November 28, 2010 Gratitude

Dear Blog,
It has been 6 days since my last post.  I am not proud of that but we will move on put all judgments aside.  In order to do what you want to do you must JUST Do IT.  Nike has that right.

This past week has been nice.  William and Allan spent Thanksgiving with their dad.  TJ came home.  Tariah spent the night with me one night.  The week was so nice in retrospect that I almost forgot Aunt Flow came to attempt to wreak havoc on my body and my mind.

We went to Jerrie's for Thanksgiving Day.  Thanksgiving evening I went around the corner to the twins house.  All in all it was nice, quiet and there was no drama.  Loved it.

I did NOT participate in Black Friday.  I never participate in Black Friday.  I listen to the horror stories of every body else's Black Friday escapades and I know Black Friday is not for me.  I love the deals you can find on Black Friday, but I am not so sure they are worth the hassle of fighting deal crazed shoppers over.  I can wait.  Besides I find all of my deals at http://shopping4.momoneyonline.com and http://www.momoneyonline.com.

How bout dem GAMECOCKS!?  They are ranked #10 this week.  GO GAMECOCKS.  Yep, they are going straight to the SEC Championship!  As I type this I am watching Fox NFL Sunday Pregame Show. I love me some Jimmy Johnson.  Nobody beats Jimmy Johnson.  Jimmy Johnson is Lead Dog this week.  He actually predicted that The Cowboys would beat The Giants.  How could he have known that?  Nobody with half a brain cell would have predicted that.  Not even Miss Cleo.  He just did a segment on The Cowboys beating The Giants recently.  If you missed it, I'll look it up for ya.

Every Sunday I watch CBS News Sunday Morning.  I love that show.  They did a vignette on Andy Borowitz this morning that really inspired me to blog EVERYDAY.  Not everyday for a month.  Not everyday for a week.  Not everyday for a year.  EVERYDAY.  Every day Andy writes a fake news story and publishes it.  He calls it The Borowitz Report.  I love that he puts that much effort into his work.  In addition he writes for The New Yorker magazine.  I can write everyday.  I cannot promise that everyday will be a quality post but I can post something everyday.  I'm writing now.  My regular readers know that this is not my best post, but it's something.

Today is Sunday, November 28, 2010 and I am thankful for:

• CBS News Sunday Morning being such a great show.  I watch it faithfully EVERY Sunday morning.
• A peaceful and loving Thanksgiving Holiday.Show all
• Family that I love.
• The fact that I am not pregnant.  I am way too old for young baby activities: changing diapers, midnight feedings, ear infections, spit up, breastfeeding, etc.
• YouTube.  I use YouTube as a search engine.
• Facebook.  I use Facebook as a news site.  I get most of my news from facebook.
• My son all grown up.  He is doing his grown up thing and I am proud of him.
• Quietness.  I love my alone quiet time.
• Blog readers.  I love all yall.

This entry is my expression of appreciation to all that is in my life.  I express this Appreciation from the infinite abundance that is my natural state, knowing that as I do it, this expression will just expand and reflect right back to me.

Namaste

WOW! Scattered Pamprin & Mid-day Naps!

Today is just some random stuff I came across today that I thought would be useful to share.  They are scattered and in no particular order.

Thankful to Darren Tuff Love McDuffie for this quote, "Don't be afraid to take risks and live your dreams and always show gratitude. Don't put things off for a tomorrow that might not come."

“Exposure to new colors, different shapes, textures and designs gives you the power to ... find and refine your style.” ~~Michele Weston

What we resist persists. When we summon the courage to release that resistance, we find joy that endures not in spite of our sorrows, but paradoxically right along with them.

Keeping your guard up in a relationship is guaranteed to keep the love out, too.  "To end self-rejection, you have to learn to love in another what you hate in yourself"

"Self-love is born out of love of another."

Surrender your emotional dependency on your parents and their judgments.

Mature love, they write, comes when each person has grown with the other's help, and when both people know how to give and receive—"it's the lifetime achievement award."

Every day, or at the very least once or twice a week, take a few minutes and focus on seeing yourself in joy. Feel yourself in joy. Imagine only joy ahead in your life and see yourself basking in it. As you do this the Universe will move all people, circumstances, and events to bring you that joy. You can't be in joy if you have money worries, or health worries, or relationship problems with friends or family. So deposit some joy in the bank of the Universe as often as you can. There isn't an investment that is more worthwhile.

Dear Blog,

Please forgive me for posting such a scattered and unorganized entry.  I just posted my thoughts, and items I came across today as they came to me.  I’m thankful to be able to share and post.  Most of the above is from Oprah and The Secret and from within ME.

Today I am thankful for Pamprin and mid-day naps to alleviate the baggage Aunt Flow brought with her this month.  I hate baggage.

This entry is my expression of appreciation to all who read my entries and enjoy random naps as I do.  I express this Appreciation from the infinite abundance that is my natural state, knowing that as I do it, this expression will just expand and reflect right back to me.

Namaste

When A Parent Loves

As I was cleaning today, I was thinking about the mothers and fathers in my life who LOVE other people’s children.  All of those thoughts brought to mind R.Kelly’s latest hit When A Woman Loves.  If you listen closely it sounds as if he’s singing about his mother or a mother.  During my chores today my thoughts were more focused on when a parent loves.

When a parent loves, the world is loved.  When a parent loves, love is shared with all of us.  When a parent loves another person’s child, they are really loving ALL of our children.

• I remember when TJ was younger and so many of his friends would come over for sleep overs, dinner, lunch, play dates, whatever, anything, time with our family.  Little did I know at the time that us taking in other children to spend some time with was soothing and helpful to their parents.  I’ve been told several times by several different parents that us having their child over was a blessing to them.  We were just loving our child and treating their children as our own.  We had no idea we were really blessing someone else.
• When I was growing up my mom used to work in a daycare center.  EVERY day she would bring home “some stray child” whose parent was not able to pick them up before the center closed.  Although I was a bit selfish during my early teen years, having someone else’s child around really didn’t bother me.  My mother taught me how to love strangers and see past the exterior of people into their souls.  I am so grateful to her for that.  Thanks to my mother, I have several sisters and brothers that neither of my parents created biologically.  My sister Kathy LOVED having someone else’s child to watch over and love.  That was her thing, loving other people’s children.
• Kathy loved other people’s children so much I believe they thought Kathy was their mother.  I remember when Kathy was just 19 or 20, she took in another woman’s baby as her own and practically raised her for years.  I am grateful to Kathy for that because did ALL of us a great service by showing love to a child who needed it.
• Allan spent the weekend with one of his best friends this weekend.  When I went to take him to the meeting place, I realize that my good friend took on 6 children this weekend.  I thought it was just going to be her kids and Allan.  Don’t know why I thought that because every time I go over there, her oldest always has a friend or two hanging around.  Pele always loves our children as if they are her own.  I love her even more for that.  That’s the love of a mother she shows my children.  The love R.Kelly sings of in his hit When A Woman Loves.
• When I was married, my husband had a great camaraderie with children in every neighborhood we lived in.  Before TJ was born, the neighborhood kids would come over and ask if Mr. Tony could come out and play.  He played football with them in our front yard.  When we moved back to Columbia, he played basketball and football with the neighborhood kids.  He always had their best interest at heart.  There was no malice towards them and he genuinely cared about them as if they were his own.  The love of a parent towards another person’s child is what he has always demonstrated.  Even after our divorce I can still see it.  My ex-husband was and still is a father figure to someone else’s children.  I appreciate that he does that.
• My BFF has two daughters of her own.  Well, this weekend she had a total of 4 girls to care for.  One of them is an infant.  She enjoyed every moment of it.   She did it because the mother needed help.  Plain and simple.  She loved all of them as if they were her own too.  I am thankful she does that.
• Jerrie has been taking care of my oldest granddaughter since she was born.  Jerrie has no grandchildren of her own, but she calls mine hers.  She’s a co-grandparent.  As a matter of fact, Ms T is at Jerrie’s right now giving her all of the love a grandchild gives.  I am thankful to Jerrie for the love she has given to my son, my daughter-in-law, and my grands.  Another example of when a parent loves another parent’s child as their own.

This entry is my expression of appreciation to all of the parents who love.  I express this Appreciation from the infinite abundance that is my natural state, knowing that as I do it, this expression will just expand and reflect right back to me.

Namaste

OMG! I Missed THREE Days!

So, I've been participating in NaBloPoMo 2010 and I missed Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday (Nov 11-13, 2010).  Today is Sunday, November 14, 2010 and I have so much to be thankful for:

• Thankful that I didn't miss today.
• Thankful that I missed 3 days because people in my life found me valuable enough to request my time and support.  So so so thankful that I could be of help to my special crew.
• Appreciative to TWC for internet service here at home on my laptop.
• Thankful to RCPL for allowing me to renew Busting Loose from The Business Game AGAIN.
• Overjoyed I got to see Amira today.
• Appreciative to City of Columbia for water to do laundry and to SCE&G for electricity.

I love yall....

Namaste

Today Was A Good Day

This song describes how I feel about today. Yes, Today Was A Good Day!

I am thankful for the following:

• Home
• Sanity
• Car
• Family
• Love
• My Dogs
• My Friends
• The dinner I personally made that almost killed me. Spaghetti, homemade meat sauce, Texas toast with Mozzarella cheese, white wine and ............. a Cinnabun from Cinnabun on Fort Jackson.  Yeah, I may die in my sleep tonight after all of that good stuff.
• Nice quiet time with myself and a good book. What am I reading? Busting Loose From the Business Game by Robert Scheinfeld and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
• A post about loving women that was shared by my boy Ken. You can read it here. I highly recommend it!

Today was a good day.
Namaste

NaBloPoMo November 9, 2010

Long Day.  Got much done.  Sleepy Now.  Quick Post.  Thankful for the following:

• appreciation for paying my car taxes
• got new tag decals on my car
• Starbucks Soy Caramel Macchiatto
• Allan passing 4 & 5 multiplication tables this week
• good friends like Jerrie Friday
• being a mother and NOT a father (not that anything is wrong with being a father)
• dinner bought, paid for, and cooked all by me
• spoiled rotten puppies in Sable (7mo old German Shepherd) and Lobo (6mo old Siberian Husky)
• me singing in the car.  Man I'm badd but I love singing in the car!  LOVE singing in the car!
• I D E A S  -- luv em.....  got any good ones you wanna share....

Namaste

Christmas For Halloween!

So today I am still thankful for the following post made on my cousin's facebook page on October 21:

Jennifer Manning so i went to a "friends"house and she said come in i want you to see something,when i walked in she had her christmas tree up(with lights)and she was very proud of her tree..please tell me WHO PUTS UP A XMAS TREE IN OCT..and the answer is the only IDIOT i know, Angela Manning i wont call your name but i will tell it,s.m.h

October 21 at 3:08pm · Comment · 

I was even more thankful for the laughs when I found out that Angela dressed up as a Christmas Tree for Halloween.  She is so AWESOME.  I don't care what they say about Angela Manning.  I say Angela Manning is a stone cold genius.  Aunt Bit did right by that one.  Speaking of Christmas, have you started your shopping yet?

Other expressions of Appreciation:

• Sunshine and Blue Skies - I love days like today
• Conversations with Allan - He is really trying hard to leave his current school.  When he got in the car today, I asked him how was his day.  He replied, "Not so good.  I got a half straight face and half frowny face."    Me:  "Really? Why?"        Allan: "I was talking."        Me: "Why?"        Allan: "I was bored."         Me: "What were you talking about?"          Allan: "I don't remember.  More than half the people at my school are obese.  And we don't even get a full recess.  We may get 5 minutes if that."        Me: "Really?  Do you enjoy those 5 minutes?"            Allan: "No.  We are not allowed to run at recess.  AND we can't play tag!  Not even tag football."             Me: "NO TAG PLAYING ALLOWED!!  Now that is just wrong!  We need to do something about that.  Well, tell me something good about your school."                        Allan: "If my school were a high school there would be no teenage sex because all the girls are ugly."  After that I had to give up.  Allan did more talking and I mostly tuned him out because my song was on the CD player.  I heard some of what he said:  "blah blah blah no homework blah not playing blah blah"  I had my mommy filter on so I only heard what really mattered.  Don't judge me for that.  I know all you parents reading this have done that before.  HA.
• Late night ice cream runs before President Blair Underwood comes on TV.
• The fact that I signed up for NaBloPoMo 2010.  I have something to do before bed.

Good Night and Namaste

Solid Old School Love

Today is Sunday, November 7, 2010 and I am still thankful, grateful, and appreciative of living life in a state of Pure Joy.

I was talking with one of my friends today while she was watching Madea's Family Reunion.  We then of course started talking about the beautiful eye candy in the movie:  Blair Underwood and Boris Kodjoe.  She informed me that Boris and his wife broke up.  I immediately thought how unfortunate because I love to see love work for people.

The conversation quickly moved to famous couples who either made love work or are making their love last.  I am so thankful for the following couples who have made it work and continue to be positive love influences for us all:

• Ashford & Simpson  - Solid Love kept them married for 36 years and raised 2 children together.  Solid Love.  Solid as a rock!
• Marilyn McCoo & Billie Davis - Precious Love kept them married for 41 years.  
• Ruby & Ossie Davis - Happily married for 56 years.  They openly discuss their open marriage in this book.
• Michelle & Barack Obama - Married for 18 years.
• Will & Jada  - Married 13 years.
• Courtney Vance & Angela Bassett  - Married 13 years.
• Paula & Denzel Washington - Married 27 years.
• Samuel Jackson & LaTanya Richardson - Married 30 years.

I'd like to express Appreciation to all of the above for keeping LOVE and Hope alive.  God Bless & Namaste.

We Have Dragons!!

Today is Saturday, November 6, 2010 and I am thankful for:

• My Own – So thankful I have my own house, my own car, my own peace of mind.  God Bless The Child That’s Got His Own.
• Family Movie Night – We watched How To Train Your Dragon tonight.  I enjoyed it.
• Peking Wok – Lemon Pepper Chicken and Shrimp Fried Rice for dinner.
• Robert Englund – He’s a much better Freddy Krueger than Jackie Earle Haley.
• Today right now.  Getting much better at Living In The Now.

 

God Bless and Don’t Digress…

 

namaste

Appreciation for November 5, 2010

Every November I usually post about gratitude, gratefulness, thankfulness and just plain old appreciation.

My goal for November 2010 was to post everyday. Well, I got side tracked until I saw a post on blogher about NaBloPoMo. It reminded me of my yearly November activities so I signed up and here I am.

Starting today I will be posting EVERYDAY this month.

Today is Friday, November 5, 2010 and I am most thankful for:

• Paid bills - I have been collecting unemployment since April and God has made it possible for my mortgage and utilities to continue to be paid during this financial diet.
• TJ - TJ finally got his own place and I am happy and appreciative for that.  I've been talking to him this week and he really wants me to come visit him when his dad goes this weekend.  The problem is that my car needs to be serviced and I'm not comfortable driving it that far until I can pay for the full servicing of my car.  Maybe his dad may get the appreciation bug and let me follow him in his car while he drives the u-Haul of furniture we are giving TJ.
• Fresh Air - This change in the weather here in SC has the air very fresh and crisp.  I love that.  Thanks for the fresh air.
• NaBloPoMo and BlogHer - Thanks for bringing it to my attention that I really should do this yet again.
• My Mom - She has been my biggest supporter and fan.  I love Mom and I am so very thankful to have her in my life.
• Music - love it!
• Robert Scheinfeld - I read two of his books this month:  The 11th Element and Busting Loose From The Business Game.  The second book is by far one of the coolest books I have read in a very long time.  I appreciate what I have learned from both of these books thanks to Robert Scheinfeld.
• My Dogs - They are such a pleasure.  I love walking them and I love seeing how much pleasure they get out of a simple walk.  Dogs are so simple.  I've lost 15 pounds since I got them because I have to walk them 2-3 times a day.  My German Shepherd and my Siberian Husky are the best!  So glad we took them to training too.