by @mymercurialnature

Creating Experience and Telling Stories

We went bowling today. I’m not the next Lebowski – my ball spent more time in the gutter than it did on the lane- but between the delicious Garlic and Parmesan wings, flossing, dropping it like it was lukewarm, and the laughs, I had a really good time.

What I didn’t do was take pictures. In this straight-to-Instagram culture we can spend a lot of time taking pictures, setting up the perfect shot to ensure that we have documentation of the fun that is happening around us while we take photos. My daughter is going to be 13 this year and I love capturing photos of her preteen innocence. But to do so, I would have to sit on the sidelines.

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by @mymercurialnature

From Unfinished to In-Progress

I’ve amassed numerous unfinished projects in my adult life. For example, in 2017 I committed to publishing six issues of my Gather the Wind Zine. I published two. I have enough poems and shorts for more issues, but… Also, in 2017, I opened a t-shirt store called Bamable. While there are only three designs available on the site, I have a list of more than thirty that I wish to create. Then there are the numerous crochet and knit projects, short stories, novels, plays, printables, etc., that I have taken on only to stop before completing them. The bottom line is that I am GREAT when it comes to ideas but not so good at the execution.

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Black coffee much with light coffee in it. The mug says Freedom to Publish in white writing. It sits on a wooden table in front of a Mac computer keyboard and black headphones.
by @mymercurialnature

Life as a WordPress.com Happiness Engineer, Wife, Parent, Homeschooler, and Author

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I work for Automattic, Inc., the parent company of WordPress.com, as a Happiness Engineer. I celebrated one year at Automattic and wanted to write about what this year has been like for me.

I work remotely, usually out of my home office, and I make my schedule. But what does a day look like for someone who does this job as a married, mom, who homeschools and writes? Well, take a walk through my day.

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by @mymercurialnature

HereWeRead reviews my book Civil Rights Then & Now

My children’s book Civil Rights Then & Now has been available on Amazon for a month and the feedback has been amazing. I am in awe of this whole experience and can’t believe that after two years of writing and editing, we are here. The journey has been unreal and I have learned so much.

This past weekend, Civil Rights Then & Now was reviewed by Here We Read owner, Charnaie, who shared her thoughts on the book in this post and through a video Story. 

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by @mymercurialnature

Fresh Juice Recipe: Beet, Carrot, Apple and Ginger

My husband and I bought a juicer almost eight years ago, and at one time we were using it almost every day. Then for some reason, we just stopped. I am hoping to start detoxing again as it will give me the opportunity to bring it out again and include fresh juice into my diet.

Here is a tip: if you have a juicer, keep it out on the counter or you will never use it. I know that it’s big, but you know the saying, “out of sight, out of mind,” right? It’s true. So keep it out and then you can incorporate that into your daily menus.

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by @mymercurialnature

September Mono-Print Desktop Wallpaper

Mono-printing has made a comeback! In the last three years, the Gelli® Plate has become very popular, just search YouTube. There are numerous videos showing viewers how to make their own plates, and countless others show different mono-printing techniques. It’s quite interesting!

Admittedly, I was sucked in a few months back as I was looking for ways to add more excitement to my paper crafts. I had never heard of a Gelli® Plate before, but I was familiar mono-printing. I remembered the technique from my years of summer camp when I was a child and recalled that it was a fun way to play with texture and paints.

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by @mymercurialnature

Happiness is My JetPens.com Haul

I love pens!

That’s an understatement.

I have an unnatural obsession with pens. My favorite pens are the Uniball Signo RT, and I usually buy them from Tokyo Pen Shop. However, recently I decided to try Jetpens after watching Melanin Eclectic’s YouTube video from December 2017.

About a week ago, after a particularly grueling couple of days, I placed an order and purchased a few essentials.

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by @mymercurialnature

Simplifying and Finding Balance

I am focused on simplifying my life and on finding balance. While streamlining the ridiculous amounts of crap that I have collected over the years despite not being very materialistic is something I do often, finding balance has never really been something that I have been able to accomplish.

I’m forty, and I have ADD and anxiety. I live in my head, hindering my productivity because of I often hyper-focus and worry that I am going to suffer unfortunate consequences of [insert any number of things here].

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by @mymercurialnature

Happy Anniversary (and a Jerk Chicken recipe)!

Old Post reposted:

Sunday, August 30, 2016: I celebrated my birthday (38 and Great!) and my husband and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary! We decided to spend the day cooking together and having fun as a family.

One of the things I miss about NY is the easy access to Jamaican (and other West Indian) food. I could order it, go to a restaurant, or find everything that I needed at the supermarket to cook it myself. But Arizona leaves much to be desired when it comes to food. Most restaurants are commercial chains (Applebee’s, Famous Dave’s, Pita Jungle, Red Lobster, Black Angus) and not my idea of a GOOD meal. The pizza here is more or less Pizza Hut quality and everything is spicy in a too-much-hot-sauce kind of way. I love to cook, but it’s often difficult to find plantains or any ethnic food that is not Mexican or Asian. But I was craving Jamaican food!

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by @mymercurialnature

Congee for Gut Healing

Congee will be a staple on our menu for a while.

When I eat homemade meals, I’m a much happier person. When my family eats homemade meals, they are much happier too. Our attitudes are better, we are more active, and my daughter, who we homeschool, is much more attentive. So why would we ever eat out? Or order in? Convenience. It’s just easier at times. But that ease comes with numerous problems: high blood pressure, fibromyalgia flares, poor attitudes, sluggish metabolism, and just general ickiness. It’s the perfect gut-healing meal.

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