Blog-hopping · Online Blog Party

Your Invitation to this weekend’s party

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Do you feel like connecting with others?

Do you want to grow your blog and network with awesome folks?

There’s virtual food and drink with zero calories.

Great music too and lot’s of fun.

You can come as you are – in your pj’s, hair nets and what not – just bring your blog.

It will be going down live this way so come and shake a leg, meet and greet, mix and mingle and party the blog down into July.

Date: Right now

Venue: happening live on this site.

Come one, come all and invite your friends along.

Share as much as you can. The more the merrier.

Good time and satisfaction guaranteed 😉

I look forward to seeing you.


Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

I absolutely love this book of poems. My favorites are “Love Rations” (for those who love to give the silent treatment) and “Beggars Supper” (which definitely pulls at the heart strings). Two thumbs up!!

Out of the silent breath

If you enjoy my works and would like to do so, you can fuel my creativity with a slice of cake or coffee 😉

 

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Networking · Online Blog Party

A Tea Party coming up…

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Our monthly blog party of meeting and mingling comes up next weekend.

Let’s kick off the dust of last month and the first half of this year, stepping into the second half with hope, joy and fun.

There’ll be scones or cakes, cookies or biccies, fizzy pops or soft drinks, chocolate nibbles, food, music and much more 😉

Just bring your blog along and drop in to meet and mingle with others.

It’s always a successful fun time and you’ll enjoy it 🙂

Date: link goes live Friday night of 1st July to Sunday 3rd July. 

Venue: happening live on this site.


Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

‘A Richly Layered and Passionate Read.’ Jan Cliff

Out of the silent breath

Featured Blogs

Featured Posts # 70…Share Your Post Links.

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‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

My private ballerina: a total piece of fine writing. I felt so satisfied reading this and this is my comment:

OOOh! This is beautiful. I totally love it. I wonder if she knows your thoughts?

Naptural beauty: A sweet post from Michelle. Nothing like being you and doing what’s best for you 🙂

Back in the day: an inspiring, thought-provoking, positive vibes-laden post.

Disrupt aging, bringing back sexy: when a lady is rocking her 50’s and bringing her sexy back, it’s WOW! Two thumbs up La Diva Deborah 😉

Please do step in and show some love.

‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

P.S. Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.

Thank you for your understanding and regards.

‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.’


Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Stars, Five Stars, Logo, Icon, Symbol, Five, Rating

She is amazing at describing love and life in her poems. She creates such beautiful images with her words. Truly, she is a talented writer and I’m so excited to have her poetry book and to continue reading through it.

Out of the silent breath

Featured Blogs · Share A Link

Featured Posts # 59 …Share your post links.

1456149614808[1]

‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

The revengewogger: Breidengale’s blog is a totally inspiring journey of an awesome lady. In her own words below:

Started off wanting revenge in a race against a friend. Turned into getting revenge on my body that attacked me with cancer. Learning to adapt and laugh at the curveballs life has thrown my way while still focusing on running that race next year harder and faster!

ShiVibes: Shihana is a young blogger friend of mine 🙂 In her own words below, she introduces herself. Please show some warm welcome 🙂

Hey there! I am Shihana Nachiya. Eighteen years old Indian girl bought up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Another lost soul, wandering on this planet, trying to find a purpose in her life.
Words keep buzzing in my head, often leaving me restless.
I’m a dabbler in many things; poet, writer, photographer, bathroom singer, cook and a huge foodie, feminist, voracious reader, a music lover, life enthusiast and a good friend.

Give me a break: Very tenacious Squirrel. This will put a smile on your face for sure 🙂

Finding faith in fear: I truly enjoyed reading Susan’s article. It’s concise, practical and inspiring and here’s my comment.

This is so inspiring and equally practical. Our faith is active and we let go of the fear and trust in the Lord. I like the idea of sitting down and identifying the facts and the root of our fear. That way we get a better grip of it. I enjoyed reading this.

Please do step in and show some love.

‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

P.S. Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.

Thank you for your understanding and regards.

‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.’

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

I hear you in my thoughts…

Your words of wisdom,

of love and encouragement…

They are etched upon my soul.

They keep me warm.

**

*an excerpt from my poem*

Guest Posts · Health · Wellness

You’ve got to meet graceful Yentl of Younfolded.

Today, I have beautiful Nena telling us a bit more about herself and giving us a peek into her World.

She’s one of the encouraging and refreshing voices that I’ve met in this space. I enjoy her posts on showing simple ways of how we can be kind to each other as well her health and wellness posts.

Thank you, Nena for sharing a bit about you with us.

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Hi! My name is Yentl (like the Barbara Streisand movie), but close friends and family call me Nena so I like for my blogging family to call me that as well.IMG_5787

Nena is a term of endearment in Spanish and it means “baby girl” and although I am a woman in her early 30s there is a sense of warmth every time I hear my nickname.

I was born and raised and still live in hot, sunny, and very humid Miami, Florida. If you haven’t guessed it already I am Latina and speak English and Spanish fluently. My dad is from Venezuela and my mom from Guatemala; two very distinct and beautiful cultures.

I like cooking healthy (and sometimes not so healthy) meals, staying active, exploring my world via traveling and reading, and expressing myself through writing and connecting with others.

I dislike criticism, judgments, and insults that break others down. We go through enough pain and despair in our lives so there is no room for hurtful words from people that don’t know any better.

For this reason, I try to always uplift those around me even if it’s through using simple, positive words like, “You are appreciated” so that they come to see their own worth.

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My husband had been telling me for years to start a blog or YouTube channel mainly because of all the different hairstyles that I would do and also to share my nutrition knowledge.

I was hesitant because I was passionate about more than just nutrition and hair. I wanted to inspire and uplift others so when I started the blog it was more about unfolding bits of myself to promote self-discovery and self-love.

That is where the name YOUnfolded comes from.

I fell in love with blogging because of the supportive community. One of my fears with YouTube was all the competition that you see amongst vloggers so I was a bit apprehensive about what I was getting into with blogging. But I am so happy to have taken the plunge!

When I received my first like on my very first post “How Could I Forget?” I was elated!

It felt good to express myself and share info that could be helpful to others. Now I can’t wait to sit down and write up my recipes like The Pumpkin Soup that was a hit with my loved ones, my weekly workouts on my Move It Monday posts, and get my creative juices flowing when I write expressively like I have been doing for my Pet Series.

My favorite is when I get to showcase some of you lovely bloggers in my Pay It Forward Friday posts as a way to demonstrate my appreciation for all that you do.

I also started a YouTube channel to finally do some hair tutorials and decided to do them bare-faced (no makeup) to continue to promote self-love and the beauty of simply being YOU. Watch Younfolded on YouTube.

Lately, I have been waking up at 8am with just enough time to get up, brush my teeth, take my girls (dogs) out, get dressed, and start work at 8:30 am.

I work from home, but I am on a schedule (currently it is 8:30am – 5pm) and don’t have a lot of free time. I am a dietitian and I work as a health coach where I provide nutrition counseling to people over the phone.

I mainly make calls back to back and my lunch break consists of 30 minutes of eating in front of a Netflix show with my hubby.
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After work, I clean (I use my cleaning schedule : ) take the girls out again, and work out. My hubby is usually the main cook in the house, but sometimes if he’s still working I cook dinner. Dinner is also in front of the TV watching one of our fave shows.

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Once dinner is done, I take care of any pending things like taking a webinar for continuing education for my dietitian/nutrition license, shooting pics or videos for either my site or my husband’s work, writing posts, catching up with friends or family. Then it’s time for a shower and bedtime (around 11pm-12am).

I recently moved my WordPress hosted blog to a self-hosted one because I wanted to try to generate some income from it. My original plan to support and encourage others remains the same.

I found myself spending a lot of time putting together things for the blog, brainstorming ideas, and promoting companies whose products I have been using and truly believe in. I figured that it would be great to gain even just a bit of income from the free advertisement I am already providing to various companies out there to keep the blog running because, as most of you know, it is not free to have a .com without the word “WordPress” in there and it takes time to put together content.

With my already busy schedule, blogging and doing YouTube videos feel like a part-time job so why not make a bit of money doing something I love and dedicate a lot of time to.

I have plans to continue to provide content in each of the categories on my blog that will hopefully inspire others to take care of their entire well-being; whether it’s through nutrition, fitness, fun, or relaxing, as long as they find joy and fulfillment from within.


When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Never leave me lonely

With words left unsaid

You walk away into the dark

Like a mist, that melts away.

Featured Blogs

Featured Posts 55…Let me share your post links.

1456149614808[1]

‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

Face: Vicky offers us glimpses of fascinating faces of Sri Lanka.

We need your help: I bet you might have an idea or question to offer this co-parenting, mom-step-mom collaboration. Quite an interesting concept.

A quick drive-thru to say hello can gain you a friend.

‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

P.S. Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.

Thank you for your understanding and regards.

‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.’

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

 

Never leave me lonely

With words left unsaid

You walk away into the dark

Like a mist, that melts away.

Share A Link

Share Your Posts!

If you’ve got a post for our eyes, do send in your links through this portal and get it featured.

I share other people’s posts from Mondays to Fridays. Take advantage of the opportunity and share your links.

Regards

Jacqueline.


Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Never leave me lonely

With words left unsaid

You walk away into the dark

Like a mist, that melts away.

Personal · The Great Book Of Lists · This Is My Life

I am currently….personal TGBOL

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For this week’s great book list, Duchess gave us something a little different. It’s a snap portraiture of who I am, what I do and what my current plans are.

She found the list idea on MAMBI website as a freebie for their Create 365 brand.

How does it work ? We should list items starting with I currently…. love, eat, drink, etc, so here goes…

a. Loving… Life and the state of my mind that keeps expanding with possibilities each day

b. Eating… Less even though I had one greasy Hardee’s burger after gamboling around the beach.

c. Drinking… Lots of water and blended fruits otherwise called smoothie these days.

d. Watching… Jumanji with the children and last night was Casino, with dear Himself.

e. Going…To start different things, a new blogging platform focusing on blogging, writing and speaking, searching more ardently for income opportunities and marketing my book.

f. ReadingA Prisoner of Birth, my bible, a host of blog posts and O’s Little Guide to Finding Your True Purpose (O’s Little Books/Guides)

g. Texting… Family and friends. Just finished having a chit-chat with one of my sisters and my roomie back in University.

h. Playing…. In the sand at the beach and watching the children ride their segway. I passed on their offer to teach their mother. I don’t want to break any bones or lose my dentition.

i. Working… On my second book. I decided to focus on one at a time instead of the different manuscripts I am working on.

j. Stressing… Over marketing methods, over an ill relative and the current state of my country, Nigeria.

k. Celebrating… My blog’s one year today and one of my boys will be celebrating his birthday in four days, so he’s making a long plan for me 😉

l. Listening… To Happy by Pharell Williams and my playlist, that uplifts my spirit.

m. Thanking… God every day for his grace and mercy and friends for their presence in my life.

n. Buying… Not much. Asides from our regular grocery and books to read each month, I have been on a spending hiatus.

o. Pinning… I honestly haven’t pinned much of anything, except darning my son’s shorts, I guess that passes for pinning something 😉

p. Planning… Summer slowly in my head and hoping to be done with my second book by then. Planning not to crowd my mind with so much and focus on the important things.

q. Visiting… Ajman. We went last weekend to the nearby Emirates and it was a lovely quiet time.

r. Wondering… Where to find the energy to do all my weekend cooking, writing and tidying. I am feeling lazy.

s. Feeling… A mix of emotions. More like melancholic.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Dance to your heart’s delight my African child, until echoes of your stamping feet, beating heart; bright eyes, smiling lips; and waving hands, resonates over and over like thunder claps, reverberating throughout the Universe.

Just dance.

Scary · WordPress

BE CAREFUL! PLEASE, NEVER, NEVER, TOUCH THESE!!!

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I had a recent struggle with malicious attack on my blog that some of you know of and hopefully, when my load is just a little less in the next week or so, I will share the few steps that I followed and the mind-numbing number of emails between myself, google and WordPress before the situation was resolved.

However, I just received a so called email message above from Gmail and my sixth sense simply told me to verify the source, so my verification from WordPress engineers -see discussion thread below – confirms that it’s a phishing mail to harvest your details :/

acquelineobyikocha Hello good morning, this is an emergency please
Mahangu Hi there! What can I help you with?
Mahangu 🙂
jacquelineobyikocha Hello Mahangu
jacquelineobyikocha I just got a funny email alert telling me this
jacquelineobyikocha Hello, We noticed the last document you downloaded, contains a Trojan Virus please follow the link https://formcrafts.com/a/19603 to enable us delete it from your E-MAIL Now. For your safety, We also recommend you format your computer/ Device to further remove any Threat of the virus. Kindest Regards, Gmail! Security Services team
Mahangu Right. You didn’t click that link, did you?
jacquelineobyikocha I believe I did and it wanted me to enter my details and I didn’t
Mahangu Good thinking! That is a “phishing” email, and you can safely ignore it.
Mahangu Gmail, or WordPress.com, or any trustworthy source will never send you a form to enter your account info.
Mahangu They already have it, right? 🙂
jacquelineobyikocha Wow! Can you beat that!
jacquelineobyikocha Good to know. Thank you very much. I will educate some of my readers.
Mahangu Great! 🙂
Mahangu If you think you may have even half entered your account details there though, I would change your real account password.
Mahangu Just to be safe.
jacquelineobyikocha Thank you Mahangu. I just wanted to verify. Do have a good day/afternoon/night etc today
jacquelineobyikocha No I didn’t enter anything but I’ll still go ahead and change my password.

Be very mindful. Secure your passwords, make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date. They are really some malicious people out there.

Be bloggy safe.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Challenges · Haiku · Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Racy Path…

This week’s haiku prompt ‘life & path’ is sweet. Thank you Ronovan 🙂

Banner, Header, Man, Silhouette, Businessman, Briefcase

A racy life

On a crooked path

Destroys the runner.

—–

He ran for his life

But the path was a bit dark

He stumbled and he fell.

—–

On the walk through life

There are stumbling blocks in our path

We fall and we rise.

—–

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Image credit: Pixabay.com