Until I started blogging, I didn’t realize that not only is it an art, it could also be an intense affair which gets a bit addictive, most especially if a blogger is striving for excellence in content and building connections.

It is also a slow burning, time consuming venture. You’ ve simply got to love writing, learn how to organise thoughts, have a schedule, set sensible goals in order to make it less stringent as well as interesting.

It is easy for a blogger to burn-out if the balance becomes badly skewed heavily to work and just more work. Once it becomes tedium, it loses its appeal, so striking a balance between fun and professionalism is also taken into account.

I am still learning the ropes as I go and making the rules that work well with my circumstances.

There are days my brain cells feel as if they are getting fried from all the original content writing, connecting and browsing other blogs, coupled with the rest of my life’s exigencies.

I notice my stress when I start feeling my shoulders bunch up, which is my main stress point and once I feel that way, it is time to de-stress.

It is time to take a step back and relax. I let the phone and the rest of my paraphernalia lie fallow for several hours and do something different to detox my brain.

An act as simple as a leisurely walk, singing off key to favourites, going to the cinema, watching a comedy that makes you laugh until tears roll down my eyes, spending time faffing around with the kids, going to a spot to people watch, can go a long way in recharging my batteries, then I get back into it with gusto.

One smart blogging practice that I started, which I have found very helpful is that on the days that I feel up to it , at least once a week, I work flat out for hours, producing rough draft’s of different post’s. I go with my feel of the moment. It could be a poem, a story, a haiku, a thought, an inspirational post, prayer…

On days that the energy is flagging or inspiration is not kicking in as usual, those drafts come in very handy and I borrow from there.

This further reduces the hours spent staring at the shiny box, leaving you with more time to just be.

The Daily Post Bloggers Unplugged

Sometimes, we all need a break from these little glowing boxes. How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

Devotions · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Musings · Poetry/Poems · Weave that Dream

Praise!…

November 29, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha8 Comments

Praise gives us lots of Grace.

Some boundless strength to run the Race.

So, let’s keep up the Pace,

Voices we lift, as we increase the Base.

♥

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Psalm 150:6

Creative Writing · Fiction · Short Stories · Short Stories Series

The First Date…Bridegroom Wanted Urgently!

November 29, 2015November 29, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha43 Comments

Tess took another quick peek at the mirror of her compact powder.

No, there’s no dodgy piece of green stuff stuck on any dentition.

Yes, her lip gloss still shimmered.

Her hair still looked healthy and soft; every strand was in the right place.

A bit of powdering to stop any shiny nose, a second look at the slender wrist watch and it was time to go into the restaurant.

It hadn’t been easy sitting out the past fifteen minutes in her car waiting for the appropriate time to step in. She had tortured herself with all manners of imagined dating debacles.

Any respectable young lady shouldn’t turn up for a first date ahead of the time agreed with the guy, she remembered Kate’s advise. It would make her appear too desperate.

Striking a balance is just the right thing. Ten or Fifteen minutes after the scheduled time, then you stroll in leisurely, in controlled steps with just the right amount of swagger to the hips.

Thistle Bar, just the right kind of place for a first time online hook-up. It was her first time in there and it was quite decent.

It was a high street casual bar which was not too high end pricey and not too drive thru junk-food kind of place. Just a balance of both.

He had said he would be wearing a coffee coloured shirt and she told him that she would be wearing fushia. He hadn’t known what fushia looked like precisely, so she had sent a picture of the dress.

It was one of her best colours and lovely dress hugged her curves in the right places.

That must be him, as a pair of eager eyes lit up in her direction. The face looked recognizable and the shirt was dark coffee coloured.

She picked her way past a few rows of seated customers, a tentative smile plastered on her face.

As she approached him, he stood up like a gentleman and Tess’s heart sank to the bottom of her peep toe heeled sandals.

He was not tall by any standard whatsoever! As a matter of fact, in her opinion, he was hugely short.

She quickly ran through her mind, checking to determine if she had seen an indication of height on his bio.

Was height not important? Was it mentioned or not mentioned? She couldn’t remember but her hopes had just received it’s first dashing.

She liked her men tall and had never dated a guy shorter than herself before.

Patrick was fairly an okay character. He even made her smile a couple of times, but there was absolutely no spark – at least on her own side.

The meet-up was not a bad one at all, though she could not afford to eat out often, but hey, if you want to eat omelet, you have to crack some eggs.

She doubted very much if there would be a repeat date. He didn’t ask and she didn’t suggest.

To be continued. Part 1 Part 2

As you know, I like to excavate other neighbours treasures and I offer some to you today 🙂

Would you be interested by Karuna

1 deadly sin for writers by Thomas M. Watt

When random acts find you by izzyasabee

Grammar time from Meg Sorick gave a chuckle or two.

What are we afraid of? From Jennifer Calvert

These 71 tips to awesome blogging that I found in Danny’s patch is awesome.

4 things to avoid doing in your relationships by Wellnessworx

Help from my friends by anonymous outsider.

Feeling confident as a woman from Femininematerz

This visit by Kelly made me smile 🙂 dancers1

Have a beautiful day today my peeps.

Now, lets take a moment and dance.

Family · Life · Love · Musings · Quotes For You · The Daily Post

It Got Stuck On My Hips…

November 28, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha46 Comments

Believe me when I tell you that I ate so much humble pie in the earlier years of my marriage, that it’s not a surprise I got a bit more ample and humble over time.

There were so many instances, that I cannot even begin to recount.

At the start of married life, I assumed that my husband was an Almighty Druid who should be able to read my mind; this was regardless of the 6 months compulsory per-marital counseling classes that we were made to attend.

I think that my mind was doodling wedding gowns in the clouds and what not, when they talked about that communication part.

Well, after the lovely wedding and the romantic honeymoon, we got into the real deal. I had never lived with a man prior to that time, I had never had a husband, so it was trial by error 😉

I see things in brilliant and different hues of colours and my husband sees them in grays and black, so, I learnt that men are truly from a different planet; maybe Mars like they said and women in a World of their own. Though I can say that some of my colours are beginning to rub off on him 😉

After several erroneous assumptions, mostly on my part, and several courses of eating humble I-am-sorry pies, I had to re-calibrate as I realized that:

No, my husband is not a mind reader, though it seems that years of being together are now turning him into one.

No, he is not a druid but, like in the first instance, some magic is happening now.

I realized that in order to make it work, our communication had to get better than my sitting on my high horse with my nose stuck up in the air, expecting him to know those things that lay within my heart and mind, and I daresay that after 15 years, I think we are getting somethings right, since we even finish each others sentences these days 🙂

Now, it’s time to shed the pounds of the humble-over-the- years pies that got stuck on my hips.

The Daily Post Humble Pie

Tell us about a time you found out after the fact that you’d been mistaken and you had to eat a serving of humble pie.

Image credit – pinterest

A link to my neighbours/Community · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Life · Personal story · Quotes For You · Writing

We Are Frowning Goats!…

November 28, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha13 Comments

In my young mind, when my grandma used Igbo (African) proverbs like ”no matter how much a goat frowned its face, its owner still had to take it to the market to sell’‘ I literally thought she was talking about her goats.

She used to raise some goats that were either sold or killed to celebrate special occasions, and I recall looking at the faces of the goats with curious eyes to determine how they frowned.

It took maturity for it to dawn on me that the proverb was meant to address issues that we were either dodging to do or were difficult to do, yet they needed to be done.

Maybe, I should liken myself to the frowning goat in the proverb above.

For the past few days including today; though today has been super-charged busy for me, I have found every busy reason to dodge sitting down and working on my book.

I know that I could find half an hour to squeeze in yet…

Well, I say to myself, the book will not write itself lady!

Get moving! No matter how many excuses made it still has to get done right?

Like my people would also say; ”if the child likes, he should play pranks all day, his portion to weed at the farm will still wait for him.”

I am sure there are other frowning billy and nanny goats as well as pranksters like my dear self, who are using all the bucking tactics available to skirt around the needful 😉 ‘fess up to your misdeeds and lets get it rolling.

Once again, izzyasabee thank you for the invitation to take part in the three quote challenge which I have concluded and will be moving on to the next round of invitation from Vincent Wambua.

I call on these gems of my blogging World to join the fun.

Thomas Dohling

Kat blogs

SarahC

Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Life · Little rants · The Daily Post

If Only They Knew…

November 27, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

It’s a given that the most beautiful humans that I see once I wake up each morning are my family.

My dear Himself – if he is not out of town and our lovely blessings – The children. They are never far from me. Hmm, come to think of it, it seems a selfie holiday is loooong overdue; though I doubt if that vacation will be as much fun without them.

Without doubts, I love them very much and I refer to them as ”ndi nkem, nji eme onu” in my native language which means, ”my very own that I am proud of. My jewels of inestimable value.

However, they are not the ones that I want to talk briefly about right away.

The ones that I want to discuss lightly are those strangers that cross my path of life on this strip.

Most mornings, after my folks, the next batch of people I always run into are the friendly porters who I think are from Pakistan and Philippines and because these ones have been friendly, I have not yet cast them as villains in any of my short stories, just Mr. PT who I turned into a nice portly porter in a short series that I am writing.

They are followed by other folks from wherever, whom I meet sometimes in the lift, on the walkway, if I am taking a brisk morning stroll or at the children’s school and so on.

They consist of proud Emiratis and Saudi Arabians, the fair Russians, the Ugandans, the Ethiopians, lots of Indians, more Filipinos and Pakistanis and others that I am yet to discover where they are from.

Sometimes they reward you with a mere upturn of their lips in a forced smile (usually from the more western ones) and a lot of times with a glare of a look.

There are two particular fellows I love to cast as villains in my mind.

I meet them mostly at the neighbourhood gym where they hog the machines like cyborgs and get so annoying with their showing off exercising skill – my green jealous eye is wiggling here.

Hear me out, one of them sweats over the machines and does not bother to wipe it down after use. Urrgh!

The other one runs on the thread mill at an unbelievable speed and his heavy footing makes so much noise, that I can virtually see the tongue of the poor machine hanging out as it pants in exhaustion while holding on to dear life.

Thankfully, I tune them out with my headphones and just enjoy turning them into imps and ogres in my mind.

I am still searching for the character to cast as a shiny hero that will slay their monstrous behaviour and turn them into pumpkins.

The Daily Post The Luckiest People

Who was the first person you encountered today? Write about him or her.

Musings · Quotes For You · Writing

My Best Material Possessions…

November 27, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha33 Comments

Whenever someone asks me what the best purchase I ever made was, I wonder why my mind simply drifts to the books that I have read and those that I look forward to reading?

Books are such ordinary things to call prized possessions, yet no gemstones like them have I found. Does this happen to you too?

My mind traces back to those books that have imparted valuable knowledge and fed my eclectic taste and senses.

I am always hard pressed to think of other material belongings that give me as much pleasure as my books and my Kindle does.

Is it my diamond encrusted ring? I do love it so and it always glows on my finger and makes me smile.

They say that diamonds are a girls best friend but I am still not yet so sure if it is truly mine. I appreciate it’s value but it is yet to speak to me.

Is it my latest pair of LV slippers? Yes they are certainly popping beautiful feet candy but not my prized possession.

Is it the fantastic new perfume of mysterious origin that I discovered at the Souk?

I have no idea what the name of the perfume means, since it is written in Arabic, but I must tell you that the fragrance is divine.

The list could go on and on but if the truth be told, none of these other things gives me the depth of satisfaction that books I have read gave me.

When I buy a book, it’s like I found a new friend. I usually can’t wait to curl up on my sofa or bed to get acquainted.

I always think that the cover of a book is like a door. Which gives me delightful glimpses of where I have not been before.

Sometimes it casts a spell, tickles, teaches or chastises. I always wonder when I knock what welcome there will be.

This little poem I wrote a while back will tell you more of my thoughts about books.

So what’s your best purchase of recent? Do share the fun, whatever that may be 🙂

NaBloPoMo prompt – Friday, November 27

What’s the best purchase you ever made?

Creative Writing · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Musings · Poetry/Poems · Success · Weave that Dream

Moon Talk…

November 27, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments


It was a dark night in her life!

The twinkles of the sky beckoned from afar;

And the big glowing orb looked down at her.

In his sage, timeless understanding, he winked;

Old man moon she called, so softly.

How do I reach for the stars?

Old man moon laughed a jolly good laugh.

In timeless ways of an old sage, he said:

Little girl!

Dare to dream!

Asleep and Awake!

Close your eyes and stretch!

And reach for the skies!

She listened and she paused to listen again!

Then she closed her eyes;

She Dared to Dream;

Asleep and Awake!

She stretched!

When she opened her eyes;

She had caught some golden orbs of the brilliant Sun!

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Uncategorized

Turkey Day Meet and Greet!

November 26, 2015 jacquelineobyikochaLeave a comment

Turkey Day meet and greet. This should help shed some of those pounds 😉

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