“A thought-provoking and courageous new novel by National Book Award winner Han Nolan. Nobody gets away with telling Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant sixteen year-old, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the baby’s father and work at his family’s summer camp for overweight kids. Despite her initial reluctance to help out, Elly is surprised that she actually enjoys working with the campers. But a tragedy on the very day her baby is born starts a series of events that overwhelms Elly with unexpected emotions and difficult choices. Somehow, she must turn her usual obstinance in a direction that can ensure a future for herself—and for the new life she has created.” -Summary from Goodreads

 

 

 

Dear Han,

I haven’t had a book touch my heart like this in a really long time. I could not put it down, had to force myself to at 2am, and I finished it this morning while bawling my eyes out. My 3.5 yr old son was highly concerned. I let him know that the book wasn’t bad, but just that good.

Your characters are so rich and Elly, well she just…. I have no words really. Just amazing.

I gave your book 5 stars on Goodreads and have decided to use it as my book club selection for the month of June.

I’m sure the emotional link is that I’m adopted, and the love she (Eleanor) shows to Emma Rose, I hope my birth mother had that sort of love for me. Almost 32 years later and I still sometimes feel abandoned, but it’s books like these that make me think otherwise. While I got pregnant before I was married at 20, my situation was less than ideal, but nowhere near the craziness of Elly, and yet the parental influence was very true to my situation and proved to me that just because they are your parents, doesn’t mean the ideas they suggest are “the right thing to do”.

Best ending.. ever!

Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that your writing.. it matters.. Thanks for doing it.

 

I was watching TV the other day and a commercial for Simple came on stating their products contain no perfumes and dyes or harsh irritants. That’s wonderful! I’m all for more products going non-toxic! I’m passionate about it. I’m sure my Facebook friends get sick of me sharing about it all the time. Check out the commercial for yourself, doesn’t it sound like a healthy new direction to go in?

“Simple is the only facial skincare range made especially for those with sensitive skin, and as the UK’s No. 1 facial skincare range, it is now available in the US and Canada*.

Simple knows what is left out is as equally important as what is put in to deliver effective, yet gentle skincare. It has no dyes, no artificial perfumes and no harsh irritants that can upset your skin. Instead, just our purest possible skin loving ingredients with added vitamins, for natural healthy-looking skin.

Many women with sensitive skin are not satisfied with their current products** and research estimates 58% of women have sensitive skin***. Irritants, harsh chemicals and fragrances found in many skincare products, in addition to stress, diet, etc., can all contribute to skin sensitivities.

With this in mind, all Simple products are designed to minimize the risk of skin reaction. All formulations are pH balanced to be neutral to skin and are dermatologist tested, non-comedogenic and hypoallergenic.”

BUT…

Could that advertising also be incredibly deceiving?

Check out the ingredients in the cleanser:

Water (Aqua, Eau), Sodium Laureth Sulfate (4), Decyl Glucoside, Cocamidopropyl Betaine (5), PEG-55 Propylene Glycol Oleate (3-6 depending on usage), Propylene Glycol, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate (4), Bisabolol, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Oil, Pelargonium Graveolens Oil, Glycol Distearate, Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate, Polyquaternium-39, Laureth-10 (3), Cocamide MEA (1-4 depending on usage), Sodium Chloride, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate (4-8 depending on usage), Disodium EDTA, Dipropylene Glycol, Methylparaben (5)

How about the moisturizer:

Water (Aqua, Eau), Glycerin, Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Mineral Oil (Paraffinum Liquidum (3), Huile Minerale), Cetyl Palmitate, Dimethicone, Borago Officinalis Seed Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate (4), Panthenol, Cetyl Alcohol, Caprylyl Glycol, Carbomer, Potassium Hydroxide, Pentylene Glycol, Bisabolol, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Disodium EDTA, Sodium Lactate (4), Lactic Acid, Mica, Serine, Urea, Sorbitol, Sodium Chloride, Allantoin, Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol (3-4 depending on usage), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891) (1-6 depending on usage), Methylisothiazolinone (6)

SO…

If this brand is so pure and “simple” why does it contain harsh ingredients known to do the following:

Cocamidopropyl betaine is a synthetic surfactant; it has been associated with irritation and allergic contact dermatitis, reactions that could be due to the ingredient itself or to impurities present in it, such as 3-dimethylaminopropylamine.

Methylparaben is in the paraben family of preservatives used by the food, pharmaceutical, and personal care product industries. Parabens mimic estrogen and can act as potential hormone (endocrine) system disruptors.

Methylisothiazolinone is a widely-used preservative; has been associated with allergic reactions. Lab studies on the brain cells of mammals also suggest that methylisothiazolinone may be neurotoxic.

I normally post an overall score from the cosmetics database, but they don’t have the brand entered yet, which makes sense as it is new to the U.S.

That being said, if you are trying to go the natural and safe route with skin care for you and your whole family (and you should!) these products do no fit the bill.

They are marketed as puffy little lambs, but if you check those labels, you’ll see the sharp toothed wolves hidden inside!

Seeing that commercial makes my skin crawl because I know the advertising is going to get the job done. Women are going to see something “new”, something “pure and safe” and something they can get from their neighborhood Walmart. They are going to jump on the ship to healthy non-irritated skin only to wake up tomorrow or years from now with the harmful side effects of those “purest possible skin loving ingredients with added vitamins”. Yuck! Gag me with a spoon!

Beware People!

Knowledge is power my friends!

And as always, shameless plug here, if you want to switch to safe products and use a company that makes it easy to simplify by everyone in the family, from men to itty-bitty infants, being able to use the same products  contact me about placing an order for  Ava Anderson Non-Toxic or contact me if you want to join in the campaign for sharing a much needed health message to the world as well as making income while doing it by joining my Ava team!

“Out of youthful idealism and passion, Ava Anderson Non-Toxic was born in 2009. Always true to Ava’s ideals, we develop and produce cutting-edge, SAFE personal care products to the highest performance standards. We are leaders in providing wellness information, while sharing the dangers of toxic chemicals in personal care products with families across America.”

I hit install update 3.3 on WordPress yesterday.

That was after putting in a nifty plug-in (Page Links To) that would let me redirct pages or posts to other websites, in essence making some of my pages links.

Then my precious blog vanished.

No posts.

No pages.

Just 6,370 comments in response to NOTHING!

I sat in shock for awhile.

I went back through everything I did, desperately trying to undo it all.

My heart was heavy, with a panicky flicker of nervous despair and a dash of hope.

Why was I so freaked out?

Surely I could just restore everything from backed up files.

Except that was the problem.

I HAVE NEVER BACKED UP MY BLOG.

8 YEARS OF BLOGGING.

I AM AN IDIOT.

My journey in blogging started with a Livejournal that I exported over to a free wordpress.com and then later exported into paid domain with a snazzy webhost (Girly Website Hosting) and a shiny brand new wordpress.org.

8 years of what I like to think of as my scrapbook was summed up by the words “error 404″ and “page not found” and zero counts in the posts and pages section of my dashboard.

I googled my tush off trying to figure out if it could be fixed.

Interspersed by facebook and twitter updates lamenting my sorry existence.

Then my search came up gold.

I read someone elses story, very similar to mine. Posts and pages gone, comments still available.

It looked like my database still had an awful lot of data in it to be “lost”.

I hit repair.

Everything came back OK.

MY BLOG IS BACK!

I have learned a valuable lesson, please take it to heart if you blog as well.

ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATABASE AND FILES.

 

Okay, I have some sort of excuse for falling off the face of the planet again.. We are trying to sell our house! It’s been on the market for 2 months now, but that first month was a whirlwind of action, including painting every room in the house as well as all new carpet. Don’t forget to throw in decluttering and multiple trips to my parents basement.

Really praying our house sells soon as we found our dream home!

Plus, I don’t know where anything is and I’m tired of living in this half moved out state, as are the kiddos.

And now for the photo of two bees and a Buzz! Hope ya’ll had a wonderful Halloween!