a cooking pot and twisted tales
Thoughts and Tales…A Lifestyle Blog with a Zing.
The speed of the thoughts
Race in and out
Like a tempest forming
In the nascence of a rage
They are battering and the mind keeps buffering
Until the dams break down
Weakened by the bashing
Of banked emotions
The rage boils over
Tip of the pen races across the paper
Leaving dripping trails
Of blood, gore, tears and fury.
Silence!
The calmness returns.
Of course there was life before the computer and there will still be life after the computer.
It’s called ‘Living and The Dear Diary Day’s. ![1453819073144[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/14538190731441.jpg)
Before I started blogging, my dear diary took the brunt of my words and my dear Himself’s ears were perpetually hot from lending his ears to my nattering.
Now he can flip through the channels in peace while my gleaming eyes are dancing as I mumble and mutter over the clattering computer.
I still scribble a lot in dear diary, though not everything anymore and sometimes, I do get the feeling that she feels disenfranchised because at times, I feel her giving me the cold shoulder when I want to write those personal tidbits at the end of the day.
My typical day starts at 4.30 am on school days, when the alarm shrieks to wake me up. I groggily waddle to the bathroom to take care of business with eyes at half-mast so that the sleep can be retained for a little longer.
I then lie back for a few more minutes and just either read the Bible or pray quietly, going through things in my head. I enjoy that part of the morning when everywhere is quiet.
With school age kids, I prepare their breakfast and a meal that they take to school. On a lazy day, I slap a sandwich together. They have a canteen, but I am not particularly enthused with the offerings especially since my younger son has allergies.
We get ready for school and hopefully the morning goes sanely without looking for a missing sock, or pencil pouch or their glasses and what have you. It’s always a nice morning bustle.
After shooing them off to school, I try to get in some brisk exercise or lazy walk and just take in the fresh air.
Thankfully, for the past few months, I have not had to dash off to work like a headless chicken as well, but that might change anytime soon, when I get back to school myself.
The rest of my day follows with attending to Himself as well, planning the days meal, dashing out for xyz, homework’s, housework, personal business, reading, writing, listening to music and what have you.
Some days involve church work, charity work, this and that and those work, but life is usually full of odds and ends of things to do.
Now that I blog, I also fit it into my days schedule. Blog early. Switch off and get other things done, then come back to the blog later when the dust of the day has settled.
I keep pretty much busy without my computer, but please don’t get any ideas of coming to take it away.
I just got this new one when the old one gave up from exhaustion during Christmas, though I think my dear diary would be secretly pleased if you nick my computer.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
The Daily Post Life After Blogs.
Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
Here I often sit and ponder,
As the days go by,
The rising and setting sun,
So quickly passing by,
Where yonder shall tomorrow find me?
It’s only God in heaven that knows!
For that answer my friend is blowing in the wind!
Will I mingle with the free?
Will I be among the living?
For these answers I do not know my friend,
For it is blowing in the wind!
Will I scribble to the delight of others?
Putting smiles and streaking hearts with joy?
For this I shall strive some more,
But the answer my friend, is blowing in the wind!
Shall I rock grand-babies on my bent knees?
Singing hush lullabies to darling little ears.
This I know not my friend,
For the answer is blowing in the wind!
Shall tomorrow meet me,
Sipping warm cocoa in my rocking chair,
Telling tales of days gone by?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind!
Yesterday is gone!
Tomorrow belongs to God!
My today is a present gift as I sit here!
Let me be happy, and have peace!
I shall leave tomorrow’s answer, to the blowing wind.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
The Daily Post prompt Six of one, half a dozen of the other
Write a six-word story about what you think the future holds for you, and then expand on it in a post.
An institution of learning for children must have the basic learning instructions of reading, writing and arithmetic’s.
I wonder where I would be, if I hadn’t learnt to read?
That would have been a sorry shame because I may not have been able to talk to you.
The wonders and places gleaned between the pages of a book would elude such a soul. The man who reads visits a thousand place’s but a man who doesn’t read, remains in one place.
The learning process of these basic skills will help the learner’s acquire required skills to function and blend into a larger society, as well as laying the foundation which equally serves as their springboard to excel in their chosen pursuits.
If I had the opportunity to set up an institution of learning ground up, asides from the usual subjects that are taught in the four walls of a school, I would emphasize on student’s learning basic survival skill acquisition as well as other skill sets and talents which can be harnessed optimally.
Ethics, etiquette, empathy, generosity, respect and self-respect should also form part of a young child’s social sciences formation, especially in these times when the focus seems to be more selfish inclined with the spirit of entitlement pervading the society.
Let us remember that the mind of a child is a tabula rasa, absent of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals a pure clean slate on which to write and as the good Bible states, we should raise a child in the way that he should go and when he grows, he shall not depart from it.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
In response to The Daily Post prompt The New School
You get to redesign school as we know it from the ground up. Will you do away with reading, writing, and arithmetic? What skills and knowledge will your school focus on imparting to young minds?
Whoot! Whoot! You don’t say! My 200th Blogging Milestone post is in!
I feel like floating out of my seat and singing loudly and off-key too!
I didn’t set out to hit this mark so soon just after hitting my 100th blogging milestone on the 8th of September, but I just did it!
I am truly surprised because according to the timeline/goals that I had set for myself, I expected to get here by the end of the December. Naturally, I expected to gain a few more blogging friends as I went along, but I have managed to exceed my own humble expectations.
I personally don’t like putting too much expectation out there and wearing my heart on my sleeves; that way, I won’t feel particularly disappointed or perturbed if things are a bit slow.
To have started this 5 months ago and happily sustained a tempo is what really makes me glad. I had expected the fascination to wane a bit, but not yet! It has only grown stronger by the day.
The desire to write solidifies more and more.
I take a closer look at my posts and found that in September alone, I had churned out 86 posts and this month 29 posts so far! I firmly believe that Blogging University contributed a grand deal to this scheme and I would like to encourage anyone having second thoughts to give it a shot.
I also look at my stats and yes I am pleased to bits. I try not to check it too often – maybe once a week to decipher which day or what article came out strong.
Compared to my 100th post which took me 3 months from May to September to arrive at and my stats stood at:
I am celebrating my 100 posts, my 192 blogger friends, my 4,247 followers and my 5,220 stats on this blog.
TODAY:
I celebrate, my 200th blogging milestone, my 435 blogger friends, 6,556 followers and my 12,327 stats! More than a double jump in a month and 5 days!
To say the least, I am very happy! No! my bank account did not swell from blogging and that has never been the reason why I started blogging in the first place; if it comes as time goes on, of course, I will celebrate that too.
I like to dream realizable dreams and though this might not mean much to some big bloggers, it means a lot to me!
I will not despise my little beginnings, because we all have to start from somewhere.
The magic that it holds for me is that I got up from dreaming about it, to actualizing it! Well that’s a little dream come true for me!
My heart swells from meeting so many of you. To some of you, I have already imagined who they are in real face time based on our exchanges and their blogging voices and I so hope, that maybe one day in the future of WordPress, we may be opportune to encounter in real face time.
To all of you, I do say thanks. Thank you for the encouragement. Thank you for the smiles. Thank you for adopting me in this community of well meaning individuals.
I Thank God most of all for the sustenance and Grace.
Now let me go and hoot my horn and make some noise in my house 😉
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Dancing cartoon gif courtesy: picgifs.com
In response to The Daily Post Express Yourself
Do you love to dance, sing, write, sculpt, paint, or debate? What’s your favorite way to express yourself, creatively
Oh! I love to dance! Dancing can make a bad day seem good. You can’t dance and be angry. The two things don’t go together. Sometimes, I visualize myself as a background dancer to some nice music, but I guess that’s where the dream ends, except a team of us come together to form a band in our later years. You never know these things 😉
Oh! I love to sing and shake to the music while at it. All done in a loud voice too. I doubt if I will be winning talent shows or occupying the Top 10 hits anytime soon, but seeing the fond smiles on my families face as I goof off is definitely worth a Grammy. I can lead a very rousing Praise and Worship you know! That must count for something.
Oh! I dabble in drawing and painting too. I am no Vincent van Gogh but I do paint pretty flowers now and again and I doodle nonsense too 😄. I however, think my youngest brother ‘Ifesinachi Adrian’ is a fantastic artist! A few of his artwork are displayed below.
I was quite the mouth piece for my school in my Secondary/High school days. I represented the school in so many debates and was always a lead speaker. I haven’t done such exercise in recent times, just debating with my husband and children which is quite exerting, I must tell you.
Oh! I have a sister who sculpts as well. I enjoy watching her work, mess
around with her stuff and I get to be her art critic too. I must assure you that it’s not an easy job to be a critic.
Now, when we talk about writing, that is an entirely different kettle of fish. Writing is MY ABSOLUTELY favorite way of expressing myself. I write to think. I write to speak. I just write to live. If you took away writing from me, I really don’t want to imagine what I would do. Maybe scribble in the sand!
I don’t have to be an expert to enjoy doing those things that I love. Those things that make me laugh heartily. Those thing’s that tickles my soul in a positive way.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Immortalized in Stone.”
The moments spent with my family are priceless to me, especially as I watch my children gallop in growth and at the rate that they are growing, before I can say Hey Presto! they will fly my coop.
If I could compress all these precious moments, dotted with times spent with good friends, then have them encapsulated in a frozen kaleidoscopic capsule, so that even when I am old and my memory is no longer as sharp as brass tacks, I may revisit and relive them as often as I choose.
Are there any words or acts of mine that would add value and minister wisdom to others even when I am long gone? If I should peradventure find such words; those are the words that I will have immortalized in stone. Those words that will nurture, strengthen, encourage, motivate and teach are keepers.
What adjectives can I use to describe the probability of such occurrence? Fabulous, Fantastic, Wonderful and every hyperbole that you can think of.
Alas! The transient state of life makes such dreams impossible Since at some point, everything that has been created by man shall become detritus. Back to planet Earth oh my wishful, illusive mind.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Isn’t it peachy and very ambitious of me to lump in doing Writing 101 and Blogging 201 along with the busy-ness of my life hmm!
Truly, the bargaining chick in me saw the offer as a BOGOF (buy one get one free) and couldn’t resist biting the bait.
Well, sometimes, I guess we need these extra push to step out of our comfort zone and push our limits just a bit harder. Well, lets see how far I fare with the heat under my butt 😉
I love blogging because I have so many tales to tell and it would be selfish to keep them all to myself, what do you think?
I decided to start blogging because writing stuff down on notebooks no longer satisfied me. Writing gives clarity to my thinking process and helps me focus on the goals ahead.
If by chance of passing through this corridor, I gain notoriety as a leader in my field, that would be absolutely delightful.
If per chance I continue to connect with more fantastic bloggers; like I am doing right now, then I would be very glad and enriched with the presence of beautiful souls.
If per chance I am able to succeed in snagging a book contract or self-publish, then that would be a complete circle of success.
At each point in time, it is worthwhile to review one’s goals, fine tune them where necessary and ramp them up as well if need be and in that spirit, I want to keep my goals simple and feasible.
Now let me not get too ambitious and just leave it at that.
Let me know what you think, please?
Thank you and regards.
Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
In response to Blogging 201: Day One: Set Three Goals
- In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Daily Ritual.”
As therapeutic and as good as consistency can be, monotony can become extremely predictable and boring. I like a bit of spice in my life and I search for simple, cost effective ways to achieve a balance between stable and racy. However, that said, there are Four pillars of ritualistic acts that are constant in my daily life.
Prayer
Writing
Reading
Eating (not to be forgotten)
Every other aspect is slotted into a box around these Four. Call it upbringing, belief, force of habit etc., the first thing that comes to my mind once my eyes peek open, is to give thanks. It depends on how my spirit moves me. I could wake up with a particular song in my heart or prayer thought. I could wake up without much to bother God about, and I would just say good morning Lord. Another beautiful. Thank you. Then there are some mornings or even evenings that I have a pretty long chat with him, followed by scouring through my bible. Sometimes, he responds right away and other times he simply listens to my rants until I have run out of steam.
My second daily ritual is to write throughout the day. Spur of the moment notes or thoughts are quickly jotted as I go about my daily affair and much later in the evenings when all the hungry mouths have been fed and no one is looking at mummy with hungry eyes.
For more than 25 years at least, I have always gone to bed clutching a book. That is my own sleeping pill and my tuck myself in time, when I am satisfied that I have done the bit that can be done for that day. All leftovers will be carried over to the next day if feasible.
Of course I love the ritual of eating and this art of appreciating the fruitfulness of the land is a daily need that must be met to keep me well nourished.
There is no point in searching far and wide to know what happens on a day that my cycle is rudely interrupted, I become a sour-faced grumpus. Each day, I try to perfect the fine-art of observing my rituals. It keeps me calm, more productive and less quarrelsome.
Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
P.S. Sometimes these prompts make me feel as if I am writing an autobiography 🙂
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Handwritten.”
If I say that I think through my fingers would that sound senseless? I hope that doesn’t make me an oddball because I am doubtful if I can change this pattern of putting my thoughts on paper every day. I love acquiring note pads and the loss of one feels as if I have lost a friend, because I must have propagated some of the pages with little parts of my grey matter.
I write everyday, before I transcribe on my laptop. Different colored pencils and pens fill a little pouch which I call my assistant, because the different colors that I use depends on what I am writing about. Silly concept right 🙂 Oh well! That works for me.
As a matter of fact, I was writing a thought that I am fermenting in my mind as a poem. It is not complete but I guess it will have to do for now, since you asked. So here goes:
I have come to know that LOVE is when you take away all the lovely, flowery packaging of romance and lustful passion that surrounds the person that you are with and you find out that you still care for them.
That when the door of happiness closes in our face, another door will open for us if we allow ourselves to take our glance away from longing for the one that got shut. Often times, when we are busy staring at the shut door, we fail to see the open window.
Love will surely come to those who still hope and have the courage to build trust again even though they have been disappointed in the past.
I hope you find the someone that will make you smile.
Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
![1456161929503[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/14561619295031.jpg)
a cooking pot and twisted tales 
