Keep trusting...

As I sit here on public transportation with the sun warming my face, and appreciating the 50 degree breeze that welcomes me everytime the doors open it is putting me in a reflective, proud but melancholy mood. So I decided what better moment to get my feelings out right now where there is no one around grasping for my attention. Yesterday, I had a pretty eventful day. I went and saw my cousin play basketball for Drake, against Loyola, and it was ravishing seeing these young men out there putting up a good fight, and trying to make their dreams come true.  It was truly inspirational, and it made me pray for them, especially my cousin. It made me pray that God shows him how much he is loved. How awesome he is, and that he can do anything he put his mind to, but put his mind to something good, and rewarding on multiple levels. To don't give up and trust in him.

Yesterday I also got a biopsy. I still have to wait for the results, but in getting this biopsy I was given information that confirmed suspicions I already had.  I've shared this information with my husband but now I'm forced to make a decision that will/ or may affect our lives and I'm struggling to be open, and positive about it, but I'm trying.

I'm trying to focus more on being thankful that God has given me the gift make things beautiful. Thankful that my family is in good health and that I'm able to live this life with my wonderful grandmother still here and in her right mind and able to help me with creating our family tree. That I am on this journey of starting a new career as a therapist and I am doing very well in my classes still maintaining a 4.0. Thankful that my mom has opened her heart to go through the journey of falling in love. Thankful that God keeps showing me ways to build on my relationship with my dad, and work on my marriage, and be a good Mom.

There's so many things that I can be thankful for and yesterday having the opportunity to pray for my cousin now has shown me that I need to pray that same prayer for myself. God is showing me how awesome and loved I am.  He is showing me that I can do anything and all I have to keep doing is have faith and keep trusting  in him. Everything is going to be alright.

(Day 2) Getting Unstuck

Today, I decided to include my son on my journey of Meditation and I made a huge mistake, lol. That won't happen again. I mean it's not that I'm not going to ever meditate with him again because I will. I even downloaded a kids meditation app; I will just make sure I have my own time for myself 😊.

I also, believe I picked the wrong location because it was pretty busy on the lakefront for 7:30pm and the bugs were eating me up! So I really wasn't filled with zen at all! Looking forward to try again this evening.

Consistency

The word of the day is... Consistency

The word consistency is more and more making an appearance in my life. I'm finding myself getting upset not only with with people around me, including my husband but also with myself in my relationship with my kids, my business, and my marriage.

 We all know that children are sponges and they are watching us. So we have to set positive examples for them. We can't expect big things from them if we're not providing a consistent example of what big things are.

I'm also realizing that I need to be more consistent in my business. This consistency determines how successful I am. I'm currently working on being more active with blogging and having more interaction with fans and supporters on social media. Becoming more proactive on my email listing, and creating more merchandise. This is all an effort in trying to achieve my goal of becoming more consistent, hence becoming more successful in my business.

I'm also making more of an effort to be consistent in

Isn't Marriage spelled wrong;-/

my marriage by not being so focused on the things that are going wrong but being more encouraging, showing acknowledgment, and creating more opportunities for intimacy.

Being consistent is very important in all relationships if we can push ourselves more and show that we care more I believe we'll all be consistently happy. :-)

Giving back

For the last few years I have noticed that my oldest son has caught this "I want" aka the "give me" or "can I have" disease, and I was wrecking my brain trying to figure out how I can make him more appreciative of what he has.  I tell him all the time you have so much going for you, and there are kids in this world that don't have half as much as you have.  They don't get to go on vacations every year like you do.  They haven't been out of this state let alone out of the country like you have!  Stop I want, I wanting and can I have blah, blah, blah, but he still continues to do it.  I teach our boys that life isn't easy.  That they must work hard for what they want, believe in themselves and never give up.  We're also trying to teach them the importance of giving and not just taking, appreciating what you have because what you have can always be taken away, and there are people who don't have everything we have. So starting last year I joined him in the Honeycomb Project where he can sign up for different volunteer projects around Chicago every month, but the problem with those projects is they fill up really fast, and some months we're left without a project.

So one day, taking my morning walk on the lake I came across some tents that some homeless people set up, and ding, ding, ding!  A thought popped into my head; we should feed the homeless, make sandwiches or something and pass them out to these homeless people!

This past Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr day my family and I did just that.  In spite of it being -7 degrees below zero, it was a perfect morning to do it, because it was the only morning we would all be together.  It felt so rewarding, and it was such a proud moment seeing how excited my son was to give back.  Check out the pictures below, and I urge you to give back, and teach your kids how to give back.  If you would like to help in any way by donating food, or creating your own opportunity to give let us know.  

Setting up the bags and food, Apples, Pears, Oranges,
cans of vienna sausages and Oatmeal Pies

Making Turkey/Ham & Cheese sandwiches.  Yes, our hands were clean :-)

Bags all ready!

Carefully placing the bags

Walking to the tents with bags in hand!

Wordless Wednesday (My poor baby's fractured arm)

MUSIC MONDAY: 9/11

This commercial bought so many tears to my eyes.  I just love it!

Music Monday!

After doing a 2 day show, with the 2nd day being rained out, and having to rush to put everything up, going to the air & water show, and Chucke Cheese my body is aching, and I just want to hide under all of my pillows and stay there, but a Mompreneur's/Goddess's work is never done. We're off to the Shedd Aquarium, then its taking photos of new items, and working on one of my other big projects.  So today is a real pick me up, to get my body moving.  Hope it works for you and I.  Good Morning Everyone!!!!

Pull It Together Tuesday! (I Need an Assistant!!!)

As a Mompreneur work never gets done!  There is always something to do!  Fun time with my Son, windexing, pledging, sweeping, mopping, laundry, vacuuming, fun time with Husband, shopping, paying bills, creating, sales, marketing, vending, etc.

Right now as I look around my apartment at the pile of business plan papers, catalog papers, ideas of new projects, laundry, dishes, mirrors with finger prints, dusty figurines, toys spiradically placed, and juice spots on the floor and carpet I can only shake my head, and feel the pounding in my head that is screaming I NEED AN ASSISTANT!!!!

She would be perfectly fine being  paid with Jewelry and food, she would love kids, and love beading new creations.  She would know how to put together a successful business plan.  She would love to go on walks with me during down time and throw ideas off of one another.  She would be a fashionista, in the loop of different events and parties going around Chicago, New York and other fabulous places, and know the next spot to go to Spread the word of The Isis Collections.  She would be a social networking queen!  She wouldn't mind baby sitting at least once a month so hubby and I can get our groove back.  She would not only be a value to TIC, but she would be my good friend...


*sigh* In a perfect world that would be great!  However  its back to reality!

What do you need to pull together?

Pull It Together Tuesday (Pacifier Fairy)

So first off I want to say that I have ABSOLUTELY no problem with pacifiers unless that child is 10 years old and still needs them through out the day, then there's a problem, other than that I have no problem.

I admit my son is 3 years old and he still sucks his pacifier.  However, he does not need it throughout the day, he only wants it when he is sleepy.  I know about all of the "statistics" and "risk," but as his Mother these "statistics" and "risk" have not affected us, and I have NO PROBLEM with him wanting his pacifier for his naps, and at night.

HOWEVER, being that he will be starting school in September, and I think that this particular situation will help build his character and make him stronger.  I have decided that I will let him make the decision of saying bye to his pacifier, sort a speak.

I recently told him that the Pacifier Fairy was upset, because he's a big boy now and big boys don't need pacifiers, so the Pacifier Fairy has been looking in the garbage everyday for his pacifiers so she can take them to fairyland, but there are no pacifiers there, and this is making her very upset.  I asked my son, "Do you want the pacifier fairy to be upset?"  My son said, "Yes!"  I tried very hard not to laugh, and I succeeded.  I then explained to my son again, that he was a big boy, and he needs to put his pacifiers in the garbage when he's ready so that the Pacifier Fairy can get them.  My so then told me, "You do it!"  I said, "No, you do it!"  So far, no action has been made.  We'll pull it together soon, lol.

Please give me some POSITIVE advice about this situation, lol.

Thankful Thursday! (Kid Videos)

They say that you shouldn't let your kids watch to much T.V. Blah, Blah, Blah, but I know that the majority of moms out there will agree with me and say that they are thankful for the educational Kids videos out there.  I'm thankful cause at this very moment my son is putting together his puzzle games, and watching the HBO Family channel, which is allowing me to do this and get some work done!

Pull It Together Tuesday! (More respect for ourselves!)

So if you haven't noticed from yesterdays post, I sooooooo enjoyed myself in Memphis, TN on my husband and I's anniversary vacation.  Memphis is not only fun family time at places like Beale Street and a guitar shaped swimming pool:

but as an African-American Woman I learned so much about my history at places like the Stax Studios, the National Civil Rights Museum, Graceland, Sun Studio, etc:

Going to these places put so much gratefulness, and sorrow into my heart.  These people marched, and fought for future generations to walk proud with their heads held up high and say, "I am a man!"  "I am a woman!"  "I deserve to vote!"  "Listen and love my music no matter what color I am!"  "I can sit where I please, drink water from whatever fountain I please, and sit and eat where I please!"  So many things that we take for granted now a days, cause there I so many people preoccupied with who's sleeping with who, what kind of car whoever is driving, and what the next person has.  To busy looking to videos and movies for the wrong type of education, instead of going to the books and going to schools to  get the education that our ancestors fought so hard for us to have.

I took three very important young people on this anniversary vacation with my husband and I, and I just hope to God that one day they'll understand this lesson, and I hope that you reading this can pull it together to understand the lesson as well.

Pull It Together Tuesday!

Happy Pull it Together Tuesday! 

I know I just came off of a wonderful vacation at Wisconsin Dells with my family, but I admit, that I had a little bit of a breakdown last night.  I'm so used to doing this and that, but when it comes down to me chilling out and resting I feel so guilty about it, that I just have a crying fit, and my husband looks at me like, "not this again!"  So since I wasn't successful at resting yesterday, I'm determined to do it somewhat today ;-).  I've made a couple important phone calls, and I'm going up to my sons preschool, to finish registering him, but other than that I'm pulling nothing together, until probably about Thursday!

How do you moms out there handle the guilty mom blues?

MUSIC MONDAY (Stomp)

Good Morning Gods & Goddesses!

So I took a long weekend vacation, and went to the Dells with my family.  I very beautiful and strenous vacation feeled with so much fun, so much screaming and chasing a 3 year old, a 4 year old, and cuddling a 10 month old, and now I'M EXHAUSTED, and looking for some motivation.  Lately, embedding videos from you tube on my blog hasn't been working, so I'll just place a link for todays video.  Enjoy, and I pray that you have a wonderful week, and that I find some energy!  Enjoy!

Stomp - Kirk Franklin

Music Monday (Kid Entrepreneurs)

Good Morning Gods & Goddesses! 

I had a wonderfully busy weekend with vending at the Custer's Last Stand in Evanston, and celebrating Father's Day with my hubby and family, all I want to do is sit in the bed and watch Season 5 of Charmed on DVD which is on the schedule for today,but first I need to talk to you wonderful individuals, and update my inventory, as well as a few other things. 

Usually today will be filled with some song that expresses my feeling of the day, but I came across this video of kids entrepreneurs that I wanted to share with you all.  Its great, cute and very motivational.  TEACH YOUR KIDS TO BE WHATEVER THEY WANT TO BE!  Have a great week everyone!

Click here to see video