Category: Community

Busy as a Bee

Aynaria 10 Comments

bee.06.12.10.jpgHello everyone! There’s been so much going on in our little neck of the woods. Our garden is coming along nicely. I really don’t need an excuse to get out in garden, sure it can be hard work but I find it relaxing too.

You want to know something? I really hate wearing gloves, and so when weeding you usally won’t find me wearing them. I can always wash the dirt out of my nails afterwards, right? My nails grow fast, are strong, and fairly long. I know not the ideal combination for a garden lover, but there yah go.

Although I haven’t had too much time for writing here at Celebrate Life, I still manage to tweet on Twitter and have met some fabulous folks in the process. If you have a twitter account you can follow me at @Nyomomma. For the most part, I’m finding them more chatty than my gaming tweet folks.

I’ve been also focusing on another project. It’s not ‘new’ since I’ve always had a love for this activity since I was around six years old, but it looks like I’ll be moving forward with it early next year.

Allow me to ramble a bit, ok? I’ve always been fascinated with bees. All types, but my favorite has been honey bees. I’ve always been impressed with these industrious little creatures, and have read numerous articles/books about them as a child.

As I became older, my fascination with them grew. I noticed a huge decline in bee population an decided to read up on the subject. I knew I wasn’t imaging things when I immediately pulled up articles about this very topic on the world wide web. Colony Collapse Disorder is something that seems to have affected bees on a world-wide scale. Unbelievable!

Naturally, when I started reading about Colony Collapse Disorder I was concerned. A 1/3 of the crops that humans eat are dependent on Bees. Some experts speculate that if honey bees continue to die off human survival won’t last too much longer.

I’ve always wanted to invite bees in our little world. I imagine some might think that’s strange since I’m Vegan. I don’t want them for their honey. I’m not bothered by those who responsibly gather honey either. Over the years, I’ve met a few local beekeepers that were amazing, and really took care of their little bees. Anyway, I do believe the bees I invite on our property will benefit from the land and crops we do have here, and it will be nice to see more bees around the place. More important, I want to do my part to help out with the declining bee population.

About six years ago, I had planned on getting bees. Just like anything I’m interested in, I did a lot of research; I had read numerous articles/books about beekeeping but I held off getting them. One of the main reasons was my daughter. She was a little over one year old. Although she’s never been out of my sight, part of me was still paranoid about her somehow getting past mommy and opening that buzzing box near the woods (yeah as if that would happen!)

I rejoined the Beemaster’s forum, I couldn’t remember the user name I had when first joined about three or four years ago, and I came up with another one. I’ve always enjoyed that site since it is a wealth of information and the owner, and the Beemaster community has always made it a wonderful place to hang out and increase my knowledge about bees. I’m looking forward to learning more about them.

I’m currently working on an article about bees, I imagine I’ll be finished early next week and will publish it here on Not Your Ordinary Momma.

I won’t be getting bees this year, but in Spring 2011, we’ll most likely be welcoming a few hives onto our property.

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Colony Collapse Disorder

Swapping themes and blogging update

Aynaria 4 Comments

For my few readers out there /waves you can see I’ve swapped themes again.

I’m simply not happy with the limited WP themes I have hosting my blog under WordPress so I know it’s only a matter of time before Not your Ordinary Momma moves to a hosted provider. I’ve used Lunar Pages for over eight years. I’m sure that’s where I’ll eventually move this site.

A little about my Vegetarian ways…
I swapped to Vegetarianism in 1992, moved onto Veganism not too soon afterwards. The transition wasn’t ‘hard’ for myself. I’d always been raised around a lot of vegetables (I’m fortunate, I know) and meat was mainly a side dish. With my family, animal products didn’t take over our entire meal. Strange I know since my parents raised chickens, turkeys, goats, etc., It just wasn’t done that way. In most cases, animal products were treated as a side dish. You know what? There were quite a few meals where animals didn’t even make an appearance. Ok, I take that back they did, but only to wind their flexible bodies around our feet at mealtime, meowing for a little treat or to place a well placed kick on our ankle (our rabbit.)

I learned to cook at an early age (four.) My mother saw my interest in cooking, and actually encouraged it. Naturally the meals I prepared at that age was limited, and heavily supervised but that began my love affair with cooking (or uncooking.) 🙂

About three years ago, I swapped to a raw food lifestyle. My eating intake has always been high raw. Although I don’t get into % when it comes to things such as that I’ll do so now, to give you an idea. On average, I was eating about 80% raw foods. I’d been eating that way for years, and although I had a high amount of energy (I think that is due in part to the way I eat — whole foods) I did notice even more of an improvement when I went 100% raw. I stayed 100% raw, for over a year. These days I’m upping my intake of raw foods again, so moving past my 80% raw intake.

Remember when I talked about my green cravings? Odd since I already eat a high amount of greens but I didn’t really question it, I just upped my intake. If we listen, our bodies can tell us what we need. Anyway my increase in raw foods happened about the same time as those cravings. These days, I’m up to around 98%.

Similar to when I went to 100% raw foods, the results are the same. I’m having more energy than I already have (which is great because my activities have increased recently) and I feel even better. Initially, when I went to raw, I found that shocking. Wait, you mean I can actually feel better than I normally do? I’ve always felt great, Menstruation was never something I had to worry about after swapping to vegetarianism.

My diet was whole foods (close to the source as possible) and ‘unnatural sugars’ and junk food’ just didn’t fit my lifestyle. I knew the impact of putting unhealthy foods into my body. I’ll try to get into a habit of posting more recipes on this site related to cooking and just simple environmentally friendly household, gardening, and skin care products you can use. I make and use them at home.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been following the Waist Whittling Wordsmith. The Wordsmith, is documenting her weight loss and has been incorporating healthier meals into her daily routine. I’m always inspired when I encounter people who are working to make improvements in their lives. Along with reading her blog in my RSS feed, I’ve tweeted with @WaistWhittler. Watching her progress, is serving as a positive reinforcement for myself, to keep working on the goals that I’m trying to achieve. If you get a chance, stop by and visit the Waist Whittling Wordmsith’s virtual home. She’s also thinking about switching to vegetarianism so if you’re veg pop by and give her some tips.

Regarding those goals…
Recently, I’ve been wanting to do more when it comes to helping others. It’s something I’ve always done (and it’s something I enjoy) but over the past few years I’ve eased up. Sure I still volunteer at homeless shelters and animal shelters too, but it’s not as it used to be, and so I’m changing that.

One of the first things that were cut was video games. I love games and although I never spent hours playing a game, I felt I needed a break and I took one. Guess what? I don’t miss it at all. Sure I’ll go back to playing computer and console games at some point but at the moment there are more important aspects in my life.

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Raw food

Twitter: Exchange tweets with CrunchyOpal…

Aynaria 4 Comments

twitter_logo.06.02.10.pngAre there any tweet peeps out there? Over the past few years, I’ve used Twitter off and on. I don’t have the original account I started with, having abandoned it when I got out of the habit of tweeting.

The other twitter account I recently stopped updating, mainly because I’m taking a break from gaming. Yes, it’s true that I’ve tweeted about gaming/non-gaming info but since I’m not actively playing anything (at the moment) I don’t want to be hammering my tweet gaming peeps with almost 100% non-gaming related posts. Make sense?

Anyway, if you’d like to follow my tweets you can do so by following CrunchyOpal.

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Social Media

Memorial Day: Honoring those who've died while serving the military

Aynaria 3 Comments

Memorial-Day.05.31.10.jpgIn the USA, May 31st is the day we observe Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a Federal holiday.

Memorial day is a lot more than getting a day off of work and having celebrations with family and friends. Memorial day was created to recognize the those who died during the Civil War.

I love history. Over the years, I’ve read a lot about this particular holiday. Did you know In 1865, freed slaves took part in a huge celebration in Charleston, South Carolina? The celebration was held at the Washington Race Course now known as Hampton Park.

What’s interesting is that this location had served as a temporary Confederate prison camp for captured Union soldiers. Mass graves on the site contained Union soldiers. I found it fascinating that in 1865 freed slaves removed bodies from the mass graves and placed them into individual graves. They also placed a fence around the graveyard, and declared it a union graveyard.

On May 1, 1865 a crowd of up to 10,000 people (mostly African American) gathered at the Washington Race course. According to some records there were a lot of different activities that were held that day; speeches, sermons, singing, and family picnics.

If you’ve been following Memorial day history (like myself) you’ll notice that a lot of states have claimed being the first in regards to Memorial Day celebration however those claims didn’t start until around 1865. The largest scale Declaration Day (Memorial Day) event was conducted in 1861, by the freed African American slaves in Charleston, South Carolina.

Did you know that

Memorial Day: Did you know?

  1. Memorial Day used to be called Declaration Day
  2. Memorial Day was originally recognized on May 30th, but has since been moved to May 31st.

Across the United States, there are numerous events held to recognize those who’ve died while in military service. For example, the National Memorial Day Concert is an amazing event, and takes place on the West Lawn of the United States Capital.

I’ve included a few Memorial Day traditions below.

A few Memorial Day Traditions

How do I celebrate Memorial Day?
For myself it’s a time to recognize those who’ve died while in service, which usually means going to a specific location that has a ceremony. This year my daughter and I will be going to Fort McHenry, it will be a great chance for her to see some reenactments, check out some of the history I’ve told her about and interact with others too.

Question: Do you have any plans for Memorial Day?

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Memorial Day

WordPress: Tweaking my WP Theme & publishing with MarsEdit

Aynaria Leave a comment

wordpress-logo.05.26.10.png It’s been a while since I’ve played around with WordPress. The main thing I enjoyed about using WordPress with my own hosting provider was that I had so many more themes to choose. I always enjoyed tweaking my chosen WP theme to fit my personal tastes.

I love WordPress
I’m a huge fan of WordPress. WordPress wasn’t the first application I’ve tried.Quite a few years ago, when I started using an actual blogging program I chose Blogger. I dropped it the same day since I really didn’t like it. I chose Typepad and stayed with them for about six months before deciding to try WordPress with my Web hosting provider. WordPress was one of the available blogging applications that was built right in. Only thing I needed to do was activate it. I guess you could say, the rest is history.

Thanks to freelance-writing, I’ve had a chance to check out a few other blogging software applications, and although they are amazing. I still prefer WordPress.

Regarding posting to WordPress, I don’t actually post in WordPress. I use an offline blog editor called MarsEdit. The software application was created by Daniel Jalkut, the few times I had questions regarding the application he’s always been helpful and so I had no problems paying for is application.

In my opinion, If you enjoy blogging an offline editor should be added to your list, MarsEdit is made exclusively for Mac computers. The majority of my computer work is done on Mac computers. My favorite Apple computer is my 17″ MacBook Pro. Regarding offline blogging editors, I really enjoy that convenience. I’m not always online when I’m on one of my computers and besides, quite a few of my posts aren’t automatically published after I complete them.

Regarding this blog, I sort of like the theme I’ve selected here but…. I still have some adjustments I need to make before I’m enjoying it completely. 🙂 Anyway, I’m thinking about swapping the header and putting a personalized header in it’s place. My daughter likes pink, and so I decided to go with her suggestion and have pink somewhere on this website. I know she’ll be reading what mommy writes (occasionally) seeing the pink will make her happy. 🙂

Well, it’s time for me to crack open my WordPress for Dummies book, I need to brush up on a few things. 😉

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freelance jobs, MacBook Pro, WordPress

Not your ordinary Momma

Aynaria 2 Comments

Hello, how yah doing?

Earlier this morning I decided to create this website. I claimed my virtual spot on the WordPress community and a few seconds later Celebrate Life was born.

Based on the title, it’s obvious I’m a mom. If you want to get specific…I’m a single mom to a wonderful seven year old girl. Oh by the way, little momma just turned seven a few days ago and is quite proud of that accomplishment.

I’m not new to blogging or the intranet. I’ve been active within the interet scene since the early-mid 90’s. I’ve have/had numerous blogs/websites over the years too. A few years ago I let several of my websites die. The real world got extremely busy and I didn’t have time to devote to the type of writing I had been doing to keep those websites maintained and so I let my web hosting run out.

Naturally that didn’t stop me from writing, and you could find me writing about gaming (one of my not so guilty pleasures) a few months later, and there I wrote well over a year. Recently I’ve been thinking about bringing back my other blogs/websites (although under different names) and see what happens.

What can you expect to see at Celebrate Life!?
Basically whatever I’m interested in. What is Celebrate Life! interested in. Well the list is long, but I’ll list a few things…

  • Family
  • Fitness
  • Nutrition
  • Veganism
  • Apple (yeah I have a few Mac computers)
  • Volunteering

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you soon. I still have some organizing to do before it feels like my virtual home. 😉