My daughter made distinguished Honor Roll!

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Not only did my daughter make Honor Roll this quarter. This time, she went all the way to the top by making Distinguished Honor Roll.  She’s made honor roll all four quarters of the school year and I’m so proud of her!

In her school, distinguished honor roll, is a step above regular honor roll. This achievement is given to those who have a 4.0 grade average; all A’s.  As her parent, I do believe it’s my job to make sure she does her best in school.

At her Lutheran school, the headmaster repeatedly tells them that once they’re finished with their education at our school, they’ll be able to compete globally. One of his daughter’s has taught in Africa and she’s told him, along with others, how much further in advance many countries are when it comes to education. I’m happy that  with our schools program he’s not content to settle with just doing good enough with those within the USA.  He’s not the only one concerned about US education, so am I. Check about quote below…

In a report issued in 2010, we found only 6 percent of U.S. students performing at the advanced level in mathematics, a percentage lower than those attained by 30 other countries. And the problem isn’t limited to top-performing students. In 2011, we showed that just 32 percent of 8th graders in the United States were proficient in mathematics, placing the U.S.

Although my daughter is not 100% home schooled. I still do a lot of “home schooling” at home.  It’s a pure win situation; My daughter enjoys it since she knows mom will help her if she does struggle and it keeps me in the loop by staying so involved with her schooling.

 

Resources:

  1. Is the U.S Catching Up
  2. Are U.S Students Ready to Compete

Adventures in Beekeeping: Still waiting…

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If you can hear pacing, that’s me waiting on my honeybees. This weekend, much to my disappointment my honeybees didn’t arrive. You really shouldn’t be surprised, because if they had arrived one of the first photos you’d have seen this morning were my honeybees. According to my supplier, I should receive them early this week.

The good news is, I have everything ready for my honeybees, the few last minute items needed have been acquired and so now the waiting begins…
(drums fingers impatiently.)

I have to give a shout out to Roger Williams, president of the Central Maryland Beekeepers Association. He’s always responded to the emails I’ve sent to him. He’s always giving me additional information that has been extremely helpful. While he’s not technically my bee mentor, I consider him to be one because of all the helpful advice I’ve received from him! Thanks Roger, for helping this new beekeeper feel at ease.

Once, I get to the level where I have a lot of hands on beekeeping experience I’ll definitely volunteer to help out a new beekeeper. The thing is, if you’re going to volunteer to be a mentor, you really should do that. If you don’t want to, don’t offer to be a mentor.

Green Cravings

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In our household, although we eat simply, we consume a large variety of foods. My only requirements is that the foods we consume our whole foods.

What are whole foods? Whole foods are unrefined or unprocessed or minimally processed before eating.

At times, people automatically assume that vegetarians/vegans are “healthy” sometimes those following the diet automatically assume that also. That’s not always the case, especially if they follow the “standard vegetarian/vegan diet” which can be just as unhealthy as a Standard American Diet.

I see many veggie sites that regularly promote processed/pre-packaged foods and while it’s fine to have it now and again, including it regularly is not the smartest thing to do if you’re goal is to improve your health.

Raw food - Green Salad
Salad: Dark leafy greens with lentils

 

Yesterday, I ate greens throughout the day since that was what I was craving. In the above dish, I “spiced” it up a bit by adding some of the seasoned lentils I’d made on Saturday. In addition to the lentils, I added some sunflower seeds, raisins and balsamic vinegar. The greens consisted of spinach, kale, collard and dandelion greens.

Adventures in Beekeeping: When bees attack

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Part of my fascination with honeybees, like many of God’s creatures, is their intelligence…

Sure they’re tireless workers which is evident with the myriad of tasks that go into keeping a hive healthy and functional but they also use a variety of strategies to handle potential robbers. Sometimes they’re effective in keeping out uninvited guests by ruthlessly shutting down these potential thieves and other times they aren’t as fortunate.

 

Below is an interesting video of how the Asian honeybees tackle a much bigger visitor, the Japanese giant hornet.

 

And while it might not seem like such a big deal, since it’s only one hornet, you have to remember the hornet is much larger than these honeybees. One hornet can kill forty European honeybees in minutes. If they round up a few other hornets they could easily wipe out an entire honeybee colony

Which is evidenced in the above video, 30 giant hornets took out an entire honeybee hive. If it’s an established hive, that’s about 40,000 honeybees. Yep, hornets are no joke. They are ruthless killers in the insect world.

Above, you can watch the same video of hornets attacking the honeybees — but with “epic music.”

I’ve already known about the potential hive robbing, more than bears will attack a honeybee hive. I’m just sharing here since I find it fascinating.  Having your honeybee hive(s) wiped out is definitely not something you want to experience as a beekeeper. So it’s important to take precautions (although that doesn’t guarantee your hive(s) won’t be destroyed.  Part of my preventative maintenance is installing the  top bar feeders inside the beehive. Additionally entrance reducers have been placed to narrow the opening into the hive. I’m giving my honeybees every chance they can get to ward of potential risks to their hive.

A few years ago, I started seeing Japanese giant hornets in Maryland. No, they aren’t cicada killer wasps, I know exactly what they look like. We have those also. These were different than any hornets I’d seen in these parts and after a lot of research I was able to identify them as Japanese giant hornets. Earlier this week, I was bitten by fire ants in our garden. While I’ve seen (And felt their painful bite) while in South Carolina, I’ve never seen them here until now.

More news on my honeybees

My bee supplier updated their Facebook page, most people should receive their honeybees either today or tomorrow. And a few people will be getting their early next week. Here’s hoping I get them this weekend! I already told my daughter, if I get the call today, she can leave school early to watch me install the honeybees. I already informed her teacher about this and she seems excited for my daughter.

Slightly off topic

My daughter has done very well this semester. It looks like she will receive straight A’s. Which means she’ll have received honor roll every single quarter. She recently turned ten years old, I  can’t always expect her to  to study independently. Which is why I’m there to assist her, if needed, and help her understand difficult concepts.

Adventures in Beekeeping: Sometime this week, I’ll receive my bees

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My honeybees arrive sometime this week. It’s a new experience for me and it can be overwhelming since I haven’t managed a beehive before but I do believe I’m prepared. I do have the knowledge about honeybees from the vast amounts of reading/research I’ve done on them over the years but that’s still not the same as having my own honeybees, you know?

The list of things that need to be done before the honeybees arrive is small. One thing I didn’t buy was long gloves, I’ve decided to make my own and will sew them after work today. This past weekend I waterproofed the outside of the hive with a clear oil based paint. Today is supposed to get into the high 80’s F so I’ll be painting the inside of the hive with the organic beeswax that I’d purchased. Of course, I’ll have to melt it first!

Charity knitting and some awesome dancing…

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My daughter and I are watching the Hobbit, again.

The Hobbit knitted goodness
The Hobbit, so many knitted items in this movie, I’m undecided what I should knit first!

 

The Hobbit knitted goodness_2
The Hobbit – More knitted goodness

 

So much crocheted, knitted, sewing and weaving goodness in one amazing movie! We didn’t watch it when it came out in the movie theater, we saw it for the first time on Saturday. Naturally watching this movie, just added fuel to my want to knit another project dilemma. For the past few weeks I’ve been wanting to knit something big. I’ve vacillated between an sweater or a shawl? I think I’ll compromise and make myself a cardigan. The only thing left to do is to settle on the type I want to make. If you have any suggestions, post them here please! I guess I could knit the Sylvie coat, I purchased the pattern a while ago, but I want to make something a bit shorter.

 

 

 

Earlier today, I stumbled upon this video of Patrick Swayze and his wife, Lisa Niemi dancing at the World Music Awards. I was a big fan of Swayze ever since I saw him in Red Dawn many years ago. I remember hearing he had developed pancreatic cancer and was saddened when I learned that he lost his battle with the disease. The first person I knew that had cancer was a young girl named Sherry. I was about ten years old, she was only five. Even at that age, I can remember the treatments she received, how much thinner she became, the hair loss, weakened condition and eventually her death. I’m guessing that is something I’ll always remember since I remember her being an active “little kid” until her condition became worse.

About eleven years ago, I was engaged. My fiancé, who was divorced, had a daughter who died of cancer at four years old… he never recovered from that and always missed her, which is understandable. He never got to see our daughter since he was killed in a car accident (by a drunk driver) about a three weeks after I was pregnant. I didn’t even know I was pregnant at the time of his death. I’ve had a few relatives that have had cancer and uncle (74 years old) whom we lost last year and a cousin who lost her battle with breast cancer at the age of 24.

Currently, I’m knitting another hat for the NICU and cancer patients. This hat is small and squishably soft so will work perfectly for a young cancer patient. Hats are my favorite items to knit. They’re portable and can be simple or more elaborate like the knitted kitty hat I made for my daughter. It’s up to you. Sometimes people ask me why I create things for people I don’t know. It’s my hope that the items I create brings a little spark of happiness to the recipients. Lots of prayers go into the items I make and although I might know the person I truly hope and pray that they realize that their are strangers who care about them and hope they are healed.