Linda and I Have A Word For You :)

I was watching a DIY video on Youtube this evening when I saw, on the sidebar, a video about Laura Ikeji's engagement. Curious, I clicked on the video to see what it was about and saw Laura get proposed to- it was such a cute video but that's not what I want to talk about. I saw another video on the sidebar of Linda Ikeji dancing with her sisters (that was boring) and then another video about her quite famous birthday message.

Shut your toddler up!!!

When your neighbour is a piece of work 😭😭😭                  

So we recently moved into a flat in a beautiful neighbourhood. Assides the lack of ample storage that I had noticed a tad too late, every other thing seemed really perfect about this area. Until it wasn't.

Catch up and Thanksgiving.

Hi guys!

My God. First off, I apologise for upping and leaving the way I have but I honestly needed to effect a quick and much needed shut down. I apologise. I didn't think I would need a break as I had felt I would be able to co-ordinate being a new mom and blogging effectively and efficiently but, alas, that has not been the case. Anyway, how are you? 😀 OMG! An emoticon! I've barely been gone two months and blogger's updated their app/product/site. I apologise again. Hopefully this won't happen again- at least not without some kind of notice.

Are You A Feminist?

I know I haven't blogged in a while and, trust me, no day passes by without me having something that really needs to be blogged but..... Life's just been happening so fast here and I can't seem to keep up with all of the happenstances around the world- at least enough to actually blog about them- so I think, "Well, we're all observing what is happening, aren't we all?"

Fascinating, Fascinating Jews!

A typical London Jewish family in 2016

My new baby had to be circumcised a few days ago. This is the case as the hospitals in the UK do not conduct the circumcision as I heard it is done in the USA and so most Christians have to go to private hospitals or to the mohels in the Jewish communities to get this done. Thankfully, this was a procedure we were already used to as we had employed the services of a Jewish Mohel when DS1 was born.

New Baby, New Attitude To Contend With!

So a few people who follow my personal social media handles already know I put to bed a week ago. YES!!! I have a new baby boy! Another gorgeous baby boy too! I'm so grateful, to say the least, so so grateful....

Sleep Training My Toddler.

I have tried several times, albeit half heartedly, to sleep train DS to no avail. The reasons for the failures had often been because I could not bear to hear his heart-breaking cries when I put him in his room and also because I just loved his company either ways. What this then meant was that, a lot of times, I ran my day always feeling tired and sleep deprived- and yet, I would have it no other way,

When The Break Up You Were Waiting For Happens!

My first reaction when DH called me from the living room to come listen to the news of the Brangelina split on BBC was, "OMG!!!!! YESSSSSS!! THANK GOODNESSSSSS!!!!!!", before I realised I would now be officially classified as a "hater", lol! Forgive me if my views seem quite unforgiving but I'm just expressing myself; I've been waiting for this break up to happen like forever, seriously, they lasted longer than I ever hoped they would!

Happy Belated Birrthday Linda!

I know I'm late but I'm taking things at my own pace at the moment and will not be rushed, thank you! Lol! Anyway, our own Linda Ikeji, the most influential African blogger, turned 36 this week and shared a lovely message with her fans:

Why Is It Difficult To Forgive The Female Half Of A Cheating Duo?

I was minding my business whilst feeding my eyes on the juicy tidbits other people were putting out on social media (I know, not exactly "minding my business" right? #sigh) when I came on a post by Katie Price yesterday. She'd posted a picture from an interview she had granted the Sun newspaper-

Inspiration: This Is Our Thirties!

I've just read something so impactful and insightful, I felt the need to share on the blog. The writer of this piece is Ozzy Etomi and I could relate to A LOT of things she wrote about: so much of it! This is really our 30's and what I can say is that though we all are probably having different experiences, ultimately, we are each experiencing the same type of realisation that comes with being in our 30's.

Hello September + Mastering The Art of Tidying!

Happy New Month of September guys!

I just thought to leave a line, just so cobwebs don't grow in here...... I'm truly sorry I haven't posted as much/often as I have truly wanted to- so much on my plate but, I know you've heard that before.

I'll be moving homes within the week and have literally been up and about trying to figure out what should go where. I'm not in charge of taking care of the move proper but there's things that need to be decided before DH is around to do all of that. It's just not easy doing all this at this stage of my pregnancy- I wish we'd have got to it like three months ago.

E-Reader (Kindle) Vs Paperback?

I've been buying a lot of books lately and have been caught in the web of either buying books on my Ereader or ordering a paperback version. I've been so indecisive that I had to look on the internet to see if book readers were also struggling with this: Alas! I believe it is Reader-Epidemic! I mean, it's actually a "thing" that has got people riled up, some for the Ebook and others, the paperback. This was what Huffington post had to say about this conundrum:

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Money Money Money! (1)

So, lately I feel I've come to some sort of cross roads, only, this particular one  is one I've been on before and somehow still have been unable to move out of; constantly thinking of how to make money. I read financial books and am told, "You need to look around you and find what people need, THEN, provide that service that people need! THAT is how you make money!". Then I look around me and, like play, like play, almost every perceivable need I can think of off the top of my head, I see people already providing services to- literally ALL of them. Also, I know that financial freedom is different from "earning" money- you need to be able to, say, have a job (and be earning some kind of money from it) to be able to save and invest towards gaining "financial freedom"(being debt free and all) but, what about the people who are unemployed and have become despondent because they feel all efforts to create a stream of income is failing them? Where do they start from? What happens if life deals you those cards- are you equipped to navigate those murky waters?

Divorce: Learning To Love Again..... (2)

He did agree to having had a tough time with being open and how he had struggled with it and tended to jettison a budding relationship once he saw certain characteristics or traits in a woman he couldn't immediately understand but said he believes he is ready now. It hurt me to think that this Ikenna, handsome, caring and open Ikenna; who I had had a crush on back in my school days (he was my elder brother's friend and had asked me out when I'd been about to get into the university but I hadn't agreed: somehow along the line, we grew close and would chat like siblings and I grew to like him but the ship had already sailed, lol!) was now this distrustful person who's been unable to open his up his heart.

Divorce: Learning To Love Again..... (1)

"Where are all your single friends eeee!!", I saw on my messenger out of the blues and chuckled. It was Ikenna*, a very close family friend of mine who lives in the US. He quickly called me and we chatted for over an hour and caught up on life in general. I really like Ikenna, more so because he is an open person; I know you can argue that "open" is not really a good thing to be in the present world today but I still find it refreshing to talk with a person whose honesty shines through, whose sentences are not peppered with uncomfortable pauses whilst they weighed their words, whose stories/gist/tales do not run like a maze: there is a blockade at every point and a confusing retraction- I really hate speaking to people who make a simple conversation seem like a game of chess!

There Is A Time And Place.

So I've been having a pretty okay week this week and hopefully it either stays this way or even gets better- here's hoping. I've had a few meetings with my work team within this week and something happened that made me think I better make a post- just in case some people out there do not know these things.

Here They Go Again....

So these scammers have now also started UK geared scams? Why am I even surprised and disappointed by this, of course they must've been doing this a long time now- I just never expected or thought I'd experience it.

Happy New Month Guys!

Hi guys!

Happy new month of August! I know this is six days late already but like I always say, better late than never :)

Of Course You Can Sing The National Anthem! Can't You?

Sitting exhaustedly in the kitchen whilst the contents of the pots on the hot plates boiled away furiously, I decided to scroll through Instagram to see what was new. I prep our meals for the week on weekends, Saturday mostly, but I've got an engagement in church on Saturday which is why I'm doing it on a Friday. 

When Saying "No" Is Hard.

I was "guilted" into going for midweek service yesterday. I use "guilted" because I'd been scolded by the elderly lady, who incidentally "brought me" to the church, for not making Sunday service last week and opting for the online service. I had wanted to tell her outrightly that, "Sorry mama but I'm not exactly having an easy time trekking all this way to church every week in my condition and I have my life to live!" but when she started scolding and mentioned that I would not realise just

Baring It For The Bump: Yay Or Nay?

 

To Kiss Or Not To Kiss.....

This picture of Victoria Beckham kissing her daughter on the lips was the topic for discussion on one of the mummy platforms I follow on social media: people's opinions were sought to know if it was inappropriate or affectionate. Curiously, a lot of the mums on the platform voted for it being an affectionate gesture: I am once again struck by how seemingly affectionate our present day parents seem to be- we seem to be more loving and experessive than our parents were...... Thankfully.... #chuckles

What Is Your Purpose?

 

 So I saw this post above on LIB and went on to Reno's page to see if he's turned into a pastor or some such thing: he's got really inspirational quotes and nuggets on there and  he states in his profile that he is the founder of some Mind of Christ Christian Centre; that certainly explains his inspirational disposition. I like Reno and think he is an intelligent man so it's great to see his handle used to disseminate wisdom.

A little bit of this and that.....

Hi guys,

Happy new month (better late than never) and I hope you're safe and hearty wherever you are. I've really been swamped up with so much lately, I've literally just forced myself to write and am hoping that whatever it is I'll write will actually get to be posted and not relegated to my drafts- never to be used.

So much has happened in the world; there's so much to catch up on:

I Know Your Name! It's Mama!

My son now knows my name!!!! ***doing the holy twerk (lol)****

So I've been teaching my son to pronounce words and to associate them with their meanings. So far, he's able to say a few words: baby, cartoon, mummy, daddy, chocolate, bye-bye, hello, bia ("come" in igbo language), were ("take" in igbo language), Stop it, Thank you  and that's really about it. He knows to call DH "daddy" and whenever he wants to see him, he goes to my laptop, points to it and says, "Daddy!". The thing is, he knew to pronounce the words, "daddy" and "mummy" but he hadn't begun using it as a name or in response to his name being called.

Social Media Blues.

This social media and it's tendencies to play with our emotions, eh? I woke up rather early today to study my course work and what I'd learned during the week and after about an hour long of reading, I got bored and strayed to Instagram. I've recently, only a few days ago, reconnected with a couple of acquaintances from Lawschool and so I thought I go by their page to see what they'd been up to- it had been five to six long years after all, I wanted to see what everyone was up to.

My learning woes.....

I've had series of two hour long driving lessons in the past two weeks and I still don't feel like I've gotten any closer to being confident enough to go for my driving test. The first day of my lesson ended with me feeling not a little depressed; I just felt that there was way too much information coming at me, too many things to be conscious of at the same time and I felt a bit overwhelmed. 

Faith or Folly? YOU tell me....

I was looking through a page I found last year on Instagram called humansofny- it's a very interesting page that features regular people around Newyork and their "stories"- whatever it was they wanted to share/talk about really. There are some really interesting stories in there and I've read some with a lot of interest and skipped others in disinterest. It is quite an enlightening page to follow. 

When A Child Is Mean To Your Child.....

I've got an acquaintance in whose company myself and my son occasionally stay in when circumstances so require but I'm beginning to wonder if it is wise to do so. The thing is, this lady and I are friendly and are probably on our way to becoming friends but her son, who is older than mine with something like 15 months, tends to be mean, rough and brutal to my son and this really boils my blood.....

Learn how Sisi Yemmie does it!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that Sisi Yemmie's constantly upbeat personality is highly infectious. I'm sure I'm also not the only person who has wondered if it is genuine or often put on to "force brightness into one's day!". Whichever one it is, it works for me but she tells us in this video that it IS indeed genuine happiness that she gives off and goes on to explain how she is able to stay genuinely happy.

I hope you like the video, I did!

Enjoy!

Love Always,

Judgejuyjudy...

X...

Happy New Month!!!!

Hi guys!!!

Happy new month of June!!!

It's crazy how busy things can get really, the last thing I've wanted to do in these times has been to blog, to be honest, I just seem to have sooo much on my plate- good and bad- and I'm just wading through it all, thankful for the things that are going alright and holding on and out in faith for a way to be made for the not too pleasant things that seem to be coming up out of the blues.

Very tricky time it's been but the one thing I'm sooooo thankful to God for is for how far He's brought me on my spiritual and my faith journey. It's strange that once you decide to do a lot of things in faith, even those closest to you become the people "sent" to sow the seeds of doubt into your heart and for this reason, I have literally shut down on sharing things with my mum. At most, I'll tell my younger sister, she's a woman of faith too. 

WENDY WILLIAMS ON.... LOVING WHAT YOU DO AND CRAZY ANIMAL PEOPLE!

I was watching Wendy over the weekend (have her shows on auto record so I watched some of the shows I missed last week due to my TV and social media "fast") and I just want to share these two things she talked about that really interested me with you.

CONFLICTED!

I read a post on SDK yesterday about veteran Nigerian actress, Patience Ozokwor, dumping the wearing of trousers and the use of makeup, jewelry etc after embarking on a 21 day fast that had God revealing some spiritual insights to her. Find excerpts of the piece below:

I PASSED MY TEST + GUESS WHO HAD A MAKEOVER?!

Yes! I did and I wanted to piss on myself with joy, lol. It's not like it's a do or die thing though especially as some people have to write this test several times before passing but I just wanted to pass it the first time- it was important to me that I did. I'm at that place where the little inconsequential "victories" are a BIG DEAL. Lol. Maybe it's due to the bashing my self esteem received on my former job but, life goes on.

I'M A LEARNER + REASON FOR THE SHORT ABSENCE.

So sorry I've been quiet for a minute, I've had a little something-something to do which has kept me pretty occupied. I mentioned sometime that I had booked my theory test earlier in the year. As you know, I've been wanting to take this test since last year but never quite found the time to....Well, the day for the test is tomorrow and I've basically had like three weeks to prepare for it.

STAYING NAPPY OR GOING RELAXED?

How gorgeous is this model by the way? I want that long neck!!!! And the cheekbones and jawline! 

This is the hair dilemma I've been in for a couple of months now.

I've been natural for two full years (and some) but I feel like my hair isn't growing. It looks the same way it was six months ago and I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing wrong ( or to be fair, I'm not sure exactly which negligent act of mine- where it pertains to natural hair- is the reason for it's stunted growth, hehehe).

One of those days....

peppered snails: pic from wivesconnection

Pregnancy blues and lethargy can be a bitch sha and today just happened to be one of such days.
My week's been so-so, some days start not so good and get better by midday- after a lot of investment that is: prayers, studying my bible, watching a fave tv show, playing and connecting with DS, speaking with family....

What's been up?

I really thought that this time at home would have me putting out countless posts daily but, alas, the opposite is the case: my creative pool seems to be dried up for some reason.

That's just their way of life: get used to it.

I can't even count how many times I've heard this statement since I moved to Jand and I still can't wrap my head around how it can be. Maybe in time I will.
I'm speaking about the general jand-oyinbo behaviour of smiling in front of you and stabbing you behind the back.

Pulling out the unexpected from the marriage box (2)....

So, flowing from my previous post, the unexpected things that can sometimes find it's way into a union, I am now aware that quite a few people are giving up Christianity and becoming "free-thinkers" or Atheists.
Ese Walter has now toed this line and I feel bad that she got to this point due to having become disillusioned after her experience with pastor Fatoyinbo of the COZA fold. When the shepherd causes the sheep to go astray...

On the Linda and Wiz kid saga.

So over the weekend, there was much ado about the beef between Wizkid and Linda escalating because Wizkid had gone on Linda's instagram page to insult her as seen in the picture below- because Linda exposed the fact that the home he lived in was for rent and he was being evicted.

After insulting her, Linda thought to address the allegations in the insult by putting out this write up on her blog:

Emotional wreck.

A colleague left the business yesterday.

It is said that he's been with the business for quite a number of years and is a valued employee.

So, yesterday, a memo was sent out to all the colleagues in our branch saying that there would be a "leaving convergence" at his desk and that anyone who wanted to join in could. This just meant that fellow colleagues, CEOS, managers, all gathered around his desk and then he'd be sat in a chair in the middle and asked funny, random questions on the spot, eg,

Pulling out the unexpected from the marriage box.

DH had to travel in the wee hours of today and so the day naturally progressed rather slowly, DS and I slept till 12:00 noon- no kidding- well, I wasn't sleeping, we initially woke up at about 8am but went back to lie in bed after brushing our teeth so HE slept off whilst I laid in bed doing some catch up reading my favourite blogs.

Sleepless in sleep-deprived-ville.

Since last week, I have woken up against my wishes at either past 2 o'clock am or a quarter to three and I stay up for a full hour or more before I am able to go back to sleep proper. Reason? DS just wakes up for no reason and gets irritable. I do everything to pacify him to no avail: there are normally two standby bottles which he has through the night but when he wakes up at those hours, nothing gets him to fall back asleep. I'd check his nappy, moisturise his skin in case it is the eczema he's suffered with disturbing him, try to cuddle him- nothing works, he just is irritable and cries incessantly for a full hour and some before he finally settles back to sleep.

To come correct (honest) or be politically correct?

This week is just creeping exhaustingly....... #sigh.

I can't wait till it's Easter holiday, I need a B-R-E-A-K! The good thing is that the hubster will be around by God's grace so I'm so (singing) Exciitttteddd!!!