Home Life - Sponsored by the Mrs.

Mornin' Family,

Oh how sweet it is! Today, I'll lay out my To Wishin' for the nest I'll design for me, my husband and our children. I see it so clearly.

By the way, it was just today, don't you know, that I articulated the effect certain images have on me. They foster the seeing and To Wishin.' When I'm in need of such, I seek images from Urban Home, the Great Outdoors, and websites with homes for sale. Leave a comment letting me know how they affect you.

One image can lead to hours of imagining, which, in turn, lead to hours and hours of writing. Pictures of homes and lovely decorated spaces touch me deeply within my soul. AH HA! That's why I love me some HGTV!! I'm reminded how much I'm entitled to my inheritance as a human child of God.

Fit for a king and his first family, there's a delicately designed dining room table where connection take place. Our living room is quiet and calm, inviting guest to take a load off. All who enter always feel free. My husband is guaranteed respect and adoration, trust and a loyal following.

For the most part, tap dancing on our bamboo hardwood floors is not forbidden, that is, if homework is finished, and it's raining outside.

My toes revel in the family room's plush carpet. My personal favorite is the easy-t0-vacuum Berber carpet in our entertainment room. We spend lots of time here running around barefoot with no agenda. Few rules are allowed since goofing off is mandatory. Shelves nearly overflow with Outburst, Life, Memory and Monopoly. It's a Saturday so my family and in-laws are over. As was in my childhood, we turn over a recycled Rubbermaid© bin and play Caroms. Poor me... I most quickly tire of winning consecutive round after round. Poor my husband... He insists we put it away and watch movies. I bid for the St. Louis Blues and the kids demand endless Disney Pixar flicks. Dad-in-law vacillates between a nap and a shoot-'em-up Western. We'll toss a coin.

Come closer. You're liable to hear Mozart or Verdi during study time, Hip Hop on Saturdays (especially when WE'RE cleaning the house), Gospel on Sundays, and everything in between every other day.

You hungry? Let me make you a snack of organic apple slices dipped in fresh almond butter. Then, for your potable pleasure, I suggest my famous acai banana smoothie.

We'll have two nights per week of guaranteed connections. Yes, your life too, can be proactively designed so that relationships work because built-in, is their nurturing and feeding.

The date night is exclusive time with my husband. Before the kids, we'll eat out, go to the movies, and, well, you know. After the kids, we'll do the same, except enter the sitter fund. We'll work out a deal with close-knit family and friends.

Family night commences once the kids come along. It's one night per week (from 6pm until) that we all stay home; no church, no work, no soccer practice and no visitors. We do it justice by just us.

The date night came to me via an older couple I met on a cruise. Although total strangers, I reckoned them comrades ready to spare me trouble by imparting life lessons. I asked, among other things, how long they'd been married. The secret to their 35-year matrimony was a commitment to regular time alone. They didn't discuss kids, nor the plumbing. Their focus was each other. "Rain or shine, or even if arguing like cats and dogs," the wife confessed, "we'll still fellowship every Friday night."

The best part about all of this is that I'm single...Excited to date the man who'll be my partner in procreation, progress, and the propagation of purpose. It's not about my Tacori size 6 blinding platinum ring in princess cut. Oh no! It's much deeper than that. It's about deliberate healing for the past 2 years. It's about discovering who I am and what I have to offer. Now, from my man, I receive all that's in him to complement me.

Myisha The Matriarch

Is all well?

I want to show you my domestic side today. Did you know I'm a matriarch--the wife of a great man, and the mother of our three children? Our daughter's name is Donatella ("given by God") Mavourneen ("my darling") and our twin boys are Ezra ('helper') Mitaire and Amadeus ("lover of God) Emmanuel ("God with us").

I first saw Donatella in a dream when she was approximately 14 months old. On our bed, she playfully grooved to the music as my husband and I prepared to go somewhere. Her soft hair was in three ponytails and she wore a white onesie. You couldn't look too long into her huge brown eyes (slightly lighter than my dad's). You were bound to blush.


Our sons were revealed in a flash of a vision. The sleeping newborns lay in the labor and delivery unit, adorable just the same as their big sister. I'll have pictures for you once they appear on the planet.

Curious what my To Wishin' is for these blessings? It's a hope chest. While at Bed, Bath and Beyond this Saturday with one of my nurturers, I purchased the first entry: this apron which reads Kiss the Cook. With utter delight I announced to the cashier, "This has 'wife' written all over it!"

Brothers and Sisters, a hope chest is a powerful concept. My magnificent musings of matriarchy become more real as I collect items to be used for building a home for me, my husband and our children. For me, there's no higher calling to which I aspire.

Oh to be barefoot and pregnant...ROTFL

Orientation (No, not that one)

Let me ask you a question? What is your orientation to life? To events that happen in life?

Well, what is orientation? Answers.com say it's:

-The direction followed in the course of a trend, movement, or development
-A tendency of thought; a general inclination
-One's place and direction relative to one's surroundings; bearings, location, position
-The ascertainment of one's true position, as in a novel situation, with respect to attitudes, judgments, etc.
-An integrated set of attitudes and beliefs
-A usually general or lasting direction of thought or inclination

I was raised around people who constantly spoke, sang, and all but bragged about what they were "going through." It was as if they were super humans because they endured uncontrollable turmoil to which someone subjected them. Well, in 32 years of life, I've come to see that one's orientation to life, one's prevailing perspective, translates into one's daily experience. If your integrated set of attitudes and beliefs is that life is full of proverbial "storms", then guess what 's bound to happen? Storms.

Some people's thought pattern is that of a recording artist I heard on the radio. He said "At any given time, you're in one of three places. You just came out of a storm, are in one now, or about to go into one." Worse than that was the audience cheering in the background.

How could I have a life of victory, which God intends for humanity, if I'm ever looking up the road anticipating the next round of heartache? Fahgitabbouit! I expect to win. My God always causes me to triumph. Why not be so "distracted" by where you're going that you, literally, have no time to regard drama.

Don't misread me, my love! Far be it from me to suggest that one can live trouble free. Nah, nah, nah! What I'm saying is that you owe it to yourself to 1) discover and document your orientation, and 2) precisely define what "storms" you're experiencing. Are you reaping what you've sown? Is it a misunderstanding? Is someone being malicious? Remember Ella's song, Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall? That's within reason. But, C'mon babe! Is this overwhelmingly the case for you? Is someone hating on you at all times? Do you climb the rough side of the mountain every day? Then stop giving it radio play. :) Don't speak of what you don't want and what you won't do. What do you want? I know you're glad you don't look like where you've come from, but what do you look like? Where are you going?

See how long you can go without complaining how bad things are for you. Can you go a whole day without referring to your "trials and tribulations"? I dare ya. :)

Beloved, a change in your orientation necessitates a change in speech. I've met people who's orientation is towards:

pain
struggle
problems
suffering
defeat
enduring
getting by
victimhood
hardship
brokenness
being broke (financially)
offense/being offended
going through (hell)
helplessness

However, try on for size these words to describe your orientation to life.

Progress
Promise
Prevail
Plenty
Wholeness
Victory
Solutions
Overcoming
Foresight
Conquering
Focus

On your side,

Myisha

PS, I dedicate this post to two very nice people I've recently met: Pastors Andrae and Sandra Crouch. A brief interaction with Pastor Sandra reinforced my orientation to progressiveness.