Best Come Back Ever Coming Soon

 To be continued...

Why I Haven't Posted...

 This is gonna be short and sweet, but I haven't been on so much this past year, because I've been dealing with a bunch of psychopaths who, I can't really figure out where they came from and why they're hacking my stuff, but I have a few ideas. It's either people that don't like my opinions, opinions "here," or opinions in comments I've posted on YouTube on conspiracy videos, or opinions on videos about the government when...before our new president is all I'll say, or it's psychos that I found chatting with my daughters on Discord from Roblox last fall without enough evidence to report them, because one was specifically looking for hackers apparently. I tried reporting them to authorities.

But whoever it is, they've made my life miserable. No matter what account I go into on the internet there's porn garbage or things meant to trigger me. I'VE NEVER SEARCHED FOR THESE THINGS. I've been called names like "whale" and said I looked like this or that, and then I get tons of recommendations to trigger me about these things. I have tons of screenshots to prove it. None of it is normal. This didn't start till a year ago. I can no longer go on YouTube. I mainly go on there now to just block recommendations and try refreshing, but same thing starts again. These psycho stalker hackers have taken so much from me. 

I just logged into Facebook for the first time in many, many months because I'm not a Facebook person anymore and same thing...on my home page feed was an ad with a girl twerking on a chair...disgusting. You know, I'm the kind of person that I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions and beliefs and I respect other people's opinions and beliefs. I did my fair share when I was younger, and I'm not a prude. But I've been through things in life where this stuff literally triggers me and it's not right to put me through this. I hate stuff like that and I'm raising my daughters to not be this way because I don't want my daughters to end up in a bad situation one day is all I'll say. It can happen regardless of how you're dressed but I DON'T WANT MY DAUGHTERS DRESSING LIKE HO'S PERIOD, if I have to be blunt and frank. I'm their mother and I choose to not allow my girls to dress like hos.

If they want to dress that way when they're older, then so be it. But while they're just kids and under my roof, no. You don't like it, I don't know what to tell you. Before I realized this was going on last year, they also took down my blog and I had to get a new dot com. I have every intention of moving my blog next month to wordpress from Google, because I plan on returning in September with evidence of what's been going on and I'm reporting certain companies to the FCC or FTC, or whoever, for allowing this to go on. It's disgusting what they're doing to me and it's hard to prove criminally, but I have tons of screenshots. And I have PTSD from things that I will not share, and this only triggers my PTSD. It's evil to do this to me, evil. This is why I haven't been posting this past year. I was so excited to get started again last year and it was taken from me by a bunch of bully psychopaths. So much for beings hort...

Lazy Girl Oatmeal Pancakes - Yummy

Easy Oatmeal Pancakes🥞

Yes, I put whipped cream on pancakes.😃
I make designs too... 

Well, hello again.😊 It's been a while... I've ghosted👻my blog yet again, what a surprise,🙄 but this time I'm gonna try and stay committed.😏 I've had a lot to say and a lot on my mind, but going through a lot, so my mind is elsewhere.🤪 Not sure how to wrap my mind around everything I want to say.

I do, however, wanna share my latest concoction, which is so yummy😋and easy to make. I've been meaning to do an update on my weight loss progress...that's on my blog to-do-list as well.🙄 

I've lost a lot of weight...but still have a little more to go. We're getting there.🙃 During my weight loss journey, I've made oatmeal a daily part of my life, whether it be a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast or oatmeal in a smoothie for breakfast/lunch. Saturdays are our pancake day and I'll never give up pancake day. I still eat pancakes.😏 So I decided to incorporate oatmeal into our pancakes as an experiment to see how it would taste and most importantly, to see if my kids would like it. 

The verdict is in...they l❤️ved it, so I've done it a couple of times now and as you know with oatmeal, there's many things you can mix into the oatmeal to make it yummy, like raisins and cinnamon, or craisins, or bananas, or strawberries, etc., so many ideas! The day I made it for the first time, one child had bananas chopped up in hers, one had raisins and bananas with cinnamon, and I did the same except I added walnuts on top of mine too - so yummy!😋 

I will add that I'm perfectly capable of making pancakes from scratch, but I mainly do the boxed pancakes. Not gonna lie... 

So here's how you make easy oatmeal pancakes...

Lazy Girl Oatmeal Pancakes

A work in progress. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pancake mix (double ingredients if you're making more than one cup - I actually made 3 cups, but this is just as a guide!)
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• About 1 cup water (use one cup and slowly pour and stir till you get the perfect texture-I found that 1 cup of water was actually perfect with the pancake mix and rolled oats)
• Anything to dress your darling pancake up: sliced bananas, sliced strawberries, a handful of blueberries, raisins, craisins, fresh cranberries, cinnamon - you get the picture!
• Toppings: I've recently added sliced almonds, shredded coconut, walnuts, and of course, whipped cream for the taste and to make designs with...

Directions:

1. Self-explanatory-I'm sure you know how to cook pancakes! But if by some chance this is your first-time making pancakes, just follow the instructions on the box. I cook my pancakes on low-heat and if I multi-task...then I sometimes forget and...well...we have to start all over again.🙄🤪Moral to the story, keep a close eye. One of my daughter's asked me recently, how do you know when they're done, and I told her when they get the little bubbles. And you can always take a peak under the pancake as well, using the spatula to see how it looks, so you have the perfect pancake and don't have to start all over again...🙄🤪

If you give it a try, I hope you enjoy! Definitely a keeper in my home!

With Love,

Carmen

Carmen's Inspirational Creations: Love and Pain are One and the Same...

 

This has been on my mind lately and sort of stuck in my head, so I'm "getting it out of my head." Love and pain are one and the same... They really are though...can't have one without the other. Always some kind of heart ache when you love someone, including loss, but of course, heartbreak as well. Losing someone you love in some capacity or going through something painful with someone you love or going through something painful because of the actions of a loved one. Pain is the story of my life...but I grow from my pain.💔🖤💖🌹🦋

Carmen's Inspirational Creations: Beautifully Broken...

 

Just kind of how I'm feeling right now and why I haven't posted much. Trying to piece myself back together... This too shall pass...

Carmen's Inspirational Creations: Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today's a Gift

 

My angels are talking to me today...this thought popped into my head, so I went with it...❤️✨

Yesterday is history...Tomorrow's a mystery...Today's a Gift...That's why it's called the present.🎁

Lazy Girl Pumpkin Pancakes - So Easy...

 

Easy Pumpkin Pancakes🥞

It's been a while...long time no see. Haven't felt the desire to blog...I apologize to anyone who actually reads my stuff... 

But I've had some ideas lately and what I made for breakfast this morning combined with the fact that "pumpkin season" is almost over gave me the motivation and desire to blog what we had for breakfast this morning...ha.😃

One of my "ideas" was to add a new recipe section for those times when I've experimented and concocted awesome easy recipes for "lazy" moments in life, or moments where maybe, perhaps (coughs) we don't have enough on hand to make said recipe from scratch...or we just don't feel like it. Today I was game for making homemade pumpkin pancakes from scratch, but behold...surprise, surprise, Carmen forgot something...flour. Can you believe? Who doesn't have flour in their pantry? 

Apparently I ran out and it's been a while since I needed to use it, so here we are ready to make homemade pumpkin pancakes and there's no flour. But then...a little light bulb💡went off in my head, and I said, what if I use "boxed pancake mix" and then add in the other ingredients?🤔

And so, the experiment began...lazy girl pumpkin pancakes.🧐 And, voila, they were delicious,😋so I wanted to share. What I did was I shopped around for pumpkin pancake recipes before realizing I was out of flour. 

I wrote down the recipe I wanted to use, and then combined some helpful tips and adjustments from people who tried the recipes and mixed up the recipes because they were fairly similar, adding in some things that others didn't have or omitting something that I didn't feel I needed or didn't like, like vinegar, that was in a few of the recipes but I omitted it. 

And so, let the fun begin...here we go...🥳

Easy Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe🥞

• 4 Cups of Pancake Mix 
• 1-15oz can of pure pumpkin
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3-4 cups of water (when you get to the fourth cup, pour a little at a time till you get the right texture, not too thick, not too watered down.)
• Optional: I found these in other recipes and decided to include them, but you don't have to. 3tbsp melted butter; 3tbsp maple syrup.
• Also Optional! You could add in some fresh cranberries, diced apples, banana, etc. Yum... Next time I plan on adding in cranberries. 
• Also, also optional: Instead of using nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, you can use "allspice." I didn't have allspice, so I made my own. To make your own allspice, you just simply combine equal parts of all three of the above: nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. Never realized how easy it was to do till I realized I didn't have that either and had to make mine from scratch! 

I hope this helps someone out there like it helped me. Enjoy your easy pumpkin pancakes!😃

With Love,

💖Carmen

Carmen's Inspirational Creations: There's no age limit on dreams, talent doesn't age out, and legends never die

 

Say No to Ageism...🙃

Carmen's Inspirational Creations: Together We Can Change the World

 

Carmen's Inspirational Creations: Breathe, this too shall pass...

I'm in a bit of a dark place lately and this is what I keep telling myself...

 

What is a "Queen?"

This word is thrown around a lot and I found myself using it incorrectly recently myself...I won't elaborate. But there is this deluded idea that a "Queen" is simply a woman who dresses provocatively, with a face covered in so much makeup she looks like someone else entirely.

Now, this can be anything from what we see in movies, the music industry, or in magazines. Leading little girls and young women astray, teaching them to expose themselves and to sleep with just anyone. I mean, let's be real here - that's the message in many songs and in movies.  But this is not what makes a Queen...a queen is more than her sexuality. That's just a fragment of her essence...

To clean this up a bit because I don't want to offend anyone...I'm not saying this type of woman is not a queen. There's nothing wrong with owning your sexuality and your beauty. It's sexy. But I think some young girls who don't add up to these images and this standard of beauty think this is what makes a queen and it's not. I personally think the biggest things that make a queen is self-respect and confidence. 

To me, a queen can be any color, any size, come from any educational background, and she can be any religion. She can dress any way she pleases. Maybe she likes to dress sexy. She can look sexy rocking a pair of sweats. She can wear a face full of makeup. She can wear no makeup at all and still be beautiful. She can have long beautiful nails. Maybe she likes short unpolished nails. She can wear high heels. She can wear combat boots. She can be sporty. She can be creative and artsy. She can fix cars. She can be a book worm. She can be poor. She can be rich. 

And she can be an average nobody just doing her best in life, but as long as she's confident and has self-respect, she's a queen. And most definitely, if she uses her voice to bring change, is kind to others, and lives her life as an example to others, she's a queen. Every woman is capable of being a queen as long as she believes in herself and keeps it moving.

And what I mean by living your life as an example to others doesn't mean perfection, living a perfect life, because no one's perfect. We all make mistakes and if you say otherwise, you're lying. We can learn by example too, when people mess up. Sometimes those are the best examples to learn from in life. When someone falls and then watching them get back up again, brush it off, and keep on moving... We can mess up many times, but as long as we keep getting back up and learning, and growing...we'll be good. Sometimes we have to make the same mistake multiple times before we finally learn our lesson. 

But back to the letting it all hang out thought...because I have little girls who don't lack guidance. I'm over-protective of what they hear or see until they're old enough to understand that much of what you see and hear on the TV, radio, and internet is just good entertainment. And that you don't have to be everything you see or hear. Be yourself, believe in yourself, and have respect for yourself. We can't protect them forever, but as long as I teach them that, then I know they can listen to it if they choose to and they'll be "good" later in life. 

I like "adult" content, because I'm an adult, but I shouldn't have been listening to certain things when I was younger. Again, I had no guidance. I can remember jamming to "I wanna sex you up" and "Down with OPP" when I was 12/13 and not even fully understanding what the songs meant, and then later, "Age ain't nothin but a number" and I ended up pregnant at 15 (songs I still love by the way, just shouldn't have been jamming to them at 12). 

Not saying it was because of the music, not even close to saying that, but it certainly influenced my thoughts and feelings. Everything we see and hear influences our thoughts, our feelings, and in turn influence our realities unless you're awake and strong enough to decipher the difference. Right now, this is not what I want my little girls looking at or listening to, so I have still somehow managed to shield them as much as humanly possible from things I deem inappropriate for their age...getting harder though.

It's funny though, cause no one taught me these life lessons. I had to learn them on my own like many of us. I had no guidance growing up and, no, it's not the industry's fault I made poor choices when I was younger, but I feel like it "takes a community to raise a child" and kids who lack guidance or misguided kids are the ones most vulnerable from receiving the wrong messages in the world.

I wasn't taught how to be a woman. I literally taught myself everything from a young age, nothing was taught to me, not even how to deal with my Puerto Rican hair, or how to shave my legs, or how to cook. I taught myself everything, including learning later in life to respect myself and my body, unfortunately, after becoming a mother at 15. I ran the streets from 12-15 and ended up pregnant... 

What's funnier yet is that in my 20s, I lived in low cut shirts and tank tops, not to be a "ho," but just because I liked them. That was my style and how I was comfortable, but as my sons grew to be teenagers and I then had two little girls to raise, I began to become more conscious and aware of the way I dressed as to not leave the wrong impression. And in doing so, I began to teach my little girls what was not taught to me - to respect their bodies and have self-respect. I saw things so differently once I had little girls and teenage sons to raise.

This has been a challenge with what they "see" and with what all their friends are doing, or what they're doing on TikTok or YouTube, what this one or that one is doing at school, etc. It's not even what's on TV anymore or just music - it's now the latest trends everywhere, etc. This is what I hear anyway when one little girl tries to justify begging me to wear something I won't allow her to wear. 

So we try and compromise because I want her to be herself too. I just want her to be herself and have self-respect if that makes sense. Throughout my journey to teach my own little girls to have respect for their bodies (they're now 11, almost 12), I had a little help along the way with the former director of their local Boys and Girls Club, a strong black woman who shall remain nameless, because I try not to share too many personal details about location. 

I met her before my girls came along, when my boys went to the club. She was trained as director by the former director who was a man, and who had made a major impact on my sons' lives, and who also sadly passed from cancer shortly after turning the reigns over to her... 

When she first came along though, we bumped heads and I later realized it was because we were actually so much alike and I grew to love her when my girls joined... And I was so very thankful that my daughters had someone like her to help guide them, because like they say, it takes a village to raise a child. She is one of the most amazing women I've ever met, honestly. 

She taught the girls at club to have respect for their bodies, that they don't have to cover their faces in makeup to be beautiful (including a staff member), she embraced her natural hair, she's confident, and she taught them to embrace their talents and use their voices to be kind and to bring change with certain programs she implemented like "Smart Girls" to teach them these things, an amazing human just like the man she took over for. 

Initially, it seemed a little extreme when she banned tummy shirts and spaghetti strap tanks during the summer, but she was right, at least I think she was. I didn't then. I'm kind of torn on this one. I think it's okay to show a little tummy and to wear spaghetti strap tanks, but when it's hot of course and not too much tummy. 

I'm not okay with tummy shirts or any shirt that reveals too much on top, nothing too revealing. At home when they're lounging, sure if it's a hot day. But not outside of the home. Not only do I want them to have respect for themselves, but there's also unfortunately so many predators in the world too, so we have to worry about that aspect as well. I mean, when they were nine and I was hanging Easter eggs outside, they were playing and doing car wheels. Grown men beeped at my babies...twice...9-year-old girls wearing shorts...disgusting. And that's at nine, can't imagine as they get older. 

I'm gonna train them to be vicious if anyone tries to hurt them. I know that what we wear is no excuse for a man to assault a woman. But what I'm saying is it could add to an already dangerous situation, attracting unwanted attention from predators, increasing a chance of a predatory situation. I'm just extra protective of my girls and really street smart. 

I have one who has a lot of respect for herself and the other one struggles with being a follower. I'm trying to break her of that, but it's not easy in this world. We're in different times... On top of all that, you've got girls and women out there in the world feeling bad about themselves if they don't measure up to the images that the world portrays as a "queen" when in actuality, they are queens. 

To me, a true queen uses her mind to get ahead in life, not her body, and she has respect for herself and her body. A true queen also uses her voice to bring change, not to teach little girls and young women to use their bodies to get ahead in life or to get attention. We can embrace our sexuality and sensuality, but that is not the entire essence of a queen.

My girls are smart and talented, and I pray that as they get older they never feel the need to use their bodies to move forward in the world, or to get attention. They are good enough. This is just my opinion based on my own personal life experience. I know we all come from different experiences, but this is mine and my perspective. I want better for my girls... 

Don't let anyone make you feel like you have to look a certain way to be a Queen. You're beautiful and you're enough just the way you are...

With Love,

Carmen