Browngirl Speaks

Frog and Toad Are Friends (I Can Read Book 2)

i was searching for books and lesson ideas in preparation to homeschool my son and found a cute packet to print about turtles.  somehow this reminds me of the first book that turned me into the book whore i proudly am today– frog and toad are friends.  now, i never fancied any amphibians, but i had little to choose from in the catalog we got at school to order books.  i think it was from scholastic, maybe, and i was all of about five or six.  i made a wise choice because i remember reading this book so many times and like it was the greatest piece of literature EVER!  it’s classic children’s lit. that’s all about true friendship. the stories were so endearing and remembering them made me a bit teary eyed over one of my few fond childhood pleasures.  i can’t wait to share this with zion jacob…

***so, i went into starbucks this morning and planned to use the rest of my gift card and have to pay a little too.  their system was going bananas and i got my grande caramel macchiato and blueberry scone on the house!

***i stumbled upon debthater’s blog this morning and thought of how i have finally dove into the pursuit of financial freedom.  i paid off one whole credit card last week!  yay me…

***this song has been looping on my laptop quite frequently over the last month or so.  yeah, i had to take it back to "you brought the sunshine" (disregard that album cover, that’s wrong youtube) and it’s really getting in my spirit.  i think god is moving and i’m ready for the blessing…

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3632887

so, the short version: dude plea bargains a lessor sentence for three counts of rape by being castrated…and the court foot the bill!

i read this to a friend over the phone this morning and we think this would be so very awesome if mandated as punishment for all rapists and those bastard ass pedophiles…

today’s breakfast was so awesome! i had some cinnamon raisin toast and strawberries. yum-o!

i made a conscious decision not to post too much about school because some folks can be really obnoxious trying to "kick down some knowledge" to ya.  and i didn’t want to come across as one of those people, but this one i was compelled to share…

from Audre lorde’s "Uses of the Erotic":

"I find the erotic such a kernel within myself.  When released from its intense and constrained pellet, it flows through and colors my life with a kind of energy that heightens and sensitizes and strengthens all my experiences".

mind you, i’m at my desk at work reading (on lunch of course) and i had to push my chair back and let out a "wooo".  we’ve read several of the essays from Sister Outsider for my class, The Black Woman, and Lorde is slowly becoming a fave writer.  even her scholarly work she writes so beautifully.  alright, i’m done…

*** i’m so excited that people i don’t know are reading my blog now.  and really cool people.  thanx for the push quel (the best blogger EVER)!  anyway, i absolutely adore inthelifeof.org.  C’s blog is so refreshing and just real.  she totally seems like someone i could be friends with outside the blogosphere.  

*** i posted fairly recently about the black breastfeeding blog i stumbled upon while working on a class assignment.  well, i discovered the blogger,jennifer james, has several other blogs all geared towards parents of little brownies.  basically, she’s pretty awesome and links to her six blog network, including an online magazine–mommytoo!–can be found there.  i have added my faves to my "for brown mamas" blogroll.

i posted this on my old blog back in march.  the issue has come up again and this time as more of a definite.  we’re experiencing some things in his pre-k now that has the mr. now on accord with me.  the only real issue is "can we afford to do this?"  i got a resounding yes yesterday when i read what she said over at momisteaching.com. 

 

for your consideration

that little widget off to the right about InScents is not just some annoying advertisment on my bloggage.  it’s real and it’s mine.  so head on over to my etsy.  now, don’t be turned off by the need to register to make purchases.  it’s a one time thing and maybe one day it won’t be necessary. and if you don’t see anything listed that suits your fancy, email me and let’s rap about it. 

InScents.etsy.com

inscents@gmail.com

i was walking out my office building this afternoon and i passed a car right out front where two kids were changing into their football uniforms.  well, i overheard one say to the other: "not that one dummy!".  what’s really irksome about this is that an adult– a parent, i’m not sure–was standing right there and said nothing.  i’ve often heard kids call their siblings "stupid", "dummy", "idiot", etc.  i’ve always thought, "man, my mom would kill me if i said that to my brother".  and now that i have my own child, i was really offended by this small statement.  my mind went on to thinking about how often they might say things like that to each other and what the lasting effects are, especially when the parents don’t reprimand that behavior. 

i don’t think some of us value the power of words enough.  and i’m going to say this at the risk of some serious flack— when i say us, i do mean BLACK FOLKS.  i think that’s why so many of us have such horrible communication skills.  we can go off, cussing and what not with such ease, but to actually articulae anger and frustration is not the usual m.o.  don’t get me wrong, some situations call for a good "tellin’ off".  But many times that can be avoided if we’ve been trained to not name call and cuss when some one pisses us off. 

and then there are the self esteem issues one might develop from being called a dummy at random and by people that are supposed to love them.  those kids are going to grow up thinking that’s just how you talk to people and the non-black folks are going to keep shaking their heads saying "see, i told you they have no respect for themselves or each other". 

whoopsy daisy! careful now, somebody help me down from this damn soapbox.