Excellence! I am proud – Everyday People 94

July 28, 2016August 30, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha33 Comments

“Excellence is not a skill. It’s an attitude.” Ralph Marston

“Excellence is not being the best, it’s doing your best.” Anon

“Every job that you do is a reflection of you, therefore, you need to make your job a self-portrait of who you are and affix your autograph of excellence, which can only be achieved by doing your best.” Jacqueline

When your Main Bloke, Sweetheart, Heart-throb, Darling, Better-Half, Best-Friend, Husband and Life Partner wins an Award for Excellence, you can’t help but feel proud of his achievements.

So allow me to preen a little bit. After all, there’s a saying that states that “behind a great man stands a great woman.”

Congratulations my dearest. I celebrate you. Many more deserving awards will come your way. Unfortunately, I can’t be there physically (someone has to look out for the children), but I am fully there in spirit 🙂

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.

Jacqueline writes from her heart on passion, pain, suffering, loss and LIFE. I have been incredibly moved by her poetry and I know I will return to “Out of the Silent Breath” again and again.

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

Gratitude

Mixed Feelings… personal

July 27, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha41 Comments

Often, getting older can be viewed with a mixed feeling of excitement and dismay. For the younger person, they feel that they are getting closer to independence while the older person sometimes wishes time could slow down a notch.

Having two of my favourite men (husband and one of my boys) celebrate their birthdays this week is a lot to be thankful for, asides from all the sweet consumptions that accompanies birthday celebrations, I am reminded of the countless blessings that my life has been decorated with. We are well. We have shelter and food. We have hope. We have a bright future. That is more than enough.

My son is fast galloping into a grown man and these days when I look at his tall, 6ft plus big frame, I remember my cute, itty-bitty baby boy with a head full of hair and shiny eyes. A boy who clung to me as a lifeline and laughed at my little jokes and play with him. Now he has his own ideas and jokes, independent in many ways and we are going through teenage ups and downs which I must confess baffles me at times.

Sometimes, the song “wish we could turn back time to the good old days,” hums in my head but I realize also that I wouldn’t have it any different than I do right now. Would I want my child to remain forever a child and not grow older? NO! This is the cycle of life and I am grateful to be a partaker as well as the parent of this beautiful child.

There are times I ask myself where time ran off to when I look at my darling Himself and realize that we’ve been married now for two months shy of 16 years and I realize that I’ve been awesomely blessed even when I didn’t know it. We are all aging with grace and maturing like fine wine and I am thankful 🙂

P.S: There are several gratitude/thankful platforms in the blogosphere that you can tune into and get your ithankful going on. I can’t express in words the enormity of Joy and fulfilment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog, Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges.

InLinkz

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

‘A Richly Layered and Passionate Read.’ Jan Cliff

If you enjoy my works, you can fuel my creativity with a cup of coffee or a slice of cake

The Daily Post

You are my home…

July 22, 2016June 24, 2018 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

Sweet husband of mine,

You touch me in the depths of my being
in ways that I can’t sufficiently express.

The communion of body, mind, and soul
experienced with you by my side
always makes me know that I’m home.

Saying that I love you is so paltry;
I adore you and would be lost without 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.

Jacqueline writes from her heart on passion, pain, suffering, loss and LIFE. I have been incredibly moved by her poetry and I know I will return to “Out of the Silent Breath” again and again.

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

Love · Personal

His Big Screen…personal

March 6, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha45 Comments

I chuckle as I write this. I can’t think of anything else when the word screen shows up as today’s prompt.

Why would the word screen rouse a chuckle out of me?

Well it reminded me of my short, sizzling courtship with my husband nearly sixteen years ago and when we first met.

I remember the first thought that I had when I looked at his glasses.

They were as big as a Boeing 727 jet with wide screen and behind the wide screen were very beautiful eyes.

I wondered why he was wearing contact lens and wearing such big screen in the name of glasses at the same time.

It turned out that they are not contact, but my husband has hazel eyes.

For a fully black man, that is not common. It was mostly albinos that I knew that had light eyes in Africa, but as time went on, I got to learn of Africans with blue eyes.

I think it was those lovely hazel eyes of his that got me and yes, for the love of me, he got rid of the Boeing 727 and we settled for a lovely pair of Tom Ford frames.

The Daily Post prompt Screen.

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

Family · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Personal story · Photographs

Chef Extraordinaire…personal

November 26, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

Bending over to stoke the firewood, blowing at it with gusto and fanning the crackling flames till they lit; putting kerosene into the stove and lighting it’s wicks with an ignited single broomstick; manipulating the gas cooker to lower the heat from burning the beans or rice while I snatched a quick five minutes read in the bathroom, were my early forays in the kitchen. I was caught young!

Naturally this has gravitated towards keeping my brood and my dear Himself nourished over the years and I believe that in most homes this is usually the case – the mother automatically assumes the kitchen chef position.

I certainly know the way to his heart by keeping his tummy nicely sated with good tasting yumminess 🙂

It has been my primary responsibility over the years and I dare say that I can whip up a decent meal and efficiently too.

Since that is the case, it goes without debate that I am the best cook in my domain.

However, there are have been days that Himself develops a desire to become a culinary artist and Myself simply puts up her feet and watch’s my kitchen transform into an operation desert storm 😉

I don’t mutter a word of discouragement so that the waves of culinary want-to-do will hit more often.

I simply go ahead and enjoy eating every bite whipped up by Himself, with a deep hum of appreciation and a sink load of dirty pots and pans.

Do you enjoy whipping up some yummy stuff or is there a Himself in your life, who is a culinary artist turning your kitchen into an area hit by a thunder storm?

NaBloPoMo – Thursday, November 26

If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving today (or even if you’re not!), tell us about the best cook in your family.

Creative Writing · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Musings

Indeed love can grow; for my car at least..

June 24, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha5 Comments

Bonding is really a question of giving time to someone or something and allowing their finer qualities to get to you.

Even a disagreeable person has someone who finds him/her agreeable after a while of spending time together.

Like we say back home: Monkey no fine, but him mama like am (no matter how ugly the monkey is, his mother is quite enthused with him).

In my case, the love and bonding is between my car and I.

It’s not that my SUV is ugly. No! Far from it. But as the name depicts, it is still a Sport Utility Van. Made to accommodate my brood and I, plus the excessive grocery bags.

In my head, I am a classy diva and when my husband wanted to get me a new car, I wanted a snazzy red corvette to paint the town in lovely colors. I could see myself cruising down Beltway 8 or i10 with my sun roof down and a scarf carelessly slung round my neck and my kinky hair (not flowing like the locks of a Caucasian damsel) bouncing, maybe just a little. I would wear an over-sized pair of dark sunglasses and a whole lot of attitude. I went to sleep for several nights with a happy smile on my face 🙂

I craftily dropped hints all over the place for my Corvette desire to dear husband of mine, but he looked at me with that expression of ” where did you fall and hit your head?” promptly explaining to me, that as a matronly mama, I should have an accommodating car, so that the children can have enough room and to leave the snazzy bits for retirement or when they have all gone off to College/University. Reluctantly throwing my sunroof cruising thoughts out of the window, I grudgingly acquiesced.

We went ahead and purchased my sedate looking (white for that matter) SUV, and our romance began. Every morning, I would start her (her name is Gloria) and she will respond with a perfect hum. Gloria, has been very faithful and loving these past months. No day did she nag or grumble. No day did she fail to work as expected. She was good in all weather, rain or shine. As I am about to trade Gloria in, I am jolted with the realization, that indeed, I have come to love my dependable SUV, white color and all and that I would miss her. I could not paint the town the colors that I wanted, but she did get me around as often as I needed.

Not that I have forgotten my snazzy Corvette, there’s still a whole lot of time for that 😉