Where do you buy books?

I'm a bookworm- I admit it! I love reading & usually have a stack of magazines & shelves of books to pick through. Since I'm still on the mend from my staph infection I've been doing more "junk" reading than usual. Last week I read the latest Joanne Fluke & Fern Michaels books. Both were great. I decided that I wanted to indulge a bit more so I was browsing books at Target today. There was absolutely NOTHING there that grabbed my eye! I was so disappointed! Short of going to Borders or Barnes & Noble I've noticed a trend in stores condensing their book sections. What a bummer. Where do you go for books? What is your favorite genre? What is the best book you've read lately? Drop a comment & let me know!

Giveaway Roundup!

This weeks Giveaway Roundup is better than last weeks! I hope y'all take a peek at these giveaways. Most of them are pretty easy to enter (ie leave a comment!) and its such a thrill to find out you've won something! It does great things for your state of mind! So without further ado here is this weeks list of giveaways!

Mom Start Swag Bag giveaway

Mom Start PhotoWorks $50.00 giftcard giveaway

Mom Start Chicken Soup for the Soul Teacher Tales

Mom Start Yoplait Nourish Your Inner Goddess spa giveaway

Mom Start Chicken Soup for the Soul Nascar book giveaway

Mom Start My Princess To Go Party Giveaway

Thank, Mail Carrier Randomline Fun on the Go Giveaway
http://randomline.com/

Leslie Loves Veggies Our little Books Giveaway

Got A Lot to Give Uprint 500 business card giveaway

Piece of Me Dr. Bloom Chewable Jewels giveaway

StL Family Life Aveeno baby care basket giveaway

Katydid and Kid Random Line on the go giveaway

Blessings Abound Mommy Misikko Corioliss Flat Iron Giveaway

All Things Bloggy RosyHandbags $25 giftcard giveaway

Glimpse Wysi Cloth giveaway

Guard Wife Mr. Furry Fur Fur DVD Giveaway

The Life of a Coast Guard Wife Magnapod giveaway

Frugal Housewife Protect a Bed giveaway

Got a Lot to Give Pocket Scarf Giveaway

Got a Lot to Give Pansy Hairclip giveaway

Moms Wear Your Tshirts Premades for a Purpose Giveaway

Moms Wear Your Tshirts Circle of Friends giveaway

Leslie Loves Veggies Fibers I Heart shirt giveaway

In the know mom Smart Girls Who Surf Giveaway

Not Just Baby Brain

Leslie Loves Veggies Tallulah Jane Natural perfume giveaway

My Four Monkeys TagLine Designs Giveaway

My Four Monkeys Fibers.com $25 giveaway

Simple Traditions Lip Balm Giveaway

Dealafina Meditation CD giveaway

Real Heart Prints Slow Cooker giveaway

Through Green Colored Glasses Espadrille Store Giveaway

Spring Fever & Spring Cleaning!

So in the Midwest we've finally started to thaw out & see the light at the end of the tunnel- Spring is coming! A few mornings ago I just sat in my living room listening to the birds- what a welcome sound! Along with spring and the desire to get outside is the feeling of renewal. Somehow part of that always seems to be a big Spring cleaning. Now I'll be honest- I'm not big on cleaning but once I get going I do enjoy it if for nothing else the end result. One thing that has helped make cleaner easier is my switch to earth friendly people friendly cleaners. My daughter loves to clean and now she can without me worrying that the cleaners might harm her. Its a win win situation! She loves doing it & I get a hand! A few Christmases ago my sister gave me the book Clean House Clean Planet by Karen Logan. I love this book! Its Karen sharing her recipes for housecleaning and different solutions for cleaning in a healthy way. The recipes are very easy & work well. (A side note I did find it a bit irritating that Karen pushed the sales of her own bottles but I guess everyone has to make a living!) If you take a peek at Amazon they have used copies staring at $3.23- its definitely worth checking out!

If you don't have the time or inclination to read an entire book doing a simple google search of natural cleaning recipes will yield big results. Here are just a few to check out.

Earth Easy Nontoxic Home Cleaning HERE

Care2 How to Make a Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit HERE
It includes a creamy scrub cleaner and its written by Annie B. Bond who is someone well worth taking the time to read. Her website is HERE

Water & Sewerage Dept. of Detroit Guide to Non-Toxic Cleaners Recipes for a Clean Home and a Cleaner Environment. This is a 22 page booklet in PDF format. You can find it HERE

I hope this gives you a good jumping off point for natural Spring cleaning!

Staph Infection

Ok- hopefully this doesn't cross the bounds into too much information but I thought since this happened to me & someone else I know that maybe a good general warning might be worthwhile! As I mentioned last friday I have been dealing with a staph infection. Let me tell you- it is NOT fun and it is REALLY painful! The amazing thing was that I had been at the Dr. with the staph infection and didn't mention because I thought it was a pimple! Yes you heard me right- I thought it was a pimple. Nothing more than an annoying little zit so I didn't mention it to her and consequently treatment wasn't started until 4 days later. In retrospect I could have saved myself so much time and agony if I knew the warning signs of a staph infection! Now this entire post is just from my personal experience and by no means am I a Dr but if you have something that looks like a pimple but is painful you might want to mention it to your Dr. Here is a bit of what the timeline looked like for me. Everytime I tell this to a different Dr I wonder if it would have progressed this much if I would have mentioned it the friday before.

Feb 26- Saw Dr. about a sinus infection. Didn't mention pimple like thing on my stomach.
Feb 27 & 28- was irritated by thing so I tried warm compresses
March 1- decided I was as smart as a Dr and tried performing surgery on myself (clearly never a good idea!) By the evening I was in very bad pain & called the Dr. after hours line. An appointment was made for the next morning.
March 2- Congrats you have a staph infection. Started Bactrim and told to apply warm compresses & come back on Thurs.
March 4- Returned for follow up. At that point my Dr. prescribed a second antibiotic to be taken with the Bactrim and a painkiller. A follow up appointment was made for Monday.
March 5- The infection had changed so much in 24 hours I didn't feel comfortable going into the weekend without my Dr. checking it again. Dr. agreed that the medical intervention was necessary but not quite yet (there wasn't enough infection centralized to cut into- gross I know!) An appointment was made with a surgeon for Monday afternoon. I was told if the wound opened over the weekend to get to the hospital as it would need to be professionally cleaned & packed.
March 6- still in a lot of pain and would was weeping but not open. The infection was very centralized by this point in time.
March 7- Again gross I'm sorry but the wound went from weeping to oozing and I began to fear that healthy tissue would get infected so I went to the ER. Dr. said I was very close to it breaking opening and would have been in before morning anyway. The Dr. gave me a local which is a horror story all its own but I won't share that! Then it was surgically opened, a sample taken in case the antibiotics don't finish clearing it up. The the wound was cleaned, irrigated and dead tissue was taken off. After that it was packed and I was told to keep my appointment with my regular Dr. and the surgeon.
March 8- My primary care told me to continue antibiotics and make a follow up appointment to have the wound repack depending on what the surgeon did that afternoon. Surgeon had no bedside manner whatsoever and yanked packed out without even warning me- grrrrrrrrrrr! After that he said it looked good & to follow up in a week.

All of this because it looked like I had a zit on my stomach and thought it wasn't worth mentioning to the Dr. Moral of the story- if you're not sure have it checked!

Giveaway Roundup!

Its a very very short list for todays Giveaway Roundup. I have a staph infection & have been to the hospital 3x this week. Consequently I've spent very little time on line! I'll try to get more for next week.



Real Heart Prints Country Bob’s Sauce Giveaway


Thanks Mail Carrier Safety Cares (Child Aviation Restraint System) Giveaway http://www.kidsflysafe.com/
Did You See That Breyers YoCrunch 100 Calorie Yogurt pack giveaway

Canadian Contests & Giveaways Rhythm & Blues CD giveaway

Go Green Street Happy Green Bee Organic Sock giveaway

Dogwood Lane Designs Glass Pendant Giveaway

April Marie Mai $35 store giftcard

Be Adorned Pearl Necklace giveaway

Who says its not easy being green?

I absolutely love doing crafts using recyclables & was so excited to see that Family Fun had a section dedicated to the topic! Hooray for them! To check it out click HERE

Some great reads

The following are some of my favorite magazines. Check them out & let me know what you think!

Mary Jane's Farm
Countryside and Small Stock Journal
Kiwi Magazine
Country Magazine
Country Extra Magazine
E Magazine
Natural Health
Country Living
Natural Life
Country Woman
Backwoods Home
Body and Soul