It’s Ramona! I’m excited to be the featured blogger for the month of March. I am the Founder and Chief Content Creator of Addicted to Fries, a personal/lifestyle blog. My blog is my life…one post at a time. I started blogging in March 2007 on Blogger. I eventually moved to WordPress.com, and then to my current self-hosted site which I launched 2014. I have always blogged about the happenings in my life, from online dating to my weight loss journey to my favorite foods…and of course french fries.
Currently, I blog for fun. However, I would like to evolve my site into a platform to help others with digital marketing and social media. I’m still working on what that will look like exactly. Stay tuned! I found the Arkansas Women Bloggers group through my blogging friends in Little Rock. I watched the activity from a distance for many months before officially uniting with the group a few years ago. Since that time I’ve made new friends, attended great conferences and created lasting memories online and IRL – in real life.
Let me tell you a little bit more about who I am and what I love. Here are 7 things you may not know about me.
I grew up in Central Arkansas. I was born in Monticello (in Southeast Arkansas) and was raised in Sherwood, AR. I enjoyed my childhood and had a wonderful time playing games in our cul-de-sac and catching tadpoles in the creek behind our house.
I am the oldest of 3 children and the only girl. As the oldest child, it was my obligation to not only set an example for my younger brothers, but to also tell them what to do! Isn’t that what the oldest siblings are made for; it’s our duty.
I lived on an island…Long Island. I am proud to say that I was a resident of the NYC metro area. I lived in Nassau County for three years on the top level of a single family home in a one-bedroom apartment. I worked in a park for nonprofit organization. I enjoyed my time on Long Island, and I think of it often.
I have been to Paris, but I didn’t leave the [Charles de Gaulle] airport. I could see the city in the distance as we landed. I was there for 4 hours on a layover on my return flight to New York City from Istanbul, Turkey. Side note: The French Security Authority confiscated my Turkish wine, and my hopes of starting an international wine collection were quickly squashed.
I took six years of French between high school and college…SIX YEARS. However, I couldn’t understand one word [of French] from the Air France flight attendants on my Parisian flight to NYC. I repeat, I took six years of this language.
I love to write. I have a degree from the University of Arkansas in journalism, and I wrote my first book in the 5th grade. I still have this self-published masterpiece (somewhere). And, by self-published I mean produced with cardboard, construction paper and lined notebook paper and cursive writing. I was creative, if nothing else.
One of my dream jobs is to be a scriptwriter for a television show. I took a scriptwriting class where I created a sample concept for the current TV drama “Castle.” I plan to continue pursuing this dream with more courses and training.
I look forward to sharing more during this month. You can find me on social media or on my blog.
Every day always starts with coffee. Strong coffee. If there’s no coffee I might just decide to go back to bed.
I engage in the usual dance of waking up kids, grabbing backpacks, rationing hot water, finding keys, finishing homework, and getting out the door in time to beat tardy bells and office hours.
All of this calls for pot of coffee number two!
For most of my week, I manage a church office. I’m not crazy about the title of Church Secretary but most people look at me funny when I say Parish Administrator. I juggle phone calls, podcasts recordings, website and social media, and paper jams. I am the thermostat-nazi, official poster maker, and room reserver (I am both the Gatekeep and the Keymaster).
But recently with a change to the office schedule, I now have Fridays off. A whole day alone at my house focused on my passion for creating art and growing a garden. I draw and paint or start seeds and prepare garden beds or reluctantly dabble in laundry. The TV is either dead quiet or rolling through episode after episode of my latest favorite (as my husband likes to refer to them) “non-American English speaking” television show. Some Fridays could be all computer based as I list artwork online, finish up blog post, design logos or build a website. My Fridays can get busy but always leave me with a sense of accomplishment.
I am giddy for Friday not because Saturday comes next but because of how I might will the day. What will I create or write or grow?
For someone who constantly craves the times when I can be by myself, togetherness is not always met with fanfare. I may have more than once looked through the want ads for listings labeled “Hermit Wanted.” The idea of being in a remote location with all the time in the world to work on my art uninterrupted is my dream life. But we don’t live in our dreams. We live in a reality that includes people. People we are daily both inspired and irritated by.
Creativity is fueled by experiences and ideas. These experiences and ideas are never as fruitful as they could be when we subtract human contact. I reluctantly admit this. Many times as an artist and blogger I want to keep my ideas to myself until they are finished either out of fear of rejection or imitation. Our creations become part of us and any critique is felt personally.
But I am learning to give my peers and friends the benefit of the doubt. Surround yourself with sincerity, trust, and encouragement. These aspects are not always easy to find and can take time. This very realization is why I cherish the community of bloggers and influencers that create under The Women Bloggers umbrella.
Daily I remind that grumpy curmudgeon the lives in my head (she’ll never leave completely) to give people a chance to prove her wrong. That sharing ideas and experiences can bring more inspiration and more creativity. Which leads to more art, more writing, more parts of me that can inspire others.
Find your creative collective.
Give as much or more support and encouragement as you receive.
See what you can create together.
*All photos were taken on a trip to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Northwest Arkansas.
Hello there, I’m Jeanetta: an artist, writer, and sometimes homesteader (yes, totally made that last title up myself). Arkansas Women Bloggers (and the other state communities it has birthed) have been an amazing support to me over the past few years and I am thrilled to share some things with you here.
So if I’m being completely honest, when I was asked to wear the crown of Blogger of the Month my first reaction was, “What took so long?!” I can be a little full of myself. Then my second reaction was, “CRAP! Now I’ve got a lot of work to do!” I am also a procrastinator. Here’s a quick overview. I drink coffee. A lot. All day. I can be bribed with boxed chocolates. I’m a Whovian-Star Wars-Harry Potter fanatic. love my garden, good food, good beer, and a good fireside.
I am a maker (I honestly have no idea how to turn that off). I believe all humans really are no matter how loudly they protest. We were made in the image of the Great Creator after all how can we not be driven to create. I have been doodling and painting and creating little things out of anything I could get my hands on since I can remember. My subjects range from whatever catches my fancy — vegetables in my garden to mythological beasts. My style may change with my mediums or just what I am feeling at the time. I dislike the concept that artists must box themselves into one particular “style” or way of creating art. Being creative is an outpouring of ourselves. Why would we want to contain that!
I write about the day to day victories and failures (many of them) with my art, family, farming, gardening and life in general. So nailing what I blog about down to a couple of words as a description can be difficult sometimes. Writing is not my first avenue of expression. But there are times that the words and stories just bottle neck in my brain and scream to be let out. Thank goodness for blogging because talking about the voices in my head might have committed me in those early years of motherhood.
I say I’m a “sometimes homesteader.” Sometimes I get things right more often than I get things wrong but I keep trying. I am passionate about the self- sustainability movement and am fully embraced in the struggle to implement the practices in my day- to- day life. Growing, raising and preserving the food my family needs means a lot to me. I believe reviving the knowledge of craftsmanship and sustainable skills can bring everyone to a better understanding of what is important such as becoming better stewards, innovative problem solvers, and resourceful citizens of the world.
Ten years ago this coming summer I started blogging. It was such a different world on the wide web back then. My blog was for getting thoughts out of my head and selling the things I made at the time while I stayed home with the kids. Actually, not a lot has changed. Other than the kids are almost on autopilot and comment regularly that such and such friend found pictures of them doing some craft project online from some old blog post of mine. If I had to boil down what I like to blog about to one word, it would be “try.” Just try the things that interest. Try to draw or cook or grow your own food or raise chickens. Okay, that last one might be a bit more involved but if it’s something you wish and dream about more than a few times a day, then do it. All of my snarky comments aside, I really am honored to be representing Arkansas Women Bloggers this month. I promise to “try” to be on my best behavior during my reign (I’m working on my wave just in case there’s a parade.)
I’ve really enjoyed being Miss January this month. For my last entry, I’m featuring some of my favorite posts from my blog.
Last spring, a group of Ag blogger friends of mine worked together on a group blog about a Texas country musician, Aaron Watson, and his album, the Underdog. I wrote about all the people who feel judged and intimidated by food and news about food. Those people are the reason I write my blog. I’ve always cheered for the Underdog.
In most of my posts, I try to address the questions and concerns people have about meat or the livestock industry. Everything I write in my posts is backed by science, and I try to include links to help you find more information. I want to help people feel more informed about the food they feed their families.
I have a whole series of posts about meat labels, but the most popular post on my blog has been the one I wrote about the label ‘Raised without hormones.’ In meat science, we love to talk about the fact that there is no such thing as hormone-free meat. Everything has hormones, but did you know that it is against the law in the US to treat pigs and poultry with artificial hormones? I also write about hormones used in cattle production, and how they change the concentration of hormones in the beef. You might be surprised what you learn.
Processed meats made the news late last year when the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified them as a Class 1 carcinogen. When news reporters were listing other Class 1 carcinogens like asbestos and tobacco, it sounded really scary. I did some research on the IARC’s findings and wrote a post called The Sky is Not Falling on Hotdogs and Bacon. I found the IARC also lists sunlight and birth control as Class 1 carcinogens, and of the 900+ compounds they’ve examined, only 1 has made the non-carcinogenic category. I also talk about why processed meats are important in keeping meat affordable and helping us waste less food, not to mention being quite tasty.
Everyone loves ground beef, so I wrote a list of Ten Things You Didn’t Know about Ground Beef. The USDA has rules about what can and cannot be labeled as ground beef, and most people don’t understand those rules.
I love to tell the story about the mom at gymnastics who never took her kids to McDonalds because of a movie she’d seen. I wrote a post specifically for busy moms like her who worry every time they pull through the nearest drive-thru to feed their hungry kids. I called it Happy about Happy Meals. I followed it the next week with another post called McNugget Misclaimsabout what’s really in chicken McNuggets. Within a few weeks, my friend sent me a picture of her son enjoying a Happy Meal. It made my day!
My favorite posts come from questions other moms and dads ask me. Please, feel free to ask me anything. Shoot me an email, leave a comment on my blog, send me a message on Twitter or Facebook, or give me a call.
Who knows? Maybe your question will turn into a post on Mom at the Meat Counter.
There is no typical ‘day in the life’ of me. Every day is different and I can definitely say that few are ‘typical.’ Rather than share about one day in my life, I decided to share some of my favorite days from the past year. From that, you can get an idea of all the crazy things I do.
January 20 – Classes begin. My class, Livestock and Meat Evaluation, meets in the spring semester. We cover breeds of livestock, how to evaluate carcasses, meat pricing, and a little about animal growth. I love to teach and work with the students, but it is quite a challenge. Most students have never been exposed to information about meats and can be reluctant to learn something new. Usually by the end of the semester, I have several new faces inspired to learn about meat.
January 31 – Academic Quadrathlon. Four Animal Science students traveled with me to Georgia to compete in a Regional Competition. In addition to showing off their skills as animal scientists, these kids have the chance to travel to a new part of the US to learn about agriculture and food production. This competition covers much more than just meat science, so I learn as much as the students do. Although it was a quick trip, we took a tour of the University of Georgia’s campus and got to enjoy some of the local flavors in downtown Atlanta. Traveling with students is one of my absolute favorite parts of my job.
March 7 – Missouri Meat Processors Product Show. I was invited to serve as an expert judge at a processed meat show in Missouri. I judged bone-in hams and bratwurst. These products come from meat processors all over the state of Missouri. Making cured and processed meats is a craft and an art form as much as it is a science. It was quite a learning experience for me. Of course, I took a #hamselfie!
March 31. Undergraduate Research. We mixed and formed beef patties for a young lady’s senior research project. Those patties were later cooked, and the internal cooked color was measured. Our research reiterated the fact that cooked color is not a good indicator of doneness and that meat thermometers are the best way to tell if ground beef is really done. I really enjoy doing research with students. This young lady found a passion for lab work and is considering a job in the meat industry thanks to this experience.
April 1 – Hosting Mrs. Cavitt’s GT Class. I love to introduce kids to animal science. Most kids don’t see agriculture as interesting or think of it as a future career, so I like to bring kids as young as elementary school to our department and show them all the interesting things we do. We have a special cow that we use for research named Hilda. She has become quite the Northwest Arkansas ambassador for cattle nutrition and animal science in general. In addition to education, Hilda helps us learn about how cows digest their food, what they prefer to eat, the impact they have on the environment, and the way medicines affect her digestion. Cows like Hilda can even help other cows when they are sick.
April 21 – Moms on the Farm Tour. Twice a year, we host a tour of local farms for people in our community that have little or no experience with agriculture. In April, we toured Susan Anglin’s Dairy Farm and the McGee Beef Farm with over 40 tourists. We introduce them to farmers, show them how food is produced right here in Northwest Arkansas, and answer any questions they may have. We pet baby calves, watch cows being milked from inside the parlor, walk in a beef cow pasture, and enjoy cooking demonstrations from the Arkansas Cattlewomen. Tours are held in April and October, if you’d like to join us, let me know!
May 12 – Huntsville High Graduation. For the past 5 years, I have served on the School Board in our community, and this year, I was asked to hand out the diplomas as the students walk across stage. Most people know that I am a jeans person and generally don’t dress up for anything. But, for graduation, I found a dress and curled my hair because education is important. These students work hard for their diplomas, and I want to celebrate their accomplishments.
June 1. Working in the Meat Lab (Abattoir). This was just one of many days this year we were working in the abattoir. We process beef, pork, lamb, and goats. Working in the meat lab gives me a respect for people who work hard every day to produce the safe and inexpensive food we have in this country. My husband enjoys telling people that his wife is a better meat cutter than he is. When we work in the meat lab we have to wear protective gear like cut-proof gloves, hard hats, white coats, and steel-toed boots. I’ve had those old boots a while.
June 10. Reciprocal Meats Conference. Absolutely one of my favorite weeks of the year. The American Meat Science Association hosts the RMC in different locations each year. A whole vanload of students accompanied me on a road trip to visit processing plants and other aspects of meat science along the way. Last year, we visited a sausage plant, a large beef plant, Anne Burkholder’s feed yard, the USDA Meat Animal Research Center, and a local grocery store where we took #meatcounterselfies. The RMC trip is the pinnacle of traveling with students for me. These are kids interested in meats going to a conference about meat science. The conference is like a big family reunion and a church revival because we collaborate with other meat scientists and get pumped up to go home to do exciting research. My husband was honored at this RMC as one of the AMSA Achievement Award winners for his outstanding contribution to the meats industry as a scientist at Tyson.
July 9. Ketchikan, Alaska. Even on vacation, I’m interested in meat and the food industry. This summer, our family took a trip to Alaska. Every chance I got, I found a grocery store and checked out the meat counter. At this stop in Ketchikan, we found a historic grocery store with a really neat story.
July 20. Washing sheep. I’m also a 4H mom. Vallie had three little sheep for a project this year. I showed sheep when I was young, but we still have a lot to learn. Some of my best days are spent helping with the washing, shearing, and teaching the sheep to show. Showing animals in 4H is really about family time and kids learning to work hard toward a goal.
August 28. Arkansas Women Bloggers Conference. If you are blogging and you are not attending a conference like this one, you are missing out. These ladies are so much fun, and I learn so much about writing, editing, photography, web design, new apps, and anything else associated with blogging and social media. But, I go for the fun! Where else can you work together with 5 grown women to make a guitar out of wrapping paper?
September 28. Hotdog Lab. Most of our students know very little about meat. In their introductory Animal Science class, they have the chance to tour all of the facilities in our department, including the meat lab. The meat lab manager and I give them a quick tour and talk about all the things we do, then we take them into the 45° processing room and let them make some hotdogs. We start with ground meat, mix it with spices, stuff it into casings, and twist it into hotdogs. After class, it’s smoked, cooked and packaged for the students to enjoy the next week in class. This year, making hotdogs even made it on the University of Arkansas snapchat.
November 16. Operation Christmas Child Collection Week. Our family started putting together shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child 6 years ago. OCC collects shoebox gifts to share with children in need worldwide. Gathering things for our boxes is a year-round activity, and we spend a week in November collecting boxes from our church and community to send to OCC. For the past two years, Ed and I have traveled to Dallas to help process boxes for distribution. The OCC boxes are a great way to teach young children the joy of sharing with those in need.
Sometimes I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I didn’t include all the boring days, working in my office on statistics or writing research papers and blog posts, grading papers and exams, or preparing for all these exciting days. Whether it’s my own kids, my students, other moms, or children in developing countries, whatever I’m doing, I try to help people. I want to help them learn more about agriculture and to improve their lives. And, I take a lot of selfies.
This month’s theme on Arkansas Women Bloggers is CELEBRATE. As we are winding down the Holiday season, it’s easy to think about all the beautiful celebrations associated with Christmas and New Year’s. I normally write about meat and livestock, and there are lots of great ways to celebrate with a ham or a nice beef roast. Yet, for this post, I’m stepping away from that and writing about celebrating life.
This was a hard year for our family to celebrate Christmas. My mother passed away suddenly this summer, and this was our first Christmas without her. Anyone who has lost someone close to them knows how hard it is to celebrate those first milestones without the one you love. Buying gifts without her on the list, making the dishes she loved on Christmas day, taking the kids to see Santa without her help to corral them were all more difficult than I can explain.
As I contemplated what to write about around the theme of celebrate, all I could think about was celebrating her. We had a celebration of her life a few days after she passed, but I feel like the real celebration of her life is in the way we live our lives going forward.
We celebrated her when we put up her Christmas tree at Dad’s house over the Thanksgiving holiday. We hung the ridiculous number of ornaments. We laughed at how old and worn some of them were. We poked fun at each other’s hand-made ornaments from grade school. It was like she was right there with us, laughing and cutting up.
I celebrated her when I volunteered to shop with kids in need in our community. I made sure my daughters know how important it is to help everyone have a Merry Christmas.
My sister celebrates Mother in her classroom when she gives extra time and attention to kids that struggle with learning. Mom taught us to appreciate ALL kids and what they can contribute to the world.
We will celebrate her by helping with Vacation Bible School and the children’s programs at church.
I celebrate her by embracing my naturally-positive attitude about life and assuring others that everything will be okay.
We celebrate her when we include everyone and ensure that no one feels left out. This was so important to Mother. (As kids, we had to invite every single kid in our class to our birthday party, no matter what.)
We celebrate her when we speak to children like adults and use ‘big’ words. Thanks to my mother, I had quite the vocabulary and without even realizing I’d done it, I passed that trait on to my girls.
We celebrate her by taking charge. Mother never sat around and waited for someone to ask for her help. If she saw a need, she just took charge to get things done. The older I get, the more I feel this part of Mother’s personality come out in me. Now that she’s gone, I’ve really embraced it.
We celebrate her by continuing to laugh. It isn’t always easy to laugh through grief, but somehow she made it seem natural. Our family has gotten through the darkest hours with laughter.
We will celebrate her life when we talk about her. Because they are so young, my youngest daughter and nephew will likely not remember my mother, but they will know her. They will know the things she loved and how she lived her life. They will know about her service and her faith.
In the days and weeks after her passing, I felt a sadness that I’d never known before. I knew my life would never be the same again. I grieved for what my kids would miss by not having her in their lives. But as we moved on, I knew that her spirit would live on in us and the effect we have on the world. She (and my Dad) passed on the spirit and love of their beloved grandparents by celebrating their lives with us.
She celebrated her grandfather by laughing and joking, even in the hard times.
She celebrated her grandmother by working tirelessly to make her grandkids feel special.
She celebrated her grandmother by telling us to be ‘Pretty on the inside.’
She celebrated her uncle by teaching Special Ed and helping kids who struggle to learn, even those who struggle to talk.
They celebrate my dad’s grandfather with the ‘Christmas Eve Gifts’ tradition.
We celebrate my grandmother by enjoying her Pozole recipe with homemade tortillas to ring in the New Year.
I could go on and on. My parents celebrating their loved ones is what shaped my childhood and my Christian faith. I plan to pass that tradition on to my girls. Celebrating the life and loves of my mother has really helped me deal with her loss. I now know that she likely did the same when she lost people that she loved.
As we begin a new year without Mother, it’s still hard to think about continuing without her. But, I know that we still have a lot to celebrate.
Wow! I was so honored to be asked to be a part of the ARWB Blogger of the Month series. I don’t know where I would be without the wonderful ladies of the Arkansas Women Bloggers. They have been such a great support network to me.
I became a mom 7 years ago. Until it happens, you may not realize that when you become a mom, you join this special club, the Mom Club. Moms help each other out. All moms. From your own mom, to your sisters and aunts, your mother-in-law, friends, moms at church, moms at school, even random moms in the grocery store line or in the airport are willing to help each other.
Moms are full of great advice. When you become a mom you question everything, and, thank goodness, there are hundreds of other moms full of knowledge and willing to give you advice because they’ve been there. It may be about diapers or baby clothes, breast feeding (or not), schools, day care, toys, tons of stuff. When I became a mom, I joined this special club and found this community of women, helping each other, giving advice, and I wanted to do something to contribute.
That brings me to the blog.
Moms have lots of questions about the food they feed their families. People today are bombarded with loads of information about food, where it comes from, how animals are raised, and if it’s safe. So much of this information can sound so scary, and it’s so hard to know what’s true. That’s where I found my way to contribute to other moms.
People hear really scary things about meat and the way it’s raised and processed. These things may or may not be true. So, I started writing as the Mom at the Meat Counter, to help people feel better about the food they feed their families. I have the expertise in this area, and I want to share what I know with other moms.
Many times, I’ve been at the meat counter in grocery store and I find myself answering people’s questions about the meat they are buying. Answering questions like, “What does Natural mean?” or “What is all this I hear about pink slime?” I just imagined them going home to tell their families about the advice they got from that Mom at the Meat Counter who seemed to know about meat.
My favorite posts are the ones that came from people’s questions. So I love comments and questions about meat and the meat industry. Ask me anything that may be on your mind. No question is off-limits. If you’re worried about something concerning meat, ask me. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone that does.
I work at the University of Arkansas in the Department of Animal Science and I love to help students learn about the industry. My husband, Ed, is also a meat scientist and works for Tyson foods. We have two girls, Vallie (7) and Wyn (2). When we aren’t taking #meatcounterselfies, we are herding cows and our 3 sheep, watching football, or spending time with our families.
My social media feeds are mostly meat, cows, a few sheep and lots of pictures of my kids.
