I'm here to share this reflection especially as we just started the new year. 

Happy new year to you and I hope that the year is treating you well so far. Mine has been full of ups and downs already and honestly, I caught myself asking 'is this how my year is going to be?'. But then I remembered that only the numbers changed from one year to another. My life is pretty much the same. And if I want to make a change in my life then I need to change the way I do things and react to things.

Before the year started, I came up with a theme for the year. It's a little bit strange as a theme but I like it. I will discuss this theme with you guys in another post. It is meant to push me to use my full potential as a person so that I can see real changes in my life. It felt so easy to decide to reflect on a theme for the year. And I wonder why we often wait for a new year to make changes in our lives.

Like I said before, only the numbers change so why not decide to change your life any time of the year? The clock is always ticking and time is passing by whether it is a new year or not.

But when you look at it from another perspective, a new year gives us the desire and opportunity for a fresh start. It makes us ready to straighten and iron things out - to set things right. We are always waiting for a sign to start doing something and the arrival of a new year is that sign.

This year is the beginning of a new decade which is a big thing because long-term goals are often evaluated between 5 - 10 years. We just want to make it a good year and decade so it's normal that we put in place resolutions to help us achieve that.

The truth about this is that we can change our lives any time we want to but the arrival of a new year gives us a boost and motivation to take steps towards it.

Whatever thing you decide to pursue this new year is up to you to achieve. Make sure you keep maintaining the motivation you have now till the year runs out.

After I did the 'What My Six Month Old Eats In A Day Post' a few things have changed in her diet. As she grows, her nutrition needs are increasing and it is required that I make changes in her diet. I am yet to give you guys a complete update on what she eats in a day because we are still trying a lot of things to see what she likes eating and what foods among the ones that are available can be assembled the right way to give her all the nutrients that she needs.

One of the combinations she is currently enjoying is Sweet potatoes and Egusi soup. I must say this recipe is very convenient for me because it is super easy to cook and thus it saves me time. Everything can be cooked in one pot and I really love that. Let's get into the recipe.

How To Cook Mashed Sweet Potatoe With Melon Seeds (Egusi) For Your 9-Month-Old Baby

Ingredients

Preparation

Happy New year. Congratulations to you on seeing the new year. 

You made it to the new year and that's worth celebrating. How was your St Sylvester night? I spent mine on a bus to Tangui from Bamenda.

How We Celebrated New Year's Day 

We travelled back to Tangui on the 31st of December and arrived at 2am. It was a long journey but Thank God we got home safe. Upon arrival, we slept and started preparations to celebrate our entering the New Year.

On the menu, we had fried chicken, fried fish with stew accompanied by fried ripe plantain and 'boboloh'. 
After cooking we all ate and rested for the rest of the day. My daughter wore her cute new dress and shoes and we took some pictures.

It was a nice cool day. I made a video of how we cooked for the day. You can watch it below.

Christmas at my grandparents' was great and chilled as well. It's amazing how I enjoyed the chilled version of this festive season.

I hope you celebrated the birth of Christ and the New Year well.

My greatest wish for you is that you have the best year ever and may all that you lost last year come to you double this year. Have a fabulous and very prosperous new year.

Welcome to this episode of my personal development update for the month of December 2019. In my last update, I explained that I will be sharing with you guys the things I do for my personal development each month. Hope you follow up and share your own experiences with me in the comment section.

December was a month of growth to maturity for me. I had to face some of my fears and open up to things which I didn't want to deal with at the moment. But it felt so good afterwards. I had some family issues which have been affecting me intensively for the past four years. It was very hard to talk about them. I cried so deeply when I opened up about it every time. But it doesn't make me cry that much right now and I look forward to the day I will talk about it without any tears in my eyes. But I'm super proud of myself for finding the courage to open up.

I planned to read a book this month of December but I couldn't. I would say lack of time is the reason though I think I can find some time to read. Reading is such an important part of self-development and I really want to get back to reading more books. I read mostly self-development blogs and so I want to read more books that can also contribute to my growth. I wanted to read FU MONEY by Dan Lok. I hope to read that this month. I downloaded it for free on his website some time ago. That's one of my goals this month.

One major thing I worked on this December was to write down positive affirmations and mantras that I want to manifest in my life this new year. It was an interesting process and it helped me to really define certain aspects of my life. I had problems with remembering to recite my mantras. New habits take time to stick. My aim was to repeat them every morning and every evening before I go to bed. But some mornings I forgot and in the evenings I was too tired to remember to say them. I hope that this month I will do better.

As for new year's resolutions, I don't have any. I just want to keep being the best version of myself and the only new thing is that I really want to step out of my comfort zone - try new things even if it makes me very uncomfortable.

I'm looking forward to a better month this January. It's the first month of the year so I'm optimistic and want to set a good pace for the year.

Let's do this!

Hope you are sticking to your self-development plans and if you want to share with me how you are doing, please do so in the comment section.