Sheena 
I'm a 20 something mom to an almost 2yr old, engaged to my Jr. High sweetheart, living in the Chicago area. Family, entrepreneurship, photography, and laughing are my fuel. I'm an observer, a free spirit, a Joan of too many trades. Join me as I find zen in being human.
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by Sheena, on January 11th, 2010 
My laptop is very dear to me. I call it my toolbox. Since it’s from the Toughbook series, it is built to withstand drops, spills, and other toddler mistreatment. It also has a cool handle for easy grabbing. Inside, it holds everything that allows me to work from home. Everything I need to edit photos, design graphics and sites, set up auctions, write, and network with companies. With the current economy, the start of a new year, and me leaving the blog that was our main source of income, things have started to slow down. It is my hope that I can generate some consistent income with my toolbox. Inside it holds a lot of hope.
I’m participating in a weekly concept photography challenge started by my friend, Michelle. Last week’s challenge was HOPE. Next week’s is ALIVE. To learn how you can join us in the Popinjay challenge, visit michellependergrass.com.
pop⋅in⋅jay–noun–a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter.
by Sheena, on January 4th, 2010 I have no idea.
I am completely overwhelmed with the love and the support that I’ve received through emails, comments, tweets, and DMs. I mean y’all came out of the woodwork, lol. I really appreciate it. I have ideas for posts that I plan on writing, but my brain is trying to write them all at the same time, if that makes sense.
I want this blog to be like a community. I won’t go full blown forum or anything, but I want everyone to feel as if they are being heard. I love sharing interesting tidbits with people. And I love sharing a good laugh. I intend on replying to every comment – or at least attempting to. And I will be commenting more. I want to increase my presence in this virtual space. I feel like I can do that now I’ve let the cat out of the bag.
I feel like can better my relationships with people and even be there to lend a helping hand. I no longer feel the need to be distant. As the only child, I’ve never been selfish. I’ve always shared, but I have been pretty secretive in the last few years. I just wanted to be careful and I meant no harm if I wasn’t there giving up all of my secrets. I was just never as successful at something like I was with blogging. Ever. Throw in having a family that depended on that success, and you get an information hoarder. There are people out there who are in it to win it and will step on any toes to achieve their goals. I let that paranoia influence my actions. And I’m sorry.
I guess this is the part where we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.
After I get my bearings, as my grandmother used to say, I shall return. ‘Til next time.
Random Parenting Tidbit: My little smoochie is such a ham. Look at all of those pearly whites! He can’t get any cuter, right?
 
…more photos on flickr
by Sheena, on January 4th, 2010 
It has been quite the challenge finding products for kids with natural hair in its curly, coily, kinky goodness. And only a few of those products that I do find are free of parabens. I’m a nazi when it comes to the products we use on Jayden. I wouldn’t even continue using Aquaphor on his eczema, although it was the best moisturizer that kept his skin smooth. I went on a mission trying to find something better because that little voice in my head would not let me be.
With the introduction of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog movie, Carol’s Daughter released their A Magical Beauty Collection, a line of hair and bath products geared towards little girls. I’m thrilled to see both Carol’s Daughter and Disney partnering up. Although I don’t have a daughter, I am so excited to see a company as large as Disney introduce a character who looks like my baby. Who knows, maybe next year we’ll get a little brown boy with an afro. How sweet would that be?
We received complimentary samples of the A Magical Beauty line and we dug in as soon as they arrived. Hey, just because my little man is a boy doesn’t mean he can’t use these fabulous products! He has hair and a little booty to wash too! The products in the Carol’s Daughter A Magical Beauty Collection are very mild. Not only have they been pediatrician tested, they don’t contain harsh detergents, or parabens. Each product has a light scent. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, like flowers. Sunflowers perhaps since sunflower oil is one of the ingredients. I would love if they introduced a sweet, creamy scent. That’s what I was expecting.
The shampoo cleans and lathers well without stripping the hair of natural oils. We normally don’t shampoo, instead we copoo (wash with conditioner) because shampoo is known to strip hair of its natural oils. People with coarser hair have a hard time retaining those oils. The fact that this shampoo doesn’t work against the hair’s natural oils is a plus. The conditioner is rich and creamy. It makes it easy to detangle Jayden’s hair while bathing. I wish there was a similar leave-in! The bubble bath is a bonus. We’ve never used bubble bath because I didn’t like most commercial brands. I’ve found some I’d like to try, but I never got around to purchasing them. The Magical Beauty bubble bath creates lots of bubbles, but they disappear pretty fast. Jayden didn’t seem to mind, but when he gets older, I’m sure he’ll have a bone to pick with disappearing bubbles.
I truly appreciate these products as a mother of color and a mother who refuses to slather her son up in harsh chemicals. They are on the expensive side for 8 oz of product, but if you know Carol’s Daughter, that’s how they roll.
Price: $28 for the set of 3 products mentioned
Green Stats: Paraben free, environmentally friendly packaging and printing, no animal testing
Company Info: here
by Sheena, on January 1st, 2010 Warning, this is a long post! I started this post on November 22nd which explains why I said it’s been two months since my last post.
It’s been two months since my last post and I must say that things are good. I look back last year and remember the days when we scrambled to pay bills late and after paying them not having much left over. I honestly don’t know how we did it, but we did it together. During that time, so much was going on, I didn’t feel like blogging here. I was trying to do my thing as as a parenting blogger at Mommy Daddy Blog, so I felt the need to make sure my issues weren’t blasted into the blogosphere. I wanted to keep everything rainbows and lollipops, but we all know life is far from that. I know I like to read happy and uplifting things, the last thing I wanted to do was turn people off. But when you let people into that chapter of your life, your experiences may be comforting to someone who may be going through the same. That’s why I started reading blogs.
I’m working on showing my human side again online. The side I showed before becoming a parent. When Greg and I started Mommy Daddy Blog, I had intentions of running both this blog and that one. I couldn’t keep up. I pushed myself to the side. I started censoring myself in fear of offending readers or the ones who contributed to our cash flow. And I mean it was the little things, not even things that were truly offensive. But I just felt I couldn’t let my true character shine once sponsors came in to the mix. I paid attention to the “image” brands were going for and the other mom bloggers who were climbing the social media ladder. Anything that would give the impression of us not having it together, I simply kept bottled up inside.
I am not the cookie cutter mom in the tv commercials. I’m young and I’m just starting out. I am 23 and Greg is 22. I could care less about any negative thoughts on being young parents or not having a plan in place. Jayden was a surprise, but starting a family was something that we wanted more than anything. He is our everything. Just to give a taste of how badly we wanted kids, our dog had his own bedroom and a wardrobe. We took him wherever we could. I wore him in a sling. Yea. And no, we weren’t one of those couples who compared the struggles of taking care of a pet to the struggles of taking care of a child, but we loved that dog.
Moving on, we are far from the Joneses. And I realize umm we don’t have to be. We are doing a hell of a lot better than many folks who are or were our age with or without kids. But I felt if I wrote about our struggles, opportunities to monetize our blog would not come. The first year of becoming parents were rough financially. We moved to be closer to family, school and job left behind. We’ve resented that move many times. It was like we moved just so that it could be more convenient for family to see Jay. That’s it. And when they saw him, we were coming out there all of the time. Why did we move again?
Some time in between Greg fell out of love with blogging. I’ll let him comment on that if he wishes. I struggled trying to keep things afloat and failed. There’s only so many cutesy picture posts of Jayden that I could post before readers start wondering why sponsors are working with me when the content has gotten so damn bland. I had a hard time taking compliments on something that I wasn’t even proud of. I cringed each time I heard someone tell me how cool it was that both Greg and I blogged together when the last post he wrote was many many months ago.
Things are better since we moved again in September. We are still about the same distance from family and they visit more. Greg’s parents and grandmother pick up Jayden when they can, so we can rejuvenate. Finances are much much better. I realize all of my blogging faux pas and I’m ready to pull myself out of the ditch and continue down the road I veered off of. I’m going back to the basics. That doesn’t mean that I’m no longer participating in sponsored opportunities. Blogging is my business. Running a business is my passion, just not when I am not being myself while doing it. Let me stop and say how thankful I am for my sponsors. I am not blaming them at all for my actions. If it weren’t for them, I don’t know where we’d be. We’ve been truly blessed.
Personal blogging is something that I really enjoyed for 6 years. I tried something new (mom blogging) and it didn’t work. It’s time to move on. I will be bringing in the new year with intentions of keeping it real. It’s the only way I can be a confident and passionate blogger. Starting over in a sense kinda worried me. But you know what? It’s not about the blog and stats you’ve built. It’s about the person behind the blog. I know my following will meet me here. As I continue to write, traffic from search engines and other sources will trickle in. If I cannot build brand relationships based on being myself, then I don’t need them. Simple as that.
Related Post: Switching Gears To Fuel My Passion
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