The Most Important Thing

Greetings and Happy Holidays to all! I pray that you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a safe and prosperous New Year. The highlight of 2009 happened for me on Saturday, December 26, when I was blessed to be with my entire family. Me, my five (5) children and eight (8) grandchildren (+ one daughter-in-law) gathered at MacGregor Park to do our first family photo shoot! It felt surreal and it felt so fulfilling. This is an event I have been wanting to take place for quite some time, but one of my granddaughters lives in Dallas and I could not schedule it until she was in town. The idea of doing it without her was not an option, because the picture would not have been complete. Well, God allowed her to come for the holidays and that was just perfect. It was the best gift I could ever receive and the meaning goes so deep I can't hardly describe it.
The purpose behind this endeavor was to instill in my grandchildren ( and my children too) the phenomenal importance of family. I know better than anyone just how critical family support is, and have been blessed with it most of my life. When everybody and everything gives out, family will still be there for you. I am very grateful to God to have been chosen to bring forth the five wonderful human beings called my children, and I thank him profusely for my grandchildren because they are the joy of my life. My youngest son Victor wrote a song titled "Ain't Nothing Like Family" and it tells the story quite well. I wish for everyone to have the opportunity to experience this awesome blessing and pray it will light up their life just like it did mine. After all, the most precious commodity we have is our family. Peace to you all.

Being a Part of Something Great!!!

November was a great month! Aside from the usual blessings of being allowed to see all 30 days of it, I was graced with some awesome events that occurred.

The first and most profound was the premiere of my son Deric Muhammad's documentary "Raising Boys: Tips for Single Moms, Pt.1. It took place on November 5 at the Angelika Theater in downtown Houston. The documentary included interviews with single moms who are raising boys, including myself, and provided pertinent information from Bro Deric on coping with the challenges involved. There were testimonials from two boys (my grandsons) about being raised by a single mom that brought the audience to tears and to cheers. The turnout was fantastic and the support was awe-inspiring. The documentary itself created a huge buzz on all the social networking sites as well as the community at large. The producer was Lawrence Moody of Moody Entertainment and without him it would not have come to life. It was attended by City Councilman Jarvis Johnson, State Representative Sylvester Turner, our next City Controller Ron Green, and the CEO of the Black Broadcasting Network, Entertainment Attorney Ricky Anderson. There were also family members, friends and constituents of Deric's present for this auspicious occasion. I was honored to be the Mistress of Ceremonies and thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening. It was a bit surreal to watch myself on the screen, but I felt like a real star! I am posting some of the pics and look forward to the next chapter. (DVD's are available, contact myself or Bro Deric for info).

More of November to come!! Stay tuned!

I'M B A A A CK!!!!

OMG!!!! I have had a heck of a miscommunication with my blog! As you can see, I haven't posted anything since September and have a little catching up to do. I have to say that the problem wasn't that complicated, but you know us humans, we manage to complicate the simplest things, which I did. After consulting with my blog specialist, (Thanks, Bro Jesse), it was suggested that I try the simplest thing, and (bam!) it worked. I am so relieved and really missed blogging, so from now on I will be more regular than I was before. You know, one of those "don't miss something until it's gone" things?!

Not a whole lot took place in October, but I did have a couple of firsts. One was I took my first ever Defensive Driving Course online and it was quite painless. It was 6 hours long, but it had breaks and everything so it wasn't so bad. Besides, it was worth it to keep my driving record clean. Another first was a belated birthday gift from my son Jesse and daughter-in-law Shareefah, which was a FULL-BODY MASSAGE! That was a fantastic experience and I vowed to treat myself to one as often as possible. It was very relaxing and I learned a lot about my body which is always a plus. The final first I had in October was going to the Kemah Boardwalk with my son Deric, Sis Oni, her mom, her aunt, my son Edward and his date Tammy. We had dinner in this cool restaurant that looked out over the water and boy was it nice! The company was great, the food was good and the conversation was enjoyable. Incidentally, it was Halloween so we got to see people dressed up in all kinds of costumes. Overall, I had a blessed and healthy October! Next post will be about exciting November!! Comment and tell me how much you all missed me!LOL Peace

New Beginnings-Rebirth of My 31-yr old Son

Greetings all! I have not blogged in a while, but this topic was a true motivation for me to do so. As you read in the title, it's about a new beginning and a sort of "rebirth" of my 31-year old son Jesse Muhammad (he's the tall one on the left in the pic). Allow me to share the details. Immediately after his 31st birthday on September 4, my son told me that he set a goal of finding out who his biological father was by his next (32nd) birthday. You see, he had presented me with the question of his lineage a while back and I had to honestly share with him that I was not sure. In the past while he was growing up I named the man I was in a relationship with when he was born as his father, however, after much soul-searching and recollection I recalled getting out of another relationship and quickly getting into that one. Long story short, my son set out on his mission for answers. One man is deceased, so God allowed us to contact the other one, who consented to do a DNA test. If I tell you God gave my son immediate answers, believe me it was so! It was just like the scripture says in Matthew 7; Ask, Seek and Knock, and God will give you what you want. The test results proved that the deceased man, Joe McCray is the biological father of Jesse, not Earl Rideaux, the one I had initially tagged. The weird thing is that, up until the day he died, Joe insisted that Jesse was his son, and loved & provided for him like a father.
I gave this post that title because it describes this momentous event perfectly. It is a new beginning for my son as well as myself. We have been blessed by God to not have to question his lineage anymore and for me it is like giving birth to him all over again. What a beautiful process it is, and this time it wasn't physically painful. LOL I had to share this blessing with you all and may God show favor on anyone else who embarks on the journey of knowing who you are! Peace.

September- The Month I Love!

Greetings Readers!

This year has just flown!! It is already September and I must say the year has blessed me in many ways. I love this month for two reasons; 1) it is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month and 2) it is the month that I was born. There will be many observances held in honor of NADAR month and one is the “Families Aiding In Total Healing -Solving Together Every Problem” (FAITH-STEP) two-day drug prevention/drug free recovery conference. It will be held September 17-18, 2009 at Texas Southern University. The issue of drugs throughout the city of Houston and lack of effective wholistic drug reform has prompted Councilmember Jarvis Johnson to partner with many in hosting this first of its kind event. I was invited to be a part of it and Councilmember Johnson unveiled details of this solution-oriented conference at the Official Press Conference on Friday, August 28, 2009 on the steps of TSU Granville Sawyer Auditorium. The press conference also featured TSU President John Rudley, Conference Co-host Mrs. Cleo Glenn Johnson-McLaughlin, Rev. James McLaughlin, community activist Deric Muhammad, myself Mavis Jackson (LCDC,CART), Atty. Michael Harris, Janice Paul of the City of Houston Health & Human Services Dept, TSU Provost James Douglass, and more. Sponsors of the 2009 Recovery Conference also include Communities Of Tomorrow’s Economic Redevelopment/Gift OF Life Drug free, (COTER/GOLD), TSU Center on the Family (TSU/COTF), and the Black United Fund of Texas (BUFTX). This event is well-worth the registration of $199 and even more. For registration information about the FAITH-STEP Conference log on to: http://jarvis-johnson.com/. I am posting pics from the press conference and I hope to see you all there! Peace & Blessings

Texas Business Alliance One Woman Business Conference

Last weekend I attended the 1st Annual Texas Business Alliance One Woman Business Conference and it was phenomenal!. The focus of the conference was minority, women-owned and small businesses. It included a plethora of information and networking with all types of professional business women and men. The workshops included: "Tweet What?"Social Networking Revealed; Business Enterprise Academy Mini-Seminar; and "Be a Marketing Maven" which had a panel that included my marketing genius of a son, Brother Jesse Muhammad. There were many other workshops that covered topics ranging from beginning business information to financial empowerment. We were entertained by local and national television personalities, and enjoyed scrumptous food for breakfast and lunch with some panel discussions on various subjects. There were businesses from all over the city of Houston and some from other cities and states who offered tips and advice to everyone who seeked it. On the final day there was a "Soaring Heights Awards Brunch, Live Entertainment & Keynote address by Comedian Joan Rivers. Needless to say, she put the icing on the entire cake! There were vendors from a myriad of businesses and authors with inspiring and informative books on hand.

Overall, the conference left me and many others highly motivated to continue in our endeavors as new business owners. I left there a smarter, more informed woman who has additional knowledge, resources and connections to be successful! Thank you to Jeffrey Boney and the Texas Business Alliance!! And a special shout-out to Margo Williams Handy for the fantastic job she did coordinating this event, and to Stephanie McKenzie , who I discovered is not only a great marketing expert, but a fellow CME as well!

IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!

Well folks, it finally happened! That Today Show segment that I taped back in May aired on July 27 at 8:30am our time. It was surreal to watch myself on television and the show was totally cool! They say that the camera adds ten pounds, so the good news is, all they showed was my waist up! (LOL) The taping can still be seen on the Today Show website and I have to be honest and say I watched it more than once. That experience is one that I will take with me in my future endeavors. I can proudly say that I was a television star for a day! Of course I don't plan for that to be my last appearance, there will be more to come!

You can go to BGDL.com and see photos of the entire shoot and other information about this fantastic organization that I am blessed to be a part of. The big payoff for my television debut was that a woman new to the alopecia areata contacted me after viewing the show. Now that is real success!! I am praying that we can reach all women with this condition to let them know they are not alone. "I'm ready for my next close-up, Mr. Director"!!