It's been two weeks since we returned to Yaounde and all I have been doing is cleaning, organizing and laundry. It has been quite exhausting. I never expected to take this long to tidy the house. The filter is still unwashed, there are still clothes and beddings to wash and the floor to clean.

Meanwhile, my personal development has been slow. I feel so because I haven't read that book I said I was going to read - FU Money by Dan Lok. I downloaded it for free from his website but I guess I never created time to read it. 

Anyway, let's talk about the year in general. I often find a theme for the year but this year, in particular, I was blank. I had no idea what to adopt as a theme for the year. On Christmas day, someone talked to me about coming out of my comfort zone and that inspired me to use the theme DISCOMFORT. 

Nobody wants to be uncomfortable right? 

True. But we need to go through some discomfort in order to be comfortable.

It's not comfortable working to achieve something. But when you achieve it, it feels good.

We all seek to be comfortable; which is good. But discomfort makes you grow. You will not be happy with most of the things you do or ought to do in life. But you need to do these things to prosper and grow.

So this year, I am facing my fears and going the extra mile. This will make me uncomfortable but it will take me to the next level.

January has been more of a month of reflection for me. I think my year actually began in February.

Thanks for reading this month's episode of my personal growth update.
Do check out the other episodes of the previous ones below.

EPISODE #1: PERSONAL GROWTH UPDATE NOVEMBER 2019

Today marks one week one day since I returned to Yaoundé. I've been gone for almost six months. It's amazing how things have changed during that time. People I haven't seen for a while now look older. It's like I haven't seen them in years. I wonder if I would have noticed the changes if I were around them all these six months.

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.

Puff-puff is a very important food in Cameroon. It is eaten mostly as breakfast or as supper. You can buy any quantity you want around most junctions and roundabouts in the country. It is often referred to as 'le Sauveur' meaning 'the saviour' in English. This is because it is cheap and also a complete meal when accompanied by beans and pap. It' s the most common take out and everyone relies on it when they need to eat well but don't have enough money or when they are just not in the mood to cook anything.

I made some puff-puff while at my mom's and I thought I should share the recipe with you guys. Here we go.

Like most of my recipe posts, we are not used to measurements in Cameroon and Africa in general. We estimate. Your ability to estimate is your power as a cook. Don't be surprised or wonder why I don't or hardly mention measurements in my recipes.

How To Fry Puff-Puff At Home

Ingredients

- Flour

- Yeast

- Sugar

- Water

- Oil for frying

Preparation

- Sieve the flour into a bowl. Make sure you use a bowl with a lid because you will have to cover it.

- Add some sugar, yeast and lukewarm water and mix. Let the mixture be quite thick and heavy. If you make it watery, it will soak up oil while frying. The best way is to add water in small quantities as you mix so that when you reach the desired texture you can stop adding water.

Yeast.

- Leave the mixture to rise. To be honest, I don't check the time when I allow it to rise. I just check my mixture from time to time to see if it has risen enough. If it is taking a long time to rise then the yeast might not be enough. That was the case when I was making this one. I had to add some more yeast by dissolving it in a little water, added it to the dough and mixed it again.


- When the mixture rises, put a good quantity of oil into a pot for deep frying. When the oil is quite hot, start putting the mixture into the oil in lumps. I can't describe how to make the lumps but the photos I made below can help you understand how to do it. You may not get it right on the first try but with some practice, you will learn how to do it.






- Fry both side of the puff-puff till brown. I love mine quite brown because I'm sure that it's quite ready and it is a little bit crunchy on the outside.


- Remove when ready and put in a strainer for the oil to drip and serve hot.

We had our puff-puff with pap and it was really delicious.

Here are 3 Reasons Why Personal Development Is Not Working For You

1. You are not patient enough

Patience, patience, patience. You are not giving it enough time to work. Change takes time and if you are not giving yourself enough time to adopt new habits, you won't notice any development.

Taking a few steps and expecting to see a huge difference is sometimes not the case in personal development. Take note that the things you are trying to change have been present for a while now and stopping them also requires time to get your mind and body into your new self.

Give yourself time to accept, heal and start a new life when you are going on a journey of self-development.

2. You are not practising what you learn

If you don't implement what you read, watch or listen to, you will not develop yourself. You have to put into practice all the steps and tips that you acquire. It is important to select the best tips and do a few at a time or one at a time to know exactly which one is working for you.

3. You are trying the wrong methods or taking the wrong advice

Merry Christmas to you. Hope you are having a very wonderful holiday.

When I shared about us spending Christmas At My Mom's, I had no idea that plans were going to change. And even if they did, I would expect to be back in Yaounde instead.

I'm writing this post at my grandparents' home. The home I grew up in. I feel good about coming back, especially for Christmas. If you read my post about spending Christmas at my mom's you will understand our Christmas tradition when it comes to what we cook and generally how we spend Christmas.

This Christmas, the traditions were maintained and it brought a very good feeling of being with family.
We arrived on Christmas eve (yesterday). It was a long journey but thank God for giving us journey mercies.  Christmas eve was cosy with good food and watching TV to see how others were celebrating Christmas. We also had a family Whatsapp video call where we all saw each other and wished each other merry Christmas at the same time. It was so much fun and full of smiles. It's the first time we tried this and it was nice to see everyone at the same time.

The evening ended well with us having some drinks. I had a Malta Guinness and ate some chin-chin made by my grandmother.

On Christmas Day (today) we woke up to the morning harmattan cold and cooked our Christmas rice, chicken and egusi soup. It was delicious as usual. What is Christmas without Christmas-rice? lol. We had our Christmas rice for breakfast.

There was a prayer with a man of God who visited us and then later we ate some Achu and drinks. I still had a Malta with my Achu. It was so good. We ate some more chin-chin and everyone just chilled either in front of the TV or in their room.



It's my daughter's first Christmas so after dressing her up, she wore something nice and took a few pictures with the family. The rest of us were just dressed as we would on any other day. No Christmas dresses or clothes. In this part of the world, special clothes are bought for Christmas and we call them Christmas clothes. I had Christmas clothes as a child (it's bought mostly for kids as Christmas is referred to as a celebration for children. They also bought toys as Christmas gifts). It wasn't a must-have but it was highly appreciated when I was gifted.


That is Christmas for us at this end of the world. Hope you are having a happy holiday. Wishing you all the best and God's richest Blessings this season.