Product Review: Buddha Nose Girl Balm

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . September 20, 2011 . 4:26PM

My sponsor, SkincareRx.com, has asked me to try something new as part of their sponsorship. Most blogs have sponsors that give them cash and put a little link or graphic on their site and thanks to federal regulations, you are aware that they are a sponsor of the blog. My sponsor is neat in that they have products I genuinely like, so part of my payment is that I get a gift card that I can use to purchase products to review on my site. This means that I get to choose products that work with me and my lifestyle and my sponsor still gets some nice blog time on blueshelled.com. The good news for everyone is that my products just came in and I got the chance to spend some time playing with them and giving you my honest thoughts. Today’s product is Buddha Nose Girl Balm, which is offered by skinbotanica.com, a sister site of skincarerx.com.

I’m going to copy and paste the specs off the site, so I don’t screw them up and then I’ll tell you my thoughts about the product. Taken directly from Skinbotanica.com:

ABOUT THE PRODUCT
Ease the tension and stress of being a woman with Buddha Nose Girl Balm. It is a nourishing and hydrating balm that instantly relieves cramps and muscle soreness as it relaxes and soothes your mood. More than just for that time of the month, it can be used daily as a deep moisturizer.

1 fl oz

WHO IT’S FOR
Ideal for women with hormonal mood shifts and body aches who want a calm and soothed body and mind.

KEY INGREDIENTS
Ginger Root calms cramps and reduces inflammation. Hemp Seed Oil reduces dryness and inflammation of the skin and joints. Black Pepper Seed improves circulation.

This product is $21.80 and is currently backordered.

Alrighty. Let’s be honest, here. I love pretty containers that I can carry in my purse and things that smell great. This hits both of those requirements. I am not someone that buys gimmicky items and this certainly fits this bill. I’m also, generally, frugal, so to spend $20 on what amounts to a good smelling muscle rub, is not something I’d normally do. However, something appealed to me about a rub that was made specifically to make me feel better on a day/week of the month where everything works against me. Since I wasn’t out anything by trying it, I did, and what I found was that the scent alone was worth the cost for me.

There isn’t a way around it: this is a luxury item. However, I did find that the aromatherapy aspect of this item worked for me and and I found myself relaxing. I used this on my back after being sick in bed for two solid days and my sore back felt relaxed and normal within about ten minutes. The scent made me feel happy and was not overtly girlie. I smelled good, felt good and my back felt nice and moisturized without feeling oily or greasy.

While I can’t afford to buy this item frequently, this is a wonderful gift item, especially for a new mom, someone with chronic pain, a friend who has especially painful periods, or someone you know who has just had a bad time lately…that someone might even be you. It’s a great little splurge and a little bit goes a long way.

Disclaimer: As I noted before, this was part of my sponsorship offer, however, I got to choose the products I wanted and all review opinions are completely my own, both good and bad.

Book review: Irma Voth by Miriam Toews

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . September 10, 2011 . 7:41PM

Irma Voth is a young adult who struggles with things she can’t control. Her husband, Jorge, is a drug dealer who is uninterested in her both as a wife and as a person. To Irma, the bigger issue between them is that Irma comes from a Mennonite background and things that she feels should come naturally to her as a woman and intuitively as a person about her surroundings just don’t. Jorge is a Mexican man, living in Mexico, who expects that his wife will be able to conform to societies standards and lacks a basic understanding of the world in which she became a person. To top it off, they live on her parent’s land and Irma constantly deals with the threat from her father that he will throw her out if Jorge, who is off dealing drugs, doesn’t come home and work the farm. Her younger sister, Aggie, constantly begs Irma to allow her to come live with her as things at home are getting worse. The bottom line? Young Irma has a lot on her mind.

The thin balance that Irma has managed to eek out is tested when a movie director comes to town and looks for a translator that speaks Dutch German. Irma needs the money, as Jorge is gone, and eagerly accepts the job offer. Her work on the film triggers a serious of events that lead to an uproar in the lives of everyone she holds dear.

Irma Voth by Miriam Toews is a strongly written novel about the ways that our life is a safety blanket and if we let go of the familiar how much we stand to gain and how much we can lose. Irma is a sympathetic character with stilted dialogue and I constantly found myself wishing that I could help her in some way, but realizing that she brought many troubles on herself. When Irma finally stands up for herself I found myself wishing that she could be more thoughtful and not make bad decisions, however, the bad decisions were consistent with her character as someone who was highly sheltered. My frustration does not make her an inconsistent character.

Overall, the book was a good read, though a little short. I was a little confused by the ending, as well as many of the laws in Mexico, I suppose, but otherwise, this was a good read. It’s not a fast read or a beach read, rather, it’s going to be a thoughtful one with a decently moving storyline.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in order to review it and share my opinion.

Book Review: The Grief of Others by Leah Cohen

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . September 2, 2011 . 5:35PM

Sometimes it takes me a while to determine how I feel about a novel. In the first 6 pages of The Grief of Others by Leah Cohen, I recognized this book was special. I found myself clutching my chest as I empathized and closing my eyes because sometimes you can find magic in a novel. In the introduction, the author describes how Ricky, the mother in the novel, longs to bottle her infant’s breaths so she can keep them forever. I related to this so much. Even though my son is now 10, I find myself having those thoughts at times.

Throughout the novel, we find the family of four, John, Ricky, Paul and their daughter Biscuit, struggle to come to grips with the death of their infant, Simon. Simon was born with a defect that led to his head not fully forming and he died within 3 days of birth. Ricky, who knew he was going to have this defect, chose not to disclose this to anyone, including John, and the repercussions of this come to affect everyone in the family, even John’s daughter from a former relationship, who shows up on their doorstep.

There is no protagonist in this novel. There are equal amounts of grief and distress for all of the characters in this book and I felt my heart reach out to them equally. Frequently I wondered why the adults in this novel had such difficulty connecting to their children. Even prior to the death of Simon, John and Ricky still did not seem to have a great ability to reach out to Paul and Biscuit. This manifests in Biscuit cutting school and enacting death rituals to celebrate the life of Simon and Paul’s inability to sleep at night and allowing himself to be bullied at school. Jessica, John’s first child, shows up on their doorstep after no contact for eight years, pregnant and mysterious.

The difficulty with this novel is the disjointed nature of the situations. No one in the novel seems capable of connecting with anyone else on any level. The self-absorbed nature of people is on display and it made it hard to want good things for them. However, the very realistic situations that were portrayed and Ricky’s expression of feelings for the child she lost could absolutely take my breath away, at times. This hints to me that there could have been a great deal more to this story, but with so much going on, it just felt lost to me. Overall, I’d recommend it as a read for those that may need someone to relate to who is going through grief and for those that feel to raw to express this to other people. I never really understood the grief of anyone but Biscuit and Ricky, but maybe that can be enough. I have lukewarm feelings but some of the writing was so beautifully done that I am reluctant to give this a bad review. It’s worth it for those brief moments of inspiration alone.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in order to review it and share my thoughts.

A new semester brings new challenges

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . September 1, 2011 . 11:31PM

Wednesday was the start of my new semester of teaching. As my undergraduates shuffled into the classroom, I pushed my sweat-soaked hair off of my forehead and looked around at their nervous, but eager faces. I knew they were predominantly freshman and that many of them were brand new to the city and state. I’d hiked up the stairs twice in an attempt to get them books for the course, which the university was providing in a rare show of support for the students. Generally, books weren’t required for the class I was teaching, but the university has chosen to take this course in a new direction of civic service with a service learning component and, thus, they’d decided students needed books to meet this criteria. What this meant for me was that I was now in charge of making sure my students got them and some workplaces are more organized than others.

As I took some deep breaths I tried to remember that I love to teach and that my students propel me forward. Teaching gives me energy rather than draining it, which can be rare for an introvert like myself. I flipped the outdated computer on and promptly mis-entered my password no less than 4 times. As the powerpoint projector was already going, the students giggled nervously and a few made comments that the university was yanking them around with their passwords as well. One cheerfully offered to allow me to use his password and I smiled and thanked him while glaring at the screen and typing the password in more slowly…and was then prompted to change my password which caused a whole new host of issues.

We looked at each other thoughtfully, the class and I. I never know what they will teach me and it’s always something tremendous, heartfelt and amazing. Every single class causes me to laugh and I rarely leave feeling like I wish I hadn’t worked that day. As I started my presentation, I considered carefully how to word what I was about to say and then words tumbled out of my mouth, as they often do, without my really knowing what was going to happen. I began to describe myself, my credentials and then the course that would become a huge part of their learning experience this semester. When I described the large amount of service learning that they would be giving to their community, I stopped talking and looked at my hands.

“This is what defines you. I’m not sure that you realize that. What you give back and what you show is what defines you, not the current community perception of our university. I’m certain that you may have heard things about what people think of your school, what people think of you in the past and what people think they know about what you can do. I’ve heard teachers complain that every single semester they get a bad class and here’s what I can tell you: Those are NOT bad students. Those are bad teachers. Those are teachers who aren’t taking the time to discover the joy and excellence that is within each of you. Every single one of you has something interesting and new to offer me and the opportunity to offer your classmates the chance to grow from you. You are brilliant, amazing and thoughtful and don’t let anyone tell you that you are less than what you are and what you can be either in here or outside of the class.”

Clearly, the freshman have not been exposed to my soapbox speeches yet. Some jaws were dropped, many smiled with such beauty that I needed to take a second and others looked at me like I’d lost my marbles. Students who’ve had me in class before know that I have no problem telling my students that they are like my kids and that I care for them tremendously. The first day of class is the chance to remind them that as they are adults, very few people will grant them trust and belief in them without strings and from the start. In my classroom, they have that until they work to lose it. For some, this is a new experience, this Rogerian model of teaching. For some, they will need to see it to believe it.

Though I’m disappointed to not teach psychology this semester, I am excited about my new class. Yes, yes I am. Why? I think it’s probably the reason that all teachers are excited about the new year regardless of which subject or grade they teach. Students are brilliant, amazing and thoughtful and with them comes the chance for us to grow in ways we never thought possible. For us to be challenged and to think in ways that we haven’t been able to in the past. To reach people in ways we never thought we might.

It’s not about the subject, it’s about how you do what you do.