Tag Archives: Blogette-ing

Green Moms Carnival :: Spring Cleaning

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Our topic this month for Green Moms Carnival is Spring Cleaning hosted by the ever so lovely Jenn of Tiny Choices.

Are you inspired by the potential of spring to begin your annual Spring Cleaning?

Growing up, each and every spring,  my mom seriously took on spring cleaning.  The house I grew up in, suburban, with a total of four bedrooms, six common area spaces and three bathrooms were each dissected down to the very corners of corners and wiped completely clean.  Windows were washed, draperies cleaned, rugs shampooed, floors scrubbed, stone tiles treated, fireplace swept out. 

Being that both my parents were very heavy smokers and seeing how yellowed and disgusting the walls would get I can certainly see the value of this spring tradition.

She used mainstream cleaning products.  Oh the fumes of Mr.Clean, Pine Sol, and Bleach that permeated the house.  That  toxic “clean” smell.  

Chemical statistics and facts these days have us thinking perhaps we can clean a bit greener with out all those toxins

Better yet, one can very effectively clean green for just pennies

I like the IDEA of spring cleaning.
 
I don’t think in all my years of domestic engineering that I have EVER top to bottom cleaned my entire living space in the spring.

My mom did one room at a time.  I think that makes sense. She could do one to two rooms a day and be done in a week.  She of course didn’t work. 

If I took on one room a weekend – gosh – I’d be done in 6 weeks. 

Perhaps that’s where the project always fizzled for me.

I like the idea of the ceremony of it.

Truth be told it would probably be very good in a spring renewal clean sweep kindof way to take some spring cleaning on.  

Maybe this year will be different.

I sense a potential

a mood

a desire

Then again…maybe I don’t.


window washing flickr image credit

karen hanrahan | wellness educator and consultant | writer
nutrition ~ green clean ~ inch loss  ~ anti-aging

What I Learned From Love

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This is my entry for this month’s WILF writing project with Robert Hruzek over at Middle Zone Musings.

I absolutely love the idea of love, the head over heels feeling of falling in love, the reliabilty of being in love and the joyous acts of loving – large and small. 

As I pondered what I’ve learned from love for this post I found I had to express what first struck me.

What I Learned From Love Is That  It Hurts.

Most of the people in my life did not love unconditionally.

As a matter of fact most of the time there were terms to being loved

if you are a good girl
if you are quiet
if you do as i say
if you act more like so and so
do as i say or else
if you do this then maybe i will love you
I don’t love you
I certainly don’t need you
I’m just not going to talk to you anymore
I’m leaving

Soooo many people in my life might have at one time or another showed me love only to take that love away

So much so, I  know what being loved feels like. In its moment love has had a solid grasp of my heart and my soul.

Yet truth be told what  I’ve know in my heart most of my life was more of an aching to fill it’s empty spaces verses a constant richness.

I have often had a longing to be securely held, to be deserved of love.

The desire to empatically be cherished trembles inside me.

Wanting love for me is often fierce. 

Giving birth to my children was an awakening.  They reminded me of a knowing.  An oh yes, I so know this feeling.  I found with my children I could give love to them  unconditionally. They could not take away the depth of which I cared

Loving them fully gave me blissful twinklings and expressions. Mountains of loving instances in my current lifetime. The best is the promise of more to look forward to, more to come.

For those in my life who loved me with expectations and consequences I cared for them deeply yet somehow it never seemed enough.

Missing for me in my current life is that one single person who loves me no matter what. 

Writing, thinking or even feeling the emptiness of that thought hurts.

Because my heart has experienced moments of loving, the missing is sometimes like a haunting

What I adore about the human spirit is it’s capacity to strive on 

I am reminded of…

Hope. Love. Joy. Simply.

flickr image credit – broken heart

karen hanrahan | wellness educator and consultant | writer
nutrition ~ green clean ~ inch loss  ~ anti-aging

Green Moms Carnival – I Believe

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This post is my entry for this month’s green moms carnival, recent recipients of a Twitter Shorty Award in the ever glorious category of green.

We are being hosted this month by the brilliant Jennifer at Smart Mama.

Our Theme is I Believe.

Belief guides each of us differently.

Belief can be altered, influenced and cultivated

For me, I believe parenting has taught me many of my life lessons. Parenting wasn’t exampled very well for me.  Since there really isn’t a guide to being a parent or Parent 101 classes to take,  I found I parented with a certain gumption, determination and often by the seat of my pants.  Lots and lots of gut feeling.  I knew that I wanted my children to be their very best self…not some duplicate molded copy of what was around them.  Just themselves.  I wanted them to be confident, expressed, strident and true.  I knew this the moment they were born – my wanting for them.  As they now enter adulthood as amazing individuals. I have to smile and be very proud.  I believe I have had something to do with the paths they will continue to take. 

I emphatically believe in prevention. Reaching a point of poor health early in my life I had no idea that I could alter my well being simply by taking care of myself.  Because of nutritional supplementation I got “me” back. Because of my very personal recovery I felt the ideals about prevention were very much worth shouting from the rooftops. Thus my chosen career.

I believe wholeheartedly in the profound wisdom of one very fine man who created a plant-based all purpose green cleaning product way, way ahead of his time. When I was searching for a company that had non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning products, and found this product  along with an entire line, I totally fell in love with the products and the philosophy of the company. I felt this too was something I wanted to shout from the rooftop. Thus my advocacy for cleaning green.

I believe in choice.  When I discovered the foods I was eating and feeding my family were tainted with additives and preservatives.  I became determined to lead by example, foster choices, cook scratch and eat clean. I decided to march to a way different drum at a time when choices were few and when the convenience of eating clean was less available then it is today.  I found I could share my belief and assist others like myself in understanding the value of these choices.  Thus my path to educate others.

I believe in voice.  Over the years I always knew I was different.  I knew I had influence.  I knew I could be persuasive.  My Blog: Best of Mother Earth  has given me a voice stronger than I ever imagined.  I am ever so compelled to advocate the value of blogging. It rocks!! What’s ahead for me re: my voice,  remains to be seen, yet excites me tremendously. I will always have something to say and a place to say it!

I believe in you.  Readership for a blogger is what fuels our writings and our messages.  Comments and customers remind us that what we do brings value.  It’s meaning at a community level!


rays of hope flickr image credit 

karen hanrahan | wellness educator and consultant | writer
nutrition ~ green clean ~ inch loss  ~ anti-aging

Contact me:  708.482.0678 

The Virgin Tweeter That Could

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Greenmoms1

When I first started writing my blog,  I must confess. I had never ever been to a blog.

I had no idea what one was, what one looked like or how my concept fit into the big picture of the blogosphere. I just knew they drove search engine traffic somehow and that I had something to say.

How’s that for a bloggy business plan?

Along my learning path came these other cyber space things; my space, facebook, linkedin, and the most brilliant of all twitter.  These social media places to be. These profile based, link love, fast paced, say it in 140 words or less …I don’t quite get it internet places.

I took on that  ”I don’t get it” mantra for quite some time.

Yet, In recent weeks my social media light bulb went on …

I lost my twitter virginity.

In the midst of which some very dear fellow twitters pulled a shorty award out of the way to twitter hat!

Green Mom’s Carnival was 5th in the running for the first ever Shorty Awards which recognizes the absolute very best producers of short content (140 characters or less) on Twitter.

Our group;   A group of green women bloggers, uniting our voices to help preserve and protect Mother Earth for future generations, totally took it on in the category of green

We were greenly up against:

Alexis Madrigal — Wired.com staff writer working on a book about the history of green tech in America

D Carli — ISC Senior Research Fellow focused on sustainability, green media, advertising, marketing & sustainable media supply chains & innovation

Donegans Land — the thoughts and ramblings of Irish landscape gardener Peter Donegan

Last but not least the beloved, Dr Greene — Pediatrician, Author of Raising Baby Green. Featured in NY Times as The Organic Man. DrGreene.com, Organic Center, Healthy Child, ADAM Chief of Future Health.

Whom we raced neck and neck with until the very end. ( as a matter of fact we thought we were in second place until the final tally came in! )

How does one win the shorty award??

You campaign!  Grass roots style.  You ask for votes, you send emails and best of all you tweet!!

Gather a group of chirpy greenly determined woman and watch them fly!

That is EXACTLY what this virgin tweeter did…I watched with amazement, I followed, I too campaigned and tweeted and lo and behold we won!!

Winners get to gather for the Shorty awards ceremony and party February 11th in NYC!

See all the Shorty Award winners

Way to Go Green Mama’s!!

I might add also that this particular flock could not fly without a lead bird  … Lynn over at Organic Mania spirited some very determined chirping. You are awesome Lynn.


something to say birdy flickr image credit

karen hanrahan | wellness educator and consultant | writer
nutrition ~ green clean ~ inch loss ~ anti-aging

Contact me:  708.482.0678