Wild-Heart.net

Blogged about something you really enjoy? I mean something that brought an emmese amount of joy into your life on a daily basis. And then has the comments for that blog post made you absolutely sickened by that thing to the point that you mourn the loss of the joy it used to bring you?

Just wondering because that’s how I’m starting to feel about the song on this post. The popularity of that post and song thanks to that bleepity-bleeping M&M’s commercial is really starting to make me bitter.

• Paid blogging = The final payoff for all of those years of therapy for millions everywhere.
• Not to mention the return on the self-help books purchased during the 80’s.
• If only I had Stuffr for Linux… I would have clicked “Publish” by now.

*Note: I was not paid by Slobokan in anyway to tell you to get Stuffr. This was not a paid post!

My apologies for the delay of this post. Like the Bounty commercial says, “Life is messy.” I’ve beens swamped with teenager drama and homeschooling Baby Boy.

This post needs a bit of a back story…

Norbert from Akron Grove Bath Products left a comment that went into spam moderation. It was in the comments for a post about wishing for after-hours nail salons and how unsatisfying I find the whole concept of home spa products. You’re just never leave feeling as relaxed as you do leaving a day spa.

When I read his comment that was tagged as comment spam, I felt conflicted. I have never done the whole paid advertisement thing on my blogs. None of them in the last 7 years. But his comment, while promoting the business he and his wife run, was sincere. I didn’t want to be my usual rude self so I contacted him and made him an offer to use & review their product/s if they wished and would give him a graphic link in the sidebar.

It has now been over a month and I feel like a complete arse for not getting to this sooner.

I was delighted to recieve their sample products. They sent the following product samples for me to try & review:

• Green Tea Soak
  
• Deep Oval Clear Glycerin Soap
• Goat’s Milk & Honey Lotion With Shea
  
• Shower Gel with Olive Oil
• Green Apple Bubble Bath

I cannot give these products enough praise. I think my absolute personal favorite is the Goat’s Milk & Honey Lotion with Shea. It feels like liquid silk and makes my very dry and sensitive skin feel just as silky. Also, I have a nickel allergy, when I shave my legs and other bits, thanks to razor blades containing nickel, I’m always left with itchy skin and nasty little red dots. I discovered that lotion prevents that dermatitis reaction! As soon as I’m able I will be purchasing as much as I can afford.

Baby Boy really liked the Green Tea soak. Ever since he was severely burned at age 3, the skin on his back from donor skin grafts has frequently itched. He is still asking when I’m going to order more because they instantly made his back stop itching the moment he got into the bath tub and laid back to relax.

The green apple scented products were a bit too strongly scented for my senses, however, they’ve been great for Boy #1 who has a difficult time waking in the morning due to what is called “sleep inertia.” Once I can get him awake and to the shower, and remind him to use the Green Apple with Olive Oil shower gel, he perks right up and is pleasant to be around. I’m a huge believer of the powerful effects of aromatherapy. Again, it’s another that is going on the list of items I plan on ordering from Akron Grove.

If you’d like to know even more about Akron Grove Bath Products and the people behind the products, you should take a moment and read this article from Tonawanda News. Donna and Norbert are real people discovering real business success starting with a recipe they found on the internet and still make in their own kitchen.

Akron Grove Bath Products has more than earned their graphical link in the sidebar. They’ve earned my respect and I’ve learned that sometimes, it pays to review what Akismet throws into the spam category. I thank them for the opportunity to review and promote their products. Not to mention their patience in waiting for this review!

I think I shall turn our family blog into a jumping board of sorts. Boys #1 and #2, well all of them want their own blogs and I’m sick of trying to be happy and cheerful with entries for family. If they want to know they can call or they can take a risk and visit over here. So, I’m thinking that the domain for the family blog can be the place for them to follow to individual blogs for the Monkey Boys, etc.

I entertained, very briefly just adding each of the boys as authors to the family blog, but they’d start bitching at each other in comments and writing posts of retaliation. But hey, at least lately, they’ve seemed to keep their petty discussions only to supper time and if they are in the car with us.

That’s progress.

My apologies for not following up for days. I’ll go into more details later about all that has occurred in the last week. Just a quick bullet fest to give you a general idea:

• Baby Boy is now being homeschooled. We’re using the most excellent online curriculum Time4Learning.com.
• PMS started last week, which for whatever reason also triggered a bad but of IBS. Four menses since the first of the year is a bit draining on the stamina.
• Dr. increased my dosage of Xanax, which decided to play hell with Soma. I’ve been sick. Really, really, horribly sick.
• Being this sick is not good when finally getting the opportunity to help a dear friend bring some sanity into managing her very fabulous business while freeing her time to do the work she loves to do and does so well.
• Sometimes I HATE emergency rooms. When you haven’t kept food or liquids down, not even Emetrol or just plain water for well over 24 hrs, which means you haven’t been able to keep down any of your meds and you’re still sitting there waiting for over 3 1/2 hrs. it’s just enough to make you mad enough to go home and be miserable there and just sit in a room with humidifiers and suck on wet washcloths until it’s over.
• Tomorrow night, we have to take Baby Boy to have an MRI of his brain done. Both with and without contrasting. There is a strong possibility that his mood disorder is not organic in nature but actually something physically wrong in his brain. Dealing with that is, well, I’ve yet to figure out what it’s like other than frightening.
• Hopefully I’ll be as fully recovered as possible by Friday. That is, if the rest of the boys can figure out that actually being nice to each other and being calm in the house makes Baby Boy’s “episodes” much less frequent.
• For 3 years, I’ve wanted a desktop zen garden style fountain. This week, my cat received one but I got to pick it out.
• For over 5 years of being with Joseph, I’ve given hints. Lots of them, about how I would occasionally like to be treated to flowers or a card on holidays. This year I got pink roses. Another cat is stealing them one at a time and hiding them.
• I need to get some very important links and info added to the sidebar over there. But it is a bit low on the list of priorities. Which is something like this:

1. Get the FMS back under control.
2. Get Nate through the MRI without the noise triggering an “episode”
3. Get this Rx incompatibility worked out so I can actually get some work done.
4. THEN get some little things done around the old blog here.

Guess I lied and this hasn’t been a quick list. But it has been brought to you by today’s letters: X, Y, and Z.

After months and months of not surfing BlogExplosion, I’ve started surfing through and I’ve gotta tell ya, it’s not turning out to be a good way to find good blog reading. So now I’m asking y’all for some advice. Brag on those you love. It’s been a very long time since I’ve even wanted to read blogs let alone post on my own and now the bug is back and while I’ve kept up with the blogs of friends and acquaintances, I’m having difficulty weeding through the splogs and the political blogs to find intelligent, witty and quirky blogs by bloggers who blog about things I find interesting. Eclectic blogs. Know of any that you adore and can’t wait to tell me about? Please, leave me links!