I decided on the process on February 2017, after I returned from my holiday in Africa, where of course, I went to see Karim and my friends. I don't know how people usually do it, but for me, it wasn't a decision from one day to another, it was definitely something that grew in me for more than 1 year.

Chapter II: Home, as it was.

I want to clean up. Cleanse. Inside and out. The world is telling me to scrub. Inside and out. I'm telling myself I would like a nice interior scrub. Soul and sole scrubbing.

Scientific adventure is a fantastic summertime fun for families or just plain old-school fun during the school year. Children feel free to discover new interests that often lead to enthralling hobbies or educational pursuits when they accomplish scientific exploration in a non-competitive home or after-school environment.

SISTERLY LOVE?

When my grandmother was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, my parents and I felt helpless. What could we do to make things easier for her? How quickly will her cognitive decline happen? How could we preserve her quick wit and sense of humor? Was there a way to slow her memory loss?

A triathlon, like fatherhood, is a multiple-stage event. It involves the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance disciplines of which swimming is just one of them. It's one of my favourite examples that draw parallels to becoming a father, because, like triathletes, us fathers will have to go through multiple-stage events throughout our children’s life (New babies, toddlers, adolescent teens and then adulthood). What are the 3 stages I hear you pondering! Well! The stages (or the Legs) of a Triathlon start with the "hardest" event first; Swimming then it goes on to the cycling event and then finally the running stage.

From the moment we pee on a stick and find out the reason we are so moody and bloated, is because a tiny little human has started to form in our womb, we begin to think about the kind of parent we want to be. There is nothing more personal than parenting…

For many women, and I know for me, finding out you are pregnant comes with an onslaught of thoughts shortly after seeing that little red line. Many questions come to mind. How will my life change when this baby is born? Am I ready to become a parent? Will I have a boy or a girl? Is labor really as painful as it is made out to be on TV? Among all of these questions, one that lingers and continues to become more and more of a question an expectant mother wants to figure out an answer to is: Should I continue working or become a stay at home mom?

Divorce affects every child differently. However, all children of divorce do best when both parents stay actively involved in their lives. This continuing connection makes a positive difference for children of all ages—even teens—minimizing the fact that their parents no longer live together.

According to the every-now-and-then reminder notice from Facebook (also known as Memories), it's been six years since I took Alex to a celebratory lunch after we attended his graduation ceremony for promoting from Tevis Junior High School to Stockdale High School. I was so proud of him, and it was some rare quality time he and I would share that became less and less common as he got older, and I moved farther away.

How can this be? I know I am a woman at heart, but am a father... of four boys, nonetheless. As if raising four boys to become amazing men wasn’t full of its own challenges. Throw my being transgender and it’s quite an adventure. How lucky am I though to be a parent of blood borne children! I am so blessed!

This day in age more and more people are finding it hard to keep relationships because of the toxic- -in-laws that come along with the new marriage. Sometimes it comes unexpectedly where the wife and/or husband is caught off guard by the change of the in-law(s).

First days breastfeeding…

You just found out you and your beautiful significant other are going to have a baby. What an amazing and exciting time. However, there is so much to think about and so much to prepare for. But you will have time to think about that later on.

Scientific adventure is a fantastic summertime fun for families or just plain old-school fun during the school year. Children feel free to discover new interests that often lead to enthralling hobbies or educational pursuits when they accomplish scientific exploration in a non-competitive home or after-school environment.

Are you under a coronavirus quarantine? Does your child just have a normal childhood illness? Is life with a toddler frustrating? Any way you slice it, being at home with people in the 2-4 year old range can be challenging. Here are some ideas to keep everyone busy and sane during this time.

Having an excellent credit rating will make getting a mortgage, car loan or credit card much easier. Better interest rates are available to those with good credit, so it is important to improve your credit before applying to lenders.

This story of an inspirational woman in my life is extremely close to my heart since it belongs to my aunt. We belong to a very humble background, where woman are only encouraged to settle down as early as possible and men are the sole bread-winners of the family. Its just how the culture has embedded this trend within our society, since the beginning. But throughout my story, you'll realize why shattering the norms is important in today's society and why ones inability to achieve their dreams shouldn't be --- " don't do it since it goes against the cultural norms and since you'll be a shame to the family's honour"

There is no shortage of women who inspire me that I could write about. My mother, who raised three children on her own earning success in her career and raising strong resilient children. My sister who fought all odds and woke up from a coma that should have killed her or my friend who gave up her favourite foods such as steak and eventually gravy because her empathy for all living things was bigger than satisfying her taste buds or her meat loving husband.

A fish lived on a ground, not in the water she was still living on the ground. She had three children.

Once upon a time, there was a small boy named John he was a boy a very fat boy. John was picked on because of his body weight. He liked eating because he was fat. When people said he was fat, he said that he was big boned. They would call him mean names, names that shouldn't be said for a children's novel. John was sad about these mean comments so he told his mom.

“I’m lost,” The young boy says again, his small, quiet voice screaming in my head. Forcing me to listen, I look down at him, his dark brown hair falling just shy of his eyebrows, his bed dress a grey colour, drowning him in the material. And his beautiful lapis-lazuli eyes gazing at me with hope. I look away in shame and close my eyes tight to block out the image that is before me. I hold back tears with all my strength, not wanting to show the young one my guilt. As I look back to him, all I see is the edge of the cliff. I turn sharply and see the boy standing behind me, he coughs and I fly backwards off of the edge.

When my grandmother was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, my parents and I felt helpless. What could we do to make things easier for her? How quickly will her cognitive decline happen? How could we preserve her quick wit and sense of humor? Was there a way to slow her memory loss?

The one person in my life who has inspired me the most I would have to say is my grandmother. I am who I am today because of her.

My mother’s maternal grandmother was named Florence Prease Ragsdale. I just realized that I never knew her middle name. I began living with Aunt Florence,(pronounced “aint Florence") at the tender age of nine months old. I was told my parents had been arguing outside their apartment and accidentally locked the door with me inside crying. Someone called my grandma, who was Aunt Florence’s daughter and she came and took me away. Aunt Florence had been on her own since age 13, after her mother died. I recall balancing between crushes on boys and still playing with my dolls at that age. I could not imagine having to go to work and raise myself when I was that young but you do what you have to do.

It was a cold winter day. A Saturday to be exact. Working yet again, I dropped our son off at your home for the few hours I needed help. Everything seemed normal, nothing warranting what was about to unfold into the worst nightmare of someone’s life.

This is my son , he is 10 now but for the last 3 years my life has been turned upside down because of his narcissistic father .

The day I lost my Great-Grandma Ada is a day I have never quite recovered from. I awoke on March 5th, 2006 to news that would rock the world of any 10-year-old. My Grandma Sharon’s cell phone was going off and it woke me up first, I had fallen asleep with my grandma on her bed the night before watching TV and honestly, once I’m unconscious, it’s too much effort to try to get me up. I remember sitting up and nudging my grandma telling her the phone was going off. I handed her the cell phone and saw my uncle’s name as the contact. Her brother, my great uncle, was living with my grandma Ada helping to take care of her. She had just gotten out of a recent hospital stay and we had just been over there the day before. All of the family had actually. We had spent the day eating and going through old family photos with Grandma Ada at the helm sharing all of the memories she could give us about them. Grandma Sharon answered the phone and I could hear my uncle’s words on the other end. My Grandma Ada was on her way to the hospital, and it was bad.

Were you ever told this, after having an angry outburst as a child, crying on the floor?

A triathlon, like fatherhood, is a multiple-stage event. It involves the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance disciplines of which swimming is just one of them. It's one of my favourite examples that draw parallels to becoming a father, because, like triathletes, us fathers will have to go through multiple-stage events throughout our children’s life (New babies, toddlers, adolescent teens and then adulthood). What are the 3 stages I hear you pondering! Well! The stages (or the Legs) of a Triathlon start with the "hardest" event first; Swimming then it goes on to the cycling event and then finally the running stage.

Building strong connections with trusted adults can give kids a sense of security and a better foundation for achieving their potential. Make spending time together a priority with these engaging activity ideas that allow the whole family to get in on the fun.

I want to clean up. Cleanse. Inside and out. The world is telling me to scrub. Inside and out. I'm telling myself I would like a nice interior scrub. Soul and sole scrubbing.

This piece is a no brainer, the title pretty much gives it away. It is rant if I'm honest, maybe a think-piece if I'm going to be diplomatic about it. I just want to know, why do parents feel like it is their prerogative to treat their children however they deem fit? I'm talking specifically about those that treat their children with a lack of respect, or even simple human decency for those that have it worse. I am not talking about children in terms of the young, because even parents with 'children' of adult age, fail to treat them correctly.

You wake up at 2:00 am to your 5-year-old child crawling in bed with you. You open your eyes just for a second to see what is going on. You hear his very tired voice saying “Mommy I had a bad dream, can I sleep with you?” You are way too tired to get up and put him back in his room where he should be, so you let him stay. You give him a pillow and cover him up and you lay back down. You sleep for about 30 minutes tossing and turning cause you're too hot. Wake up to make sure that he is breathing. Wake up every 30 or so minutes to check on him. You have gotten about 3 hours of total sleep, when you should have had about 8.

The uterus; mother of all. A revitalising, prenatal oeuvre and chamber of nurture. Many would consider processes associated with the uterus as "girl problems." Within me, endometrial lining conquers the outside of my womb. Concealment under covers and suppression through pills are the only things that encourage comfort. As a woman with a "wandering womb" which flourishes outside of itself, I find it bothersome that our issues are natural but yet, so misconstrued and shaped into impersonal subjects.

They say that in order to understand something, try it on. Step into its shoes. Wear it for a while; walk a mile in those shoes, and then you will know, really know what it is to be something else, someone else.

My family had some odd habits when I was growing up. One of the more particularly odd habits of my father was that electricity wasn't permitted in my home on Sundays. No television. No telephone. No stereos. We would gather in the living room or at the dining room table after church and we would play games, tell stories or record cassette tapes to send to the family members that were scattered across the United States. I was a child and thought my father's idea was absolutely stupid. Why in the world couldn't we just be like any other normal family and gather around the television every evening? That we didn't own a television, an action that was taken by my father as a means of discipline, during that period of time further fueled my desire to not be a part of the family gathering. Just as I look back and remember that feeling of "my family is sooooo weird", I can't help but smile at the warm memory of my family gathered around a bulky cassette recorder, before time and circumstances separated we five. It was fun in its purest form. I'm sure the cassette tapes have long been discarded, but the memory will play in my mind forever.

My mom was no ordinary woman. In fact, I spent most of my childhood imitating her to someday be classified as the same. I would study her poses as she smiled for the camera and listened intently to her conversations. Not only was her smile contagious, but so was the poise in how she approached conversations. Her grace and selflessness was admired by many and when she departed from Earth (but never from my heart!), I knew that the only responsibility I had was to exemplify the same characteristics as my best friend, my mama.

My mother is the absolute most influential and impactful woman to ever step into my life. Well, I guess in a way I kind of stepped into hers. Either way, she’s kept me nurtured and strong and has taught me how to navigate life and handle even the most difficult of situations with confidence. I know that this short story that I’ve created can’t truly express all the gratitude that I have for you. It can’t repay you for all the time and resources you spent trying to raise me, but it just goes to show how influential and supportive you are of me emotionally and creatively. Thank you, for everything. I love you mom.

There was always a warm and thoughtful smile upon her face. Her voice was calm and low. When that voice was raised, you know that you have tugged at a very patient woman and you have crossed a line. When that voice was raised, I could sometimes imagine the very earth may have trembled in fear of her anger.

SISTERLY LOVE?

My younger sister has always been the baby of the family.

The woman that inspires me is my twin sister and I’ll tell you why! My sister Kierra is a warrior, an endometriosis’s warrior, a fighter and advocate. Many women may know that March is Women's history month, but do they know that March is also Endometriosis awareness month? I didn’t either at one point. Until three years ago when my twin sister began experiencing unusual and painful symptoms before and around her menstrual cycle. Consequently, I can only hypothesize that a great majority of women don't know what endometriosis is or haven't heard of it yet. So if we are going to shine the spotlight on amazing women. Then let’s talk about something that has impacted us all, at one point or another. Our periods!