Mediterranean Spa Collection

First it was Spa Soaps.  Then it was Mediterranean Spa Salts.  Then it was a Mediterranean Spa Scrub.  These all have come together in a delicious Mediterranean Spa Collection that's waiting for you to create a relaxing spa retreat in your own bathroom.

First, pour yourself something to drink.  While wine is relaxing, water does a body good.  This is your spa experience, though, so savor whatever you wish.  Perhaps an array of candles bathing your bathroom in golden light, their flames dancing to some soothing nature-inspired music, would be next.  Sprinkle about one-fourth of a tube of Mediterranean Spa Salts in your warm bath water before sinking to your chin in the warm, scented bliss.  Feel your worries start to fade away as you settle back and lose yourself in a good book.

Set your book aside and pick up the Spa Bar.  Take a moment to feel its heft; each bar weighs a solid six ounces.  Take a moment to bring it up to your nose and savor its scent.  (I'll confess, I do this to every bar of soap, every bath.  It's all part of the experience.)  Now rub it on your washcloth or sponge and wash your skin with it, enjoying how it moisturizes you.

Once you've dunked yourself to rinse all the soap off, grab the jar of Mediterranean Spa Scrubs and rub the scrub on your skin, paying special attention to those extra dry areas.  In this step, you're removing that outer layer of dull, dead skin and richly nourishing the layers underneath with a deep moisture treatment that keeps going and going, leaving your nice, soft skin lightly scented for several hours (I still have a remnant of scent on my skin from my scrub treatment this morning, and that was over 12 hours ago!)

Rinse the salt off your skin and finish your soak.  Will you start to nod off over your book?  It might be time to step out of the tub, gently wrap your towel around you to get rid of the extra water while leaving the great remnants of olive butter from the scrub on you.  Now it's time to crawl into bed, to sleep, perchance to dream.

Related articles

• Bath | Spa-Themed Bathroom (thehousequeen.com.au)
• Turning Your Bathroom into a Spa Getaway (mydecorarticles.com)

Flipping For the Flops and Running For the Son - 2011

Flip flops.  Soaps.  Jesus.  Motorcycles.  These four things don't seem like they'd go together in any way, shape, form or fashion, yet I'm going to show you how they do, in fact, go together perfectly.

A few years ago, I introduced these adorable flip flop soaps, and they sold like hotcakes!  One of my soap buds said, "You could say people are flipping for your flops!"  Each bar is a hefty 5 3/4 ounces of luscious fragrance.  Two of the ones from my line are scented with exclusive scent blends I created just for these soaps.  The other two in my product line are Sexy & Sassy, a duplicate of Victoria's Secret Sexy Little Things fragrance, and Blueberry Festival, a very true blueberry scent.  My daughter's product line also includes flip flop soaps that you can choose.

So, there's the soap and flip flops angle, but what about Jesus and motorcycles?  For thirty years, my dad has been an active member of Christian Motorcyclist Association (www.cmausa.org).  This ministry shares the love of Jesus Christ with members of the biker community - everyone from the Sunday afternoon bikers who enjoy their leisurely rides for the pure pleasure of doing it (and it's FUN!) to the hard-core bikers whose lifestyles are marked by less-than-legal recreational pursuits.  For the men and women around the world who are in CMA, all they see is that every one of these people is a person who God loves and with whom God wants to be in relationship.  They go to bike rallies, swap meets, poker runs, biker bars and Rolling Thunder in D.C. on Memorial Day weekend.  I'll repeat:  God loves all these bikers and wants to be in relationship with them, just like he wants to be in relationship with all of us.  Isn't that good news?!  The members of CMA share this good news.

Every May, the first Saturday in May, is the Run for the Son, a 100-mile sponsored motorcycle ride.  If you Flip for my Flops, then you can also help me as Dad Runs for the Son.  From now until 30 April, the net proceeds from the sales of these Flip Flop soaps will go to sponsor Dad's Run, and those funds go directly to ministering to primarily bikers, but to others as well.

Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I saw that 100 years ago, Susan B. Anthony marched for women's right to vote.  She voted in the 1872 election when it was illegal for her to do so - and was arrested for it.  She was a very badly behaved woman, and her face graces a U.S. coin and her name lives on in history.

Susan's friend Elizabeth Stanton Cody advocated for fair and equal employment opportunities for women, again, not particularly popular with her male contemporaries.  Yet, in a rather dated high-school U.S. History book I have and refer to during my homeschool lessons, these two women who did so much for women today get the merest breath of a mention.

Sojourner Truth gets a bit more of a mention, with about half a page dedicated to her "Ain't I a Woman" speech.  If you've never read it, I encourage you to do so.  It's powerful, laying to rest any notions that women are inferior because of our gender.  In fact, my favorite part of that speech is when she points out that men had nothing to do with the conception of Jesus Christ - it was God and a woman.  Obviously, this speech by a woman - a Black woman at that - unsettled her male contemporaries and made this bristle.

I proudly follow these women.  I don't have to have my name in the history books; in fact, I'm quite sure I won't.  I am a woman who has born two children, earned two graduate degrees and has started her own business.  The children I'm raising - both girls - are growing in faith and knowledge, and are learning that they can do and be anything in the world they want.  This is my legacy - behaving poorly and raising two future women who hopefully will behave poorly, too.

What women in history - either your own personal history or the larger scale of world history - have inspired you to greatness through their own "poor" behavior?

First World Problems

With all the unrest recently in the Middle East as citizens of various countries are protesting their governments and fighting for democracy - even going so far as to risk their lives in many cases - I've thought about how good we have it here in America.  Our time of fighting for our freedoms and democracy has passed.  As I hear reports of so many people who not only have not had the democracy we take for granted, but who have also been living in abject poverty, I start comparing our problems in the First World to their problems in the Third World.  Let's look at First World problems first:

• Can't find the TV remote
• Lock keys in car
• Computer crashes
• Have to clean out the refrigerator
• Air conditioning runs out of freon on the hottest day of the year

Now let's look at some of those problems the Third World faces:

• Debilitating illness because of diseases
• No food to eat
• No clean water to drink
• Child dies of starvation
• Living in daily fear of nation's military

Looking at these Third World problems can make our "huge problems" feel quite manageable and certainly not like it's going to be the end of the world.  We could have eaten that food we just threw out when we cleaned the fridge.  We can go to the doctor when we're sick.  Government programs ensure our children will have food, even if we can't afford to pay for it ourselves.  Our military fights for us, not against us.

One company is making a huge difference to combat some of these Third World Problems.  Clean The World is an Orlando, FL - based company that's working hard to reduce the number of deaths caused by cholera and diarrheal diseases.  It's all in how you wash your hands.  Clean The World collects bars of soap to distribute in Third World countries; they also collect scraps of soaps and rebatch them into small bars of soap.  I've got a few bags of scraps that are slated for this mission, with big plans on the horizon that I'll share as it gets closer to the time.

Do you want to help this fabulous organization?  The biggest help you can give them right now is to text "clean" to 20222 to donate $10.  Your money will provide soaps for 35 children for a month.

What are some First World problems you encounter, and how does thinking about very real Third World problems help you put them into perspective?

Related articles

• Nonprofit Recycles Used Hotel Soaps to Send to Poor Countries (sierraclub.typepad.com)
• Handwashing Day 2011 (ecosoap.wordpress.com)
• UN to "investigate" its introduction of cholera to Haiti (ktwop.wordpress.com)