Here Come The Lovely Holidays

Welp everybody it's that time of year where we all lose our minds and take time to buy everyone in our lives some kind of gift to show how much we love and care about them. Yeah I too am a culprit of doing such things.
This year I might do a little something different because right now I don't have a lot of free time on my hands and also I don't see how the budget is going to allow for anything but the basics as all my money is going towards living and the store I have and future projects.
Which means I will be making a trip to some dollar stores to get loads of toys and also get a much needed cell phone for one of my other children who will be responsible for the bill once she gets it.
So there you have it my holidays in a nutshell. However what I have decided to do is to make the swap meet a place for us all to put up a tree and have like a party for the people who work in the building. I think that would be a lot of fun and have people come down and decorate and listen to christmas songs live from online.
I'll just invite my partner, the consignors, and the barber shop folk. We can make it an all day fun affair and free refreshments all day for customers for coming in and celebrating the day with us. I think that will be fun.
Well we will see, nothing is concrete nor set in stone and right now I need to get it producing more sales since I am letting go one of the companies I work from home with. More on that later and my decision to do that.

But for now that is my plan and I am sticking to it.



Til next time,

Mamma

No Bewitched This Week

Sigh and I was so getting used to the song that preceded the show and lovely black and whites. This week however I have not had luck loading the code. So here is a treat.



I have "I Dream of Jeannie" this week. Enjoy!





Til Next Time

Mamma

KJ And His Fabulous Discoveries

Little boys and little girls are so different. They really are. When I was getting Timeka, Imani and Aaliyah out of the baby stages they were almost a piece of cake. They were gentle and sweet and quiet. They loved to sit for hours and play with dolls or in their rooms or just staring at me as I did my thing with my own life.
KJ is my only son and I am trying to adjust to him and I have never done that before. This child is a being all of his own. He does things that only are relative to his DNA telling him he is a boy and he knows no better, he is only doing what little boys do I suspect. He knows the gender differences.
I have an example, when I am at the swap meet and my brother is there with his partner in crime working on cars or installing sound systems in the rear of the building that is where he would rather be. I have to beg him over and over to join me in the store which leads only to one thing and that's a fight. He will lay out in pools of oil and play in piles of spark plugs and roll tires of course under the watchful eye of his uncle Edward who assures me "He's just being a boy he is ok let him be girl go back up front!"
Which of course I can't do so I pick him and take him back up front with me and sit in the open office where people come to pick up UHaul keys and sit with him while I work on the city website. Which leads to my son and I fighting in front of customers and me losing the battle over and again. I plead with snacks and with juice or a toy to no avail.
Finally after KJ has worn himself thin and I apologize profusely to customers over and over who think this shit is cute, he falls asleep with a finger in his mouth and his hand in his pants holding his petie.
Yep you read that right. KJ discovered his little buddy when he was about six months old. Each time I would change his diaper he would grab all of it including the little testicles and just hold it the palm of his hand while smiling like the world could get no better.
Night times in the summer would produce a naked KJ in his crib with his legs wide open a diaper on the floor and a sleeping little dude with his petie in his hand like it was his teddy bear. I finally got to where I was putting his diaper on backwards but all he did was figure out how to pull petie out of the side of his diaper to roll him around between finger and thumb. Interesting I don't recall my daughters being so obsessed with their genatalia. My son has even found a way to turn petie inside out making it seem as if he has two belly buttons, now how silly is that? I am standing there freaking out trying to figure out where in the world petie was and why did my son have two navels? I finally got to the bottom of it and wiggled that little thing back out of its turtleneck which by the way tickled KJ.
THAT in itself to see my son smile as I prod along in his pubic area is a concern to me. But that is another story.
The final straw was when he had stuck his hand in his pants pulled petie out of the side of his diaper and peed on the kitchen floor with the ease of an adult man that had been weeing his whole life like this. When he was done he just simply walked away with me standing behind him my mouth wide open.
What's next I wonder, only KJ knows as he discovers himself and his little bitty world and I go behind him with a mop and bucket. Is this is sign of things to come.
If I have anything to do with it he WILL learn to pee on the Cheerio in the potty.

Till Next Time.

Mamma

Bewitched Season One Episode 7

Bewitched Season One Episode 7

Darrin discovers that Samantha has been entertaining a guest each morning after he leaves for work

Is It Time For Geritol?

Oh my goodness this seems like the longest day! I planned my days of this week last week if that makes sense so that I could be available for all of the things that I need to do. As long as I can get an internet connection, I can pretty much work anywhere. So with that in mind I am working more and in more places.
Along with my swap meet and several work at home jobs that I do and my event plannings projects, and being mommy, I am starting to burn at both ends and am feeling my wick burn close to the middle.
I woke up this morning worked a while and decided that I wasn't going to do a thing all day after I signed on and worked a while on a couple projects, blogged and updated some sites I monitor for pay. But it wasn't that I didn't want to it was as if I realized that if pushed myself anymore today I was going to fall out from exhaustion and then what good would I be? I mean I don't really know what a vacation is right now since I am trying to make my life better. There is no time for rest and relaxation but today I took it. No, my body forced me to. I got up and had to lie back down literally. I lay there with two laptops on my bed (sad huh?) and just fell asleep. I woke up around 1 and then sat in the tub for two hours before going to pick up Lili today.
I actually desperately searched for my vitamins and my B12 and St Johns Wort and CoQ10 which I took religiously to get my energy back up. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the hell is going on.
Is this age, am I starting to feel the effects of the Diffuse Axonal Injury which one of the symptoms is sleepy and tiredness without explanation, or is it heart disease as in women that is one way to know you need to get to a doctor.
Or maybe just maybe I need to slow down, refuse to give myself anymore projects and work on what I have and then make a decision to hire help, delegate more and more often and trust they will do the job correctly and honestly.
Mmmmm that's a thought.
Who knows but I most certainly need to do something and quick so I don't make any goofy decisions in a tired state of mind.

Til Next Time

Mamma

Leaks and Temper Tantrums

I don't know why it seems that the more I try to make a go of keeping a lid on some things they tend to get out anyways. This past week is a testament to that in several different forms.
I knew there was a crack in the ceiling at my swap meet, and I knew it was possible that it would rain soon since this is still hurricane season and we get the after effects here in this area. Not only did it rain, it began to leak in the crack in the middle of my store onto a consignee's products. So I frantically moved their things and did only what I thought was best and that was put a bucket under it til it stopped raining and we could get on the roof and find the leak. Well we can't find the leak. We have searched and searched and still don't know where the water is coming from. So til we find it I will be placing a bucket under the crack as right now hiring someone to fix that tiny crack is so NOT an option. I will figure it and just get back up there and find it.
Lili had a temper tantrum at dance class Monday. Ok what is that about and why? Why are you having a temper tantrum for no reason? She literally stood there the entire class and did nothing. So me Mamma got up and took her place and danced with her partner and made her stand there while she cried mortified that I took her place. Needless to say she went home and was sent straight to bed for being so out of control. No matter what she thinks she is GOING TO GO TO THIS CLASS period. Until she is 18 years old I will place in her something to help her develop grace and poise and love herself and learn to take that time for herself no matter where she is in life. I wanted to join her and do what MY MOM would have done to me if I had pulled that. I would have been picking my teeth up off the floor and searching aimlessly for my glasses that would have flown of my face for showing my ass in public as she called it. Me, I waited to we got home and she went to bed immediately. No special time for homework, or books or anything. That hurt her more than a back hand would have. Her attitude seems to be worsening like the leak in the ceiling as she goes to school each day and encounters children with interesting personalities. I'm not sure how to stop her from being influenced by her classmates and so like I am searching for the leak entry on the roof I am searching for the way into her to get back the Lili I am losing to her little colleagues. I guess I will figure that out too then.

Til Next Time

Mamma

Bewitched Season 1 Episode 4

Help Me, Don't Save Me

Darrin struggles for days to create an advertising campaign for Caldwell Soup. Samantha's suggestions seem perfect, but Darrin's pride leads him to suspect witchcraft.

Does This Mean I Am On The Right Track?

So this was a busy week for me. I mean in terms of business and me staying focused. If you follow my blog at all you will know that I have a couple of projects that I have been working on. I have this thing called a swap meet. Well really its now a consignment shop now. It certainly wasn't what I wanted it to be but I know now this is what is today and that is ok.

Now I am in the middle of this thing and the kids are right with me in the middle of this talking and negotiating and moving furniture in and out and around and making signs, and figuring out where in thehll I am going to get the money to pay for advertising since the booths are not full of renters but consignees stuff they want to sell. All I am trying to do at this point is listen to the inside of my soul at this point so that I get this right. I have to.

I know, I know most times I write about silly things but in the middle of my being a mother, I know I wanted to make sure that I live my life.

So as I run this business and still work from home, and still try to keep house and grocery shop and wash clothes and do dishes and bathe kids and all that other stuff and discipline fourteen year olds who have passion marks on their necks Im still me. A woman with another name other than Mamma.

So here I am looking at yet another tooth Lili has shed (while updating the city website) and wondering why Timeka has not called(while researching consignment software), and listening to Imani sing songs (while missing Kevin who will be home for Thanksgiving) and wash clothes and hear KJ yelling at Little Bill on Noggin yet again (while I planning 10 events for 2009 including a new album so that makes it 11), I think to myself ,"Ok so you are here...what's next, you know you are climbing the steps now. You know where you are is slipping away from you and you will soon be on another level? Get ready you are almost there.....Damn that sounds like a song I wrote once. Hmmmm

Til Next Time

Mamma

Yes We Can!

This is such an historic moment! I am sitting here after listening to the speech made by our new president elect....Barack Obama and I am in tears.
They are tears of joy, relief and expectation. This election represents more than just a new president. This represents for me in my house and my community and my family a new vision that "Yes I Can".
In a country that for so long held people of color back this is a defining moment for millions. For a country that seemed bent only on helping those who needed no help this is a defining moment.
After shrieking and screaming the thrill of the moment was over (nah not yet) I began to think about what this man has already done to me. Now I am asking Mamma what am I to do to make this real? How can I help? I am also saying in my mind "If he can do it so can I" No matter what my dreams are.. for so many young, black and underprivileged people that I know male and female, they see now that their dreams can become real.
This also does something for the history that my son will read years from now as a young black man. He will know that he can do anything in this country as before my brothers and my father did not have that thought or belief. Many were told because they were African American they could not be this or that.
Today that myth is dispelled yet again with the election of the United States of America's first African American president.
My children are living the dream that many did not live to see but fought for. Beautiful.
As I sit here as a mother and as a woman on a mission of her own to be about her own dreams and making them real, I think about what it must have been like for the past 21 months for President Obama and his family to take that step to announce he would run. I think about the criticism and the press and others that attacked he and his family with harsh words and lies but still they stood and persevered until they saw the prize.
Right now I take this as a lesson for myself and what I must do in my own life to realise the dream that I have for myself and for my children.
Thanks Obama for the lesson of the day that "Yes I Can"

Til Next Time

Mamma

Bewitched Season One Episode 3

It Shouldn't Happen To A Dog
Bewitched
Season 1 Episode 3
Samantha gives a dinner party to impress one of Darrin's clients. The client advances on Samantha while drunk, so Samantha turns him into a dog to teach him some respect.

Moving Right Along Dooby Dew, Dooby Dew

This is the building three weeks after I decided to take on this project

In this journey called life I am finding that sometimes things you planned are not what they end up being. Case in point would be my building where I hold the swap meet.
See I had this plan (picture God laughing when I say the word PLAN) to just advertise that space was available for people to rent by the day at only ten bucks per day and they would have to be responsible for their own merchandise. Well that idea was about six months ago and I had not been successful in getting people to realise they could come down and make money at this site. This building used to be an old car dealership that had been sitting empty so it is pretty big.

I dunno people just seemed more satisfied with hanging around at home with throngs of friends talking about what they could do to bring in extra money instead of doing something about it.
As of recent I have begun to have more and more people that are willing to leave their merchandise with me and have me,..Mamma sit there with their items and sell them for them.
Wonder what that is about?
Are they being lazy or was I being lazy by not wanting to make this a consignment deal? Which one was it?
Now I have items that are on consignment and I'm thinking how in the world did I get here? What the hell happened to my easy idea? I'm thinking this was supposed to be a turn key situation. So now what happens? How do I make this easy for me again?
I don't think that is going to happen at this point.
So what is my lesson in all of this? That maybe just maybe I am stronger than I think I am and that maybe I am smarter and more capable of pulling this off the way that God intends for it to be done. Or maybe I am just aimlessly allowing this to pull me in a direction that I don't want to go.
I will know I guess if it begins to not be a hobby and becomes a chore.
For now I find it to be fun to meet people, and help get stylists set up in the barber shop and people to get their cars repaired in the rear of the building or replace their tires with discounted ones.
I am on my way back to the building today not because I HAVE to be there but because NOW I am excited about all of the new tenants and the WIFI Cafe we are thinking about adding so I have to go back down there and clean the windows and get new signs up that have arrived and update the website and update the Camden website I built, get the merchandise that is on consignment in my database I built and tag all of the new items with prices, and make sure that people get their contracts. Ooooooh this is going to be so much fun! (I mean that)
Imani, KJ and Lili will be there for the ride and now KJ and Lili's play spot is gone its now someone's booth. THAT makes me sad but moving on.....
I don't think this ends here with this, this is about something bigger, something about this town. I am here for a reason I believe now.. why? ...cause I'm still here and not back in Atlanta. I have an assignment to complete and once it is done I will be released. So I might as well complete my assignment, quit crying like a baby and handle what has been given to me.
I know I have a long way to go to do what is to be done here but hell I have nothing but time on my hands while I am alive and here. I might as well use the time wisely and have some fun with this in the process.

Til Next Time

Mamma

Movie Of The Week "For Love Of The Game"

For Love of the Game
For Love of the Game
Feature Film |2:17:52 |PG-13 |
An aging pitcher learns that he will soon lose his girlfriend and his spot with the Detroit Tigers.