I'm honored to say the least, to have the pleasure of interviewing Deidra from jumpingtandem.com . After reading her blog for more than two years and getting a chance to meet her and her sweet husband, H, I can without a doubt call her a sister friend. 1) You're a wife, mom and so much more. In your always honest way of expressing yourself...who is Deidra? I am a dancer, an ocean seeker, a book reader, a writer. I miss the mark every day. I am overwhelmed by grace and thrilled that God keeps loving me in spite of me. 2) How long have you been married to H? How did you meet and was it love at first sight? Do you believe in love at first sight? Harry and I will celebrate our 25 th wedding anniversary in August. I always tell him that he should put being married to me on his resume as an acquired skill. We met at a Commodores concert. It’s a fun story and I wrote about it on my blog . Neither one of us wanted to go to that concert, but we each had a friend who begg...

When I was a kid, I used to love reading Pippi Longstocking books. The girl had skills! Not only was she strong but knew how to survive with just the bare minimum. Salvageable was her middle name (well, not really but it should've been). We didn't grow up anywhere close to wealthy. In fact, most of my childhood memories are based on making do. My parents were experts at getting by. My mom used to grocery shop at at least 3 different places. She would spread out the sales ads and then grab her coupons and decide which store had certain things on sale. Then, we'd tag along with her, watching her skill. She would buy a 5 pound box of Mother's cookies that were marked "broken" and our job once we got home, was to pick through the crumbs and put the "whole" cookies in a separate cookie jar. The crumbs were saved to sprinkle on ice cream. She would head over the butcher where she knew just what to ask for and how she wanted it cut. Once home, she'd div...

I'm a firm believer in love being colored blind. True love is formed from within the heart. I've had the greatest pleasure of talking to Rebekah of Life With Kaishon and my daughter, Ev'Yan of apricot-tea about their special relationship with their husbands and most of all On Being..In An Interracial Relationship. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I have. Becky and Gary Jonathan and Ev'Yan 1) How did you meet your husband? Rebekah: I was working as a social worker and my co worker asked if I would be interested in a blind date with her brother. I said 'yes.' She did wonder if I minded he was black. I told her that was CRAZY. I actually preferred to date black men even though I had never done so before. Ev'Yan : Jonathan & I met on Myspace of all places. I saw his profile, thought he was charming, told him so, & within a few days we had our first date. We've been inseparable ever since. 2) Before meeting and marrying your husband, did yo...

If you've been a long time reader of my blog, you'll remember that there was a Boo very present in my life. A part of the Boo family tree was Baby Boo, Boo's baby girl. I didn't tell of his exit out of my life because for a few reasons, but most importantly, it is also his story to tell. But, what seemed like a relationship made in heaven wasn't at all what it seemed. I had dreamed of spending the rest of my life with Boo. I thought he was the "one" when in fact, it was the other side of truth. What I divulged in many of my posts about Boo and I, was anticipation, excitement and love. What I didn't talk about was anger and addiction. I was raised with parents that never drank alcohol or even cursed. When I had my first drink of alcohol, I was 21 years old, legal age to drink. I have never made bad choices involving alcohol because thankfully, I knew the power of over indulgence. Boo and my relationship was based on lies and one of those lies was being ...

When I was a kid, one of my favorite outside games to play was hopscotch. The strategy wasn't necessarily in how well you hopped but what you used as your marker. In my quest for finding the perfect marker, the one where when it was thrown would land right where it was supposed to be - in the right place. The search would take me everywhere. I tried flat rocks, broken popsicle sticks, pencil erasers and even bottle caps but most of the time, what worked the best was a broken chain. It didn't even have to look good or feel right. The importance was how it landed. Isn't that how life works? We reach for what feels familiar or head to a place where we know the coffee tastes good or where we feel at home, only to find that that isn't the right place for us to be. But it felt right, it smelled right, it tasted right, it looked right....how could it not be RIGHT? Because sometimes getting to the right place takes work. It takes having a spirit of never giving up or calling ...

1) Horns honk in the key of F and toilets flush in the key of F flat. 2) I will not cut my hair by myself...no matter how tempting and how bad it is...I will wait until my daughter moves out here. My hair says, "thank you". (Hurry up January 31st.) 3) When I get nervous, my nose runs. 4) This is the year where I learn not to push aside my wants, feelings and emotions. This is the year of loving me! 5) I hate ice storms...especially when it comes to driving around in it. 6) Richard Simmons may be a nice guy but I'm just not attracted to him. (That's another post for another day on dating.) 7) I totally hate when I see someone litter. I cross a line between saying something or picking up the trash they tossed or both. 8) Maybe I'm dating myself but are the lyrics to songs getting worse? You're on my heart like a tattoo???? Are you serious?? 9) I have a new appreciation for Fridays. 10) I don't understand the changing of astrological signs. Why can't we...

My daughter, Married Boo aka Apricot Tea wrote a very poignant blog post called Dust Covered Memories. If you have the time, please take a read. One of the things that I'd like to do this year is to introduce, uncover, explore issues, people, culture and activities through my blog, even if it's just one day a week. After reading Married Boo's post, I felt compelled to write about being divorced. The emotions that are evoked as I look at this picture are a plethora of feelings from anger, sadness, disappointment, but most of all hope. I know....how can I see hope in something that once was and no longer is? Because the hand that's holding the picture screams hope and love and belief that marriage and love still exists. In spite of knowing that unbelievable relationships end in divorce, my daughters still have faith in commitment and marriage. I still do too. I carry the pain and scars of knowing that their lives were changed as a result of my life being changed. I still...

1) The greatest surprise that didn't cost God a cent was to wake up this morning thinking it was Wednesday only to discover that it was Thursday. One step closer to the weekend. 2)The only one sad to see the Christmas tree gone was the kitty. 3) It was hard not to get over stimulated while at Buffalo Wild Wings with all of the many big screens playing different sporting events at the same time. Then, of course, different tables were cheering for different sporting events which made it even more intense. 4) I have decided that when I stress eat, the crunchier the food the better...chips, peanuts, pretzels.....so I've decided I'm going to do myself a huge favor and crunch on a tree branch instead. I won't swallow it, I'll just crunch and spit it out. Is anyone else game on trying this? 5) I totally, I mean, totally, hate when a date calls me, "young lady". It makes me feel like a kid. Also, add "Girl" to that one too. It's just not in the...

There's no such thing as normal. I just had this profound thought. What I'm searching for no longer exists. It was replaced a long time ago by ideals, expectations, desire for more instead of less and going along with the flow of things. I was listening to a radio station that described the video games we used to play when we were kids....you know, the handheld type that came charged only with a D battery. I also thought about how a transistor radio was the greatest gift I received, once more, the D battery fueled it. Board games were "in". Having people come over just for dinner and drinks was a treat. It was called "having company" when I was little. Coloring books and paper dolls and puzzles and pick up stixs were fun on a rainy day. When the sun was shining, there was no need to be indoors unless there was a particular show that came on after school called, "The After School Special". Other than that, tv was reserved most of the time to watch a...

There are some books where I am humbled, inspired and Nick Vujicic's book, Life Without Limits was one of them. Nick has lived a life without limbs in a way that not only glorifies God but in no way at all, brings pity on his situation. The more I read, the more aware I was of how often I've spent wallowing in self-pity while not recognizing others and their situations around me. Nick's thirst for encouraging, support and reaching out with his heart is unending. In his book, he describes the journey his life has taken to get him where he is today. With humor and candidness, he shares moments where his life was changed by the unexpected, blessed with courage and strengthened by care and love from strangers turned friends. Not only is he a pivotal speaker with a gift to minister to teens but continues to offer wisdom throughout his book and his website. I received no monetary compensation for this review. I'm just a girl who loves to read and is willing to pass along some...

A part of living my new year, real and authentically, I realize that what has been a stumbling block in some ways in my life is honesty. Not that I've lied to others...too much conviction to do that...but lied to myself. I accepted friendships, relationships, outfits, music, books and more that I wasn't content with or happy about. Some of the friendships were ones where I accepted his/her lies and brushed them off, accepting the friendship in spite of it. I gave them the benefit of the doubt that maybe there were reasons for untruths but no more. I aim to live my life honest with others and I want to accept only the same. That's not to say that if you ask me if I like the way you look in a pair of jeans, I'm going to blurt out, "You look like Gouda cheese wrapped in plastic too tight!" No! But, I do want to know that when my day is over, I've done the best I can to be real and to expect the same from those close to me. That includes dating. I've begun...