1. Check your children's home work daily.
2. Talk to your children and find out what their interests are and get them involved in afterschool and weekend programs.
3. Spend quality time with your children doing family things.
4. Check with your children's teachers on their progress before progress reports and report cards go out.

While challenging a friend to take immediate steps toward bringing about the change that she so desired, I was reminded of the concept that it takes 21 days to change a habit. Thus, when you do something consistently for 21 days straight - whether empowering or not - it becomes a habit. The question is which type of habits do you want to embrace?

So, the idea to put in place "The Create a Change Challenge" was born. So beginning today, I want you to write down the habit that you'd like to change (Example: Stop eating fast food) and replace it with the habit that you actually want in your life (Example: Eating home-cooked meals).

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine who is also in this business of making music -- he was telling me how hard it is sometimes to be dealing with some of these artists who for whatever reason seem to think they can just sit back and watch money roll in without having to lift a finger or even contribute in some small way to ensure their success.

Every artist needs to consider this fact… “You have to get down in the trenches and do some leg work to ensure a career in this business and not leave it up to everyone else, especially if you're just starting up in this thing called the music business.”

Unless you've sold a million records and went gold or platinum, then you may have the upper hand and not have to worry about longevity in this industry or even have to lift a finger because then you can pay someone to lift that finger for you, but until that time my friend you have a 9 to 5 just like everyone else who is on the grind.

Who am I? Simply put, I am the Earth Mother. The Daughter of Flower Children, revolutionaries who wore their hair long and who smoked of the earth, and were oft arrested at marches and sit-ins. They weren't afraid of The Man, they weren't afraid of themselves. They loved Mother Earth. So they bore this Love Child, this Daughter of Nature. Me. That was 1974.
 
Fast forward. Tune in, turn on, and drop out. Now we’re in the 21st Century…it will soon be the year 2012. Who am I? I am a natural oddity. I cook, I clean, I sew, and I garden. I reap what I sow. I judge wisely. I share my knowledge with others in the form of words aloud and on paper. But despite all of my positivity and growth, I am most easily identified by my fear. Some people, it is said, can actually smell fear. I hide within my shell, for I am afraid. Afraid for what has been, more afraid for what is to come. But most of all, I am afraid to bear a child, because things, I'm afraid, are not what they used to be.