Author: Roshonda B

My name is Roshonda Blackmon and I have been known in life as “the encourager” God gave me that gift before I even realized what it was or what it truly meant, the only thing I knew is that a vast amount of people liked to come to me for advice and once that advice was received, I never heard from them anymore until they wanted more advice. That gifting soon became my ministry. I’ve been through quite a bit of challenges in life from dealing with suicide, low self-image which resulted in low self-esteem, to the difficulties of growing up in a one parent household and the list goes on and on. But God in all his Mercy and Grace blessed me to overcome those obstacles and situations and gave me a “second” chance by allowing me to live through all that darkness in order to help spread an encouraging light to others. In a world of uncertainty and negatism’s I want to encourage you to LIVE. Yes, Life does get hard sometimes, But if we keep looking up at the SON; we gain strength, we become empowered and we grow in the process with God’s help; for it doesn’t matter where you are in your life at this moment in time; God is able and will meet you within that dark place and change your life from Dark to Light, I’m not only a witness to this; but JustsumInspiration to show you, That you too can make it.

Valentines on A Budget – 5 Tips to Save You Money!

Published on February 14, 2019April 18, 2019 by Roshonda B8 Comments

Valentines is officially HERE! and while today may be the BIG V-Day, most people may opt to do something small today, with a bigger celebration more than likely starting tomorrow night and on through the weekend, right??

Valentine’s is the next most popular-est holiday, outside of Christmas. As soon as Christmas is over you can almost guarantee the week or two after, stores will begin to fill up with red, pink and white balloons, bears, candies and roses galore…I mean, that’s just how it rolls.

In Honor of Black History Month >> Check This Out >> My History, Your History, Black History Facts You Might Didn’t’ Know About.

However, while Valentines is a day that everyone (well not everyone, but you get it) uses to express their undying love and affection for a significant other – it can also be extremely COSTLY! Yes, LOVE really does cost a thing, especially on V-Day.

And that alone can be a little disheartening as everyone may not have the Benjamin’s to splurge on LOVE. Therefore, I’m going to give you 5 tips of how you can keep the cost down on the world’s most LOVE filled day.

Scavenger Hunt

Valentines Day is the perfect day to tell your significant other how much you love them and while words are great – ACTIONS are better. Get some nice paper, preferably construction paper. Fold it in half and cut along the fold line to make hearts, make sure you use different colors – it just makes the activity more fun and expressive.

Write nice things you love about your sweetie on each one and put them all over your living space (preferably in places you know they always go). You might want to let them know you’re doing this and tell them you’ve placed little love notes throughout the space and send them on a little hunt to find it. Or, it can be a complete surprise. You can do it while they’re sleeping, to up the ante – you can tape little pieces of chocolate on, to make the surprise even sweeter.

Handwritten Letters

I know this is a bit old-fashioned, especially with the boat loads of technology we have today. Taking out time to sit down and actually write a letter shows that you not only care but it’s the sincerest affection to give. You can write a love note to anyone; your kids, your spouse, a good friend, boyfriend, girlfriend or just to let someone know how much you appreciate them. The fact that you took out time to do it, will be the greatest gift of love and adoration shown.

Plan a Date night in Your Kitchen or Dining Room

Now, I know some people may already sit down to have dinner together, but V-Day is an extra special day that causes for an extra va-voom to your dinner/meal conversation. Use your phone to create a V-Day playlist to serve as your background music. Light a couple of candles or string a couple of lights around your chandelier or alongside your wall (get those creative juices going).

During your meal, don’t talk about work or any outside disturbances. Use this time to talk about each other. What made you fall in love and etc. And if you’re flying solo, no worries plan a night with the kids (no phones, no talk about work) use that time to tell them something special about themselves and etc. Just keep the talk about LOVE. If you don’t have kids, then invite some friends over and chat it up.

You also don’t have to buy any expensive dinners, cook whatever you got in the fridge or cabinets because this moment isn’t about the food but being amongst those you LOVE.

Movies Anyone? – Favorite V-Day Classics

If you’re an avid follower, then you know I LOVE LOVE LOVE movies. What better way to settle in on V-Day or whenever you decide to celebrate it than with a good ole love classic and some popcorn. Listed below are a couple of my faves in no particular order…

Valentine’s Day (2010) – Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Foxx
Serendipity (2001) – John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale
Pretty Woman (1990) – Julia Roberts, Richard Gere
Love and Basketball (2000) – Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps
The Notebook (2004) – Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling
Titanic (1997) – Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet
An Officer & A Gentleman (1982) – Richard Gere, Debra Winger
50 First Dates (2004) – Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore

Spa Day – INSIDE

As a people I honestly don’t think we do enough self-care routines (I’m totally preaching to the choir on this one (AMEN!). So why not create your own spa day inside. Light some candles, turn on some soft music and create a bubble bath for one or two (wink..) You don’t even have to have those high-priced soaps that do all the special things – if you got some body wash that’ll do just fine for creating the bubble effect. Get you a glass of wine (sparkling or other) and just RELAX! And follow-up with a good skin care regimen.

I know Valentine’s day may not be a big deal to some people’s world and that’s okay as it doesn’t take a holiday to show LOVE. However you choose to spend V-day, just make sure you’re showing yourself some love and/or spending time with the people you do. Time is precious and LOVE, whether a holiday or not is worth giving.

Glazed Cherry Bread
Looking for something delicious and different to whip up for V-Day? You’ll love this cherry bread recipe made with delicious maraschino cherries. To get the full recipe and view the video of how it’s made visit Tastes of Lizzy T.

Challenge: Can you put your phone down for 2 hours – A Day?

Published on February 7, 2019April 18, 2019 by Roshonda B6 Comments

I tried it! Did I pass or fail? Well, you gotta keep reading. Hey you, no scrolling to the good stuff. Keep reading…lol..

You know, I was sitting in around one Saturday, looking at my phone. I was scrolling Gmail, Facebook messenger, Whats App, YouTube and texting. ALL at the same time, it’s like I was multi-tasking going back and forward and let’s not even discuss those FB notifications that seem to come in every second, letting you know who posted, said or did something. Answering messages here, sending messages there, reading messages everywhere. It was then that I asked myself. “Can you go 2 hours without picking up your phone?”

It was a question that I honestly couldn’t answer. You see, for the last month or so – maybe even longer to be very transparent with you. What I’d come to notice about myself is that I had become immune to my phone. Okay, I know what you’re saying “Who isn’t?” But I mean; I had become overly obsessive with the phone, it was like I couldn’t go less than a minute without checking it. Now, don’t get me wrong – I know we all have business (like real businesses) that we have to tend too and I get it. But there are ways in which we can sort of handle all that – in which I’ll get too a little later but back to my experiment.

So, I challenged myself – I said I wouldn’t pick up my phone for a WHOLE 2 HOURS, this was going to be really epic – even for me. It was now 9:55 am and I was determined from 10 am to 12 pm I would NOT pick up my phone. When 10 am rolled around, I turned my phone over and went to fix a little breakfast and wash up some dishes. Okay, so I’m lying I didn’t get up right away….Lol. I stared at it for about 3 min asking myself what the heck was I doing or trying to prove. Then I got up….

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To say I wasn’t tempted would be an understatement because I definitely was as all types of thoughts came rushing to my mind. My sister was ill during the week and the first thing I thought about was, “What if she calls me?” or “OMGosh! I forgot to text her to see how she’s doing!!! Did someone text me back on Whats App? Send an email? Did my doctor call?? – Okay, that was a little extreme, but I was going through PHONE DETOX PEOPLE!!

It was torture for sure and there were many moments where I almost broke my own deal with myself. BUT – I CAME, I CONQUERED & I SUCCEEDED!!!

Yes and I’m proud of myself but do you know what I noticed when I did turn my phone back over? Nobody texted, called, responded or emailed me – so why do I get all discombobulated about my phone, like I need to check it every minute and for what. One day as I was getting on the elevator to go to work, there were two other people that got on at the same time and believe it or not – there was no eye connection, no hello as they both were glued to their phones. It’s amazing the things that come and take precedence over our lives to the point where we become unconscious to the things around us. In life we all need breaks, even from our phones.

Listed below are two tips, one for business and one for personal that you can do to get off the phone, for a minute or two or two hours….start slow though.

Putting a “PAUSE” on your Business Responses, Maybe?

Now, this won’t work for everyone but some of it might help. If your business depends on you posting every day or every other day to keep it afloat, I would suggest scheduling tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Crowdfire. If you got an hour a day, you can schedule anything for the week, you may can’t pay for an assistant so why not allow these tools to do it for you – for free (starting out). I use them all the time. You can also schedule your email to send out automatic replies letting customers know that you’ll get back to them in 24 to 48 hours.

Take it from me, you don’t want to answer a business email quickly….life gets busy and if you answer it quickly, your customers will expect that of you every single time. Give it 24 hours, just make sure you stick to your word as your business reputation is on the line. If you feel you can’t do 24 then go to 48 hours, that way there’s no rush to getting back to someone right away, just in case life is calling, on your side. It’s your business, sure enough and I know you love it but there are tools you can use to still keep your business going, while you’re focusing on other things – such as, taking a painting class, in which I heard was the going thing now..

Oh and P.S. Did you know you can schedule a text message? I do this all the time when I send out inspirational messages to our singles group at church. All of those messages are constructed and scheduled; I got messages scheduled up until the second week of March…

Taking a Break from Your Device…Just for a Little While

As you can see from the experiment I conducted above with myself. Taking a break from the phone or social media could be great for your mental health. This could be time that we use to focus on other things, such as completing that long to-do list of chores we’ve been putting off or catching up on some much needed rest or a movie (away from your phone). It could be time to get out and go visit a friend or just to get some fresh air and clear your mind.

Put yourself on a timeout from those things that take too much of your time, space and energy. Only you know what those things are and how much space you’ll need from them. So, I challenge you – can you put your phone down for two hours a day? And No, sleeping doesn’t count! You have to be fully awake. Hence this post, I’ve been doing it for a week. It’s been very challenging but rewarding as well.

Will you join me? Let’s get back to really interacting with what’s in front of us and not on a device. Let me know below what strategies you do to disconnect and/or if you’ll be taking the challenge!

Lunch and Soup – 4 Different Ways

Published on January 24, 2019April 18, 2019 by Roshonda B11 Comments

I have a couple of questions for ya..

Are you on a budget? This girl definitely is!
Do you like Soup? Of course I do…(anything dealing with food really…haha)

So, yes…I’m on a very tight budget and I can’t or don’t I should say always have money to go and break a 20 on lunch only to have a couple of dollars left – Yesssss, food establishments make a killing off of our “lunch” dollars because they know 1 of 2 things to be true…

You either left your lunch at home. -or-
You were too lazy to cook.

And let me just say that I have been at the helm of both of those statements. And after going through what seemed like fifty dollars or more a week for lunch; I decided that enough was enough!

In which inspired this post >>>>> Lunch on a Budget for $20 or LESS!

With the cost of food seemingly going up every second it seems, it can be challenging to try and map out meals to bring to lunch everyday. I mean, who really wants to munch on PB&J or slurp up salty Noodles and Oodles. So, while shopping the aisles for lunch choices one day, I decided to get a couple of staple items and mix and match the ingredients for each day of the week – I even had a solution for snacks in between.

I have to be honest with you, shopping for food for lunch can be a little crazy; because you want to eat something different every day of the week and depending on your tastes buds, that can get a bit costly as well. So, listed below are a couple of things I picked up off the shelves and freezer section that lasted me all week and guess what (all of it was well under 20 dollars!!)

Here are my buys for Lunch:  Total Cost: $10.08

Minute Rice – Multi Grain Medley – 2 @ 1.84 each
Bag of Mixed Vegetable – 1 @.57 cents
Green Giant Steamers Vegetable Medley/Broccoli Cheese – 2 @ 1.18 each
Green Giant Harvest Protein Bowl (Vegetarian) Southwest Style – 1 @ 3.47 each

Here are my buys for Snacks:  Total Cost: $8.81

Great Value No Sugar Added Pear Cups – 2 @ 1.43 each
Great Value No Sugar Added Mandarin Oranges – 1 @ 1.43 each
Great Value Dry Roasted & Lightly Salted Almonds – 1 Bag @ 4.52

What I had at Home:   
Sam's Choice Organic Bone Broth Chicken Total Cost: Free

Overall Cost: $18.89

So this is how I did it:

First, let me start with snacks. It’s 4 cups of fruit to a carton, so I had two snacks a day. A fruit cup and some almonds. I measured the almonds out according to the serving suggestion and put them in zip lock bags and took them all to work along with my fruit so I wouldn’t have to remember to take it everyday. So there were my snacks for the week. Two cups of fruit and almonds a day.

And then there was lunch. So for lunch, it was pretty easy. 1st Day: I had a cup of rice medley and some steamed veggies. 2nd Day: I had the steamed veggies with some chicken bone broth ( I made it like a soup). 3rd Day: I had the broccoli cheese and rice medley. 4th Day: I had the rice medley and the bone broth. 5th Day: I changed it up and brought in the Green Giant protein bowl, which was very delicious by the way, see below….

Green Giant Harvest Protein Bowl – Southwest Style

So, as you can see – lunch was not only cost efficient but different as I didn’t feel like I was eating the same thing every day……ever felt that way about a salad?? Any-who, the key to making this work is making sure you choose what it is you want to eat for the whole week. For instance, I knew that I wanted veggies – the only thing I needed to do next was find a partner to go with them and once I did….everything else was simple.

Don’t forget to incorporate items you may have at home, so another suggestion I would make is to check your cupboards before you go shopping. That frozen broccoli that’s been in the freezer for a month, could be paired with something delicious.

Think of things that you can use multiple times throughout the week without breaking the bank and going to the store everyday for items to eat (I’m still working on this feat for dinner as I do this currently). Don’t look at me like that, I’m a work in progress – say a prayer for me…lol.

Well, I hope your lunch time can now be an adventurous one. Oh and psssstttt, by the way, don’t be afraid to shop the yellow tags. I got some soup on sale last week at Wal-Mart for $.86 cents that usually run $2.87 cents. Now you may want to hurry and eat it up, because I mean, they put yellow tags on items for a reason, right???? rightttttttt…..but it can also save you loads off your pocket, especially for LUNCH!

Below is one of the creations with the products I purchased up top:

Soup and Broth Ingredients
Soup and Broth

BON APPETITE!!

What’s Up With Your Winter Skin Care Routine?

Published on January 17, 2019April 18, 2019 by Roshonda B5 Comments

Yes, Lordy! Winter time is officially in FULL swing – I just heard earlier this week that Baltimore, Maryland got dumped with 6-8 inches of snow…..YIKES!! So, yes – winter is here and determining it’s on again, off again relationship here in the Carolina’s with cold whether one minute and 70 degree whether the next, it’s hard to figure out what to wear on a given day. In which speaking of something to wear, can I ask?

How’s your skin holding up in all this chaos! I know winter time is the time for soups and crackers and bundling up and I mean ALL the way up, especially if you’re in Baltimore. It’s the time where we forgo skin care and just throw on anything that will keep us warm. I don’t know about you, but I hate when my skin feels dry, scaly or ashy. I’m sure you do too but where is the time to take care of it when the winter is having a field day with it’s mood??….

At Night!!!

I’m a huge fan of skin care and feel as though we have to take care of it before the summer time rolls around and catch our skin care off guard! Remember how quickly the spring/summer came last year? It wasn’t enough time to get anything together. BUT! there’s hope. Good skin care in the winter will definitely show up in the summer, trust me. Will yours have a great story to tell?

Listed below are just a couple of things that I do to make sure that my skin is noticeably soft underneath the gear.

A moisturizer for this and for that

There was a time in my young life…lol, where I would use one lotion for my whole body and to make matters worse, it had no “umph” to it. Meaning, it was the watered down lotion that would go on like it was doing your skin a huge favor, only to dump it later with an ashy look. I would always have to re-apply and re-apply. I came to the realization that there’s a lotion for different parts of your body. Such as hand-cream, foot-cream and face-cream. (Yes, I would use regular lotion on my face). So first, you have to either get a lotion or body butter (my favorite) that’s thick and has olive oil, coconut oil and vitamin e in it. The thicker the better to me….

Foot Care at it’s Best

When you get out of the shower, the best moisturizer for your feet is Vaseline or a foot cream or oil and cover your feet with a sock. Now if you’re hot natured, then a nice oil or Vaseline will work without a sock. The sock keeps the moisture in and makes your feet feel noticeably soft the next morning. Make sure you add extra on those heels…

Hot Showers are a NO NO for Winter

I absolutely LOVE me a good hot shower, however – a hot shower in the winter time can damage your skin as it can severely dry it out. Lukewarm water for winter skin is the perfect temperature.

Moisturize while skin is still damp

I’ve been doing this for years. I do not dry off with a towel when my shower is done, the first thing I do is moisturize immediately after. What I’ve found is that this process makes my skin feel soft all day long without the ash effect. The damp water and my moisturizer help lock in the moisture so I won’t lose it. My favorite moisturizer after a shower is Baby Oil or Baby Oil Gel – they are my staples outside of Bath and Body Works =)

Other things you can do to make sure your skin is on point, is to use an exfoliate – I love body washes or soaps that have exfoliate beads in them. It makes my skin feel extra soft and removes dead skin cells. I also take out time and use a foot scrub as well while in the shower. Sometimes regular showers don’t do the job and can miss dirt build up around the ankle area of our feet.

A great hand-cream is good for throughout the day. Don’t trust the harsh soaps in the bathrooms when you wash your hands at work, those soaps are not only rough on the skin but leaves your hands severely dry afterwards, it’s good to have a good hand-cream on hand to add that moisture back into your most precious assets. Our hands tend to get dry throughout the day as well, so it’s good to show them a little love by dousing on a little moisture.

That wasn’t bad, right? As stated – those are just a few tips that I do to make sure my skin is well nourished during the winter months. Good skin care in the winter, determines it’s outcome in the summer. Get a good routine going now, your skin will show it’s appreciation to you months from now!

Do you have a winter skin care routine? Share in the comments below.

Announcements – Check this out!

Starting next week, I’ll have two contributors whom will be sharing posts with you!

**Amy Temple**, will be contributing posts until March. Amy desires to inspire the world by letting them know that anyone (disability or not) can achieve greatness. She let’s the world know through her writing that your limitations should drive you and not stop you from achieving your destiny – if you missed her work you can catch up **here**, **here** and **here**.

*The other contributor is* **Fasoronti Damilola** – Fash is the Founder/CEO of Prikkle Academy in Nigeria. Fasoronti is an education leader, writer, coach with a strong background in grassroots education. Through his writing he’ll tell you about his country and the projects he’s created and currently creating to put Nigeria and rural youth awareness on the **map**.

Don’t Get Stuck, Pass the BUCK!

Published on January 10, 2019April 18, 2019 by Roshonda B2 Comments

So here we are, it’s 2019 and what do we do – where do we start – what new adventures will await us this year, what new experiences, what heartaches. Will we accomplish the ever so popular “New Year’s Resolution” we set forth every year, this year? Well, I don’t know about you – but I tend to not “stick” to the ever to faithful resolution, it’s out the window before February can say, Hi Beautiful!

Yes, Yes – It’s very true and while I can’t promise that I’d squash the goal of losing weight this year as I do every year (although I’m going to put forth a mighty good effort). There’s one thing over the holiday season that I did promise myself that I would do more of this year and that’s “passing the buck” or the load as you can say. It’s funny However, there’s one thing that I know I will be doing more of this year and that’s passing the BUCK!

This is one of those lessons that I should’ve actually learned a long, long, long time ago but I didn’t….some lessons come by “the hard way” That’s what my mom used to tell me growing up, she’d say “Sometimes, you have to learn the hard way” I never knew what she truly meant by those words, however; being an adult now and as I look back that’s how most of my “life lessons” were learned. THE HARD WAY..

I have a tendency of taking on too much and that’s too much of anything. Whether it’s something to do at work, church, the kids and so forth – for some reason I become superwoman and viola! I take it on and get it do!nn@nnn$eeenn*n…..??? Yes, I really did mean to type “done” that way, because that’s how my brain functions once I take on too many assignments, it gets a little crazy. Another thing I do, which goes in line with what I’m talking about here is “obligate” myself to toooooooooo many things. I say YES before I can give myself time to think it through and then find myself complaining in the midst of it as I’m swearing up and down that I am NEVER!! going to do it again….

Finally, one day I had to ask myself “Why do you do this?” and “Who are you doing this for?” is it to get people to like you or are you trying to network and make connections – because sometimes we do things out of the ordinary for those causes too. When I couldn’t come up with an appropriate answer for my madness. I finally started evaluating the reasons why I was doing what I was doing and I came to two conclusions:

1) I wanted to be liked and wanted people to feel as though they could count on me to do anything, even if I suffered at my own expense.

2) Having a lot of things going on made me feel as though I was really doing something good with my life.

Whew!! That Felt Good Letting Go….

Coming into this year, well months before this year. I decided that enough was enough and started either saying NO to things I know I can’t balance or and this may sound selfish to some of you – Building my own business and spending more time on “MY” projects. Are you a victim of not passing the buck? Well, listed below are a couple of tips to help you out!

Evaluate Your “Already” Spoken for TIME!

What do you have going on right now, that’s basically what this is saying. Before you commit to something – take a day and think about all the things you have going on in a day or a week and the times set aside to do those things.

Are you a Good Manager?

This sort of goes along with #1 but honestly ask yourself – are you focused and on top of the projects you’re already doing now? If you’re struggling with keeping up with your own things, then it’s probably not a good idea to take on someone else’s project or add more to your already dwindling list of things to do.

Please, Don’t Feel Bad….You Betta Not!

You know and I’m going to be transparent here, most times people think if they take on the world so to speak…it makes them look busy, it makes feel important and makes them look credible or reliable to others and the lie detector test determined that’s a lie! But hey, I used to be that girl too. Whether in church, on my job or favors for close friends, I always took on more than I could chew. While I felt important my body was saying otherwise…

Do you Care about Your Health?

Okay, picking up from the last tip….my stress level and blood pressure was through the roof! I knew I had taken on too much but I was too ashamed to say it or give it back because I felt as though it would not make me look credible. There’s a saying that says “If you die today, someone else will do your job tomorrow” and that’s the truth, most of the time before your body even gets cold; they already looking for someone else to fulfill the job….sad huh.

So, what I’m trying to say is – If you don’t have to do it, DON’T! If you have to much on your plate already? Just pass the Buck! This is a new year, sometimes we can spend so much time on other people’s projects (unless it’s a part of your business) until we forget our own. We become focused on stressing out over someone else’s dream, while ours is hanging out in the background.

Don’t let keeping the buck, affect your attitude, health or overall goals because this is your year to not get stuck, but to PASS THE BUCK!

Will you or Have you passed yours??