Welcome!
I’m Beth Ricci, the creator of Red & Honey, and I am so glad you’re here. First things first: wondering about the name of this site? I’m “red” (a natural redhead) and he’s my “honey”. That was the most fitting-yet-unique name I could finagle from my brain so many years ago, and it stuck.
How Red & Honey Started
I started blogging back in 2006, the day after I wrote my final university exam. (I held off, anticipating that I may get a little distracted, and boy, was I correct!)
At first, I wrote it like a journal to share with family and friends. You know – the usual gratuitous hubby and cat pics.
It went through a few different platforms and names over the years (I went for the fancy, new “blogspot” platform over the popular xanga – ha! #bloggingdinosaur). Eventually I settled on Red & Honey, we got the domain name, and that was that.
As I gradually shifted into blogging for an audience, narrowing down what I wanted to write about, and building a platform to do it, I wondered if Red & Honey was still a good fit. It was no longer a family journal kind of blog, but one that I eventually began treating like a job, and that has now become a full-fledged passion business that earns income for our family.
In my 2017 site-wide redesign process, I ultimately decided to keep the Red & Honey name. What I write about on this site centres around natural health and wellness, which is actually just a natural outpouring of our family’s natural living journey over the last decade, so keeping the name made sense.
After fourteen years of marriage and four kids, we’re still here. I’m not sharing cat pics and random “life updates” all the time, and the grandparents now look to Facebook for that stuff. But we’re a sorta-normal (if a bunch of lovable weirdos can be “normal”) family and we’re genuinely seeking vibrant, energetic, natural wellness. Because life’s just too short to feel “blah” and crappy all the time. Ya know?
The Mission of Red & Honey
At its core, R&H exists to equip and inspire you toward a healthy lifestyle that lifts you up with vibrant energy and joy (instead of bogging you down with guilt and shame). We pursue this through natural remedies, nutrient-dense, whole foods, and self-care.
I embrace healthy living simply because it makes my life better. Also because in this world, bacon and butter are health foods. (Yes, seriously.)
Our Family
We’re a family of five (soon to be six) living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. This awesome capital city has been our home for just over two years now, and after 13 moves in the first 14 years of marriage, we’re plunking ourselves down and staying. Forever sounds like an awfully big commitment for people who’ve moved so stinkin’ much, so let’s just say we (finally) feel rooted here and it’s a beautiful thing.
I’m married to Chris, and he’s a highly-skilled airplane pilot in the private aviation industry. We got married at 19 and 20 after dating for 2.5 years in high school and first-year university. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, and thank goodness for that because the good continues to outweigh the bad with every passing year. I’m so glad we didn’t wait or let anyone talk us out of it. (Although they tried.)
Together, we have three gorgeous kids (age 5, 7, and 9) and one little “caboose” who is due to be born literally any day now.
Our Kids
Isaac is 9 years old and he’s a delightfully intense kid that taught us all about how little control we really have in parenting. He has been identified as twice-exceptional (2e) which means that he is on the gifted scale for cognitive abilities, as well as possessing some learning difficulties and other exceptionalities. He’s creative and feels things deeply. He’s complicated and awesome and I’m his biggest fan.
Aliza is 7 years old and our only daughter. She’s a major extrovert with the love language of quality time. In other words, let her talk your ear off while playing a board game with her and she’ll be your friend for life. She’s creative and beautiful and vivacious, and I’m pretty sure that whatever she does in life, it won’t be boring.
Canaan is 5 years old and soon to be a big brother. Like his big brother and sister, he’s also a spirited kid with big feelings and ideas. (We don’t seem to make ’em any other way.) He’s more spatially aware than I am (his directionally-challenged mother), so if I ever get lost with him in the car, I’m sure we’ll be fine. He loves building and we wonder if he’ll grow up to be an engineer or architect. He has the most tender heart I’ve ever seen.
[Psst! If you’re new around here, this is the place to start. Warmest of welcomes to you!]
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