Mid Life Melanin MaMa

To borrow from U.S. Senator Maxine Waters.  From the weekend before last and this past weekend.

Good morning everyone as always I hope this post finds you all well.

This weekend as most were filled with rest relaxation excitement and for us Church. We started off on a very high note on Saturday was our annual Bud Billiken Day Parade. This is the 88th year of the parade and we celebrated watching the entire parade that stretches for 3 miles.

Essentially it is a back-to-school parade and this year's Grand Marshal was Chance the Rapper a well-known local and International rap artist who has become famous for being a wonderful generous entrepreneurial person and helping the Chicago public school system with donations of funds and finances. Well we didn't get any pictures of us we did get many pictures of the parade so I'll include those in here. Chance the Rapper also handed out 33,000 backpacks filled with school supplies. He also handed out free tickets to his concert to teachers and fathers for their children and did a free concert that evening.

Sunday as usual we went to our local church and had a phenomenal time as we always do the dance filled with singing Praise. Zi'Joy is not smiling in any of these pictures. My poor little one was not really feeling well she started her vegetables this past week along with school she had a bit of a tummy ache by the end of Sunday all was well and she was back to smiles and laughter. I thought her serious face reminded me of me so much. I think she looks more like her father but these images capture who I am so well not that I'm always serious but the looks I can give.

The Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic is an annual parade held since 1929 in the Bronzeville/Washington Park neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois, United States; it is the largest African-American parade in the nation.

On this day we both decided to wear leopard print. I in my drop waist leopard print peplum top and Zi'Joy in her leopard print pants. Because baby girl was not feeling so well I decided to try and keep her outfit simple without being constricting so everything was very flexible it was kind of cool so she wore a beautiful sweater top which was pink and had a heart on it and her new pink booties her first and she is actually decided to keep these on. I was in a pinstripe pants denim jacket and beautiful purple head wrap. The day was just beautiful so we decided to go to the park after church. Our park is so ginormous you never see the same thing twice very beautiful and very lovely to walk in so we just enjoyed the day.

Please pray for everything that is happening in the United States and around the world so many things that are affecting so many people so many tragedies. That's why I include the prayer as this is a fashion site I try not to get too involved in Daily homegoings but I just needed to say that we are praying for all those who are involved in these tragic times.

Good morning family!

As the beginning of another week starts I'm always in awe of how the time flies. I always look back and say wow that's quick and no matter how many pictures I take it still just seems to pass by quicker and quicker. When I was younger I had this friend and he was in the sixties. I used to say I'm So Young blah blah blah la la la la life goes on. And he would say just wait, just wait the older you get the more time will fly. And I never really understood that until I became now middle-aged. I now view life im moments anyway enough of me rambling.

Zi'Joy and I had a fulfilling weekend. Friday was a visit and orientation to her new daycare and learning facility. Saturday was a family get-together and celebration I would say a mini family reunion and a visit to the park to enjoy the natural Wildlife which consisted this day of dragonflies butterflies and frogs. Sunday we had great intentions to celebrate a wonderfully gifted artist and folk singer named Ella Jenkins but time ran away with us and so we stayed at home and relaxed. Ella Jenkins was a folk singer who was inducted into the national History Museum and the Library of Congress for her beautiful works and songs for children. We were celebrating her 95th birthday here in Chicago at our local Navy Pier but it wasn't until 4 in the afternoon out on the lawn. And if you have to work the next day and life goes on it's hard to make those kind of things sometimes.

So on to what we wore on Friday I had the pleasure of repeating an outfit because I had jury duty. It was so nice I just had to repeat it. I only wore it for a little bit. The fit was a great way to meet and go on a tour and orientation for baby nuggets new Learning Center. This was as close to yoga pants as I get. Soft blue material stretchy material with polka dots a nice denim vest with a Peplum look blue top and a African print necktie.

Saturday in the Park it was very difficult choosing something to wear as we had a family gathering also to celebrate birthdays and just get together. I find myself struggling with what to wear. Most of my clothes pre-pregnancy worked brfore with my flat stomach which to me was one of my assets. Now I have a tummy and to be honest with you. I think without a tummy tuck it's not really going anywhere and it makes it harder to accommodate my older clothes so I wound up trying to do some camouflaging and trying to figure things out. The weather was wonky. It was a cool hot Cool Rain kind of day. Zi'Joy had a beautiful onesie that was dark blue and a beautiful pair of socks. We decided to just enjoy the park which is just beautiful I love that our Suburb has beautiful parks and wr can just get out and enjoy outside. Zi'Joy srems to love talking to the trees and just nature.

Sunday was a very relaxing day we decided to do pattern mixing color mixing headwraps we are a maximal family. Well at least until Zi'Joy is able to give her opinion at two or three to decide what she's going to wear. I just love dressing baby she is really a no-fuss baby and a happy baby even though she's teething at this point. I wore a lot of layers I'm wondering if I'm hiding my body. I'm not sure but I really liked how it came out everything else I've worn before here on the site the long layer of the top is a green mesh. I wore a camouflage tank top underneath I had a dark green wide leg linen pants oh my God these are so beautiful I love them so much. My head wrap was green and off-white and I just love this look shoes are a repeat because I refuse to acknowledge that I'm a size 12 now instead of a US size 11. I'm sorry I didn't capture Zi'Joy's full outfit because she was so pretty she reminded me of Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmatians just a color scheme going on and she rocked the heck out of everything so here's a selfie that we took in church after church was over. She's just so cute.

The last picture is from school today baby girl it's growing she's 4 months old and this is a quick drop off of my sister and me dropping her off. I didn't get emotional and I didn't cry cuz I realize that you know this is a necessary part of what we have to do and I'm so thankful that we found a wonderful day care facility daycare center. Facility sounds so bad.

So I know there are many pictures and commentary but thank you for reading looking commenting all are welcome as usual. Or just stop by to say hi now I'm off to read your post and look at pictures because I just love looking at them. I may not be able to comment on everything as usual but I really thank you for reading and I hope this week and this post finds you well until next time be well on your fashion Journey.