Ecoholic with its Canadian cover and its US Cover

Over the last week I have been enjoying an amazing book, Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products, and Services by Adria Vasil. It is in my opinion a comprehensive guide to doing your best to protect your family from toxins, and save the planet at the same time. Tons of helpful information on everything. I will be posting my review later this week, and be forewarned that it will get my glowing praise then too. Adria has done an excellent job of guiding the consumer through each aspect of what they buy and why they should know what’s in it! Okay, before I give it all away I leave you with a little sample of how helpful her tips are in this article, Save Cash and Trash: Packing Healthier Waste-Free Lunches.

Save Cash and Trash: Packing Healthier Waste-Free Lunches
By Adria Vasil,
Author of Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products & Services

I won’t lie. I loved my juice boxes, pudding cups and classic cream-stuffed snack cakes as a school kid — but they were all wrapped in plastic destined for the lunchroom garbage can (not to mention totally unhealthy!). Add them all up and a typical student trashes a whopping 70 pounds of lunch packaging every year!
Now, what if instead of reaching for pre-packaged munchies, parents everywhere bought snackables in bulk and placed them in their own reusable containers? By god, we’d have a lunchtime revolution! In fact, if every student packed a zero-waste lunch, we’d save 1.2 billion pounds from landfill a year. You’ll also be saving some serious coin (since individually wrapped foods tend to cost more) and coincidentally cutting out many of the not-so-healthy heavily processed ingredients that often come with pre-packaged snacks.

So how do you lighten your lunch load?

• Say goodbye to disposable plastic baggies. Get reusable sandwich-size sacks like Lunch Skins (3greenmoms.com). They’re perfect for, yes, sandwiches, as well as chopped up veggies like carrots, peppers and celery.
• Buy yogurt, dried fruit, snackables like pumpkin seeds or even organic cookies in bulk, then pack them in reusable food containers (just not the kind made of clear, shatterproof polycarbonate plastic since those contain hormone disrupting bisphenol A — the same stuff that made headlines in clear plastic baby bottles).
• Pass on pricey, packaging-heavy drinking boxes and buy juice in large cartons/jugs. Pour a single portion into a polycarbonate-free drink canister like Thermos’ Foogo (keeping in mind that a stainless steel container of tap or home-filtered water is way healthier than a shot of sugary, nutritionally dead boxed OJ).
• Pour last night’s soups and even stews in an insulated thermos for a homemade meal on the go.
• Don’t forget to toss a cloth napkin and, if necessary, washable cutlery into your lunch box.

Keep the lead out of lunchtime
Speaking of lunch boxes, stay away from anything made of vinyl, aka PVC. Back in 2005, California’s Center for Environmental Health filed a lawsuit against some big-name makers of soft PVC lunch cases (including Toys”R”Us, Warner Brothers, DC Comics and Time Warner) after testing revealed that their products contained high levels of lead.

Better to go for all-natural cloth or even nylon.You’ll find a bunch of alternatives online at sites like www.reusablebags.com (think funky organic and recycled cloth bags, stainless steel containers and compartmentalized bento-box-style Laptop Lunch kits).

Move the message school-wide
Once you’ve got the knack of trash-free lunches, why not spread the message throughout your child’s school? Consider forming a zero-waste lunch committee. If you’ve got a keen teacher on your side, you might even get students to kick things off with a garbage audit (think garbology 101). That means measuring how much trash goes in bins before and after lunch hour. The mini researchers can put on rubber gloves and note what kind of disposables are taking up the most room.
Raise cash for trash
Whatever you do, don’t let any disposables that you and other parents might still use end up in landfill. Talk to your kid’s school about saving them up and sending them packin’ to be made into purses and pencil cases! Once you’ve collected a bunch of branded drink pouches, candy/cookie/energy bar wrappers, chip bags and yogurt cups, ship them off to TerraCycle and the upcycling company will give you 2¢ to 5¢ per package for your trouble (terracycle.net). Call it a cash-for-trash fundraiser and you’ll be garbage-free in no time!

©2009 Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products & Services

Author Bio
Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products & Services, is a best-selling author and journalist for Canada’s NOW, where she has been writing the “Ecoholic” column for five years. She lives in Toronto.

For more information please visit www.ecoholicnation.com

We decided that having “the talk” is weird, it is hard for parents and hard for kids so Brad and I had mentioned several times how we wanted to just tell the boys what we thought was age appropriate at each step and then, really they wouldn’t even remember having “the (horrid) talk”. We were jazzed about this new idea of ours!

It seemed like days later that I was jumping for joy when I was offered by Bethany House Publishers two books that were hot off the press. They are from the Pure Foundations series by Jim Burns the first one is God Made Your Body for ages 3-5 and the second book in the series is How God Makes Babies for ages 6-9. When the books came and I saw them I was even more excited to sit down with the boys and read them together.

A couple of days ago we read God Made Your Body in which Jim Burns explains through very appropriate pictures, and simple non-detailed language that God made us all unique and special, different and beautiful. Gracefully Burns moves on to name the differences between boys and girls, and how that will make them moms or dads in the future. The part I was most worried about was the initial intro into the actual sex part, but the boys got it completely the first time. Since it is easy to worry about that I wanted to include that portion of the book for you, so you can decide for yourself, but I think he does a spectacular job.

“To make a baby, a mommy and a daddy come together in a special way called making love. Making love is something God made just for a husband and a wife to enjoy together.

When a mommy and a daddy make a baby, they each give one special part of themselves. the daddy gives a part called a sperm. The mommy gives a part called an egg. the sperm and the egg join together inside the mommy and form an embryo. All babies begin as an embryo…” (Jim Burns, God Made Your Body p. 19)

While reading that to the boys the first time, I wondered if they would get it. Both my 3 year old and 5 year old understood it completely. They wanted to repeat the process to me twice and then said, “that is cool that God does that”. And were ready to finish up the rest of the book that talks a little about the development of the baby in the womb, about birth, and adoption and ends explaining that no matter how your family has come together that God made you a family and how special that is.

I am a full fledged believer in these books now. It really helped me figure out a better way to describe the whole process in a simple, straight forward way with just as much detail as they need at this age. Now if you ask my littlest how babies are made, he says ” they are made from one part of the daddy, the sperm, and one part of the mommy, the egg. They join together to make the baby”. Okay, it is as simple as that, our first sex talk was a cake walk. I certainly don’t have things all figured out, but this proved to be a lot less difficult than I had ever anticipated. I am so thankful that there are books out there that match up so perfectly to what our views are on how and when to talk to children about sex. Laying the foundations for healthy sexuality (especially today) is very important.

The Next book in the series, How God Makes Babies is for ages 6-9 and we will wait to read it until the boys are in that age group. But, since I already know how it all works I read it and I can tell you the deets. It is the basic concept of the first with a lot more detail, really all the detail that they need about the process up until pre-marital counseling! Ha. Well, maybe not, but it is enough to definitely have them understand the whole process easily. It is more information than I ever understood from any sex ed in school that is for sure, but it is done in a Godly way and that really is the key in both of these books. I stand by them %100 and know that parents wouldn’t need to cringe the way they do if they would just help themselves out and explain things when kids ask, a little younger maybe than they think, but why wait?

Do you have horror stories about having “the talk”? Oh, do share! Do you wonder when to share with your own kids? Or do you have strong feelings about this topic? Spill it.

Buy these books from Powell’s Books:
God Made Your Body by Jim Burns (Pure Foundations)Ages 3-5
How God Makes Babies by Jim Burns (Pure Foundations)Ages 6-9

If you haven’t read The Hunger Games, and you read this review stuff will be spoiled for you.

However by reading this review nothing in Catching Fire should be spoiled for you.

Catching Fire continues the story of The Hunger Game’s heroine Katniss along with her feuding romantic interests Gale and Peeta. The reader is taken on a journey that has the intensity of one of the most thrilling of roller coasters. Katniss is aware that when she challenged the Capitol during The Hunger Games she was taking her life into her hands, but she had no idea of the vastness of the reach of devastation that could be caused by her choices. She didn’t think about who it could hurt, and much less that it would cause a stir in the people. Big changes are coming there is no question!

I loved the first book in this series, but this second one was an obvious middle book in a trilogy for me. It was still good but I was disappointed by it in two ways: Catching Fire seemed to repeat so much information that I was already clear on from my reading of The Hunger Games causing me to want to skim pages-which never crossed my mind in book one. Second, the love triangle gets old, and to me at least annoying.

With all that negativity out of the way, it is still a great read! Catching Fire is entertaining, enjoyable and thrilling. I had a great time getting to know the peeps a little better. There is much more character development and relationship building time in this one, as the story seems to progress at a slower pace. The writing was good, the story was interesting and the plot was as intense as ever. I will read (and buy) book three no question, but I just wished this one were better than it was.

What did you think of Catching Fire? Have you read it or are you planning on it? Does anyone know what book three will be called?

Interested in the first book of this series, The Hunger Games? Read my review.

A couple of weeks ago when our church planned a woman’s retreat for this weekend, I was thrilled- then I realized something. It was scheduled for the same weekend as the Read-A-Thon. I am a book geek, nerd, freak yes it is true, and I LOVE THE READ-A-THON!! I love reading for a full day and testing the limits of my sanity. Check out my Vlog from last time if you think I am exaggerating. Yeah, I knew you’d be convinced.

If you are in the same boat and can’t do Dewey’s Read-A-Thon you should join up for this one! If you are doing Dewey’s Read-A-Thon and just need to get a ton of reading done, join up! You can read for as long as you want during the 24 hours. I have a hard time staying up all night, but I try to make it. This will be my third Read-A-Thon and each time it gets BETTER! It would be even better with you…so if you are on the fence, join in-even for a bit of it.

Sign Ups are located below, if you want more of your bookie buddies to join up-post it on your blog! Feel free to grab the button too. Mostly just get ready to read yourself silly!!

Read-A-Thon Button in two sizes:

Here are the deets:
*Read-A-Thon starts on 5th of December, at 6am PST (Seattle,Washington,Vancouver)
*You can read for the full 24 hours or sign in for the first half or second or whenever you can!
*HAVE FUN! (eat,drink, read and build community!)

(I am sure I need to have more info here….if you notice something missing let me know!)

SIGN UP HERE!!

The Return
by Victoria Hislop
416 Pages
Historical Fiction
Spanish Civil War
October 2009
Harper Collins
Advanced Reader’s Copy

Sonia’s life is dull and passionless in the midst of what most would consider a dream. She is married to a dashing Englishman, has a great job, and lives in an exquisite apartment. No matter how much she tries though, she feels something is missing. Stumbling upon dance is the most important thing Sonia does for herself. There is no question that it immediately fills that longing inside her. When her childhood friend Maggie books a trip to Spain, the land of Flamenco for her birthday and buys a ticket for Sonia as well, she is in dreamland.

Sonia thinks she is going to Spain for herself, but what she doesn’t know is that dance and Spain is in her blood- secrets her mom took with her to the grave will be laid bare. An unlikely stranger will tell her of a family history of life in the Spanish Civil War riddled with loss, love and tragedy. Up from the turmoil, come clapping hands and stomping feet to the elegant picking of a Spanish guitar. Flamenco is the heart and soul of survival for Sonia’s mother could it be what saves her as well?

Goodness, The Return was amazing! I seem to be obsessed with Spanish Civil War books as of late and I am thrilled by the history of that time period. I can’t believe I didn’t know more about the history growing up, since it is pretty much my patria or homeland. Vicoria Hislop outdoes herself in this brilliantly penned historical fiction take on the events that shaped Spain into what it is today. A book filled with deep emotion, and love that stand the test of history, The Return will give the reader history in bite sized morsels, while best of all telling of the human will to live during that dark period.

The Return is a book that like the Flamenco dance evokes emotion, does not shy from expressing pain, and yet snaps its heels to a dramatic finish that will leave the reader open-mouthed (and wondering how long their mouth has been open for). I highly recommend this book, to everyone- which is why it will get my supa cool Stellar Five Chicken Book Award! It is perfect for the dancer, the historian, the lover of books or any person who wants to spend hours in a far away land hearing the perfectly clickety-clacking of well worn dance shoes in their thoughts while they read. Loved it.

Remaining TLC Tour Stops:

Wednesday, October 21st – Write Meg

Thursday, October 22nd – Literate Housewife

Monday, October 26th – Diary of an Eccentric

Tuesday, October 27th – Drey’s Library

Wednesday, October 28th – Book Chatter and Other Stuff

The World in Half
by Cristina Henriquez
305 Pages
Fiction
April 2009
Riverhead
Advanced Reader Copy
978-1594488559
Rating: 4/5

Miraflores grows up living with her single mother. Her mother had an affair with her father while she and her husband were stationed in Panama. She was the result. Was she the deal breaker? Miraflores longs to know more about her father, about the decisions and why she never knew him, why her mother left Panama. When she goes back home to take care of her ailing mother her questions are answered, her mother and father loved each other deeply, and there is one secret that kept them from being together to raise their daughter.

The World in half is a book of family drama, but not the way that you’d think. It is settled so far in the past that all the emotions have cleared and the story that lives under them is able to shine through. Stunningly written, with life filled characters, it is a read full of mystery, intrigue and true deep love. The story has turns and twists and things that wouldn’t be expected. This was a hit for me for many reasons, but mainly because of a family’s love that overcomes the separation of time and space.

This is my second post for Banned Books Week, A week that I see as a celebration of the freedoms we currently have to read what we choose and choose what we read.

My favourite banned book is the Bible, so I chose to talk about it today. It actually hasn’t been banned officially in the US, (that is a debate of its own), however since challenged books can be considered “banned” for the sake of the celebration of Banned Books Week, the Bible takes the prize since throughout its history governments since the Roman Empire to the Holy Catholic Church and on down have tried to censor who can translate, it, and if it can be read or owned at all.

Martin Luther burning the Papal Bull, his warning from the Roman Emperor Leo X informing Luther of his excomunication from the Catholic church.

I have two most love translators of the Bible, William Tyndale and Martin Luther.

Martin Luther first published the German translation of the New Testament in 1522, bu 1534 the whole translated Bible was published. He intended his vigorous, direct language to make the Bible accessible to everyday Germans, “for we are removing impediments and difficulties so that other people may read it without hindrance.” (Mullett, 149; Wilson, 302.) I love Martin Luther not only for bringing the word of God to the common German, but also for the revolution of faith that he inspired.

Through the influence of Martin Luther, William Tyndale introduced new words into the English language through his translation. He wanted a more accurate portrayal of the Bible for the people. However, his translations did not conform to the catholic church of that day. He was not worried with offending, and “some of the new words and phrases introduced by Tyndale did not sit well with the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, using words like ‘Overseer’ rather than ‘Bishop’ and ‘Elder’ rather than ‘Priest’, and (very controversially), ‘congregation’ rather than ‘Church’ and ‘love’ rather than ‘charity’. Tyndale contended (citing Erasmus) that the Greek New Testament did not support the traditional Roman Catholic readings. (Wikipedia William Tyndale, Legacy)

What happens when you translated a banned book back in that day? Well, it wasn’t a pretty sight, ” He was tried on a charge of heresy in 1536 and condemned to death, despite Thomas Cromwell’s intercession on his behalf. He “was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned”. (Wikipedia Tyndale) What most speaks to me is that, ” Tyndale’s final words, spoken “at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice”, were reported as “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.”^[10]

While being put to death by strangulation, Tyndale utters his famous last words, "Lord open the King of England's eyes".

Four years after his death there were four translations of the English Bible, all based on William Tyndale’s work, they were published in England and one became the official English Bible.

Now I’ve shared my favourite banned book, which is yours?

Join the Kristin Lavransdatter Readalong!

Hosted by: Richard of Caravana de Recuerdos and Emily of It Was Evening All Afternoon

This is some of the description of the book selection off of Emily’s blog:

Starting in October and continuing through December, we’ll be tackling the three volumes of Sigrid Undset’s classic Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, one volume per month.Those who want to join will all post their reviews of each section around the end of the month, and we can compare notes. The casual schedule is as follows, with pagination from my omnibus edition, pictured above:

* October: The Wreath (pages 1-291)

* November: The Wife (pages 295-697)

* December: The Cross (pages 703-1124)

This is what Richard said to explain the reasoning behind this super-cool event:
The main reason Emily and I wanted to propose another shared read was the great group of friends we met through the Bolaño readalong: friendly, insightful readers who made the readalong experience so much richer than it would have been otherwise. I hope some of you will consider participating!

Feel like reading along? Sign up!!! Do so at either hosts blog:Richard’s or Emily’s and they will add you to their links section.

I also created a Book Blogs Ning Group for this readalong, here it is: Bulk Book Readalong.

Banned Books Week September 26-October 3 2009

Banned Books Week starts today!!! The celebration of Banned Books Week takes place every year in the last week of September. It is a celebration that brings to light the benefits of “free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States”. (ALA-Banned Books Week)

Off of the Banned Books List I have read: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, My Antonia by Willa Cather, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Some I read before I started blogging, so that is why they aren’t linked to a review.

The concept of Banned Books is really interesting. As much as I disagree with the content of a book, we do as a nation support freedom- which is really good. Censorship is huge around the globe, I have spoken to Iranians who mentioned how for years all poetry was banned, along with so much other literature. I can’t even imagine not being able to read what I chose and having the government enforce strict bans.

Stay tuned, I have some pretty cool stuff planned for Banned Books Week! Go out and read a book!

Banned Books Week Puppet Video:

ALA Banned Book Week Links:

Banned Books Week ReadOut
Banned and Challenged Classics
Banned Books Week Resource Guide
Statistics on Banned Books
Most Frequently Banned Authors of the 20th Century

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

North of Beautiful
by Justina Chen Headley
373 Pages
Young Adult Fiction
Little, Brown and Company
February 2009

We all have things that we would change about ourselves, ears, nose, feet, something. What if you could cover up what haunted that image of perfection that you had? Terra, the heroine of North of Beautiful has always done just that. Beautiful, tall, blond, and incredibly fit, but she will never be good enough-all because of the port wine stain on one half of her face. Her mom has taken her through many painful laser removal treatments that have had no impact on the intensity of the mark on her face. Over the years she has just learned to cover it up and really, what no one knows can’t hurt them- or Terra. She is known at school for her jock boyfriend, and that she hangs with the popular crowd and none of them have ever seen her without her mask on.

Through some interesting events Terra meets Jacob, makeup or no make up he has the ability to see right through the image she is trying to live. He seems to know her before she has even said a word. This is disarming to Terra, as not even at home is she able to be honest. Terra’s father is verbally abusive, her mother takes the brunt of any mistake the kids make- Terra isn’t allowed to be imperfect. Will honesty feel too uncomfortable after so many years in hiding?

I have a HUGE claim to make and maybe to some even preposterous. All that Twilight gets so wrong- North of Beautiful gets just right. This, not Twilight, is the book I think teens should read. Forget the sickly-super-vamps and feeble-minded-females, this Young Adult novel is worth its paper and much more. Justina Chen Headley rocked the world of Young Adult Literature when she typed this one up. I can’t say enough about it. The writing is great, the characters are flesh, the truth is true and there are no mind games. This one goes in my ‘must keep’ pile.

North of Beautiful brings the message to kids that imperfection isn’t what we should hide, but what we should be proud of. Beauty comes from security and knowing that you are just as you should be- no matter what way our world goes. Beauty-shmooty…who is the judge of that?

And with easy, relaxed strides it takes my Stellar Five Chicken Award. This is what Young Adult should be like!

Author Justina Chen Headley Links:

Blog: Wordlings by Justina
Website: Justina Chen Headley

The Hunger Games
The Boy in Striped Pajamas
The Invention of Hugo Cabret