The Spirit Of Doubt…personal

April 13, 2016January 29, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

Waking up with the spirit of doubt trying to invade my mind is not my idea of a fun way to rise in the morning. This spirit of doubt was implanted by events outside my control, which affects a member of my loved and extended family *unfortunately, I can’t disclose nor breach their confidence, but nonetheless, this issue weighs heavily on my mind that I found myself entertaining seeds of fear and worry.

Fear and worry add no value, but rather, they take away from the person inflicted by the noisome presence.

They are like creeping plants that grow so fast and try to smother everything good along the way. I am still a fledgling Christian in the sense that I cannot lay claims of having it all sorted out spiritually, but I am so grateful that I have matured enough in the spirit to always remember that God gave me the spirit of love and of sound mind and not of fear.

It may sound juvenile to some, but please believe me, when I say that I deliberately started recounting the positive things of just the previous days and not only did I drown out the voice of fear and worry, but I experienced such upliftment inside me.

The Spring break is over and we are back to the hustling shift of rising early, school runs and what not. I am so grateful for my children and the beautiful time spent together.

My babies are growing up, enough to slap gooey peanut butter sandwiches together, to flip pancakes and make light breakfast for themselves so that their mother can get a little extra lounge time in bed.

For a beautiful, caring soul in my husband who showed me lots of surprising sweet spots through his concern and ministration to my needs these past few days and brought loads of laughter to my lips.

I am thankful for Grace. Grace not to wilt in the sight of pressure. Grace that has stood by my loved one in their trying times and lest I forget, I am thankful for earning my first 34 cents in this blogging space as well as the sustenance to keep at it and not to lose focus.

A lot of times, life brings temptation that seems quite burdensome, but if we keep our face up, the load will slide off our shoulders.

I hope that you are thankful for something today. You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Image credit: Pixabay

Everyday People · Family · Life · Parenting

Daddy Love…Everyday Beautiful People 13

April 10, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

‘A father’s loving and guiding hands will remain on the daughters shoulders forever, even when he is long gone.’ Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Family · Gratitude

Killing The Fat…

April 6, 2016January 31, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha19 Comments

Virtue the say lies in the mean. In lay man’s term, I should exercise my laziness virtue in moderation.

I have been absolutely so laid back with my workouts and relaxing far too much to be of productive use to anyone except maybe by talking their ears off.

I am grateful for the rest time. Truly, I appreciate these moments of exhaling in-between hectic periods and I am not being mealy-mouthed about this opportunity, especially knowing that the good slice of indulgence will be over next week.

However, today my body got tired of me and begged me to take it for some concerted exercise.

My pillow gave a good fight but lost the battle of the senses.

I am happy and thankful that I got off my backside and got some sweating in. I killed some fat today!

I could practically feel the endorphins and dopamine galloping all the way to my brain in utmost pleasure. Ah! Quelle bliss.

My appreciation goes to all those who took out the time to take a peek at my book cover to help me make a decision.

Nothing prepared me for the fact that choosing a cover could be a pressure. A detail that I had been ignorant of. Ignorance indeed is bliss but can cost you some good sleep. It’s a good pressure and I am happy to be in such a position. I pray that my body will keep winning over the pillow so that I can murder some fat 😉

A heart that knows thanks for friends is a heart that will know many delights. Who or what gives you the delight to be thankful this day?

You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Family · The Great Book Of Lists

Celebration and Acts of Love….The Great Book Of Lists.

April 3, 2016January 31, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

La Duchesse Derat gave us two themes for this week’s Great Book Of Lists and as usual, they are topics that bring out the joy in us.

I am a very expressive person and I believe in appreciating those around me whether in little or big ways. What matters is that over time, those little things compound into something that they hold on to as a good memory.

The little Acts of love that I indulge in often are:

I am a hugger: Embracing my children, my husband and those whose are close to me always give me a warm buzz and it costs nothing.

Buying little tokens or giving a gift card: A lot of times I might stumble on a little item that makes me smile and think of someone, from a painted little vase, a book, or a card. I buy it and give to the person.

Occasionally, I indulge in gift cards that don’t cost the World – a 10, 20 or 50 dollar gift card depending on how buoyant my pocket is at that point in time and give them out in appreciation. There are times when I have a little bit extra to spare, I could buy up to 5 gift cards and just keep in my purse and give them out as my spirit moves me.

Cooking: Celebration calls for arrays of food. It always gives me pleasure to watch everyone eat, drink, laugh and generally enjoy the offerings that I made with a lot of love and sweat 🙂 There is this bond and camaraderie that eating together builds.

Calling and texting: I always endeavour to call or text family and my close friends to find out how they are doing. Now BBM, Whatsapp etc have made it cheaper to do so. It gives me an uplift in the spirit after a nice, warm chat.

I listen, I counsel and I pray: I always offer a listening ear and as much as possible, try to offer an objective advice that’s not biassed. If it requires praying, I would partner in prayers and counselling. If issues need to be straightened out, then as much as possible I will tell you my mind as gently as I can. I don’t believe in enabling someone to behave badly and unfortunately, this has once or twice not gone down well with one or two friends who sought my advice and expected me to side them in their bad behaviour…telling my friend that she’s wrong to wish her husband harm and going out of her way to his office to make a scene did not earn me any badges, but it’s not a friendship that I particularly miss. I will only proffer an advice that which I would probably resort to myself.

When it comes to celebrating:

I dance. I love to dance and possibly sing along to the music. Sometimes, when I feel very glad, it’s not uncommon to just play my loud jams and dance. Occasionally, my husband takes me out to go dancing and dining afterwards.

Going out with my family for a good time.

Take my body wholeheartedly to a spa and get a little pampered. There’s nothing like a deep tissue massage to work out the kinks and a relaxing pedicure to make you feel as if loads has been lifted off you. I love to paint bright red colour on my toes at such times. It makes me feel like revving my engine 😉

Indulge in some cheap home treat of reading, eating dark chocolate, running a nice hot tub and just feeling good.

I share my good news. I believe so much in the power of positive aura and when I have positive vibes to share, I do so.

Family · Little rants · Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Be Wise, it’s possible that I’ve been foolish!…Streams of consciousness Saturday.

April 2, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha37 Comments

‘Be wise,’ this caution repeats in my head so many times in a day, sometimes as early as when I rise up in the morning, that I am beginning to question myself to find out where my foolishness lies and why the caution keeps popping into my head.

How I wish the repetitive caution ‘be wise,’ jangled hard with cymbals and vuvuzela when I am about to help myself to a second slice of pie or cheesecake.

I have no problem with being wise after all, that’s what aging is meant to bring, even though I am beginning to question some older people’s sense of reasoning these days.

Some of them seem to have sold their sense for two cents that common sense is becoming less common in the quarters where you expect to see it.

Be wary of slick-tongued politicians. They make promises that they can’t keep. All their bluster is simply empty air. I guess a nation can’t live without leaders to direct their affairs, but the current state of affairs of my dear country Nigeria makes me wonder what those old men garbed as politicians are doing in there?

They are selling the nation short and robbing it blind. Could they just be honest for once in their lives?

I guess not. It’s simply not in their best interest to be pillars of honesty, otherwise, they can’t become thieves.

Besides Nigerian economic and political woes, these days, I have become more cautious with listening to news that simply raises my angst.

I have basically whittled it down to the barest minimum. I barely bother to listen to CNN anymore because all I get to hear is American political brouhaha and we have till November to suffer through such news, not that they used to show better things in the first place

Anyway, before I become dour and boring, let me heed to my inner voice of be wise and save myself some foolishness.

This weekend, I am going to be absolutely and decadently lazy. I am going to be doing some ‘me introspective time’ and generally chilling with my brood.

Life is certainly beautiful and as Linda’s prompt suggests, I am just going to ‘be’ing and not doing.

Family

Laughter and Love…

March 30, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

Laughter and love are the best things in life, no doubts about that!

I am thankful for such a time as this honestly. For family and fun times. For Spring break and a chance to generally loaf around a bit, creating memories that last a lifetime.

Good and beautiful memories interspersed with sibling squabble and lots of food.

If the truth be told, I feel outrightly lazy and decadent from these past few days of sleeping late and waking up late. Very unusual practice, that my body is about to go on a riot.

As I write this, I am reminded of a happy post shared by dearest VAN and I urge you to take a quick peek. 🙂

You can thank me later.

Are there itty-bitty things that your heart knows thanks for?

Do share if you will. Thank you.

You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Dubai · Family · Gratitude · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Parenting

Exhaling Loudly…This is my life.

March 23, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha18 Comments

I know it’s not weekend yet, but I am thankful that we are halfway there, or as in my case, almost a day to weekend and the school Spring breaks commences on Friday. YAYYYYY!!!

Our weekend’s over here in the Middle East starts on Thursday evenings and sometimes, it makes my mind go wonky, when the work week starts on Sunday’s and other parts of the World are still on a weekend.

It’s been one of those weeks that’s just bleh; waking up at past 4 am and making the children’s breakfast and food for school with one eye open.

I know that being a mother, weekend does not necessarily spell idling, but some things are taken out of the hectic equation.

My mouth will probably get twisted seven ways from talking, settling squabbles and I will probably pull my hair out now and again, for these days that squad will be fully at home, adrenaline filled and looking up to Mama the squad entertainer extraordinaire to keep them focused and entertained.

I shall however, thoroughly enjoy not having the infernal red alarm clock go off, just when I am getting into the zen part of the sleep; at least for the next two weeks. It even rings in my head when I am awake

On the other hand, I am equally thankful for a lovely blogger’s bash held in this space. The supportive turn out was just awesome 🙂

I am equally excited that the cover of my collected poetry will soon be ready. There’ll definitely be a sneak peek.

What are the itty-bitty things that your heart knows thanks for?

Do share if you will. Thank you.

You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Family · Personal

Humbly Eating Burnt Offering…Streams of consciousness Saturday.

March 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

I smile in amusement as I write this little post. If not that Easter eggs are popping up every where, my thought would have been that Linda has bionic powers to see into my kitchen.

I just finished breakfast of partially burnt scrambled eggs offered by my daughter. We are learning to cook and I guess burning is part of the practice 🙂

I humbly ate the eggs with a thankful heart. Soon enough she will get the hang of it with practice.

I think fleetingly back to my growing up years and learning how to cook in my mother’s kitchen. Only God knows how many burnt pots of rice, yam, beans, soup, I had to go through before getting into it.

Eggs were treats back then, eaten mostly on Saturday and Sundays because we had to wait for our local, home bred chickens to lay enough of them and on some days during the week, they were stingy or lazy with the laying of the eggs.

It’s not like now, where trays and trays of different types of eggs are on display for customers to choose as many crates as they wish.

Back then, it used to be a delight to go to the chicken coop at the back and find a warm, just laid egg.

Occasionally we were blessed with seeing a little chick hatch from eggs that my grandma set aside.

How she knew the ones that would hatch is something that I never understood.

Family · Health

Sometimes, it pours heavily….

March 16, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

Today, I have so much to say, yet I fail to know where to start from.

Life is such that we honestly have no inclination what the next hour will bring our way, much less the next day, week or year.

Our lives hang in the daily delicate balance of providence and most times, we don’t get to chose what happens to us, but the only thing that we can choose is how to react to the curves on the path of our journey and not losing grip of ourselves.

We also get to choose friends who journey along with us on life’s path and a whole lot of times, they serve as a prop and support on those shaky days.

My heart knows a lot of thanks for the restoration of health of my family members and an enormous sense appreciation for the huge outpouring of gracious wishes from all of you on my birthday on Sunday.

Your thoughts warmed me.

Regardless of the fact that online relationships may appear untenable due to it’s nature, we should never fail to appreciate or undermine the strength and support that we have in our friends and we truly have no idea the beautiful far reaching effects of these friendships.

‘It’s until you are caught in the rain that you realize that a tattered umbrella has it’s good sides.’

You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.