mama: oh, dutch, you’re ready for bed, buddy?
dutch: yes, i saw the street lights on.

one day recently dutch broke my maracas. i told him not to bang them together, but apparently he did and well, no more shakey, shakey is going on in our home.

mama: dutch, why did you do that?
dutch: i’m sorry, mom. i did it on purpose, but i didn’t mean to.

we’re having a bit of a time with the whole potty training thing in our house and since dutch is so interested in going to school i had to let him in on a little secret: you can’t go to school wearing pull-ups. so he headed to the bathroom, peed on the potty and announced…

dutch: yeah!! i’m going to school!!!

you might know the local convenience store as 7-11, well, dutch has renamed it.

dutch: mom, can we go to the “79″?

i’ve realized lately that my child is just not as urban as i was at his age. we were recently at the giant food store picking up a few groceries when he pointed to a colorful, thin package and said…

dutch: mom, what’s this?
mama: it’s kool-aid, dutch.
dutch: oh. can i have kool-aid, mom?

it only got worse when we went to visit a friend of mine who lives in d.c. last weekend and he pointed to a pigeon and said…

dutch: what was that flying, mom?

geez louise, i am failing as a parent over here. my child doesn’t know kool-aid or pigeons. anyway, we were riding in the car the other day, listening to the radio when jennifer hudson’s song “spotlight” came on. the chorus kicked in, “well, i don’t like, living under your spotlight…”

dutch: mom, what don’t she like?

my family got a sneak peak of the learning about manners picnic basket game and it was big fun! you know, in a kiddie kinda way. the idea is to match items from the basket with items on the gameboard, but you must ask “may i have a token, please?” in order to get more tokens. and naturally, it helps to say thank you as well.

also, check out the new learning to share fun park and learning to lIsten pizza palace games.

this dvd is easy-to-follow and introduces early learners to basic spanish words and phrases and includes familiar images and plenty of repetition in english and spanish so that your child can really grasp the vocabulary. recommended for ages 1-5, preschooler learns spanish runs a little over 30 minutes.

galloping minds also offers other dvds including baby learns alphabet and phonics, baby learns shapes and colors, baby learns numbers and animals and preschool baby learns about computers.

september 6-7, 2008
noon to 8pm
washington national mall
(between 7th and 14th streets)
washington, dc

in case you haven’t experienced the reunion before, it’s a cultural event chock full of food, fun and good music. the ncnw’s goal is to celebrate the enduring strengths and traditional values of the african american family.

the black family reunion will kick off with its opening ceremony, the ecumenical prayer breakfast featuring bishop eddie long of new birth missionary baptist church in lithonia, georgia. that’s happening on the washington national mall, saturday, september 6th from 8:30am to 11:30am and tickets are $40. for advance ticket purchase or for more information, call 202.383.9109.

all festival activities are free!! woohooo!! now who doesn’t like free? you can check out exhibits, theme pavilions, pick up corporate samples, get community information and see local and national talent perform.

concert on the washington national mall information:

saturday, september 6
5pm to 8pm
fantasia
tank

sunday, september 7
5pm to 8pm
smokie norful
deitrick haddon
jason champion

after eating we walked down to my community’s pool where mr. leroy, the star of the neighborhood, was strumming his guitar poolside and singing his slightly popular songs about fried chicken wings, all the women he’s dated in his life and giving shout outs to various areas in dc.

“s.e.!!!!!!!!!!”

“n.e.!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“sursom cordas!!!!!!!!”

oh yeah, honey, you had to be there to believe it.

mr. leroy had entertained us big time, but it was the norm for him to be out singing for the neighbors (or really, for himself). but on this particular day he was really on a singing roll and i was cracking up laughing, almost to the point where i wanted to just fall out flat on the ground and sorta roll with laughter, but since i was toting a humongous belly i thought better than to actually have my unborn child on the pavement.

after spending a little time with mr. leroy and enjoying his concert/comedy hour, we came back in and decided to just chill for a while and after a while edell decided to get some real food because crabs simply don’t make a meal. he ran across the bridge and came back with with a soul food mother lode. I’m talking barbecued ribs that would wanna make you smack yo’ mama, the cheesiest macaroni and cheese, and some collard greens topped off with a little cornbread on the side.

hey, i was eating for two, remember?!

my neighbors had invited us to a cookout and as good as the music was sounding, i just couldn’t make a move to join them. i told edell that i’d have to sit that celebration out and just zone out on the couch watching television instead. besides being tired, i had the worse stomachache ever.

edell fell asleep next to me on the couch and i sat there wondering what to do about my stomach pains. maybe all those crabs topped off by all of the other goodness hadn’t been such a good idea after all. but there was something a little strange about these stomach pains. they seemed to come and go…you know, like in increments.

you see where I’m going with this?

i shook edell a little and said, “honey, i think i’m having contractions.” he didn’t believe me. with this being my first child and all he just figured i didn’t know what the heck i was talking about. and maybe i wasn’t exactly sure, sure, but i knew that i had never had a stomachache before that caused the pain to come and go like every nine or ten minutes!

so to make a long story short, i spent my labor day in labor. (yep, my boy seems to have the same funny little sense of humor as his daddy and lolo!) and by that afternoon we were the proud parents of a 9 lb, 8 oz bouncing baby boy who smelled a little like baby back ribs dipped in old bay crab seasoning.

just kidding about the smell. just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention to my little story here!!

of course labor day never falls on the exact same date every year so it’s not like every labor day is dutch’s birthday, but i can’t help but to get a little misty-eyed on the holiday. it’s almost like he has two birthdays and now i actually have a reason to celebrate labor day instead of just jumping for joy that i actually get a day off from work. ’cause ummmm, what’s that holiday really all about anyway?

By now, you’re probably wondering well…who’s Delloyd? Delloyd is a homeless gentleman that lives on the corner of Pennsylvania and 7th St. This past Saturday morning, I sat down on the sidewalk with him and we ate breakfast together. During our conversation, he implored that I share some information about our homeless community with everyone that i could. I gave him my Word…hence this email.

(All Delloyd’s words are italicized)

Delloyd had one of the most beautiful and genuine spirits that I have ever had the opportunity and pleasure of being. In the hour and half that we spent together, I felt like I was sitting in the presence of Holiness.  As we sat in his “living room” he just sang about how good God has been to him.

“God blesses and visits me everyday. Now he doesn’t come down and talk to me like Moses through a burning bush, but he uses people. He blesses and visits me though people like you. Right now you’re my angel, and I am yours. God is using me right now to be a blessing in someone else’s life.”

He couldn’t have been more right. He was Job. In the midst of having absolutely nothing; no family or friends, possessions with the exception of a duffel bag, this man truly blessed the Lord, and was so thankful.

Now that you have been “acquainted” with Delloyd here is his message:

The best thing that you can give a homeless person is conversation. We do not always want something from you. Yeah, of course it would be nice to get something to eat or a few dollars, but a lot of times we just want to be acknowledged. That’s it.

The worst thing that you can do to a homeless person is ignore us, especially after one of us speaks to you…It’s like you are saying that we are less than human and don’t even deserve the simple respect that you would give another person. The only difference between you and me is a steady paycheck. And most of the people that don’t speak to me are just one paycheck away from being where I am right now.

And most of the people that don’t speak to me are just one paycheck away from being where I am right now.

If you do want to give us something and it’s not money or food, give us something that you can’t use anymore like a broken cd player or something. We can sell it and buy ourselves some food or something. So instead of just throwing it away, you can just give it away.

We understand your struggle too. We understand that you struggle everyday to keep the money that you do have, struggle to keep your family together, keep your children, and even that you may be only 1 paycheck I am.

Please understand ours, many people often yell at us to get a job or tell us that we are lazy, but many of us cannot work. I’m physically disabled. I cannot lift anything over 5lbs. I would love to be able to do something with my body, but I am in so much pain, every single moment of the day. But even in all this pain, I am so blessed….but I don’t know what tomorrow holds for me, but I know that I wont be here forever, this is my fourth time being homeless since I was 25, and I’m now 48. but I have a dream of starting no income housing for the homeless that teaches us job training, and stuff like that.

As we were parting our ways he also asked me to share his favorite trivia question?

“What is truly the most genuine and popular nation in the world?”
Answer: A donation. Everybody needs one at some point in their life.

On that we shook hands and promised we’d meet each other again soon. I hope that you each got something from Mr. Delloyd.

Blessings to you All,
Starlette Marshall on behalf of Delloyd (no last name).

make poverty history

carnival wax -1965 oil .35 oz. spicy cinnamon, warm cloves with vanilla.
$95

nyakio - african tea candle with hints of tea and citrus
$32

people of the labyrinths is the hard-to-find fragrance all the way from holland.
$195

czech & speake is an exotic fragrance that combines frankincense and myrrh blended with chamomile, sandalwood and lavender.
$162

by kilian is straight to heaven inspired by rum and blending cedarwood, indonesian patchouli oil and martinician rum.
$225