Project Life: Week One

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Hello Everyone! For the past two years I have been wanting to include my journey with Project Life on my  blog but lack of time and the fact that I managed to get seriously behind made me refrain.  Last year, was my best year with it – I have only 4 months to complete last year’s album.  I have a pretty good system and a weekly craft hour with my girlfriend Ashley that helps keep me honest. I stopped traditional scrapbooking a while back and really wanted a way to capture our family memories and Project Life really seemed like a logical fit. This year I made even more changes to my system. One thing I am doing is limiting my options by using mostly two core kits. I think having too many choices can really slow me down.

week1bI use WeRMemory Keepers albums. I love the quality and color selection they have.  I chose to only include New Years day (January 1) as the start of the first week because I wanted to keep all 2014 in it’s own album. But I realized that many people included all the days in Week one which included the end of December. Week one included pictures of our New Year’s celebrations. We stayed over my in-laws house and she and I made a yummy Paella as one plate for the celebrations. Another fun thing I included is a little mystery game I started with Apollo and Nicholas. When we are out going to school or coming home we look around for footprints in the snow and try to guess what animal made them. It’s a lot of fun and it helps them to slow down and take notice of nature even if for a moment.

week1fA fun tradition that I learned when marrying Leao is the 12 wishes you make once it is new years. You make  a wish and then eat each grape. It’s fun and the boys just love doing it.

week1cAnother thing I’m doing now is using my handwriting for journaling. I used to type on the computer and although I would say I’m not a great fan of my handwriting, it’s faster to just right it out. I may from time to time if I need to fit more, type out a few but just being able to write it out is helping to streamline the process.

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One thing we do a lot of when we are together with family is play board games. One of our favorite is Monopoly Empire. It’s so much fun and a lot faster than the traditional Monopoly game.

week1dMy mother-in-law is an amazing cook. She cooks the most delicious Cape Verdian dishes and her presentation is always a class act.  I always tell her if I were her child, I would have stayed in and eat her food all day instead of playing with friends.

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And this is my week one of my 2015 Project Life album. Each week, I will share my journey with my memory keeping. I waited until I had a few weeks complete so that I could ensure content would be available to post. Have a blessed day everyone!

Belinda

Belinda’s Book Nook: Top Ten Books written by African and African American Authors I Want to Read

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Every week, they post a new topic/top ten list and invite everyone to share their own answers. This week, I chose to list ten books written by African or African American Authors.

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Death of a King by Tavis Smiley – This book I actually heard about on television when someone was interviewing the author, Tavis Smiley. I like how he said that this is the first book to deal with the last year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life. The strength he had to continue when so many had turned against him. I definitely want to read this one.

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo – I heard about this author in a Wall Street Journal article about African Authors.  It is about a girl’s experience moving from Zimbabwe to the US. So I quickly added it to my TBR (To Be Read) list.

Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akapan – I saw this book on Oprah and added it to my TBR. It is a collection of stories about African children from various countries and their experiences.

Mother Poems by Hope Anita Smith – I never heard about this book but I came across it on BookOutlet and the price was amazing so I ordered it. It is about a young girl who loves her mother and the pain she feels when her mother dies. Having lost my mother almost 8 years ago now, I am still working through the pain and look for comfort in this book that deals with the death of a parent.

Belle by Paula Byrne – I have mentioned this book in earlier posts and still haven’t read it. It is a story about the first mixed-race girl introduced to high society England and raised as a lady.

Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus – I bought this on BookOutlet too and again a book I never heard about so I like going into books without too much hype so I can gain my own opinion.

The Black Girl Next Door by Jennife Baszile – This book is memoir about coming of age as a black girl in an exclusive white suburb in “integrated,” post-Civil Rights California. This should be an interesting read.

Sugar Changed the World by Marc Aronson, Marina Tamar Budhosa – When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives. This book just sounds fascinating to  me.  A must read this year.

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi – This debut novel by Helen Oyeyemi is a retelling of an old fairy tale with a twist dealing with identity in this case an African American that is passing for white.  Sounds very intriguing.

Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah – This book deals with postwar life in Sierra Leone following two men who return to their town to try and rebuild but faced with many obstacles. I know very little about Sierra Leone so I look forward to learning more through this novel.

Hopefully I will get to read at least half of this list this year.

Happy Reading!

Belinda

Congratulations to the New England Patriots

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Last night I was so stressed watching the Super Bowl that I stood for most of the first half of the game. The second half I sat and ate all the yummies I made for the occasion. It was a great game with two amazing teams. They both wanted it and played hard the entire game. I did a victory dance and then proceeded to take selfies with Nicholas and Leao to send to friends and family.

The best gift from nature was a snow day today for the boys. I woke up to this.

3rdsnowday1It is like a repeat of last week except we aren’t experiencing blizzard winds. So we got the call last night that the schools would be closed today. Nice gift after Superbowl celebrations but I still need to go out and clear my car.

Oh well, I’m off to squeeze in some work in my craft room and give the boys some worksheets to keep their brains active.

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

Black History Month

blackhistorybanner1Hello Everyone!  Today it’s the start of the 2015 Black History Month in the United States. I typically comb the internet and television to find enriching programs to continue my education.

One of my favorite booktuber Frenchiedee is coordinating a great effort to showcase booktubers for this month that will be sharing information regarding books about or written by black people. So if you have a chance check out her YouTube channel, Frenchiedee to find out more.

Today I am starting a new book in honor of this month:

forbiddenfruitForbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus

Forbidden Fruit is a collection of fascinating, largely untold tales of ordinary men and women who faced mobs, bloodhounds, bounty hunters, and bullets to be together — and defy a system that categorized blacks not only as servants, but as property.

Here you’ll meet, among other extraordinary characters, a fugitive slave from Virginia who spends seventeen years searching for his wife. A Georgia slave couple that sails for England with federal troops trailing behind. A white woman who falls in love with her deceased husband’s slave. A young slave girl who is delivered to her fiance; inside a wooden chest.

Acclaimed journalist Betty DeRamus gleaned these anecdotes from descendants of runaway slave couples, unpublished memoirs, Civil War records, census data, magazines, and dozens of previously untapped sources. This is a book about people pursuing love and achievement in a time of hate and severely limited opportunities. Though not all of the stories in Forbidden Fruit end in triumph, they all celebrate hope, passion, courage, and triumph of the human spirit.

I hope you find time to explore and learn more this month whether via a book, television or visual arts program in your town.

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

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