Not Everyone's Mama

Beaded Hope by Cathy Liggett

Product Description

Four American women, all with their own challenges, embark on a mission trip to South Africa. Their lives are changed as they encounter a group of South African women who suffer from AIDS yet demonstrate great joy and faith in the face of overwhelming adv

From the Back Cover

Coming through the airport terminal door, Gabby paused on the sidewalk and squinted into the sun. A stout lady standing next to a young girl caught her eye. The woman’s coral blouse looked stretched to its limits, as did the flared, brightly colored patterned skirt she wore, both a beautiful contrast with her dark skin.
What an unlikely-looking welcoming committee, Gabby considered. But maybe we look just as odd to them. Four women coming from the other side of the world—to do what? Save them? Save South Africa?
If they only knew. She couldn’t speak for the rest of her group. But didn’t she need someone just as badly to save her from herself?
When four women embark on a mission trip to South Africa, they all have selfish reasons for going. What none of them expects is how profoundly their lives will be transformed by those they meet.
A moving story about the power of faith and hope to overcome even the most tragic circumstances, Beaded Hope was inspired by a nonprofit organization of the same name. Learn more about it at www.beadedhope.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this novel will go to support Beaded Hope.

Have you ever read a book that was so uplifting and just good for your soul?  I just finished one.  Beaded Hope was so beautiful.  It touched me to my core. 

In Beaded Hope you meet these 4 women.  Gabby who is hurting so deeply from not being able to carry a baby.  She’s drawn away from her husband and into her own pain.  Heidi is dealing with a stressful situation, she has found out that her teenage daughter Katie is carrying a baby.  Katie is of course carrying the baby and that is and of itself an emotional time for anyone, let alone a teenager.  Cassandra has shut her emotions off.  She had an abusive foster father and a foster mother who let it happen.  She is now a successful news anchor trying to keep the younger competition far behind her.

These women aren’t friends before hand (except for mother Heidi and daughter Katie) and have independently decided to go on a missions trip to South Africa, each for their own reasons.  When they get there they meet Mama Penny who then introduces them to a host of beautiful women, the one who touches them the most is Jaleela and her children Nomvula and Tumi.  These women, all of these women from South Africa in the story, are struggling to take care of their families in an area where AIDS has taken so much.    As Mama Penny says at one point, there aren’t even enough men left to take up the shovels for the burials, the women have to do it as well. Some of the children are now on their own, older ones taking care of younger siblings, relying on the kindness of others in their community to help them survive. Yet these women don’t lose their hope, their faith in God. 

Beaded Hope is an integral part of this book.  I would be leaving out a huge part of it if I didn’t introduce you to this.  While the story is fiction, Beaded Hope is very much alive and working.

I am borrowing from Beaded Hope’s website because I can’t say it any better:

In a country overwhelmed by sickness, poverty and unemployment, most South Africans suffering from the impact of HIV/AIDS have no way of supporting themselves or their families.

However, in a moment of hope, women from South Africa and America joined together to collectively battle the devastation of the AIDS pandemic.

By using education and employment, we hope to empower families in South Africa who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS.

It is our hope that…
…survival will no longer be a struggle,
…food will be prevalent,
…family units will be whole,
…and lives will be change.

Our hope is that all this is possible through Beaded Hope.

Beaded Hope is growing, and bead by bead, woman to woman, we’re making a difference.

If you go to Beaded Hope , you can actually read about the women who work with this project.  Mama Peggy is who Mama Penny in the book was inspired from.  As there is a character named Mighty in the story, there is also a beautiful woman named Mighty working with Beaded Hope.  Check out their site, and if you are able to make a purchase, your money will be going to help these women support their families.  You will definitely be getting your moneys worth.  I am amazed by the talent of these women across the world from me.

Back to my review, I don’t want to go into more detail because I want you to read this special book for yourself.  I had tears that I kept wiping away during parts of the book and spent a few minutes at the end of the book just reflecting as I cried.  There were times that the tears were sorrowful and times when I cried because it was so beautiful.  It just touched me. 

You will not regret picking up this very special book and reading it. 

And a portion of all proceeds from the book, Beaded Hope, go back to Beaded Hope for the women. 

I want to thank  Cathy Liggett and Tyndale Fiction for providing me with a copy of this book.  It was touching, inspirational, and just a beautiful story!  Also thank you for introducing me to Beaded Hope.

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Congrats to Jamie Lynn G and thank you to everyone who entered!

Have you seen these yet?  I thought they were the coolest thing ever! (If you see me work in the word pop, know I am referring to soda.  I’m from Iowa, it’s what we call it.)

Soda Stream sent me a huge box of goodies and I just kept pulling out more and more and more.

Look at everything they sent for us to try.

Possibly I should have cleaned off my table better for the picture.

Let me borrow a bit from the Soda Stream website:

Making carbonated water and soft drinks is simple! Turn tap water into sparkling water in under 30 seconds, with no clean-up. Enjoy the freshness and convenience of homemade soda and protect the environment at the same time. No heavy bottles to carry, store at home or throw away. Fizz to your taste and add the flavor of your choice to make your favorite drink. Simple to clean and reuse. With a variety of colors and silhouettes, you’ll be sure to find a soda maker to match with any decor.

We broke it out of the box and I have to admit, I was a little intimidating by the bottle of CO2, especially when I saw the license that gave me the permission to use it, but there was nothing to it.

We started out with the diet root beer flavor by a minority vote (Katiana’s vote).

Hooked up the CO2.  In shock that there was no plug, no electricity needed.  Soda Stream just got greener and greener!

Filled up the bottle to the line with water (purified no less).

Put the bottle onto the Soda Stream and pushed!

See those bubbles?  That’s what you get when you push on the button.  It says to push 3 times for average carbonation.  The kids are good with the 3 pushes, I’ve found that I need about 5 for my liking.  I’m used to diet pepsi and diet mt dew and I’ve got to have a lot of fizz.  Added a cap of the soda mix, put the lid on, and very carefully shook it.  It doesn’t tell you to very carefully shake it, but I have had pop fizz all over me one too many times after my kids’ shook up a can.  Didn’t want to do that here.

Now came the moment of judgement.  The taste.  All of us gathered around with a small glass in our hands and I poured it out.  We loved it!

Katiana wanted to make another flavor.  So we opened up the diet cranberry raspberry (someone at Soda Stream must have gotten the memo that I only drink diet pop.  Kidding, I didn’t tell them that, but I really only drink diet pop).  I added another push of the fizz and it was done! That was yummy too!

We’ve now tried all the flavors and I have liked all of them.  The kids favorite are the diet root beer, orange, and grape.

My favorites are the diet ginger ale and the diet cola.

The only one we haven’t tried yet is the energy.  I’ve been saving that for Pato.  I’m still nursing so I haven’t tried it and I don’t think the kids really need any extra energy.

The only one I wasn’t a big fan of was the MyWater Flavor Essence.  I have a sweet tooth.  The only flavored water I like is the ones with lots of a sugar substitute in it.  (So healthy, I know.)  Pato on the other hand loves tonic and flavored water without sugar, so this was right up his ally.

Ok, so now we have the facts that Soda Stream is green, no cans or bottles to recycle, no electricity to run it, you’re reducing your CO2 footprint by using this.

Because SodaStream uses water straight from the tap, the system makes traditional store-bought beverage bottles obsolete. That means less plastic manufactured, less plastic waste is created, and fewer bottled beverages must be transported from manufacturers to distrobutors to stores to homes.

Plus, I knew this, did you know this?

Bottled water is not safer than tap water

(Food & Water Watch Organization)

The bottled water industry has created a misconception in the United States that bottled water is cleaner, safer, and healthier than tap water. In fact, both regulation and enforcement of bottled water safety is weaker than of tap water safety. Federal, state, and local environmental agencies require rigorous testing of tap water safety.

Bottled water is a waste of money

(Food & Water Watch Organization)

Americans spent $10 billion on bottled water in 2005 and paid up to 1,000 times the cost of production, a major windfall of profit for the companies. Bottled water can costs $7.50 to $11.00 per gallon in the supermarket but tap water costs most customers only one-tenth of one cent per gallon.

Bottled water is bad for the environment

(Food & Water Watch Organization)

The United States is the world’s largest consumer of bottled water, purchasing 37 billion bottles in 2005. Our daily bottled water habit is bad for people and bad for the environment. Bottled water wastes fossil fuels and water in production and transport, and when the water is drunk the bottles become a major source of waste.

That’s the main reason I love my water purifier.  It takes away all of those issues.  Now I’m making our soda with our purified tap water.  Win win!

There is also the facts that with the Soda Stream you don’t have to carry heavy 2 liters or 12/24 packs of cans.  You’re not having to find places to store them.  And your not needing a spot to keep all of the empties until you take them to the redemption center.  That’s our problem.  We don’t have a spot to store all of the empty cans and bottles.

I’m going to link you to their nutrition page because Soda Stream beats the competition in those areas too, by about 1/3 in most areas, except for sodium, in sodium in blows the competition away with just 2 mg compared to Coke’s 35 mg.

Ask my kids how much soda they got to drink before we got the Soda Stream?  Jordan will tell you none.  I’ll tell you that they got 1 can of caffeine free root beer every one or two months.  I didn’t let them drink pop.  I didn’t think they needed the extra sugar and caffeine.  Since we’ve gotten this, I’ve let them have a glass of soda every other day usually.

I’m a horrible example because I, myself go through a 2 liter of diet pepsi or diet mt dew every other day at least.  That’s another reason I didn’t let my kids have pop.  When I don’t have one of those above every day, I get horrible caffeine withdrawal migraines that nothing will touch except for a can of diet pop.  I can say that I have lowered my own caffeine intake since we got the Soda Stream because I’ve been drinking the diet pop that came with it.  Have I completely cut out diet mt dew yet?  No.  But I’m hoping too.

Let’s talk cost too.  A 2 liter of diet pop in my area runs $1.75-$2.00.  That’s one 2 liter.  One bottle of the Soda Stream soda mix runs $4.99 – $5.99.  It makes 12 liters of pop.  12 liters of diet pop here would cost me about $24.00.  I could easily go through 6 – 2 liters in 8-10 days.  That’s quite a savings.  It wouldn’t take long for me to make up the initial investment and start saving money.

I’ll repeat, Soda Stream win win.  I can’t see a negative period.  Even the CO2 containers.  You can exchange those online with Soda Stream or if you have a retailer in your area that changes them out you can take the empty and exchange it there.  You can check here to see where there is an exchange location near you.  Just so happens there is 1 less than a mile from where I live.

All in all I was really happy with the Soda Stream so they get a

from us!  Tastes good, green, saves $$, better nutritionally, no storage issues, what more could I ask for?

Soda Stream has very generously offered to give one of my readers a Soda Stream for themselves!

How do you win?  Read on!

MAIN ENTRY:

Go over to Soda Stream and tell me your favorite thing about the Soda Stream.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE MAIN ENTRY BEFORE ANY OF THE EXTRA ENTRIES! THANKS!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

• Become a fan of SodaStream on Facebook
• - Subscribe to my blog via email or reader
• - Follow @SodaStreamUSA on Twitter
• - Follow me on Twitter (either @HeatherM74 or @GiveawayChick – you’ll get all the giveaways from other bloggers that I enter on @GiveawayChick, either one is fine.)
• - Tweet this giveaway (1X/day)

Enter to win a SodaStream soda maker from @SodaStreamUSA and #HeatherM74 http://bit.ly/aPbhV4 ends 3/21 please RT! #Giveaway

• - Follow me via Google Friend connect
• - add my button to your blog (the 24/7 mom one on the right side)
• - comment on one of my other posts
• - blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post.
• - Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social networking bookmark this giveaway.  (Not my site, the post.) There are links after each post.

- Check out this post for 3 extra entries on all of my giveaways through April 1!

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Giveaway ends on 3/21/10 at 11:59 PM CST. Only US entries. Winners will be chosen by random number generator. Winners will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Thank you to Soda Stream for sending me a Soda Stream soda maker.  We have loved it!

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I was getting the littlest 2 ready for bed last night, lotioning them all up after their showers (Nano’s second of the day *sigh*) when Alyce looks at me and starts to tell me a joke.  Here’s how it went:

Alyce: Mama, knock knock

Me: Whose there?

Alyce: Banana

(you think you know where this is going, I thought I did too.)

Me: Banana who?
Alyce: Banana! You didn’t say or-raange.

Me: (silence for a moment) then I started cracking up.  I think I prefer the 3 year olds’ version to the classic joke over any I have ever heard.

Then Katiana had to tell it to me.

Katiana: Mom, knock knock

Me:  Whose there?

Katiana: Banana

Me: Banana who?

Katiana: Knock knock

Me: Whose there?

Katiana: Banana

Me: Banana who?

repeat that 10 times

Katiana:  Knock knock

Me:  Kata, do not say banana again.

Katiana: Mom!  KNOCK KNOCK!

Me:  WHOSE THERE?

Katiana:  Orange

Me:  Oh thank God.  Orange who?

Katiana: Orange you glad I didn’t say banana again?

Me:  You don’t know how much

Katiana then asked me to tell her one, to which I told her, I already have told you all the ones I know.  She told me she wanted to hear a knock knock joke.  Tell me one.  Pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee?

Me: Knock Knock

Katiana:  Whose there?

Me: Cash

Katiana:  Cash who?

Me:  I always knew you were a little nut.

Jordan:  Runs in our family.

Nice dude.

Want to know why Nano needed a second shower yesterday?  Because I am brilliant!  Not really.  I made Pato give Christiano a shower before he went to work because Friday night someone had colored on the baby with a red washable marker.  Of course no one will admit to it.  When Pato got home he proceeded to give Nano the same kind of goatee in red crayola washable that Pato has on his face.  He and Alyce were cracking up.  Nice Pato.  Nice.  Here I work so hard to break the kids of the coloring on themselves habit and you just colored on the baby.  Now he needs a shower.  I’ll give him one tomorrow morning.  (It was late and after Christiano got over giggling about daddy drawing on him, he was craaaaaaanky.)  I said do it now, otherwise, I’m going to get red marker all over me when I nurse him.  A goatee on my boob, just what I always wanted.  No you won’t.  Whatever. 

So, I made him throw Nano in yesterday. 

Then, for supper, yes, I went all out.  I was so tired all day because I stayed up until 3 finishing my layouts for the ADSR challenges 5 and 6 then Christiano was up and tossing and turning until 4 and I couldn’t go back to sleep when I got up at 8:30.  I tried to lay down for a nap while Pato was home, but between all 4 children opening (or in Nano’s case) banging on the door, I didn’t get any sleep at all.  By 6:30, I was so dizzy, I wanted to puke and fall over.  I told Pato before he left that one of these days he was going to have to put me in an insane asylum because a person can only go so long without a full night’s sleep and I’ve gone oh, 18 months or so?  Usually getting 1-2 hours in a row, 4-5 hours total a night.  (You all wonder why I take a nap when Christiano and Alyce do, that’s why.  I usually feel like a hamster running on one of those little treadmills, except they can get off, mine just keeps going and going.)

I decided last night was going to be the simplest supper I could come up with besides cold cereal. (I always get in trouble with Pato when we do cold cereal – like it’s good enough for breakfast, but como vas a dar a ellos cereal for supper – how are you going to give them cereal)  Even easier than making cream of mushroom soup because I don’t have to get the whisk out. 

Ramen noodles baby.  Or as we call them at our house, funny noodles.  Cheapest meal you could ever make, I think, with the highest sodium content on the face of the earth.  I add corn, green beans, and eggs, you know, to up the nutritional value. 

Got those made.  Dished them out.  Cut Nano’s into little bits because when Jordan was a baby I heard a tale about a little one dying from eating spaghetti, something about it wrapping around the esophagus (probably an urban legend, but why take chances?)  Then as a treat (to make up for the lame supper) I gave them frozen yogurt.  Well, by the time Nano was done he had ramen noodles in his hair, down his diaper, stuffed into his high chair (making me wish I didn’t have a cloth seat in the high chair) add the stickiness of the frozen yogurt because I let him do it himself.  (You know it’s so important to let a baby explore their food right?  Yeah, I don’t do that with messy foods ever.)  He was gross.  I got him out of the high chair by coming up behind him, grabbing him under the arm pits, and hauling him out.  He’s just dangling.  I yell to Jordan, come help me!  He’s all, I’m not touching him!  I said, just take his diaper off.  So, I hold my dangling baby over the garbage as Jordan attempts to take the diaper off with the tips of 2 fingers.  Woos.

Run to the bathroom so he doesn’t drip noodles all over the carpet.  I stood him on the bathroom floor so I could get the water going and Nano proceeds to touch everything he could get his hands on.  My white toilet lid, the cupboards, the walls.  Threw him and Alyce in the shower, kept the door open while I wiped down everything he touched.  Then got them washed.  Nothing like getting matted ramen noodles out of a baby’s hair.

It was done.  He was happy.  They smelled good.  I love good smelling babies.

I think I would have had less work if I would have made the chicken fried rice I was planning on making in the beginning when you factor in all the baby cleaning.

Have a great day!

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