What's Hot Wednesday - Blogging

I think blogging is an incredible outlet. More people should try it, even though millions already do!

So I was at the Blogging While Brown Conference in D.C. and was so impressed by all of the technology, intelligence and camaraderie among the nearly 200 Black people in the room.

Even though you are here reading, you might not know what a blog is.

Over the years (four now) I have developed my own definition:

A blog is an online journal of sorts. Comprised of a combination of personal thoughts, opinions and facts. A blog can be personal in nature, professional or a combination. To make a blog "official" it must be public, otherwise its a personal diary or a journal.

(My blog is public but I have disabled some options so that my posts don't show up on Google and other search engines.)

In the picture above is brand spanking new blogger ProfessHer. She attended the bloggers bootcamp at the conference and left with a blog up and running!

Let me share with you some blogs. I don't follow all of them but they display the wide variety of topics out there.

Patrice at Afrobella - Got to love a sister named Patrice :o) It hasn't been long since companies realized that Black women are into beauty products. This sister proves that natural hair and beauty are not oxymorons.

Lakisa at Dirty Face Angels Academy - A Black homeschooler who takes the time to document? What?! Here's some dedication for you and some information you can use.

Don at Minus The Bars - Here's a blog that is smart and sexy. Don gets into the sisters heads and gets the brothers to co-sign. It's about real man thoughts.

The Team at PostBourgie - Here is another smart blog. What makes this one stand out is that it is a collaboration of 3 thoughtful friends. They take on pop culture and politics.

I am really excited about how blogging and other "new media" are going to change the way we are viewed and the way we communicate in the next couple years.

Extreme Classroom Makeover - A lesson in bargain shopping

We're midway through Kindergarten and we out grew the classroom-in-the-bedroom-corner set up. We transformed our family/tv room into the new classroom area.

What most homeschool parents won't admit is how expensive it can be to teach at home. I think I'm going to do a series on ways to save money and find bargains.

All the furniture in this room, plus some you don't see, was less than $20. We found it at a surplus auction at The University of Kentucky. If interested in bargain shopping at auctions, I recommend surplus auctions over the junk filled ones with personal sellers. Usually they want too much for something that should be in a yard sale. Surplus goes for any price, no minimum.

Try local colleges, board of education, police department or library for sales. This one comes every 2-3 months. Next time we're going for a microscope, tv or exercise equipment.

Here are early shots of the room. We've done some more wall decorations since this was taken and started filling the book shelves a bit more.

Laminated wood plaques with prayer, national and quotes as you enter

Two tables $5 (one shown) Seven foot bookcases $5 (one shown)

I got three of these desks for $2 total! All chairs for $2 total.

Mommy-made curtains

What's hot Wednesday - The Kentucky Women Writers Conference

And it's not just for Kentucky women!

I came to learn of this conference from a group of women that were in the first book club I was ever in here in Lexington.  Many of them were on the board or active in some way.

The first one I attended was in 2004 and I was pregnant.  I remember because I was a bit tired and always hungry, so a full day event did not sound appealing.  But I just couldn't go home! It was that good!

First, the night before the conference we had a "sister" dinner with none other than Sonia Sanchez. She was so gracious and was willing to talk to each of us and of course I asked her about her experience in The Nation.  I'll have to share that one day or get a story done about it.

The next day changed my life.  There was a panel discussion that included Rebecca Walker (daughter of Alice), Sis. Sonia and some others I can't recall but I DO recall the title: The Life of An Activist Writer.

I sat there thinking, "That's me.  I now have an identity and purpose."

2004 was the year we published our first issue of The Key Newsjournal and I found myself a business owner and writer who didn't want to publish society photos, or entertainment or sports.  We saw the work that needed to be done in Lexington and wanted to be about the motivation of people to do the work.  I wanted my words to take wings and lift someone up.

The conference is not for any ONE genre of writer.  But the fact that the organizers would put something like this on the agenda and would have more than the one obligatory Black person had me hooked.

I am now on the Board of the wonderful thing we call the Kentucky Women Writer's Conference and have the pleasure of chairing the Sonia Sanchez Lecture Series Committee.

This year the Sonia Series will feature the brave, bold, blogger Gina McCauley, who founded What About Our Daughters.

Also, inauguration poet Elizabeth Alexander will deliver a keynote lecture and appear along with poet Nikki Finney and Honore Jeffries.

The website can fill in all the other parts I left out, but I wanted to personally invite anyone who reads these words and 'thinks' that they may be a writer but has yet to find their focus.  This conference could be a defining moment for you.  Or you could just come and have a ball!

Comments please

NubianGraphics.com

If you are like me and on WAY TOO MANY social networking sites, you may like to find good "comments".

I found this site when looking for a Kwanzaa graphic with all the principles.

NubianGraphics.com


Do you have any favorite comment graphic sites?

The Nutcracker-The secret Black connection

Sometimes you get a random Black history fact out of the blue...

True story:
My daughter tried ballet at 2 but was too rambunctious for the flow of the class. I still want her to try it so to check her interest level I decided to let her go to the youth ballet performance of The Nutcracker this year. It's only about at an hour plus, we knew two girls in it.
As I was reading the local paper trying to find the performance times I saw this:

[Composer] Tchaikovsky and writer Marius Petipa based their Nutcracker on the adaptation of the Nutcracker story by Alexander Dumas, of Three Musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo fame.

What?! Did they say Alexander Dumas?? I only found out that this Black author wrote Three Musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo about 6-7 years ago and now, his book is the basis of this ballet classic?

Who knew????????????

Excuse me fella's...

...but I must tell the ladies something.

In a word....

...WONDERFUL!!!

To get a free sample go here. Sorry environment.

She's Baaaack!

Sister Souljah returns with the much anticipated sequel to "The Coldest Winter Ever". The title is "Midnight". If you read "Winter" you know that Midnight was a mysterious character that obviously had a past. I can't WAIT to get into this. 

I bought it last night, for full price I might add, and am reading it now so I'll check you out later :-)

Green Monday is back....

Here is my next attempt at going GREEN. DRUM ROLL PLEASE...........
Organic Bar-B-Que......no really......quit laughing already! Sheesh!

The bags tells you all about the harmful toxins in traditional charcoal and lighter fluid.


Everything you need comes in the bag including the match.


These are the wood chips and there is a chimney that you put the lit matches in and in a few seconds....


You have fire!


It burns down and you spread the wood like you do charcoal. I cooked almost 15 pounds of chicken and it all got done. The last pieces took much longer of course, but the fire stayed warm enough to cook about four grills worth.


Challenges: I was concerned about not getting the BBQ taste. That's why I never got a gas grill, I want to taste that taste. But I did! It tastes like BBQ.

Sustainability: I'm completely SOLD on this. I don't need to go back. I hate having lighter fluid on my balcony because BabyGirl plays out there and wants to squirt it and my father's a firefighter so he taught me to never put it in the garage. Now I can pitch it! Also, no charcoal out there either to try to keep dry. I can keep one of these in the garage at all times and just bring it in.

Note: I bought mine at Whole Foods but here is a link to the manufacturer.

Green Monday

This is a new series I'm working on. I am trying my hardest to be more "green". Each week, I'll give you insight into the challenges and triumphs of this journey.

The first major step I took was to begin taking my own bags to the grocery store. Most stores sell them for 99 cents or 2 for $2.



What's surprising is the amount of food you can get into them. I'd say on average, we get 12-16 plastic bags on a weekly shopping trip. I now get all of that into 4-5 reusable bags, if packed properly.

The biggest surprise was that you get rebates! At Kroger for instance, they credit you 4 cents for each bag used. So I get about 20 cents each trip. How nice. The bag was only 99 cents so 20 trips and it pays for itself! At Whole Foods they give you a wooden nickel. Then you take it to a drop box and you can pick one of three local charities to give the nickel to. They add up the nickels and the organization gets a check!

The Challenge: I thought I would forget to use the bags. So, after unloading the bags I take them back to the vehicle and I keep them in the back seat so I can always have one on an unexpected trip. I now even use them when I go to Target or other stores.

Sustainability: This is something I could do for the long haul. It's not a burden and its better than trying to remember to take my old plastic bags to Kroger for recycling.

Tell us something GREEN you did this week!

Blogroll do over - Part 4

Note from Sister P: In case you missed it, I'm re-doing my blogroll so it reflects places that I go regularly and would recommend to the general public.

There are only a few bloggers that I know in "real" life. Black bloggers are hard to come by in Central Kentucky.

There is a sister that I met online and we've been in touch that way ever since. I was trying to help another sister find a Mocha Mom's chapter and we found Miss Mwabi on the message boards. I joined her book club, then she started doing some writing for my paper, then she asked me to join the planning committee for a lecture series and on and on and on. Her blog is part pop culture recap and part personal musing and it's all fun.

Recently, she became editor in chief of Jamati.com. You HAVE to go there! I pride myself on knowing a bit about everything but found myself so "ignorant" about African pop culture. It is a place to go to really learn about what current African culture is like and it will make you sound so hip when you talk with your African friends!

Another blogger I know started BlackAmericaTalks.net. I met him when he was press secretary for the last mayor of Big City Wanna Be, KY. I did not know how much history he had working in local media around town. He is an aspiring talk show host now and has some very conversational posts. You'll always find a good chat going on over there.

What really matters...

There were a bunch of things that I was thinking about the past few days and I was so excited thinking about blogging about them.

But this morning my daughter woke up especially alert and I embraced the teachable moment and we had reading class.

My baby girl is 3yo and 5 mos. now and knows her upper and lower case letters and all sounds. For about a week and a half we've been working on blending sounds so she can read her first words.

TODAY SHE DID IT!

She read at, sat, fat, bat, cat, rat, pat, hat, mat and Pat.

I had her go wake her father up and he came in all sleepy eyed to listen to her read her first words.

What a great morning!

The curriculum I've been using for reading and writing is Hooked on Phonics: Hooked on Kindergarten Wally-World has the best price I've found at $99 and they will deliver it to the store for you to pick up. I started this in January.

To learn letters and sounds I used flash cards, Alphabooks
and Fridge Phonics. I've been using the cards and books since about 2 years old and the Fridge Phonics for several months (I think since the summer?)

I think I'm going to start a homeschooling blog over on Wordpress. I wanted to move this blog over there but it's too much trouble b/c I'd lose photos etc.

But while I'm thinking about it, I'll just savor this wonderful moment in time.

Sunday, February 10, 2008 my baby-girl read her first words.

Looks good to me!

Diddy In ?Raisin In The Sun"
Uploaded by PeteRock

Shout out to "The Happy Go Lucky Bachelor" for this one.

I'm looking forward to this. I wanted to see it on Broadway when Diddy was in it, but never go around to it.

I just saw the original on DVD last year. (I'm behind on my Black classics, you think?)

Would you watch this?

Tom Joyner giving away money for college

Tom Joyner is the REAL DEAL. I had a chance to do a press meet and greet with him when he was the keynote speaker for the inauguration of Kentucky State's President Dr. Mary Evans Sias. He didn't meet with us long because he wanted to study and get the pronunciation for all of the names he had to say that evening. Then he came out and skipped dinner so he could go to each table to greet and take photos with guests. He was so real and humble! This scholarship is an inspiration to make me work harder so that one day my company can do something like this.

I HIGHLY recommend HBCU's for Black students. To have the opportunity to learn and grow without the yoke of prejudice and low expectations is a blessing. I attended Central State in Wilberforce Ohio and met my husband there. It made a big difference for me and many people I know. My husband left Mankato State in MN and just showed up on campus at CSU, no application, no testing, nothing. They worked with him to get his paperwork in order and he remained there and graduated. Now I'm not saying to try that, but that's how serious HBCU's are about educating everyone who WANTS an education.

The Tom Joyner Full Ride Scholarship

This will be given away to a high school senior that is planning to enroll in an HBCU in the fall of 2008.

Full ride includes: full tuition waivers and stipends to cover room and board and books for up to ten semesters.

Details, applications and standards here. Hurry, deadline is January 18th!

Post Scrip: My husband clarified his admission process. His HS football coach told him about CSU after he decided he didn't want to return to Mankato. He called CSU admissions and they had him send his transcript from Mankato and then they called and told him to come and they registered him for class. To me, it's the same great story. No hassle, just come on!