when I share my reading recaps of the week and review books as I find time to write them! Great to meet ya and hope you’ll come back often!

      Reply

  15. Thanks for stopping by my blog! It’s nice to “meet” you 🙂 My aunt was diagnosed with RA when she was in her early 20’s and I know how hard it can be to manage day-to-day life let alone raising children when you have RA. Small victories are definitely something to celebrate!

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much Hanna. I appreciate you sharing your aunt’s story with me. I don’t know too many personally that deal with RA (besides the patients I meet in the doctor’s office), but since I’ve began blogging and sharing about my condition, I am surprised at how prevalent the disease is. Lots of people suffer from it or know someone who is. I was 27 when diagnosed and didn’t know I had it until right after my oldest son was born. I ain’t gonna lie, it’s made motherhood harder for me for sure. I take it one day at a time!

      Very nice to meet you too and hope you’ll stay in touch. Some days I’m Supermommy and some days I’m so not…love your blog name, all moms can relate 🙂

      Reply

  16. Hello, hello!!! I’m stalking you since you stalked me! 🙂 You are my hero. Having RA and 3 boys?! Woman, you need an award. I hope you have a wonderful UBP!!!!!!

    Reply

    1. Hiya Alisha. You’re so sweet. Award? No. Wine and chocolate? YES! I have 3 strapping young boys who love their momma, so they will take good care of me as I get older. I need strong men around the house. They are crazy active but thankfully they love to be cuddled still too. I’ll take what I can get, small victories! 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great UBP as well.

      Reply

  17. Hey there Tanya,

    Thanks so much for visiting! You are awesome! I hope you are feeling well and look forward to be a “better” blog follower.

    You know, it’s so easy to get rolled up in the mess. It seems like I have no time to follow anyone. I must get a better balance.

    Reply

    1. No problem Lisa, glad to see you again in a link-up. I know so many great blogs to follow, so little time. It definitely is hard striking a balance. I find myself visiting others blogs than writing my own content. I love to gab! As a result, I’m way far behind on posts and alas now it’s time for bed. Time to read Wicked! Good night!

      Reply

  19. I am so glad I saw this post because, although we talk about books a lot, I had totally missed that delicious Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken recipe. YUM. I NEED that in my cooking rotation!! 🙂 –Lisa

    Reply

    1. Uh yea, I am the slow cooker queen. Some weeks we wouldn’t eat in if it weren’t for the slow cooker. Glad you found something else on my blog that we can chat about. 🙂

      Reply

  20. Yay for those small victories! I love how positive you are while facing such a serious illness! Looking forward to following your blog…glad we connected through UBP!

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much Ginny Marie. Glad to have connected with you too. Stories like yours keep me inspired to stay positive. Some days are harder than others.

      Reply

  21. The book reviews and motherhood posts will likely be my fave’s. I’m still a novice blogger…I blog about life. Whatever floats my boat. On Wednesday I share Quote(s) of the Week. I have some parenting posts, some inspirational posts, posts about health, marriage…Yesterday I started a series on Advanced Care Planning. Hope you stop. Andrea visiting from SITS.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Andrea for visiting fron SITS. Such a valuable conversation you posted about in your My Choice Was to Die so She Might Live post. I remember having a similar conversation with my hubby before my oldest was born. Without thinking it was an option, I did the same as you, told him to pick our son. My hubby, however, reacted the same as yours and had different ideas.

      Thanks for stopping by and hope you will visit my books and motherhood posts soon!

      Reply

  23. Hi
    Here from the blog party.
    I happen to know someone who cured his Rheumatoid Arthritis by diet.I have been reading alot about Paleo and the virgin diets. You may want to look into those even though thats not the one that cured him. his was an even stricter diet than that.
    Feel good

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much Faigie. So glad to hear that a strict diet helped your friend. Ive tried going on a diet similar to Paleo but it didn’t make a big enough impact to make me stick with it. As it is, its hard enough for me to cook for my family and my kids burn energy so quickly they have trouble gaining weight. They need carbs and meat and I do my best to fatten them up without fattening me up too much! It’s a challenge though.

      Thanks for your well wishes and glad to meet you.

      Reply

    1. Thanks Angie, gotta take my small victories..one day at a time. I looked up MG, it seems there are so many autoimmune disorders. Why can’t our immune systems just play nice? Sorry to hear your stepdaughter has to deal with that. Hope you have a great blog party week and look forward to getting to know you better.

      Reply

  25. Thanks for stopping by! Last year I was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia and it’s completely changed my life, I can’t imagine your pain but I know the disruptions it creates. I look forward to reading more small victories!

    Reply

    1. Hi Erin, very sorry to hear of your diagnosis. It really is true what they say to never judge another person because you never know what they are battling. Seems so many people are dealing with health issues. I am not familiar with Trigeminal Neuralgia and looked it up on Wikipedia. I can only empathize with how it’s impacted you. Thanks for cheering me on and hope you will celebrate your small victories with me as well!

      Reply

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