Another New Year is coming, you are one year older, hopefully one year wiser, life is moving forward. Are you setting yourself up for success or failure? We orchestrate our own “personal setup”. Think about the things you want most in life and go get them. A healed family… set yourself up. Reigniting your passion for work… set yourself up. Fiscal freedom… set yourself up. Set yourself up not just for another year… but a greater life.

This holiday season seems excruciating for me as I smile through the broken shards of my 9 year marriage. The house is the most festive I have seen it since it was built and my daughter was born. There are trees. There are bubbles and joyful trinkets. Everything glistens and glows except my broken heart. Everything sings except when my daughter says “he probably won’t show up, so let’s do something else”. The house that broken love built. So today… I decided that I would turn this house back into a home… one step at a time. My first step was to reclaim the office I had abandoned because I felt pushed out and the office he walked out on when he… damn sure walked out. That room held the eerie stench of a broken marriage. It had NO life in it. It held all the pain and regret he hid from me…. when he sat in that office he was really running away from me and our daughter. This was not the life he wanted and his emotional survival was maintained in that room. While that room for me signified that I had gave up on trying to be loved and naively believed that the love I had for all of us would keep is together. It holds my papers strewn every where… from nights of crying to myself. That room was death and sadness. Today… no more. As the picture showed above… I took the room of death and gave it purpose again. It seems brighter. There is a space in the floor to just turn around really fast in the chair and laugh at yourself. No more spider…. no more is the door closed… hiding the dying part of a home and a representation of my heart. That room LIVES. It is an extension to the rest of the home. You walk in there and you know we thrive in that room…. as my daughter and I will thrive without him. I am going to get a small tree to sit in there so as it can share in the Christmas spirit I am fighting to glorify this holiday season. FIN.

This is an old movie, but I found it to be really enlightening as I move to get my child to eat healthier food.  It starts with the parents and instilling good choices and habits in the household.

KILLER AT LARGE

http://www.killeratlarge.com/

http://www.gaiamtv.com/video/killer-large

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903660/

My daughter: “I want an iPad. My best friend has an iPad”

Me:  ”No, your best friend’s mom has an iPad. Your best friend is 4 years old and doesn’t have a job.”

My daughter: “hmmmph”

Me: ” You are cutting edge. You are 4 years old and you have a Nook Color which I’ve expanded to 24 GB. A lot of kids don’t have their own Nook Color. You should be thankful.”

My daughter: “Mommy I want an iPad!”

Me: “No, you are going to ride this Nook until the wheels fall off!”

My daughter (sighs heavily, bats her eyelids and says….): “Well, I guess I just have to call this thing an iNook!”

Me (Not reacting to the pure sarcasm of a 4 year old) >> I SAY NOTHING!!!!!!!!!

Fast forward to last week. I decided if you want to be a smarty pants and call it an iNook. Then honey you are going to get one. So I went on an absolute sojourn to turn that Nook Color into a dual boot tablet. That’s when I discovered N2ACards (http://n2acards.com/home)

The N2A Card is a micro-SD card that can effectively transform your Nook Color or Nook Tablet into an Android device. The card contains the Android “Jellybean” software and, once installed, allows users to switch easily between their Nook e-reader and the Android operating systems. (The N2A Card is not compatible with Nook e-ink devices).

Bingo!

Presto!

MAGIC!

Now momma was on to something here! Oh you want to be smart… momma is giving you an iNook, don’t you worry gal. LOL!

So I used my 16GB SanDisk (Class 2) … [but class 4 and class 6 cards are recommended] to download the JellyBean 4.1 operating system.

I followed the instructions and presto change-o, dual boot Nook Color. Awesome Mom. Thank you! Thank you!  I’m pretending I’m on Oprah giving a speech, indulge me.

I digress…

So, since I’m the source of sarcasm…

Me picking daughter up from school: “I have an early surprise for you, for Christmas!”

Daughter: “What is it? What is it Mommy?”

Me:  IT’S YOUR NEW INOOK / ANDROID TABLET. ENJOY!

Daughter (looks at me with those piercing brown eyes): “This is my Nook, where is the surprise!”

Me: “Your Nook is now an iNook running Android. You want it or I can give it to your best friend? You decide.

Daughter: I want it! I want it!

Now… this wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t loaded it up with her favorite purple background and downloaded some key apps from Google Play.

Here’s the sweetners!

(1) INSTALLED

So if you have purchased yourself or your kid a Nook Color, do not go out and buy them a new tablet! Save your money, buy a 16 -32 gb SanDisk card and download Android JellyBean for 19.99.  Theoretically, you too will have an iNook for about $40.00 extra dollars.

… and note to moms, SHE LOVES THAT ANDROID TABLET NOW.

Mother knows BEST!

Well I’m on Android now – I will be posting Android apps at will. (Yes, I’m a Blackberry Judas – forgive me. Thank you!)

So I came across the Doodlr app in my daily internet travels and I LOVE IT. I’m a mom on the go. All the birthdays from Facebook and other ones in my personal calendar pop up and sometimes I’m not where I should be in my workload where I can acknowledge the person directly. Now I can via text or email. SWEET.

If you are on Android… Do Doodlr.

Bad pun totally intended.

#TeamCornyMom

Knowledge is power.

Knowledge is gained from reading.

Simple.

Read if you want power and understanding of the world.

If you are not into traditional books, then here is the Top Free list on Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/books/collection/topselling_free?hl=en

Go, read, be smarter and wiser.

Happy Holidays Super-Readers!

HEB Premium Coffee… Vanilla and Pecan blend. It is affordable and tastes exceptional. Visit your local grocer and get some breakfast luxury at a bargain price. Cheers!

Oh let’s face it…. I may never own an iPhone, but I’m a geek (says @Efabulous1). I know something stellar and techy when I see it… even if it is for a damn iPhone.

So here, a really awesome Birthday card app for the iPhone called Treat. You find it, they mail it. Never miss your moms’ birthday again. Or your wife’s…. or your wife’s and your mother… if you are just that lax.

Enjoy iSheep may the darkside be with you!

I wanted to share how Jessie ( my dog whom I adore with all my heart…) came into my life.

Coming from Chicago, I’m a city girl. My first pet was a cat named Kelani and then she went off got preggers by some randy alley cat and then we had a house full of fur balls right before I left home to “discover” myself before university. I come back home and now reality hits me… I abandoned my pets, because my mother just gave them away.

Insert sad conscious and face here.

Fast forward to me living in England and I realized that the British are pet lovers. Cat, Dogs, Rabbits, Horses… husbandry is not lost on the English. I had to learn how to integrate pets into my life. It was really hard for me. I was used to screaming obscenities at stray dogs crossing the alley from 79th and Paulina … and running for my life if he gave chase. Can anyone say “pack mentality”?  After a year or so exposed to all these wonderful pets and personalities, I fell into the “love an animal like your English” zone.

My brother-in-law, had 3 dogs. They were wonderful.

Then, the girl Fizz was struck by a hit and run driver and killed instantly. It was the most awful thing. The cries of my in-laws and their children haunted me that night. Even my mother-in-law was weeping, as she had two of Fizz’s pups.

After the grieving process, my brother-in-law brought Jessie – a neutered Wire-Haired Patterdale Terrier home in hopes she would be company to the older male dog, Bud.

… They loathed each other.

Jessie is an alpha b*tch. No pun intended. Seriously. She doesn’t like male dogs without their “meat and two veg”. Bud did not have his two veg and thus Jessie considered him a b*tch too and decided she was to be top dog in their house. Bud was having none of it.

One hot day, we ventured over to the house and apparently Jessie and Bud had been fighting and postering all night long. My brother-in-law said we are going to have to put Jessie down and I said “no”. Please, I will take her. Please.  Don’t you know it as soon as I said it… Jessie circled Bud and went for his jugular. It was the most ferocious thing I ever saw. Jessie is like a huggable baby doll, but when provoked she is a killer.  It took my then husband, my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law to pry her jaws open and save Bud.  As they turned around to chastise Jessie, I grabbed her and held her in my arms. I knew that she couldn’t stay after that and we all thought it was best she come home with me.

We left late that night and the children cried out for Jessie. I put Jessie in the back seat and she cried out for the children. That was her second home as she previously lived on a farm.  That night at home, I set her water and got some dog food. I wrapped her up in a tattered red couch cover we were using and I held her like a baby. I didn’t know how to communicate to her that she was safe and I would look after her, so I just held her and hugged her. I did that everyday for 4 months.

When I left England, I brought Jessie with me.

She is my baby doll with 4 legs and I adore her.

I made a difference in Jess’ life.

However, she’s made a difference in my heart.

Love you Jessie!

Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration held in the United States and Canada but also celebrated in the Western African Diaspora. The celebration honors African heritage in African Canadian and African-American culture, and is observed from December 26th to January 1st of each year, culminating in a feast and gift-giving.^[1] It is ideological, with seven core principles (Nguzo Saba): Unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. It was created by Maulana Karenga, and was first celebrated in 1966–67. (See Wikipedia for more info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa)

This year I am introducing Kwanzaa into our family tradition.  As my child is African-American and European-British, I think it’s important for her to have a connection to both cultures.

In an effort to teach her about the holiday, I found some great material on PBS. They have a great overview on Kwanzaa here:  http://pbskids.org/arthur/holiday/scrapbook/kwanzaa.html#pg-kwanzaa1

Also they have Kwanzaa dancing for the very little ones:

To make sure I stick to my agenda, I created a Kwanzaa Calendar file that you can download here, so I could import the dates into my Google Calendar.

So Happy Early Kwanzaa!