The Cali Life

As I was reading up on the skills needed for children within special education categories to transition into adult living, I came across the need for those students to develop self determination. I read up on self determination and realized, with shock, that I lack self determination skills. Of course, I then tried to label which special education category I fell in. SMH. The case of an amateur trying to diagnose. On Sunday, I watched a program called  "Unhooked" on Hope channel. Enablers was the theme of this specific episode and Nadine, my friend was featured. She spoke about how she did not have clear limits about what she was or wasn't willing to do and because of her willingness to please, she allowed people in her life to indulge in self destructive addictions.  The commentator mentioned that people need to be able to set up boundaries. As I watched, I realized that this was a major feature of self determination: realizing one's limits and being aware of what yo...

I've decided. I am celebrating Kwanzaa this year. I've made my decision. You know why? I let you know more about that later but Kwanzaa ain't bad. There's not one pagan celebration of the sun/moon/devil connected to it, although it does celebrate the harvest which can be connected to the celebration of harvest in many pagan/heathen/Wicca cultures. Hmmmm.... Look more into that later. But for right now, I'm marking down Kwanzaa in my calendar. I'm gonna celebrate the stuffing out of Kwanzaa this year. This don't even got anything to with race, although it would seem like that would go along with my recent train of blogs.  But Kwanzaa just seems great right now. I'm going to do it. Nest Blog: Why am I going to celebrate Kwanzaa?

Do you sometimes find yourself try to fall asleep and not succeeding? I've had times in which I would be lying in bed trying to sleep but unfortunately, because my mind is too active or I had an extra long nap earlier that day or I'm literally in too much pain, I find that sleep eludes me. So I try to sleep. I'm sure that you've been told or have heard some fictional character being told to count sheep when sleep is elusive. I heard it on  Sesame Street.  I don't know the origin of a saying like this, but I find that counting sheep is a fitting title for the attempts to put one self to sleep. I have not really tried counting sheep in some years but what I try to do is lie very still, close my eyes and even out my breath. Usually, my overactive mind takes this opportunity to start thinking about random things so sleep remains far from me. When I finally do fall asleep, it is not because I tried to sleep or if I was even aware of falling asleep. It just happened, natu...

At the ripe age of 15 years old, I watched Madea's Family Reunion: the play. I think my Mom bought the bootleg DVD off of some dude in the street that works near her job. The guy probably sold it to her because my Mom is a Christian so he probably thought that she would love it. So she bought it. And I watched it, and watched it, and watched it. I'm very much into musicals and plays so I loved watching it, but I also admired the character Madea and the way she dealt with situations. There she was, this man in a dress with wisdom and enough holy speech to make it acceptable and then just a little bit of those bad words that were acceptable to make it sound funny and cool. I embraced it full-heartedly. I remember thinking how cool Madea was and I started saying all her sayings. Hell and crap became words of frequent use in my vocabulary. Even the way I tell jokes or stories picked-up the tell-tale signs of Madea plays. I thought that this was acceptable to God and it was funny. ...

This morning during worship, the children sang "Praise to the Lord", which is a hymn and the part that rang out long after the song was finished was "...ponder anew what the Almighty can do..." So I posted it up on facebook as my status, partly because without getting a chance to vote, my candidate still won the election (ponder that! LOL) and mostly because we should think about the mighty things God can do. I considered my answered my prayers from previous weeks and I decided to share to let you know how things are going over here. 1) My friend, the one who is pregnant, was not getting anything done partly because she's pregnant and partly because she just did not feel like it, which would be fine if there were not things that just needed to get done. After praying that she would become more productive, I have never seen her do as much as she has been doing in the past few weeks. Of course, I'm not with her 24/7 but still, Praise God! 2) The husband pra...

Yeah, I'm getting my hair done officially today by Elsa, the same lady who was to busy to fulfill my appointment last week. SMH. Luke 18:1-7 Persevere in Prayer. Day 14 of the 40 days. I honestly do not know how I'm going to do it but I'm going to try. I wrote a list of things of things I'm going to pray for and throughout the day, I'm going to pray seriously and earnestly about these things. And then continue doing it for the rest of my life. God is good. I'm trying to build a habit of praying continuously throughout the day. David cried out to God evening, morning and at noon. Daniel prayed three times a day. Jesus spent all night in prayer and Elijah prayed 7 times until a dark cloud was sighted, signaling rain. I must pray even more.

Yeah right. I did my hair. Actually my friend did it for me. My ends are a little frazzled. Unfortunately, the lady that I wanted to cut my hair waited until it was too late to contact me. She wants to reschedule for next week and if my hair is indicator now, she will be cutting off at least an inch, which means protective styles for the rest of the year. So I didn't get a proper trim because she was not free for the time she scheduled me. My ends look horrid!  But I look fly. We fly high, no lie,... Yeah... So anyway... Praise God I'm 26 years old. In other news, focusing on God is getting harder. But I am up for the challenge. I need to be in order to come correct with God. And be prepared for Jesus and other things.

I'm in the classroom now, thanking God for joyful Mrs. Lawrence! This lady is the bomb. She is teaching the 2nd graders Thematic Reading. Before she starts teaching them everyday, she kneels down and she prays to God. Yes and she puts the lesson in God's hands. Today she was looking for Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. I could only picture how they would look in my house and I was not sure if they were in the school. On my way to texting the principal to ask if the stories were here, she says "Let me kneel down pray and ask God about it."  Minutes later, she's looking through the library and she finds the books! Amazing. I was like, "Praise God!"  My first instinct is to always try and see what I can do for myself without even thinking of God as a last resort. But Mrs. Lawrence addresses God and He answers! Why am I amazed? Because I want that! I want that kind of faith that is ever present without dwindling for doubt. So I prayed that God would mak...

                     I'm planning so much stuff for when I get back to New York, as if life starts and begins when I am in New York. For example, I'm planning on starting a Friday Night Fellowship group with my peeps. This includes small supper/snacks, singing devotion and prayer. I am struck by how much I am drawn to groups like this whenever I am outside of NY and how much of blessing it would be to my peeps at home. I'm also planning on preparing dishes for potluck on Sabbaths, possibly cooking it with others and preparing these dishes. I also want to start evangelistic Bible studies with people.Unfortunately, life does not begin when I am in NY. It starts now at this moment. So what can I do in the here and now. to help me grow as a person? Something to pray about... 2 days from now is my b day. Getting my hair did. And the eyelashes grew back and I can were my contacts in a couple days. WoooooHooooo!

"All you would need is that deal with the devil or that complete surrender to God and you would be set. And yet I find myself dissatisfied with my miserable situation. My mediocrity greets me in the morning and I turnover and hide from the rest of my day. I want to go in. I want to live that Godly life of favor. I know he exists and I know He is faithful who  promised.  But I am never satisfied. I do not know if I live in the middle because I'm trying to keep my options open but I know that there are people going hard for God, giving their all to Him and I am just chilling. I don't want to go all in, because I don't want to be bought, tricked, hoodwinked. But I'm not willing to research what is the truth. I need help, lol. But I do have that nagging fear that while I'm on the sidelines slowly trying to find truth, that some person that's seeking more diligently will come in and snatch my heavenly crown." I remember wirting this on my other blog and t...