Grab Bag Happy Mother’s Day! 

Sorry it’s late… internet connectivity issues and Mother’s Day reveling created a delay…

So here’s a little history from DayforMothers.com….

The history of Mother’s Day is centuries old and goes back to the times of ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honor Rhea, the mother of the gods. The early Christians celebrated the Mother’s festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor Mary, the mother of Christ. Interestingly, later on a religious order stretched the holiday to include all mothers, and named it as the Mothering Sunday. The English colonists settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday because of lack of time. In 1872 Julia Ward Howe organized a day for mothers dedicated to peace. It is a landmark in the history of Mother’s Day.

Note from LK: In case Julia’s name sounds familiar, she wrote the lyrics to “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

Julia’s efforts petered out after about 10 years, and then along came Anna Jarvis, profiled here on Wikipedia:

On May 12, 1907, two years after her mother’s death, she held a memorial to her mother and thereafter embarked upon a campaign to make “Mother’s Day” a recognized holiday. She succeeded in making this nationally recognized in 1914. 

By the 1920s, Anna Jarvis had become soured by the commercialization of the holiday. She incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, trademarked the phrases “second Sunday in May” and “Mother’s Day”, and was once arrested for disturbing the peace. She and her sister Ellsinore spent their family inheritance campaigning against the holiday. Both died in poverty. Jarvis, says her New York Times obituary, became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card. As she said,

“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A petty sentiment!”

 

Grab Bag Cosmetics Clean Up:

 

 

Isn’t science bitchen? We have come so far, so fast, it makes our pretty little heads spin. I mean, hi-tech is EVERYWHERE. But that means your COSMETICS as well :-0, and the news may be pretty cautionary here. Nanotechnology is the manipulation of elements to make them smaller than nature ever intended. To put it in perspective, a human hair is 80,000 nanometres (nm) wide, a red blood cell is 7,000 nm wide, and a water molecule 0.3 nm wide. Nanotech deals with particles around 100 nanometers or less. That’s pretty frickin’ small. And they have already achieved some pretty incredible things (see a collection of videos on a variety of amazing applications HERE).

 

 

But…. do these little minis belong in cosmetics? Many sources out there are saying WE DON’T KNOW ENOUGH to expose our skin to nanoparticles of ANYTHING. (Our internal systems may be getting exposure as well, for nanobits may pass through the skin and beyond.) But they are already in LOADS of products (see that list HERE), and they won’t necessarily say it on the label. They might tout “Nobel Prize-winning technology!”, but that’s not always such a great thing (Trivia Sidetrack: in 1949 the Nobel was awarded to Egas Moniz for perfecting the lobotomy, now completely discredited).

 

 

They will be found in MANY sunscreens, as pulverizing titanium oxide and zinc oxide into microscopic minutia leaves a less visible white cast on the skin…. and how we look is apparently far more important than the assured safety of our overall systems!?!? More on the sunscreen issue in posts to come.

So… my advice is to stay away from nano-cosmetic ingredients for the time being. Don’t be a guinea pig, even if you love the product. Let science really prove this out, and not on you 🙂

Update Note: Reader Samiha D. clued me in to this great article for further info.

Grab Bag Nutrition:

 

Funny how we travel miles out of our way to go to the small, natural-food grocers, scanning the aisles for the kinder, gentler brands. No giant food corporations for us, right? Hmmmm…. is a rose really a rose, by any other name? The lure of the corporate dollar has led many small “Mom and Pop” natural food producers to sell out and retire. And why not? They worked hard, and they deserve to eat their granola on a big sailboat in the Caribbean. We just hope the Big Boys are holding to the standards set by these companies after they buy them out.

Take a look below at these ACQUISITIONS by the Top 30 Food Processors in North America since 1997, when the USDA first drafted a unified standard for organic food (click on each picture below to see charts in a larger format) :

 

 

And take a look here at product INTRODUCTIONS by the Top 30 Food Processors since 2002, when the USDA organic standard was finally implemented:

 

 

Looking to invest? The next chart shows where and how the money has been flowing into the organic food industry:

 

 

Here are the few who remain independent: 

 

 

Lastly, look how the big guys get bigger…. we love to hate ’em and hate to love ’em, but gosh we love Whole Foods, don’t we?:

 

 

Grab Bag Memory Moment:

 

Ways to Prevent Memory Loss

 

Maybe you feel like your memory is getting worse with each year that goes by. Natural aging does take a toll on the brain bucket, but there is more and more medical evidence suggesting that lifelong stimulation is the best way to build and maintain brain cells, delaying memory loss and perhaps even preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

Do work that interests you (paid or volunteer), involve yourself in hobbies and engage in an active social life.  Music can be really helpful (playing an instrument or singing), take foreign language lessons, get familiar with a new computer program, or do a crossword or Sudoku puzzle. And just as important, a positive emotional outlook is key to brain health. Never stop challenging yourself, and do it with a smile 🙂

Grab Bag Every Monday Matters:

From the Every Monday Matters book and website:

LEARN CPR

FACTS

• Cardiac arrest may be caused by drowning, drug overdoses, poisoning, electrocution, and many other conditions.
• 95% of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital.
• 75 to 80% of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home.
• 4 to 6 minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest, brain death starts to occur.
• CPR helps maintain vital blood flow to the heart and brain and increases the amount of time that an electric shock from a defibrillator can be effective.
• CPR can double a victim’s chance of survival.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Learn the basics of CPR.
• Find a place near you that teaches CPR or arrange for a certified CPR instructor to come to your school or workplace.
• Sign up for a class with a family member, a friend, or even your kids.
• Learn CPR. It only takes a few hours.
• Post CPR guidelines in a kitchen cupboard, your office, your car, and anywhere else you frequent. These guidelines may come in handy during emergency situations. Tell people around you that the guidelines are there in case they need to perform CPR.

YOU MATTER

What if you could have saved a life had you known CPR? What if you needed help and no one around you could help you? Take a few hours today to learn this life-saving skill. It can change your life—and someone else’s life—forever.

 

Grab Bag Mother’s Day Sweet Stuff:

 

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

If it’s Mother’s Day, it’s gotta be this video…. you’ve likely seen it, but always worth another view: