52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 37

What’s Always In My Grocery Cart?

Alrighty….who is hungry?

I literally get hungry everytime I talk about going to the grocery store. It is a good thing that I shop online instead of in-person….I would go there hungry all the time. Eat before you shop…you will save money! Right now since the pandemic, we as a family are shopping online and picking up our groceries. The only time we go in is when we really need something they say is out and we have to get something else.

So what’s always in our grocery cart…

These are essential items everytime we shop. The convenience of Walmart grocery pickup is cool with some cons but overall much easier than getting out the car, putting mask on, shop, stand 6 feet away and checkout. Less choatic. If you want to try it out go to Walmart Grocery or download the app. When you go to the app. it gives you a lot of locations in your area to choose and various times for pickup.

Well, that’s it!! I am going to get something to eat right now!! Happy Shopping😁Stay tuned for week 38 next week!!

Stay healthy and safe everyone, we will get through this💜

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52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 36

Let Me Brag A Minute!!

So…yes…anyone who knows me, my kids are my whole world and I take every opportunity to brag about them. I am so proud that they have grown up to be such great people, even though there times I want to scream at them. They are human. They aren’t perfect. They are the light of my life. These are my kids at their different stages:

From babies, to preteen, to teens and now adolescent. My oldest son Brian is now 21, and he is working and going to school Full-time. He is studying Coding and Programming for video games and software development at Full Sail University Technology is growing and expanding and he has a potential of making six figures in the future. My youngest son Devon, 19, graduated this year 2020 and is pursing a career in Culinary Arts. He loves to cook, a straight A student, works part-time and will be attending full-time classes at Traviss Technical College.

I created a recipe of 16 books in a binder for him to create and each week on Sunday, we work on 1 recipe. Here are some of his creations:

So Yummy!! They tasted really good!!

Thank you to my Blogging friend Pencils and Popcans for providing alot of the great recipes!! We will try the Coconut Chicken Curry soon🤗

My youngest daughter Briana, 17, is going into her last year of high school as an A student and playing softball. She works part-time. She has aspired to be a Marine Biolists since she was 10 years old and wants to attend Southeastern University next year.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for week 36!

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52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 35

A Day In My Life

My day to day life hasnt changed much since I retired. I like to sleep late and stay up late. The only time I get up early is when I have a doctors appt, which is only every 3 months.

I talked about how my life used to be and how it is now in my 31 day challenge: Timeline of my Day. Click here to read Blog Post

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52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 34

Meet My Pets🐾🐾🐾

In this blog post, you get to meet my pets!! I dont talk about them in posts but today I get to show them off. Having pets are just as hard as raising kids. They expect to be waited on hand in foot and want to be fed and walked and entertained constantly. I love all animals and wish I had a farm of them. They are my kids and I love them so much.❤

Okay, so here we go….

Meet our cats!🐈🐈

We have had them since they were kittens from a shelter. Bella was 6 months when we got her and is now 17 and is very vocal about what she wants. She still has fire in her and stays active when she can. Ginger was 2 years old and is now 13 years old. She is so sweet and is not as vocal like Bella. Instead, she uses her body and paws to rub up against the screen door to let us know she wants to go out. They are always within sight of each other and love being outdoors.

Meet our Dog!🐕

He is too cute!! We got him when he was 5 months old and he was so little. We rescued him from an organization called BratPac Rescue from a couple who bred a Bischon breed. Sage is a rat terrier mixed with Bischon, chihauhau and terrier. As shown above he is literally two different dogs. He is so sweet and loves to hop on his back legs and greet people. He loves car rides and the dog park. The only thing is, I think he likes the humans more than the dogs at the park..lol.

Meet my Fish!🐠🐟🐡

Ok, so I started getting into fish tanks at the end of June of this year. It was a way for me to ease my anxiety. I gave my oldest son the second tank for his room. I have the first tank in my bedroom. I love watching them interact and swim after each other. I have had some trial and error moments with fish getting sick and the tank not being stable but I think I have it down. We just recently lost one of the fairly oddfish parents when I found him behind the fish tank. I have no ideal why he jumped out but that same day I found him, another fish had passed away..I was really sad. I noticed that one of the two new female mollies turned male🤔 Found out that if they are late bloomers then they can turn male. It is a very expensive hobby. I recently had a fish called Miss Black and White Cookie, she ended up having fin rot and a parasite and didnt make it. I was sad because we bonded. On a happier note, we gained 5 new babies from preggo Miss Molly. After this post I found 2 more…for a total of 7.

I haven’t named them yet…waiting for them to get bigger.😁

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for week 35!!

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52 Week Blog Challenge

What’s In My Closet?

So….this blog post I have to talk about whats in my walk-in closet. I am so ashamed of my closet that I didnt even take a picture of it. It was so cluttered and just so disorganized. It was turning into the “Black Hole”

Before……

Everytime I turned around, me and my husband kept adding things to it that didnt belong. We had clothes, shoes, a treadmill, yoga ball, table and chair, empty gift boxes, empty TV and electronic boxes that are waiting for the warranty to expire, 4 compartment drawers for socks, underwear, shirts plus shorts, souvenirs from places I visited in a box, fish tank supplies, my giant bugs bunny I got in vegas…..

Sounds like a lot right? It was😣

Since the quarantine….I realized how much clutter we actually had and it started to work my nerves and cause anxiety. So I decided to do one project a day to get organize the house. I cleaned my closet a couple weeks ago.

After…..

You can come in now…

I am so proud of myself that now our closet has just our clothes, shoes, my husband satellite office-which is a table and chair to sit down, 4 compartment dresserts and my bugs bunny.

Well, thats it for my closet!! Remember, decluttering your life is good for your mental and emotional health. Take everyday and keep your brain active by finding something positive to keep it moving in the right direction. Have a great week!!

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52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 32

My Inspiration to Blog

My top three inspirations for blogging are:

My Family- I live day to day with my 3 almost grown children and my husband and they inspire most of the things I write about. Sometimes, it can be something as simple as meetings we have had, their special abilities or how the world affects them with everything going on now. We have fights and battles, our disagreements about things but one thing we have always believed in doing is being honest and respectful of one another while staying close. Here we are the week of Father’s Day taking our yearly photo-which is our 21st year of taking family pictures. This one was inspired around my husband.
Challenges- This one is focused around my readers getting to know me. A blogger has many talents-one is writing. I love to showcase my writing and how I articulate the topics given to me for either a daily, weekly or monthly challenge. Right now, I am working on the 52 week blog challenge, with this being week 32, and I love it. Try these challenges on your own and see if you can keep up.

3. Telling Someone Else’s Story- There are people who have stories to tell but no one really cares about it, so they don’t write it. I care. I have written alot of stories on my blog and while writing them I have cried some. Everyone deserves to be heard and everyone’s story is different no matter how similar it may be. The feelings you have during your experiences will differ from others with the same story. I am a member of wonderful women’s empowerment group led by Valerie Padilla started 2 years ago and I wrote a 1-year anniversary piece on some of the great things they have accomplished. Click here to read the story: You are Queen today and everyday….women empowering each other 2019 . I also did a piece on breast cancer last year and I told the story of my friend Valerie’s mom. It was a very touching story so much I cried while writing it and still do. Click here to read her story: The Heart of a Dancer..A Queen Remembered

This is what inspires me to blog…check out next week for #33

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52 Week Blog Challenge- Week 31

My Scariest Experience

So I am thinking about my scariest experience where you literally pee your pants, scream until your head falls off and you develop a phobia….I couldn’t think of one really recent so I went way back. Right now at my age of 42, it doesn’t take much to get me scared but along time ago in my young years, you couldn’t scare me too much…I thought.

It is Halloween in 1997, and I was 19 years old and this was before I stopped celebrating Halloween. I found out that the holiday was not one I wanted to celebrate because I became a Christian. But, don’t get me wrong, my kids do celebrate it with costumes and trick or treating and I eat the candy they bring home. At that time in my life, I loved to dress up at work-I worked three jobs so I couldn’t go trick-or-treating.

One night some of my friends wanted to go out for Halloween and suggested…you guessed it a Haunted House. I said well, since I haven’t done that before I went.

Looks scary….doesn’t it. It was one story but let me tell you, I was petrified! I screamed all the way through with chainsaw guys, spooky skeletons, things jumping out of nowhere. Scary men were following so close to me, I had to start to fight because it was dark and I did not know what the hell was in front or back of me. I was frightened that I developed a phobia for haunted houses. Of course, that doesn’t stop me from wanting to watch movies that to have to do with haunted buildings and such. I love the movie 1408 with the haunted room in the hotel.

I don’t believe in that stuff but it is entertaining. Scary movies and comedies are my favorite. So, to this day, I stay away from them…not just because they are scary but because I have high anxiety and panic attacks, I have to stay away from them.

Thanks for reading. Tune in next week. Don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe to my blog!!

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Blogging is so much FUN!!!

This week marks the 2nd anniversary of my blog!! 🎉I had so much fun this year, even with everything that has happened in the last 6 months…I have been able to still have my writing be so positive. I wanted to start out by thanking Fashion Potluck for recognizing my writing and creating a free platform for women to write, inspire and promote their work.

In the past year, I traveled, met new people and was able to tell peoples stories.

In October 2019, I had the opportunity to visit one of the places on my bucket list which was Puerto Rico. I went with 8 wonderful women who are from a group I talk alot about because of the sisterhood they represent. Click here to read all about my trip:My Trip to Puerto Rico

In October 2019, I also wrote a blog post raising awareness for Breast Cancer and I was able to tell my friends mom story. It was a great honor to do it. Click here to read: The Heart of a Dancer

In May 2020, the group celebrated 2 years with over 4,000 women members and unlike last year, we had a celebration virtually. I wrote a post to commenarate the occasion. Click here to check it out:Queen On

In June 2020, I had the pleasure of being featured in a great blog I follow called Lauras Books and Blogs! Click here to check out my interview:Lauras Books and Blogs

During quarantine, I have been reading more and I have read several books and decided to start a Book Review section for author titles.

First author I read was Rachel Hollis and I read completely”Girl Wash Your Face” and working on “Girl, Stop Apologizing” Click here to read my review:Rachel Hollis Book Review

The next author is a friend of mine Trisha Williams and she has written over 17 titles. She is also in editing and consulting helping other writers get their story out. These are the books I have read so far from her and going to keep it going! Click here to read my review:Ireesky Fiction Book Review

Right Now, I am working on a 52-week Blog Challenge and I am in week 30. I have a new blog post up every Wednesday on My Blog.

I am so looking forward to what is in store for the next year!!☺

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52 Week Blog Challenge- Week 30

A Life Lesson learned

Family, Friends and Business Don’t Mix

Let me clarify. When I say family, friends and business don’t mix, I don’t mean owning a business and working together, I mean telling your business. Oil and water don’t mix.

Let me tell you a story….

I am 42 years old and I am a wife and mother and in another life I worked retail for almost 30 years. Even when I was younger, for some reason, I was never the type of person to make friends easily. There are just those people that either are too intimidating to be friended or people just don’t like them. I have always thought that I was too intimidating to people. People say I have a great heart and care alot about people. This is true. For some reason, I tend to care too much and it sometimes works for me but more often times it works against me. People who are caring, hurt on the inside and tend to overlook those who try to take advantage of them. I think I am fun person but it just seems like when people friend me they are looking for what they can get from me.

I am very proud of what I have accomplished in my life including my family and I tend to overshare out of fear that I will be found dis-interesting. Let me tell you…it has worked against me time and time again.

Even when you are talking to your family, be careful who you speak to about your business-everyone knows that your life is an open book when you are not around. I learned the hard way this past year and I had to stop talking and generalize everything. I’m on a path to talking about positive things in my life instead of negatives and keep my opinions to myself. I learn alot about people when I just listen to them and talk less. I found that women like to talk with one another and share with everyone male or female while men stay quiet about their life with women and only express their feelings among other men….men do gossip. Don’t talk about your marriage problems or how rotten your children are unless it is your counselor. Everyone has problems at home, this is no secret and the person you are telling them to, unless they are living that same situation, can’t give you advice or tell you what is best for you. So, I would suggest keeping these things to yourself, otherwise it came come back to bite you in the ass. It has been done on Reality Tv Shows…just saying.

If you do not want someone else to know your business, don’t tell it. If you have to have talk, focus the conversation on positive things in your life. Don’t speak of things you’re going to do, speak of what is already in motion and done. People like to talk about what you said you were going to do, so, if isn’t done and hasn’t started yet, don’t talk about it.

Plans are merely Procrastination while Actions are Goals set to be Completed. LS

So my life lesson learned is to listen more and talk less. The world needs more positive than negative in it. Gossip and talking about one another doesn’t solve any problems, all it does is divide us. I f you want to share your life, do it in such a way that involves inclusion like a project or a mission you would like to complete. Empower not bring down. We all have to exist in this world and if we spent less time with misery loves company and more on love driving hate away, the world would be a level less stressful.

That’s it!

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52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 29

Well Somebody Has to Say It!

The world right now is just chaos and for some reason everything that is going on can be traced back to the government in some kind of way. What the heck is going on? We have way too many people in charge of our welfare. Covid-19 and the brutal murders of African Americans all over the world by police have become the forefront of our lives and it all leads back to the people in charge. We are once again having to revert back to children being told what to do by adults. Everything from you don’t have the right to stand up for yourself to you get information on a need to know basis. Years have gone by and so many attacks on the African American community have gone unseen and reported because of the protection of law enforcement. I personally think that what has transpired in the last 2 months to change things for us is for the better. Sometimes, making drastic changes to history like removing all forms of inference to racism…has to be done. Taking down symbols and even replacing the National Anthem need to be done. Our community needs people in charge that believe in what they say America is supposed to stand for. At the start of Covid-19, we were not informed in time to do what was necessary to prepare ourselves for the outbreak instead it was concealed and thought to be too late to contain it. Right now, we are all divided on whether one should social distance and quarantine or everyone should wear a mask to enjoy our lives….for the sake of the economy thus helping the government. Do they really care whether we live or die…I can’t tell. From allowing the economy to open up and cases increasing to allowing for sports teams to play and triple the exposure all for the benefit of making money. This is the chain of command in charge of us:

We have the Congress, House of Representatives, Senate then the President. In that exact order is how a law is passed. Our lives our dictated by what the President signs into law. I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone, where we are returning to the dark ages.

I am from Florida and I gotta tell you, we are very divided. The Mayor of many cities in Florida have been able to pass a must wear mask law….unfortunately our Mayor has not been able to get the law passed.

Many people in Lakeland our divided on this and for me, this is just my opinion, if you are scared, are vulnerable to the virus…stay home unless you are an essential worker. You can save lives and money staying home. Everyone can just do drive-up pickup, our phones and computer apps are always available. If you don’t have technology, calling for a pickup will do. I myself, do go out to do a Walmart grocery pickup, go to the doctor and I have been to the beach. I enjoy going out to dinner but I can eat at home if I have too. The neighborhood merely bringing up the fact that they are worried about Covid-19 causes anxiety and fears and is not good for mental health. I don’t believe our economy will ever be the same. I think it would be alot easier if they would just quarantine everyone as before and keep only essential workers out there. The cases were slowing down and we were looking up but because the government has to stimulate the economy and keep us down, money has become more important than our lives.

That’s all I got…remember elections are coming up…go out and vote for the right people to run your life.

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