Daddy carriage…Every day beautiful people # 69

June 17, 2016June 17, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha12 Comments

The photo of the man carrying his baby in his own style simply made me smile. It’s much easier to build a character and to mould strong babies when they are still young than to change a broken man.

Let’s use our God-given opportunities as parents to raise these children right. They are our future and the bridge to better tomorrow for humanity.

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

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

My recent thoughts…

June 5, 2016June 5, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha20 Comments

Cybernetic blonde invited me for the quote challenge and my mind drifted to African proverbs. Thank you, Brenda 🙂

From time immemorial, proverbs have been used by elders in my place to punctuate and convey important messages during a conversation.

When I was younger and my parents or grandparents spoke in proverbs, idioms, and all the wise words, I barely understood, but as I age, I find them worth ruminating over especially when I find myself in a quandary of thoughts.

“Even the best cooking pot will not produce food when no fire is lit underneath.”

“When building a house and the nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change the nail?”

“If you run after two Hares, you will catch neither.”

These three proverbs above reflect the thoughts that have been going through my mind of late. So let me briefly explain them.

The first is an advice to myself that even though I have all the storyline of my second book known to me until I sit down and flesh it out as I should, those ideas won’t miraculously turn into a book.

The second one has to do with some mind distractions that I’ve been having of late. So many loose ends of things to tie up and I’m using them as an excuse to digress from doing what needs to be done. It’s time to drop that tack and get serious.

Lastly, I remind myself to taper off unnecessary things and concentrate. Running after too many things at once will all make me harried and at the end of the day, nothing would have been achieved.

So, back to tapering off, tacking with the right nails and cooking up those stories.

Do you fancy a whirl at quotes? Indulge 🙂

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

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

Featured Blogs · Short Stories

The sad saga of the Beak-less, Tailless, Gizzard-bobbing, one-leg hopping Chicken.

June 3, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha

Beth never fails to send me into stitches with her stories. I totally enjoy reading Nutsrok for my good dose of chuckles and her descriptions sends my imagination running haywire.

I hope you enjoy the farm tale and visit her for more.

Being a farm kid is not for sissies and cowards. The dark side of the chicken experience is slaughtering, plucking, cleaning, and preparing chickens for the pot. I watched as Mother transformed into a slobbering beast as she towered over the caged chickens, snagging her victim by the leg with a twisted coat-hanger, ringing its neck and releasing it for its last run. We crowded by, horribly thrilled by what we knew was coming. It was scarier than ”The Night of the Living Dead”, as the chicken, flapping its wings, running with its head hanging crazily to one side, chased us in ever larger circles until it finally greeted Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. It looked horribly cruel, but done properly, a quick snap of the wrist breaks the chicken’s neck instantly, giving a quick death. Of course, this is my assessment, not the unfortunate chicken. The chickens always looked extremely disturbed.

The story continues here.

Everyday People

Memories are made of these…Every day beautiful people 56

May 31, 2016June 1, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha12 Comments

“We didn’t realise we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.” unknown

“Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s season.” unknown

When I watch children play, there’s a lightness that I feel witnessing their guileless laughter, chuckles and innocence. Most people’s treasured memories are the delightful memories of their childhood.

The childhood season is a short one, let’s make timeless treasured memories for our children.

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

Mesmerize me with the harmonious flow of your words,

that drops from your pale glossy lips,

that I may drink in each syllable,

to nourish and satisfy the deep yearn within.

Family · Guest Posts · Parenting

It was impossible to please mother…Personal recount from Linda of Nutsrok.

April 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha18 Comments

This is a post swap between Linda and I. Be sure to visit her end and read my own little naughty side 😉

We get to share a short story of each others childhood escapades.

Now, this is called collaboration and we should do more of such things in this space.

Linda’s one of my favourite bloggers in this space and if you haven’t been to Nutsrok, then you, my friend are so seriously missing out on very good chuckles and charming company.

She always has me in stitches and appreciative of life. Her real-life recounts on her growing up years is worth a movie and I don’t exaggerate.

It was impossible to tell what would land me in trouble when I was a little kid. Mother was impossible to please.

We had a new kitten. I found a kitty surprise in the baby bed and knew for a fact Mother wouldn’t be happy, so I went into the kitchen and got Mother’s salad tongs.

She didn’t use them a lot. I picked up the kitty surprise with the tongs and flushed it down the toilet.

The cat poop had been nice and dry and didn’t leave a mark on the clean sheet. Pleased with myself for being helpful, I tossed the salad tongs in the sink and went on my self-satisfied way, without even bragging on myself.

In a few minutes, Mother called me. I found her examining the tongs, critically, looking and sniffing. “Did you use these tongs?”

Proudly, I answered, “Yes, Ma’am. The cat gee-geed in the baby bed and I cleaned it up for you!” I waited humbly for her praise.

You’d have thought I broke a what-not like I had a few times!

“You cleaned up a cat mess with my kitchen tongs and put them back in the sink. Look at the mess left on here! Do you want that on your food? That’s filthy. I’m going to wear you out!”

She got the fly swat and flapped my bottom three times. I hardly felt it, but I was deeply offended at her ingratitude.

She never caught me cleaning up cat gee-gee again with kitchen tongs or anything else.

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

Life · Photographs · Wordless Wednesday

Do You Remember….Wordless Wednesday

February 17, 2016February 17, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha16 Comments

Do you remember when you last splashed around bare-feet with abandon and sheer delight?

There is nothing as pure and as delightful as watching a child play happily without care.

Family · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Life · Personal story · The Daily Post

Twiddle Dee…Truant Me…personal

December 6, 2015December 6, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

Mum, now that I have grown old enough to know better, I am sorry for wasting your funds in the past; this apology was long overdue. Thank you WordPress for reminding me.

You painstakingly paid for several sessions of holiday piano classes with my primary school music teacher, but it seemed like a waste of precious childhood vacation time in my eyes, not when some of my playmates were busy playing hopscotch next door.

So, I hopscotched away my time and never got past clumsily tapping little ditties and the ‘do re mi fa so la ti do’ of piano things.

In simpler terms, I played truant with my piano lessons and I received a thorough telling off, a note-worthy smack and cancelled piano lessons since it appeared that I had no appreciation for the fineness of music.

Who knows, maybe if I had stuck to it, I might have struck the right chord and become a musical child prodigy.

Please don’t dare chuckle when I say that I am now expending my own money trying to play catch up with the piano lessons that I should have learnt back then 😃

However, I am not totally a lost cause, I did learn how to play the flute quite well and it’s not such a bad thing, just that it leaves me breathless.

The Daily Post prompt Strike a chord.

Do you play an instrument? Is there a musical instrument whose sound you find particularly pleasing? Tell us a story about your experience or relationship with an instrument of your choice.

Family · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Love · Quotes For You · Social Issues · Success

A Nanny Goat and Her Young Ones….

November 19, 2015November 19, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha27 Comments

When we analyze the state of things and how it appears that norms and values, respect and everything have been eroded, it also occurs to me that as adults, parents, custodians and educators of the young ones under our care, we are equally failing in passing on these expected values, right norms, respect and all that is deemed to constitute a responsible human onto these young ones.

Behavioural skills, social norms and beliefs are learnt and they do not grow on trees. They are acquired through constant teaching and emulation. A child is only radicalized through the teachings of an adult or someone in a position of respect. A child is equally taught respect from early days!

The younger generation did not wake up spoilt! Not at all!

We the older generation loaded them with ammunition like kegs of gunpowder and it takes just a strike of a match for them to combust.

They watch and learn from us, add their own individuality and whatever the end result turns into is a product of that.

In essence a child is a by-product of his/her upbringing and society.

We should therefore hold ourselves 90% responsible for the spate of violence, moral decadence, loss of respect and every other vice that rears up its ugly head in today’s World.

We should not lose sight of the fact that we wield a lot of authority in helping these young ones form, therefore we should exercise it in the right manner.

A lot of times, when I take a look today at the my own life cycle, it does not fail to occur to me that the tenets which I have held mostly onto are those ones inculcated in me in my formative years and I daresay that those tenets are the ones that kept me from sinking, even when I furiously dug pits that could have caved in on me. “When a child is raised in the way that he should go, when he grows, he will not depart from it.”

Let me share a couple of African proverbs for today, and bid you a good day.

”When the nanny goat eats grass, it’s young ones watch her mouth and imitate.”

”If a child shoots an arrow that reaches the top of a tall palm tree, then it must be that an elderly person carved the bow and arrow for him.”

”The instruction of a child in youth is like engraving on a stone.”

”When a mother hen has been caught and killed, her chicks become easy prey.”

Once again, Chape thank you for inviting me to the quotes challenge. I shall extend the same courtesy to these awesome bloggers:

Danny

Maria Jansson

Jennifer Calvert

Kind regards,

A link to my neighbours/Community · Family · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Personal story · Quotes For You · Weave that Dream

How much?…

November 13, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha32 Comments

Haggling is an art! To live in an African society with it’s rowdy markets, you need to perfect the art of haggling over goods.

Recollections of days spent traipsing after mother or grandma at the market, trudging from pillar to post haggling over goods in order to get the best bargains makes me smile.

It was never a straight journey!

Purchases were made in-between hundreds of greeting exchanges.

These grown women would hug, chatter, ask about the entire family and their well-being, exclaim over the incessant climb in the price of goods, natter about the latest African prints fabric, discuss their next meetings and what have you, while you stood patiently with the basket waiting for that conversation to be over, only for another encounter of another auntie to occur down the line where yam tubers were sold.

The haggling dance between the seller and the buyer was one done in camaraderie.

A piece of yam tuber would be lifted, passed from the buyers one hand to the other to check how weighty, inspected to ensure that it was still fresh and when mother was satisfied with the selected yam piece, the pricing war begins with “how much?”

This could go on from one market stall to the other and the basket on your head got heavier with the items purchased.

On a good day, your assistance would be rewarded with some boiled groundnuts, fried puff-puffs or something little to nibble at.

Please do remember not to grumble when the haggling is going on otherwise, you might be rewarded with a proverb that says “a child carried on the back, does not realize that the journey is very far.”

For today’s quote, I shall leave you with these African proverbs:

“Life is like shopping in the market, when you finish your purchases, you go home.”

”One does not throw stones in the market square, because you don’t know whose head it might break.”

”Marriage is like eating groundnuts in pods! You have to crack it to see what is inside.”

I have totally enjoyed reminiscing over these proverbs for the past couple of days Oba all thanks to you.

I invite these awesome bloggers to feel free and share some quotes: