Growing Green

**In recognition of Earth Day we opted not to post a Vent day video.

Yes and I said growing green... We have officially planted our organic garden! The folks at the Ismail house occasionally do things to encourage greener living ;) We, or I should say Dwayne has been composting for over a year now and he finally got to put all that "stuff" to good use. He made a 4x8 bed in our backyard and we also gathered every plant pot we could put our hands on. It took us a few days of back breaking work to complete this project and we are very optimistic about the results.

Here is Dwayne mixing all of his organic material and getting the bed ready for planting.

Here is the garden after we planted some veggies (yellow squash, cucumbers, and sweet banana peppers)

This is Dwayne's aloe plant. He's old school like that!

You know you have to have your herbs! I keep this by my door closest to my kitchen for easy access. (cilantro, basil and thyme)

We planted some Roma tomatoes, habanero peppers and both red and green bell peppers.

We also have quite a few pots with some petunias, impatiens and begonias all around the house.

We just wanted to share a few photos of the many things we planted. We went way over our initial budget, but hopefully we will get enough fresh produce to make it all worth the cost.

Have you planted a garden this year? If you have a green thumb and have any gardening advice, please share!!

Extra savings for the Coupon lovers

For those of you coupon clipping moms (and dads) here is a great tidbit I want to share. If you shop at Kroger or the related chain grocery stores there is an extra way to save. If you sign up with ShortCuts (a free service) You can link your shoppers' card with E-Coupons. This means no clipping! As a matter if fact, you can also use physical coupons in combination with items that have an E-Coupon.

For example:

Yoplait offers an E-Coupon for $1.00 off 2 packs of Yoplait Kids yogurt products. The Kroger price is $2.39 each ( 2 for $4.78) This brings you to $3.78 with your $1 off that was automatically deducted upon using your Kroger shoppers' card. I went to the Yoplait Kids site and printed out 2 coupons for $1.50 any Kids yogurt product. My final cost for 2 packs of yogurt is 78 cents!

It is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. It just takes a few minutes to sign up for the service along with clipping your coupons like you normally do. The results are BIG savings! You can even end up with items costing you nothing but tax. I have gotten great deal on paper products, baby items, baking goods and other miscellaneous everyday things. With the rising cost of everything we use these days it is so worth it to sign up for this service. Don't use the excuse that you don't have the patience or time. It does not take much out of your day to save, I promise!

If you have any additional tips you would like to share or websites that offer great savings please leave a comment letting us know! Have a great Monday!!

Bleeding on the Blog (Finale)

So the day approached when my father and daughters went to the movies. I tell you it was like being tortured. I could not be there to see what was going on. I could not "monitor" which is really a good word for control the situation. My wife was there for me to draw some strength from, but my street upbringing had me feeling like I could not breathe. Anyway, I guess GOD was there to try to guide me because they came home right on time. The car door opened and my babies jumped out. I was posted-up ( that's hood talk) ready to go to war if I heard anything negative. My babies jumped out the car and they were smiling. My father jumped out and he was smiling. It seems they had a wonderful time. Well, one outing lead to another, then to another, and then another. Before you knew it the outings became more frequent, and then we would go out as a family to Ryan's Steak House and other establishments. As the sands of time slide through the hour glass, 1 year turned into 2, 2 years turned into 3, 3 to 4 , and 4 to 5,6, 7, and 8. During this time I have learned many of my mannerisms are just like my father. I call him POP as a great term of endearment. We spend each Sunday together watching Animal Planet, or the Deadliest Catch. We have the similar F150 trucks, and the list goes on. I guess the morale of the story is .. do not let the past hinder your present. DO not miss out on what can be because of what was. My father and I have a great relationship and I can honestly say that I really appreciate the relationship much more because of what we were able to go through. We both were able to grow in the process. He now gets what he did not get as a young man having a child, so he makes sure to be the best grandparent to my children that he can be. I now have guidance, concern, a best friend and love from my father. We are doing alright. We just celebrated his 56th birthday last week. I am glad I was willing to begin again because now I have a great friend who is my Pops.

September 29, 2007 Flash Back

Bleeding on the Blog Part 3 of 4

What happened between my father and I was between my father and I.

As parents we try to protect our children as much as possible, but really I was just trying to protect myself. That is right I hand to admit that to myself . I was protecting myself from being abandoned again. I did not want that feeling of not being worthy again. It is amazing that you can go your whole life trying to be considered special by those that gave you life. That may be the reason I try so hard to make sure my children always know that they are special to me. I try to be at as many events as possible. I try to kiss them at night, give them back rubs or scratch when they need it, tickle (say Uncle - say Uncle) sessions, play in the backyard, make a bootleg volleyball field in the backyard -just because, and teach them. I will say that my father did teach me a lesson as a kid. He did teach me what not to do to my kids. Isn't that really the job of a parent. Teach your child? I would like to say "I prayed on it", but that would not be true. I am still growing in that area as well (another story for another day). Fast forward to me putting aside my male ego, pain, and shame. I agreed to allow my father and children to spend some time together by going to the local movie theater (of course with some coaching by my wife). I resolved within myself that if he (my father) would do right by my children then I would give him a pass on the past. I would wipe away all painful feelings and begin again. However, if he made them feel incomplete in anyway, bump what wifey has to say it would be on. So the day approached when my father and daughters went to the movies. Stay tuned for the final part 4 tomorrow the conclusion of bleeding on the blog.

Vent Day Wednesday

Welcome to this week's edition of Vent Day Wednesday. I have to apologize ahead of time for our behavior. You'll figure out why. Be sure to leave your vents in the comments section.

Love at first sniff & a giveaway!

No people, I'm not talking about Dwayne's cologne LOL! It was pure charm that got me...that's another post...

What I am talking about is my favorite laundry detergent, Gain. For those of you that use it, you know exactly what I'm talking about!! If you have not tried Gain yet then you are truly missing out on having the freshest scented laundry. I started using Gain when a friend of mine gave me a bag of clothing for little William. I was totally taken by the way it smelled. Honestly, I found myself sniffing it over and over again! I think it was what I was missing from my previous detergent, long lasting freshness. There is nothing like opening my linen closet and having that sweet smell all over my towels.

My kids and hubby even get compliments on how good their sweater or shirt smells!
We want you to experience the freshness for yourself! Momfiles is giving 3 lucky readers a chance to win a coupon good for one 100 ounce size or smaller bottle of Gain.

*All you have to do is leave a comment and tell us what scent you would like to try. Once you have done that you can earn additional entries by doing any of the following:

• Follow Momfiles by clicking follow in the upper right hand corner of this blog. If you are a current follower then state it in your comment.
• Tweet this giveaway and leave a link to your tweet. If you tweet it daily please be sure to leave your link. You can do this once per day!
• Leave a comment sharing a favorite laundry tip.
• Grab my button and place it on your sidebar. Please leave a link in your comment.

**For each entry to count you must leave an individual comment per entry method. U.S. residents only.

The deadline for giveaway is April 24th at 11:59 pm (EST) and will be contacted within 48 hours. Please be sure to have a visible email address in your comment or through your profile. Also check out the Gain site for a chance to win concert tickets to see Mandy Moore!

It's the little things...

I found myself the other day scrambling around the kitchen trying to find something quick to cook for dinner. I grabbed a bag of chicken wings and decided to try something a little different. Since they are the IQF type they were easy to thaw out. I then washed them up and patted them as dry as I could. I seasoned them lightly and heated up the fryer (this is my first of 3 times a year that I actually fry!) I dropped those suckers in (no breading) and fried them up til they were crispy and brown. I wanted to take these plain wings to another level so I searched around the fridge to see what I could come up with.

Is this a familiar image to you? The bag of condiments that you keep and think you will use some day.

Well I was lucky enough to find about 5 Chick-fil-a sauce cups (2 varieties) and I had a little Sweet Baby Ray's Chipotle Honey barbeque sauce. **I can just hear Dwayne screaming about the need for endorsement money lol!** I just mixed the 3 different sauces together and drizzled it over the freshly fried wings. Instant magic. My family went on and on about how it was the best chicken they have ever had. And I witnessed a couple of them licking the plate (don't try to act like it didn't happen, you know who you are!) They loved it so much you would have thought that they had steak and lobster! No matter how much the cook of the house can feel like they need to go the extra mile to make more interesting meals, it comes down to one thing. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

How many of you find that when you make a frugal meal or a quick, thrown together meal that your family seems to prefer that over something really fancy?

It's Friday!!!

Hey Y'all, it's Friday!! I hope you have a great weekend and I leave you with this 20 second video of your boy, "Ismail the Great". You know how he loves his money!!

*BTW, I did make him toss it in after the video. Cheap bastard!! Don't get me started before this turns into a Vent Day post!

Yoplait Kids prize pack winners

Our three winners were chosen through Random.org and here they are:

Mama Zen (22), Audrey (42), &
Mommyhood is Thankless (33)

Congratulations to you all and I know you will love your prize packs! Thanks to everyone for participating and remember you can print out a coupon here to save $1.50 off Yoplait kids yogurt. Check back soon for more fun giveaways and prizes!

Vent Day Wednesday

Welcome to this week's edition of Vent Day Wednesday. I am really starting to question the title of Vent Day Wednesday. You all know why. Enjoy the video and please hit us up in the comments with your vents!

Bleeding - Part 2

** Sorry I did not hyperlink Three Generations photo from Friday April 3**

Well back to Christmas. It was a weird event and very uncomfortable, yet fun at the same time. I think it was weird because I was 30-something and happy to finally have the traditional Christmas experience. Anyway, that was the seed planted that brought about a change. Later that evening I began to think deeply about the past, the present, and the future. I placed myself into the mind of a young man who discovered that he was about to be a father. That is a scary situation for any man. Then I looked back over my father's life and realized that his father (my grandfather) died when he was 10 years old. He immediately had to assume all responsibility for his family. My father never really had the teenage experience. He was the man of the house. This allowed me to give him some lead way, but it was not enough to allow me to give him a pass. My heart was still cold. My father was in the military visiting places like Germany, Korea, and France and I was stuck in the hood. Without a father I was left to learn from the streets, growing up in a rain of pain and the cocaine game in Miami, Florida. The FBI was at my grandmother's house every Christmas trying to catch my uncles. That was back in the days when they had those white and tan Topaz vehicles. I was the one in charge of taking 2 plates of food out to them. Like I said, my grandmother kept it real. My life lessons came from the pimps, pushers, prositutes, Tupac music, and underworld of our society. Anyway, that is another story for another day. My wife, like any good military strategist formulated a plan to have dinner again, again, and again. Through the food and conversation a fine medium was formed. However, my street teachers taught me to Trust No One. I was not about to let my father infiltrate my wall of defense that was created over a lifetime. As much as my wife tried to create a foundation, I was like "no way!" I looked at the relationship my father had with me as a child like the $100.00 allotment check the military took from his paycheck every month. Then one night while reflecting over my life similar to what I am doing now, I thought about my children. I thought about their futures. One day my children will want to know who they are, and they will want to know their purpose. I have learned in my life that history is a great place to start. However, when my children want to know about their grandparents I would have to admit that I kept them away from my father. I justified keeping them from him because I did not want him to hurt them like he hurt me. I was now taking my pain and placing it on them. That was not fair. What happened between my father and I was between my father and I. As parents we try to protect our children as much as possible, but really I was just trying to protect myself. Stay tuned for part 3 of bleeding on the blog.

Bleeding on the Blog ( Part 1)

When I was in the music business, my songwriting coach would always say "you have to give from the inside". In the rap world we called it "bleeding on the track", so I am going to bleed on this blog post. The picture below for Flashback Friday has the three generations. My father on the left, me, and my son William. We had attended the State Fair here in Columbia. The fair comes around once a year and the whole family attends. The reason this picture is so special is because I did not grow up with my father. I was born in 1973 and that year my father went into the military. His plan was to enlist, come back and marry my mom (who was 17 years old), and we would be an ARMY family. My father's plan was in place but my mother was not on board with it. The two decided to part ways and I became the traditional young black male raised with no father in the home. My grandmother took on the role of raising me. Fast forward to the future. I had a lot of anger in my heart with my father. I felt that he left me, abandoned me, etc... I moved to South Carolina by the urging of my grandmother. She felt it was best to leave Miami and start fresh with my family away from influences of the music business, friends, and past women (my grandmother always kept it real). Once in South Carolina, I reunited with my father and lets just say- not a happy time. We both needed to go to our corners for a little time out. That time-out session lasted five years. Finally one day my wife brokered a scenario that brought everyone together for Christmas. That year was the first time in my life that I was with my mother and father on Christmas. Stay tuned for part 2 of bleeding on the blog.

Flashback Friday

This photo is in my top 5 favorites. Three generations in one shot. Priceless :) Happy Friday everybody!!

Random baby moment

William was rolling around in his walker and I noticed things got a little quiet. The reason why is because the little fella was knocked out! Amazing how babies can sleep in any position and then it's back to business as usual. Now let a grown-up sleep an inch out of the normal and it's chiropractor to the rescue!!

I scooped him up and put him in his crib to snooze comfortably :)

Wordfull Wednesday- Case of the Beaver

I borrowed the Wordfull Wednesday from Renee at Cutie Booty Cakes. There is no way I could have done this post without a lot of words involved!

These are some photos that were taken on our side yard in the woods of some trees that were casualties of our neighborhood beaver. I have never actually seen anything like this in real life before.

Dwayne has heard him beavering (who knows what you call it) at night. I just wish I could capture some shots while the little pest is in action! I haven’t gotten a really good look at him since he is usually swimming way on the other side of the pond in the day time.

See our lovely pollen? Ugh! This could easily turn into a vent day!

This is the dam the beaver built covering the drainpipe of the pond we live on.

Here is his stash! Dwayne likes to call it firewood for next Winter!

Gum + Dryer = sticky mess!!

So I was being the great mom and wife that I always am and was doing laundry as usual. I am a stickler for checking pockets and sorting colors correctly. Apparently Dwayne had a few extra items that were dirty so I kind of just threw them along with the rest of the clothes.We all make mistakes occasionally right? Well let's say I made the biggest laundry mistake EVER. I accidentally washed...not a stick of gum, but the entire pack of gum (won't say which brand cause Dwayne will want endorsement money!) and then dried those clothes with the gum and all. I had no idea I had done so. The thing that made me realize this was the bursting fresh scent of peppermint when I opened the dryer door. I panicked and checked the clothes. Thankfully everything was gum-free. I found a couple balls of gum/wrappers/packaging all stuck together and then there were some long blue streaks all over the inside of the barrel. I just knew it would take all day to get that sticky gunk out. Luckily I utilized the beautiful thing we have called the Internet and found a way to remove the gum. It took all of 10 minutes total and now my dryer is as good as new!

Of course now the kids and Dwayne have been giving me the hardest time. It will probably be months before they let this one go. I'm just so glad it all worked out and yes, I will double check pockets like I usually do!

On another note, there will not be a VDW video tomorrow. We will post a wordless Wednesday because we have loads of yard work to do (really Dwayne does). I will supervise ;)

Brotha Drinks

Here goes Papo with one of his official "Brotha" drinks. Pineapple is one of his favorites. Notice how he has the brand covered up? You know he needs some endorsement money if he shows that!! What are we going to do with him?

A big thank you to YOU!

I know you are wondering why we are thanking you. It is because of all the feedback you have given us on our new look. Whether you commented through the blog, Twitter, Facebook or personal email it has been greatly appreciated. We really weren't sure what our readers might think since it is so bold and different from what it has been over the past couple years. However, it seems to be unanimous that everyone likes the new look and it is here to stay! Of course we couldn't have done it without two talented young mommies, Sheena from Mommydaddyblog for designing the logo and Jen from Keep it Classy, Jen for making our header. If you are looking to spruce up your blog then I would certainly recommend either of these awesome ladies! We are so happy with the look of the blog and it really is what we envisioned when we started Momfiles.

We wish you all a fantastic weekend!!!

Yoplait Kids Get Active prize pack GIVEAWAY

I have been given the opportunity to try out Yoplait Kids yogurt. Funny thing is that I have been purchasing Yoplait yogurt since my girls were William's age. In those days they called them Yumsters. There is something about that smooth & creamy texture that is very appealing to kids (and also to mom). I really love the fact that my child is getting his much needed calcium and vitamin D in a very delicious way. We all know how important calcium is for building strong bones! Also Yoplait kids yogurt has 25% less sugar than the average leading kids yogurts.

Look at little yogurt mouth :)

I really love the fact that Dora the Explorer along with her friends are featured characters on the containers. I think this really adds to the "kid-friendly" nature of this product. Another plus is that Yoplait Kids offers the Box Tops for Education coupons on the outer packaging.



Along with sampling the yogurt, I received this fantastic Get Active prize pack which includes a travel cooler (to take your yogurt on the road), a jump rope, a water bottle and an outdoor game set that includes a beach ball, paddle ball, Jai-Ali and a Frisbee. These items are great for outdoor play and help encourage children to stay active and healthy. I know my family will enjoy these items for the Spring and Summer.





I have 3 of these great Yoplait Kids Get Active prize packs to give away to 3 lucky readers!! You have 3 ways to enter for a chance at winning this prize.

1. Leave a comment telling us what you and your family do to stay active. *You must complete this step to qualify for additional entries.

2. You can Tweet this giveaway. Just leave the link to your tweet in your comment.

3. If you are not a follower of Momfiles then you can click the follow button at the upper, right hand section of this blog. If you are a current follower then state it in your comment.

**You must leave an individual comment per entry for them to be counted. Please leave your email address if it is not visible through your profile or site in the event you are a winner and have to be contacted. Contest ends April 8, 2002 at 12:00 am (EST) and is available to US Residents only.

Last thing...everyone is a winner because you can click here to get a money saving coupon for future purchases! Good luck and be sure to tell your friends and family to enter for a chance to win this great prize!

Vent Day Wednesday

Well it's Vent Day Wednesday today. Enjoy the video and don't forget to hit us up in the comments to tell us your vents.

South Carolina Junior Scholar- Chardonnay Ismail

Yesterday evening was an exceptional one. Our family went to see our daughter accept an award for being a South Carolina Junior Scholar. She scored very high on the PSAT and is in the top 2% of our state for academics. Is was just awesome seeing all of those intelligent young people there being honored for their achievement. They are our future physicians, scientists, engineers, chefs, and the sky's the limit! Each student received an official award along with a pin.

Look at my grown up looking girl!

I actually got in a photo this time! I am always the one taking them.

This is Chardie with one of our local news anchors Stewart Moore of WIS news. He was the keynote speaker at the ceremony. Chardie threatened to take his job! Her dream is to be a news anchor locally and then for CNN. The photo came out bad because someone I know had the camera. I guess you can't take extra time to adjust the camera settings while you have a local celeb waiting so I will give him a break this time.

We are so proud of Chardonnay and we know she will go far in life :)

Use word verification

I unfortunately had to learn this the hard way. If you have opted to receive follow-up comments to a post from Momfiles you might get one in a foreign language. Please delete it immediately. My blog was spammed last night so I had to add word verification today. I apologize for any inconvenience. To protect our readers from receiving any more unsolicited email I will also enable the comment moderation function. Comments will no longer immediately show up until I approve them. Thanks so much for your patience and understanding. Since we are on the subject, has this ever happened to you?

Saturday's v-ball tourney

We spent Saturday in North Augusta for Chardie's volleyball tournament. It was a long but really good day. Chardie's team won first place in the Bronze division, not exactly Gold status but it is always great to place first in any division! The team was so excited and here are some photos of the day.

William was SO well behaved and all the parents were bragging about the fact that he was so quiet. Yeah, that was just because he was surrounded by women and girls all day!

Here is Willie with Brie before the first match.

Papo, Chardie and William getting some floor time before the next game started.

William and Chardie

This is what it looks like when we have to pack up to go to an out-of-town event. ALL of that stuff belongs to our family. It was like home away from home! Beverage anyone??
Chardie and a few teammates just goofing around.

The victory "T"!!

The team with their winner's t-shirts.

Willie's birthday photos

I promised some birthday boy photos so here they are. William was a bit under the weather so he really was not smiling. As a matter of fact, I don't think I got even one shot with him smiling! Here's how his evening started. A nice nap...

His grandma (Shelly's mom) bought him this outfit.

Still no smiles. Not even a tongue shot as he is known for :P

Okay, there's a semi-smile :)

Here's Papo, the #1 cake inspector! William does not look very interested at all!

The smash cake. Would you believe not one speck of it got on his head?! He didn't even want to eat it.

Gotta have the paparazzi! Everyone was armed with a camera phone!

William is 1!

The day is finally here. William is officially one year old today! We are all so excited to celebrate this evening and there is so much left to do. I still have to go to the store to pick up some extra food items, the cake, balloons... It's always a mad dash at the last minute! I am happy that we are not having anything big, just us and the grandparents. We don't believe in spending loads of money on a child that would not even have a clue of what is going on. We also don't want to obligate anyone during these trying financial times. I'll be sure to post the birthday photos tomorrow so check back! Have a great day :)