When you're on your last, "Mommy!"

Was talking to a friend of mine recently about how close we both were to snapping, after hearing, “Mommy!!” called so many times in a day. She was hiding in the bathroom. I was considering changing my name altogether. I think I’d feel a little bit better if I heard, “Beautiful Queen!!” yelled 10374738 times a day. Honestly, If I had a nickel for every time I heard a variation of, “Mom!” coming from somewhere in my 5 foot radius, smh...let’s just say I’d be a very rich woman. But there’s got to be a solid fix for this, right? Sorry, nope! But there are some things you can do to make it a little easier to bear. 😉 What are some things you do for yourself to keep sane, when you’re on your last, “MOMMY!!”

The Second Witching Hour

There’s the witching hour in the middle of the night, and then there’s one - for me at least - that hits in the middle of the day. When all the caffeine’s wore off and my “I got this!” morning mojo goes missing. Dinner will need to be fixed. Someone may be waking up from a nap, and someone else may need to be picked up from school...and instead of the time going turbo, it just drastically slows down as I mentally count the minutes untill the golden hour hits - ie: bedtime. 🌚 So anyway, I went out and got some plants (and a little stand for said plants). Half of them are fake. The other half need the most minimal amount of water and double as first aid agents for the inevitable burns and scrapes that come daily (yeah, aloe). I get it, they’re suppose to all be real. But, if you thought this, you must have overestimated my ability to keep more than a few things alive at once. I already have 2 (really 3) humans that rely on me. In fact, as I type this right now, everyone’s stomachs should be full, but there’s an eerily faint whisper chant of “pancakes, pancakes, pancakes!” currently coming from somewhere in the house. 🤦🏾‍♀️ So like I said, at this point, the most I can do is attempt to create a calming space, so that even if time feels like it’s stopping, I’ll be in a place where I won’t even care.

The Berenstain Bears "Meet Santa Bear"

Don’t mind the glare on the cover. It’s Dec 1...So we’ll just call it the, “Holiday Glow” filter. And you know that means I had to take out all the kid’s Christmas books and dive head first into the most wonderful time of the year!

I’ve been on a mini Berenstain Bears kick recently anyway, after finding out about the BBear conspiracy theory of the matrix glitching. Yeah... never remember it being the BerenSTAIN bears did you? Me either. It was the BerenSTEIN bears from what I remember. But hey 🤷🏾‍♀️ who knows? With all that’s going on in the world now, I can’t waste too much more of my extra brain capacity on this. For now, I’m just liking the classic feel of a story from 1984 - repackaged with stickers and tattoos! - perfect to kick the holiday reading season off right.

Todays Goal: Keep the Tiny Humans Alive

Dinner still ain’t done, the small one just peed on the floor, and I’m on an endless quest to make sure I catch the laundry before it ends and starts to smell moldy... Nevertheless, today’s goal = achieved. They’re in the family room now watching an old episode of Ducktails and I can honestly say, regardless of the mayhem, I still love it here. 🖤

A Post About Thankfulness

Reminded today of the year after I graduated undergrad. Project Runway was hot, and mildly obsessed me - pushed my way into Parsons The New School for Design. During orientation, we were told the signature, “look to your left, look to your right, one of you won’t graduate” speech. But of course, I knew I wasn’t gona be one of “those people”. Ha! Little did I know, I was doomed from the start. Dating a man child that had the brain size (and shape) of a Cheerio...(IE: small + empty in the middle), back to dorm life, sleeping on a top bunk bed, and no oven due to fire restrictions. We lived on the Wall Street stop on the #2 training , if I remember correctly. Whatever the one is that hits Canal Street. “Who’s we?” You ask? I did have a wonderful roommate. She introduced herself and said she was from Korea, quick to note that she meant South Korea, and not North... although I wasn’t even thinking that was an option to begin with. But, even so, that was about all she said. Her English wasn’t that good, and neither was my Korean - go figure- so we got into a rhythm of communicating by her drawing little info-graphics for me. And then her parents finally shipped her keyboard over. Yes, by sheer luck my roommate was an insanely talented Jazz Piano major. She played often and I loved it. Beautiful music coming from the bottom bunk most evenings. But, we lost touch... happening quickly because I ended up being one of the people on the “right or left” during orientation. 😆

I barely made it through my first semester before realizing that I may have loved fashion design, but it didn’t love me. Now, looking at this photo of Rocky, a placeholder photo for me to spill my random thoughts for the night, I’m so thankful for all of this...being one of the right/left-ers...the messiness that happened to guide me back to Philly, to the life I was always supposed to live. All the deep dark holes, feeling isolated, the train rides to seemingly nowhere - while dragging huge rolls of Muslin back to my room - knowing full well that nothing was getting Draped for real, for real. 😂Thankful for it all. Randomly more thankful today than yesterday’s calendar day of required Thankfulness.🦃

"The Karate Kid"

I always get made fun of, in my house because I haven’t seen many of the classic 80’s movies. Within the last few years I finally saw Coming to America, and couldn’t believe I had missed out on it for so long!! Hilarious! Anyway, I still haven’t seen The Karate Kid but it’s definitely on my list next! In the mean time, this book will suffice! The boys love anything karate/ninja like so this is a big hit on the “read every day” chart. It’s also a “Pop Classic” and really based on the movie. I know, I know...why am I promoting other books that aren’t mine? The goal is to assist you in raising your own readers, plus...this is really a good one and it’s definitely worth a look! 📚 As always, Happy Reading! (And you can still get my new books, by clicking the link in my bio!!)

Daily Discovering What's On The Other Side of Fear

I started out this year w/ super high hopes. I was in a good place in the publishing process, and for the first time ever I actually created a “Vision Board.” Lol. It’s funny now to think of all the plans I had. On the board, my “2020 Mantra” was - “Daily Discover what’s on the other side of FEAR.” Little did I know what would actually BE on the other side. 😩🤦🏾‍♀️ Within 3 months I lost my job due to Covid, and was left wondering if I even had enough fight left in me to finish the process all together.

I had to go into full time SAHM mode, resulting in pushing back release dates over and over again. I’d be up all night and then back at it again early in the morning... just trying to get any bit of work done without little hands pulling at my pant legs or tiny voices pestering me for a snack. (Why do these kids ALWAYS need a snack? And why can’t they see their dad standing right in the kitchen? Someone make it make sense!) Then I was constantly losing sleep over everything from marketing to deciding whether or not to release in Hardback form. As an independent author, I just didn’t have the funds to print in the thousands all at once, and printing full color, glossy, heavy weight page books one at a time is expensive to sell.

None of this was easy. But nobody told me, the road would be easy either (cue in the gospel melodies 😩) I’m still sucker punching the “fear monsters” every morning, and battling insecurities on the daily. But I’ve made it this far and tommorrow is the big day. When a part of my life’s goal turns into something physical. I’ve produced something that will aid in creating a love for reading in children everywhere and promote diversity in children’s literature. It’s all important to me.

Tomorrow Nov. 19, at 2:22 (just because I see this number EVERYWHERE...so why not?) my website will go live and you’ll finally be able to PURCHASE these books! (I’ll list the site link in my bio!)

"Grumpy Monkey - Up All Night" - Day 4 Children's Book Week

We’re big fans of the Grumpy Monkey Series by Suzanne Lang and Illustrated by @maxtobiaslang 🐵 So of course, we had to pick one to show for Day 4 of Children’s Book Week!

“Grumpy Monkey Up All Night” brings back our resident grumpy monkey, Jim Panzee...and for the first time in a while, he’s actually in a good mood! His pal Norman is back too, and they’re both about to go to a sleepover party at Jim’s parent’s house. Everyone is excited to do all of the “fun” things you would typically do at a sleepover...you know, like mango bobbing, flea picking, and termite fishing 😩🥴...but even with the anticipation of staying up all night and all of the great activities and games planned, Jim has looming thoughts... will his, “little” brother ruin all the fun?

Start off with the original, “Grumpy Monkey” then pick this one up! They’re all really good, and I promise you won’t be grumpy after reading them. 😆 Happy Children’s Book Week! #RaisingReaders #ChildrensBookWeek

"Scientists! We Can Be Anything!" - Day 3 of Children's Book Week

Do you remember our bug heavy summer? 🐜🦗🤦🏾‍♀️ Rocky was into anything and everything creepy crawly and Russell, who fears absolutely nothing, was right by his side, worms in hand. 🥴 I’m terrified of insects, but for the good of the team I studied, inspected and explored right along with them. And though it’s my experience that their interests change all the time, I also feel like it’s never too early to encourage children...whatever they’re into at the moment.

This little science book for Day 3 of Children’s Book Week is titled, “Scientists! You Can Be Anything!” It shows its reader all the different ways that everyday interests can translate into a STEM career. From a love for animals (zoology) to the weather (meteorology)...!

Author @ruthspiro says,
“Ask questions
Inspire wonder
Make things better
Dream Big!”

Great advice, and great book, for big and little people! 📚 #RaisingReaders #ChildrensBookWeek

"P is for Pterodactyl" - Day 2 of Children's Book Week

Reggie took this PHoto of me, in the center AISle of the park, with his CEll PHone...the WHole CIty of PHiladelphia behind us. He has an EYe for this kind of thing, SEeing the beauty in everything. 😂

“P is for Pterodactyl.” KNown as, “the Worst Alphabet Book Ever” is the book I picked to share today for Children’s Book Week! Not your typical ABC book in that it highlights all those crazy letters that, “misbehave and make words nearly impossible to pronounce.” ...YOu know, like GNAT, KNIGHT and GNOME. 😂 It’s funny, witty, and introduces new words to little (and older!) readers.

So, anyways, I gtg...headed out now on this AUtumn day, wearing this head-WRap tied in a top KNot, thanks to my partnership with @setapart , trying to pick up some GNOcchi for me and QUIche for Reg. Hopefully YOu understand what I’m trying to say, cause writing this wasn’t easy!🤣

Side note, wouldn’t you know this book’s co-AUThor @lush.vida is also a rapper from PHiladelphia? #RaisingReaders #ChildrensBookWeek

"Rocket says LOOK UP!" - Day 1 of Children's Book Week

I spotted this gem tucked in the picture book corner of my hometown B&N. I’m sure the stars aligned as I saw the title, “Rocket says LOOK UP!” ...and subconsciously thought it was my own kid, Rocky’s name.

Word to the wise...(or is it “word from the wise”? Because that would make the most sense to me...) always try out the books that aren’t faced out. We’ve found treasures in the mix by doing this. Then when we go back to the store I make a point to face them all out, if it was good. ☺️😂

Anyways, meet Rocket, and that’s her real name. She’s an aspiring astronaut who’s anxiously looking forward to a meteor shower that will be visible that night. But in the midst of her excitement to spread the news, things happen, leaving us wondering if her efforts to bring the entire town together for the big event will prove fruitless? Will her big brother Jamal even look up from his silly phone to catch a glimpse? 💫

This book was so beautifully done. I’m gushing. I know. 🤷🏾‍♀️ It’s another much needed story pushing the point that a child can be and do anything they aspire too! The illustrations capture all the feels, and not that it will matter to you, but I notice everything and must point out that the pages are not glossy and that honestly really adds to the beauty of the entire composition.

If you follow me (like really look at my stories) you know that my boys are SUPER into science (shoutout #ScienceFridays!) so this book was perfect...”perfect for curious young science lovers.”

Today is the start of Children’s Book Week, so I’ll be heavily highlighting some favorites! My own new books are also coming out soon, so I’ll be dropping that release date, and may do a giveaway or two! Yay! I’m hype! Be hype with me! Let’s Raise Readers together! 📚

Author : @nathanbryon Illustrator : @dapsdraws ☀️ 🪐 💫

#ChildrensBookWeek #RaisingReaders

The Courts

My boys. Contrary to possible assumptions stemming off of Russell’s tears, which are actually falling from a brand new fear of commercial lawn mowers, these kids LOVE basketball. They love hip hop and rap. They like to wear their hats backwards, hoodies when it’s cold, dap their dad goodnight, and if my overly-correct-grammar-police self is not present, they talk slang. 🖤 However... they also have an excellent vocabulary, and equally love reading, exploring nature, studying bugs, watching ocean and space documentaries, listening to the Israel Kawakawiwo'ole and Old McDonald Pandora channels, and a variety of other things that kids naturally enjoy doing...And trust me, they don’t, “shut up and” just do ANY of these things - not while dribbling - not while reading...😆...from the first to the last. I love these two black boys’ joy. ...oh and the man too.

The Blacker the Berry

Some say, “the blacker the berry... the sweeter the juice...” I say the darker the flesh, the deeper the roots.” -Tupac

Took the kids blueberry and string bean picking today. My weather app said it would be about 79/80 degrees out there when we went, but in the hot sun, at times it felt like 100. We went there to kick off some outdoor COVID safe summer activities... and the kids had a blast, but I can’t lie... As soon as my feet hit that dirt and the hot sun blinded my eyes, I couldn’t help but think about our ancestors. No wonder they wanted to wait to have children until they were free. Many toddlers had to be out in the field alongside their mothers...many had to pick cotton or sugarcane themselves... can you imagine? Here I am, voluntarily bringing my two babies into an open field to pick farm produce for FUN. I have much to be thankful for. Especially being able to sit them down afterwards for icecream cones, the ability to drive them home when the heat became too much, and once home, plopping them into nice hot bubble baths, and then tucking them into comfortable beds...their own personal beds... There is just so much that burdens my heart today, and along side that, so much to be thankful for.