Going vegan, family style: New vegan fare makes an animal-free diet tastier than ever
May 16, 2012 – 6:51 am | 5 Comments

Before the television appearances and the best-selling cookbook, Roberto Martin was a typical “Top Chef” kind of guy: meat, meat and more meat.
But then Ellen DeGeneres and her partner, Portia de Rossi, both vegans, hired him to be their personal chef.
Now, he rarely puts anything in his body that comes from animals.
For Martin, ethics and [...]

Read the full story »
Activities

Check out Denver’s guide to activities, craft ideas, Steve Spangler Science experiments and so much more!

Events

Stay in the know of family-friendly Colorado events with our weekly event round-up. Published every Wednesday.

Family Travel

Spring is here! Check-out oodles of adventures in Denver and how Orlando offers a lot besides Disney World, including Hogwarts, space facilities and more.

Mama Drama

Need advice on how to handle parenting challenges? Don’t we all! This column tackles YOUR behavioral and medical questions. Also find tips on healthy living.

Mama’s Product Picks

We receive hundreds of press releases every month. Find out what products made the cut and are mama- recommended.

Home » Blogging

Bravery

Submitted by on November 13, 2007 – 12:16 amNo Comment

Like everything else iffy in the expansive, mysterious universe, it could be George Bush’s fault. I published my first post at my home blog, Lifenut, on September 30th, 2004.

During the months leading up to the 2004 elections, I found myself online a lot. I visited many political debate forums and websites, and was completely caught up in the news of the day. Many of the debate forums I liked linked to smaller, more personal slices of the internet where a person could share political views, cake frosting recipes, and baby photos all in the same day. It was intriguing and I wanted to be part of the trend.

I determined I didn’t want my blog to focus on politics, however. There were plenty of blogs which did a much better job at rehashing and ranting and hand-wringing. At first, I didn’t really have a mission or goal in mind, other than to have a few more readers than my mother.

Most of my posts were snippets of large family life. We had five young kids at the time, who provided typical blog fodder: potty training, sleepless nights, general mischief, cute sayings. At first, I put a lot of pressure on myself to post something every day. Personally, I think this will make you crazy or make you start churning out posts just to put something out there into the void. I call that my “What I Ordered At Starbucks Today” period of blogging. There is nothing wrong with writing likes and dislikes, or sharing coffee preferences. But I craved a deeper connection with readers and a chance to truly challenge myself and improve my writing.

It took a tragedy to change my approach to blogging. I had a miscarriage and suddenly I found myself in a very defined, very expressive blogging community. Sorrow hates inhibition, and my writing changed from the safe daily diary of my life to way to howl, knowing others would catch, confirm, and carry my words with them—as I did with their words. It made me brave.

My biggest blogging advice is to be brave. Write essays, poems, reviews, fiction. Mix it up. Talk about where you’ve been, what your fifth-grade teacher looked like when she was angry, what you cook well, why you don’t know how to swim. If ever a communication tool called for transparency, it is the blog. It is unique to our times, a product of our tendency to analyze, teach, spew, snark, express, connect.

I have six kids now. Family life is never dull and provides plenty of inspiration. With over 600 posts published at Lifenut, there isn’t one definitive favorite. I have a short list of about twenty I am especially fond of. I like the following post because I wrote it about two of my stalkers. From February 13, 2007, I present:

The shortest play, ever

Fall: Hello, Pride. Why don’t you go first?

Pride: Okay. flounces ahead

Fall: Oh, look. There’s a woman who is congratulating herself on the successful potty training of her fifth child, her ability to exclusively breastfeed, and her organization skills.

Pride: I think I’ll go shake her hand.

Fall: Watch out. She has a tendency to not let go.

Pride: That’s where you come in.

Fall: I love my job.

Curtain





No Comment »

Leave a comment!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.