52 Week Blog Challenge- Week 27

My Favorite Quotes of all Time

Everything we do is all about attitude. Whether positive or negative attitude, it will dictate how you will survive in your life. If you are optimistic about life and look for the great things in every situation, you will feel good and it will rub off on others. If you are pessimistic about life and look for things to go wrong all the time, you will be angry and never feel good about things in your life. Negativity is also contagious, as in the old saying; Misery Loves company.
The current state of our country is that we are all about changing the attitude of those who wish to do harm unto the African American community. Too many senseless deaths and attacks taken against us have caused increased hate among us and in the midst of making changes we have support to take away those things that have been offensive for many years. Hate and grief may motivate us but love will bind us in unity for the cause.

3. How you act in private cannot be hidden behind how you act in public and vice-versa. Everyone needs to let the world see who they really are and stop hiding behind the ideal that people will not except you. Be polite but be true to yourself. Set the stage for an authentic show. Be a great leader.

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4. Having all the answers by trying to solve every problem is impossible. The world we live in comes with good and bad days. We have to treat everyday as a blessing to be alive and pray on the things that burden our hearts.

5. Life is not promised from day to day. Live it up and don’t think that you are not important. Whether you are having a good or bad day, don’t be afraid to take time for yourself. Wake up everyday with a smile on your face and ask what can I do to make someone else’s day. Smiles are contagious as is laughter….very powerful tools: Use them.

That is It!

Be Positive! Stay Focused! Change is a Good Thing! Everyday is a Blessing!

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Crown On Beautiful Queens….Happy 2nd Anniversary!!

My name is Valerie Padilla. I always believed in women’s unity. I created this platform on Facebook May 25th 2018. We are a community group. I want to empower, encourage and support other women and young ladies. My movement is strongly dedicated to ensuring that every women and girl has the opportunity and motivation to reach her full potential and live out her dreams and goals. We also build self-love, self-confidence, and self-worth. I strongly believe we are all Queens. We must respect, educate, and support each other. We are creating a sisterhood. Love, trust, and support play a role. Complete strangers becoming united for a positive cause. We presently have over 4,000 women all around the world. Our purpose is to help other women in need and show them they are not alone. Valerie Padilla

This past year, our Queens did a great job of feeding the homeless, having bake sales, donating school supplies, providing care packages and giving their time to shelters when needed. Even during our crisis, they are continuing by collecting donations of non-perishable items, supplies and toiletries for those less fortunate.

Our Queens dedicated their time in walking for causes such as Breast Cancer, Domestic Violence and the fight against the violence of innocent young youths in their community.

International Women’s Day was celebrated in honor of Queens all over the world. The Queens donated goods, their time and offered vendor products for sale.

We celebrate women everyday whether they write books, appear on television or reach a goal. Our community of women support you through all walks of life whether good or bad. We unite in prayer and blessings of positive affirmations daily.

From seeing movies like “Harriet” and “Queen and Slim” to dressing up for Holiday events, dancing in parades for “Pride Week” to celebrating birthdays daily. Camping a.k.a Glamping and a trip to Puerto Rico, these are some of the things we did pre-Covid 19. We love having a great time together!!

In the wake of our world’s pandemic Covid-19, we had to cancel events due to social distancing and find a way to be virtual. We were able to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary virtually on Facebook in the group and it was great! Alot of our queens showcased their talents by singing songs, giving speeches and sharing in prayers and blessings. During our virtual celebration, queens were able to be entered into a raffle and win prizes donated by other queens. Prizes included pampering baskets, some wine baskets, individual jewelry gifted by Paparazzi vendors and many other wonderful prizes. I won some RayBan glasses!!

Always working on making the Queens look beautiful, she has her new novelty tops in all sizes available now! If you would like to purchase click here: Valerie Padilla

The Queendom has been devastated by all the murders that have taken place by police in the last few months. Since George Floyd, the world has been turned upside down and has seen many lives of innocent people get taken away from us too soon. As we are in the process of changing history, we as a community, although quarantined, are doing everything we can to make sure that these deaths are not in vain and we got together everywhere and did a video and displayed positive words of encouragement to lift us and others up.

“A Change is Gonna Come, Yes it will.” Sam Cooke

Great community of Queens from all over the world…if you would like to be a part of making a difference in other women’s lives or if you are a women seeking a shoulder to lean on for positive uplifting, come join our unity by clicking here: Facebook

Valerie’s Women’s empowerment is also on Instagram.

Check out the 1-year anniversary post here: You are Queen today and everyday….women empowering each other 2019 and my trip to New York for celebration of 1-year anniversary post here: My weekend as a Queen…trip to New York City

R.I.H to those we have lost in the Queendom in the last year and to those who have lost their lives in the community. Stay strong and positive and we can get through this together!! Thank you Valerie for bringing us women together and making us feel like Queens everyday. We Love you….The Queendom

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52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 25

My Favorite Recipe…..

No doubt about it, I LOVE Food!! I watch the FoodNetwork on cable and I love the shows Diners, Drive-thru and Dive-Ins and Carnival Eats. When I am watching these shows, I always make sure I have eaten already otherwise you can get in some trouble.

When I was a kid, my dad taught me how to cook and one of my favorite things he cooked was CHILLI…..Yummy. While he was cutting all the vegetables and preparing the ground beef over the skillet, it would get “hot” in the kitchen

My Dad’s Recipe (from what I can remember)

2 lbs of ground beef cooked
2-3 cans of whole or diced tomatoes
2 cans of tomato paste
2-3 cans of kidney beans
Green pepper chopped
Onions chopped
1 packet of chilli seasoning
Simmered for about an hour in regular pot

and serve with saltine crackers

My dad used to use those heavy duty pots, the one that you pass down from generation to generation. (It was black, though)

Flash forward…..

My recipe is similar with a few alterations because of my dietary restrictions

3 lbs Ground Turkey cooked
2 cans of kidney beans
Chopped onions
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
Chopped green, red and yellow or orange peppers
1 packet of chili seasoning
Simmered in a crock pot for a couple hours

serve with saltine/ Ritz crackers or like the other 4 members of my family, they put chili hot sauce on it. I don’t do hot sauce at all. Here’s my crock pot.

So, that’s my favorite recipe, Enjoy!

Happy Dads Day to all Dads even mothers who are both parents. Me and my dad are so far away during this time but thanks to technology we are closer than ever!! Love you, dad.

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52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 24

Why does it seem like we are always going in circles like the Earth’s orbit?

Of course, this post was supposed to be about one thing and now with everything that has happened since the last week of May, it has to be included in this post. We all have heard by now about the unfortunate death of an African American named George Floyd who was murdered by police officers during a routine call May 31. As we take a moment of silence to pray over the family he has left behind we have to be advised that it can be any one of us at any time. The fact that he was a black man has stirred things up like back in the Watts Days after the brutal beating of Rodney King in the 90’s. I remember watching this as a teenager and just can’t understand for the life of me, how or why people get so angry and want to attack someone almost to death. With the right to bear arms and be able to defend yourself, it seems it stops with citizens, and allows for authority to do whatever they want and get away with it, Period. R.I.H

I am just so tired of all of it, it makes me so sick that as a black person I can’t even rely on the police to protect me, not to say there isn’t a small % of good cops but I am losing faith in their training and morality. All these riots that are happening, with all the protesting with Black Lives Matter shouldn’t be happening right now.

My Biggest Dream In Life……

Everyone who follows me knows that my children are half black and 1/4 white and 1/4 Puerto Rican and I am worried about their safety. We teach our children to be respectful to authority at all times even when approached by police but what happens if a cop is having a bad day and my child becomes a target. I want to get back to seeing pictures and videos of police rescues and doing good in the community. It is a fact that now that everything is where it is at, not alot of kids want to be policeman in this day and age. It really shines a bad light on the motto “Protect and Serve” Although what has happened is devastating, I don’t agree to compiling violence with violence. We all have a responsibility to make sure that we don’t set bad examples for those we have that look up to us. I want to see that everyone band together in peaceful unity and not destroy everything that we have built as a society. We have to think back to how Martin Luther King would have handled this, besides he has a street named after him wrapped around the Earth.

Racism, Equality, Political Change, Separate but Equal, Peacefulness and Unity. All these things are what should be happening right now. Just a reminder of what we are and should be wanting to see come to light.

Talking about something keeps it a dream. We must act everyday on change to make a dream a reality. For every person you come in contact with be cordial and put all prejudice aside.

….There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?”
We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of
police brutality. Martin Luther King Jr. (excerpt from I Have a Dream Speech)

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Writing is My Passion

So excited right now!! I love when you work on something for many hours, days, months and maybe and people recognize the talent that you have. Although, I wasn’t successful out on the career front as my age crept up on me, I didnt give up on what I love. I love to write and have a great passion for it. In the last 2 years, I have been writing alot about my experiences with my family or friends in my blog. I came across another writer awhile ago and she has her own blog: Her name is Laura Smith and she does giveaways, guest post, features, essays and book reviews. I like how she recognizes the talents of others and allows for writers to showcase it on her blog. Follow and Subscribe Here to check out her blog.

A couple months ago she posted on Twitter she had been looking for Guest Posts to promote and I responded with interest.

She picked me to be one of her guest post and I appeared June 12th on her blog. Check it out Here

If you are on pinterest click to view and save Here .

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Have a great weekend☺

52 Week Blog Challenge-Week 23

What I Spend My Money On?

In this day and age, the many ways people spend money varies from what their needs are from day to day, month to month and year to year. Most of us have kids, medical bills and debt floating around. The times now are getting shorter and shorter and what we really need to ask ourselves is what do we want to leave behind, or more importantly, what can we just live without.

I have always been a sentimental person and love to by things that have meaning and can be of use. These are some of the things I spend my money on:

–Old School Entertainment

As you all know I love music and movies so one thing I spend my money on are DVD movies. I love being able to pop a DVD in and enjoy a movie. We used to have VCR’s, which were great until they messed up tapes really bad. My husband still has a box of VCR tapes hoping VCRs will come back in style..lol. DVD movies can get scratched but they are easy to come by with cheap prices on Ebay and Amazon.

–Household Items

They just don’t make things as durable as they used too. I literally buy Tupperware and kitchenware every 6 months. Yesterday I got these cool non-stick copper pans that I have always wanted. I am one of the dishwashers in the house and I hate scraping food off skillets. As Seen On TV had these wonderful skillets…had an omelet just this morning. I also buy curtains and bedroom accessories as needed.

–Keepsakes of the Family

I love taking pictures and capturing great moments in time. I made these frames with my two boys graduations. My oldest son graduated in 2017 and now my youngest son graduates this week 2020. 2 down 1 more to go….my daughter will get a similar frame next year when she graduates.

–One Outfit a Year for my Birthday

Almost every woman loves birthdays and celebrating them BIG! I, myself, love to celebrate it every year and how I do it by either traveling or having dinner with my husband, family and friends. I took a trip one year with my daughter to New York. I usually buy myself an outfit-like a dress, get all prettied up and take a photo.

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So that’s all I spend my money on that is sentimental to me.

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52 Week Blog Challenge- Week 22

Working On My Fitness

Everyday, as I get older I have come to realize that I am not 20 years old anymore. I get up every morning blessed to be alive. I developed osteoarthritis before 40 years of age and I have to do daily therapy at home to keep my joints moving. I sometimes use a yoga ball to stretch my muscles and it makes my back and joints feel good.

For many years, me and my husband have had this tradition in walking 3 miles a day to help with our mental health. We listen to music while doing it. I love listening to music while doing anything, it always makes me feel better.

This was me in 2013 hitting the books. The days when I had my wired headphones, great music and adrenaline got things done for me after working so many hours a week.

These days, I am digging deep into who I really am these days. I am thinking twice about the relationships I have and focusing on positive energy and I feel a whole lot better about life. I listen to 30 minutes a day to Christian teachings and while it took me along time to find the person who would connect with me spiritually; I found Joyce Meyer. For those who are not familiar with her, she is a Christian who speaks on teachings from the bible and relating it to real-life everyday living. I like her life stories and her way of simplifying the meanings of each translation. You can find her on the WORD network on cable. Also she has a podcast, radio broadcast and is on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Check her out at Joyce Meyer Website

As for my hobbies, right now, since there is a pandemic going on being sociable these days is hard so I keep my blog writing going and I keep positive busy by getting the family together once a week to have a Family Day. We have a nice at the table brunch together, then play board games, eat dinner together and have movie night.

Another way I work on my fitness is paying attention to how my body feels. I am having digestive issues now and with a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, I am having to cut back on sugars, dairy products, get more sleep every night along with taking probiotics and I am feeling better everyday. Overall, I stay positive, keep my energy up and survive.

Wishing everyone a safe and healthy days ahead!!

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52 Week Blog Challenge- Week 21

If I could eat one last meal

This one is not about being in prison and being set to be executed or today being my last day alive, I decided to put a twist on this post to make it less emotional. If we thought about all the things that we take for granted in this world from the air we breathe, appreciating the beautiful flowers to the foods we eat everyday.

If we had a moment in history where our main source for food, which is farming, disappeared and is no more, what would we do? Think about it, most of our nutrients, reasons for some health issues and problem with obesity, lies in the foods we kill everyday.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that animals shouldn’t be eaten but if you thought long and hard about the pros versus the cons. I just recently started to cut back because of digestive issues on beef and replaced with turkey. I replaced pork with fish, occasionally I will have a bologna sandwich or a piece of bacon but it is bad for my blood pressure.

If today was the last day for these animals: Cows, chickens, pigs and turkeys, there would be no more beef, pork, turkey or dairy products.

Pig leaning over the railing of his cot

Trying to entice females and ward of other males, this Tom turkey is fully puffed out and his head engorged. Copy space to the left of bird in blurred forest.

A flock of chickens in search of food late in the day

For me, I love all these animals and wish we didn’t have to kill them. But if I were to eat one last meal it would be ribs, fried chicken, beef hamburgers, steak cut french fries, my homemade potato salad, greens, biscuits and for dessert is a scoop of every ice cream ever made.

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Raw Green Organic Collard Greens Ready to Cook

If there was no more animals, we would have to grow our own versions of food. Right now, with the pandemic going on, essential workers taking risk at factories and precautions not to infect the product has failed leaving alot of companies to shortage of meat. Some companies have already started and I think at some point we can make things healthier, homemade, grown in our own gardens to help us live better and fulfilled lives.

Well, I have given you something to think about!

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52 Week Blog Challenge- Week 20

My Favorite Movies

In my previous posts, I have talked about my three favorite movies of all time, which are:

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These are such classic movies with a little gangsta and a little drama. I think I have seen these almost 100 times.

For this posts, I want to show you the movies I thought were my favorite for this year 2020.

The first movie in the comedy department that made me laugh so hard that I cried was:

Stuber-I loved this movie so much!!

Next movie, is in the horror department. This movie scared me so bad, I wasn’t expecting it. I usually don’t see remakes of movies but my kids talked me into it so I saw part 1 which was okay but when I saw part 2…I almost peed my pants…

It: Part 2 –So scary on the big screen!! They did a great job with reinventing the clown, although, when I first saw the clown it looked kind of corny but when they added the special effects it was awesome!

Last movie of the year so far is one of drama, not the ones where you cry and get all emotional throughout the whole movie. This movie had a mystery to it:

Knives Out- This movie was amazing because I love mysteries. Kept you on the edge of your seat.

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52 Week Blog Challenge- Week 19

My OCD Habits

Right off the top of my head, I can think of alot of things I do out of habit but I will pick the top three for me which affect my everyday life.

#1 Licking my Lips

I have a tick in which I continuously lick my lips. I don’t know why but it brings me comfort when I am nervous or sometimes when I am thinking about something.

#2 Everything Has its Place

Just like the picture above, I like things to be put where they belong and not thrown anywhere. It makes me feel unsorted when things are not clean. Now, that I have stopped working, I am working on this by taking a couple days off housework every Friday and Saturday and making sure I practice letting things go. it is very hard to watch dishes pile up in the sink and towels run out.

#3 Grocery Store order on conveyor by department

This picture shown above is chaos to me. I like my dairy products, produce, meats, frozen, paper goods and canned foods together on belt so that when they are bagged they are easier to put them away once I get home.

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