Spats with a 4-year-olds be like: Mom, I’m hungry... can you fix me a  🌭  ! Sure son, you want this, right? (Points  ➡️  in fridge to designated  🌭  drawer to confirm because he’s a picky 4-year-old eater... as they all are... and mom wants to make sure she’s giving appropriate requested cuisine)... No mom, not that  🌭  ... The other  🌭  ... (good thing she pointed  ➡️ , right 🤷🏾‍♀️ ?!) 😳  Son, those are the only hot dogs we have! No mom, I want the  🌭  with the bread on it! Son, you mean a corn dog? But you pick all the bread off and only eat the  🌭 😒 ! Yes mom  ✔️ , I want YOU to pick all the bread off and then I can eat it! But I don’t want a hot dog! Who do you think will win this battle  😤 ? And yes, the  🌭  drawer is a real thing because my culinary skills are - 💯 ! And on day 1,257 of this quarantine, these kids are lucky I feel like fee...

Sooo... In the time of Corona 🦠 Virus, something good has come from this pandemic! My 12-year-old daughter, Jayda-Monay, has created her very own YouTube channel  🎉 🎈 💃🏾 !!! Please support be watching, liking and subscribing  🤗 !!! When I tell you, she did SUCH A GREAT JOB  🏆  !!! I honestly was sleeping  💤  on her talents  🙌🏾 . She is a natural! She even created her own intro and outro by herself 🤞🏾 !!! And together we dabbled with  🍎 ’s iMovie and Clips to get a wonderful, finished product. (She told me she wanted me to be her editor because all the famous YouTuber's have editors  😒 ... to which I replied, "Puuhhh-lease 😆 ... you're going to learn those skills so that you can be even more marketable! You can then take your hustle and become a freelancer on the side, along with being a huge YouTuber and everything else you want to be  💰 💪🏾 💰 💪🏾 💰 !" Anyways, back to the point... please "like ✅ ...

Long post, but maybe someone needs to hear this  🤷🏾‍♀️ ... First, I’m not a cook, at all! Got off work, picked up the kiddos and was trying to be proactive about dinner so I went to the grocery store and grabbed a couple items and got home early; all by 5:15 p.m.  # TeamWinning 💃🏾 ... I know my kids... they  boycott my cooking so I got them pizzas... the kind that you just pop in the oven. My 4-year-old was crying bloody murder because he wanted a McChicken sandwich from McDonald’s. I’m like, I’ve got french fries that I can either fry or bake and boom! Dinner (ignores pathetic whimper of preschooler because I’m skilled at that)! I also had a few drumsticks in the fridge thawed out for whatever occasion, so I attempted to fry those. Real quick dinner solution, nothing too strenuous and a bit mix-matched, but who’s judging? I’m giving my kids what they like (no need to feel bad about not forcing veggies down their throats everyday... sometimes you just don’t feel ...

So, I often think about the movie “Bad Moms” and wonder which side of the spectrum would I be on 🤷🏽‍♀️ ... Am I more of the “non-cookie-baking” mom who buys store bought treats and the “I conveniently forgot to wash (for three days now) so I sent my kids to school with dirty socks and drawers (for three days now  😂 )” type of mom... or am I the perfect mom who has everything together? I’m definitely NOT the latter. As such, when my four-year-old reaches for garlic bread sticks and Cool Ranch Doritos in the a.m. after I’ve told him to just wait until he gets to school for breakfast (because, “Ma, I hung-wee”) and he doesn't listen (because apparently, that’s against a preschooler’s religion), then I unfortunately have the burden of feeling guilty about sending him to school with rotten breath! Granted, I do have extra toothbrushes and toothpaste in the car, but that doesn’t work on such a deadly combo! As such, I feel bad because his dragon breath will soon be firing ...

This was originally my Facebook post in a mommy-group that I’m a part of. It was pretty funny so I figured I’d share in my blog, since I’ve been awol for so long. Enjoy😘! My Morning List📝: Wake kids up on time for school ✅ Start car ahead of time so it’s warm for kids ✅ Make it to bus stop #1 on time ✅ (⚠️ don’t embarrass 7th grader in the process, i.e. don’t breath)✅✅ Arrive at school to drop kid #2 off on time... ✅ #FeelingAccomplished💃🏿 🚫⚠️🚫⚠️🚫WAIT: Instantly realizes that this accomplished woman forgot to put on a bra 👙this morning and I’ve gotta go inside the school to sign-in my preschooler😳 (for anyone over a DD cup, you know this is a no-no in public spaces 🥴)! Hmmm🤔... I literally didn’t even realize that I still had on my pajamas 😵🙄😭... no wonder I was ahead of schedule today 🤦🏽‍♀️! #TrueStory  Whatev’s...🤣🙌🏾! Happy Monday Mamas!!! #ThisIsQuayesPayne #InnerThoughts #OutwardExpression #JustJacQuaye 💋

I seriously could not have made the events of today up if I'd tried! I had two interviews out of town, an hour and a half away. Luckily for me (and a bit ironic), they were in the same city. Made it there successfully and interviews went well. I made it home safely (three hour road trip in total), knowing that I had to go to the laundromat when I got home (dryer went out 🚫). Loaded the car with four loads of laundry (been a bit lazy, but whatev's)... LB has been battling allergies since May 26th... Took him to urgent care twice since then only to find out that he needed antibiotics for a double ear infection (fever of 101... poor guy). Got his 2nd round of meds filled yesterday and gave him a dose in the morning and last night. Thought he'd be progressing toward better health only to find out that he had an allergic reaction throughout the night to the antibiotic😷🤦🏾.   "Ok, don't give him any more antibiotics, just monitor him to make sure...

WHY IS DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION SO IMPORTANT TO ME?   ... So that the first problem is how to control that rage so that it won’t destroy you. (James Baldwin from “The Negro in American Culture”) No, my resume does not reflect 10+ years of successfully leading racial equity and healing work at either local or systems levels, but what I do have is 33 years of personal experiences that speak to the effects of race and racism on individuals, communities, institutions, and systems. I bring the experience of moving into a Polish neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland (Slavic Village) when I was 10-years-old. My mother, entering into a first-time home buyers program for low-income families, had to explain to her four children and elderly mother, why “KKK” was spray painted eight feet off the ground, in gold letters onto the front exterior of our new country-blue painted home. I recall it making national news in 1995. I bring the experience of feeling...