It's been a few weeks since I shared any posts here and honestly I was getting bothered by that. I was so busy lately. The transition from holiday to back-to-school has been hectic but thank God it went well. I'm settling in to the changes and adapting now. 

By the time we got to the week before school started, I was wondering if school was really starting the following week because I couldn't just bring myself to accept that I have to start having very early mornings at least five times a week. I'm not an early morning person so you get my struggle. But I've been trying my best. There are days we are late and others are on time. So we thank God for that. 

I'm giving myself time to adapt to the new routine of early mornings and doing homework in the evening. It can be easy to judge or blame yourself for not doing so good at something if you don't consider that you need some time to adapt before you can be more performant or productive. 

By the way October will soon be here and that means we are three months away from the year 2024! I mean, we just said happy new year a while ago so why are we already talking about another year? This is mind-blowing I tell you. The year has gone by so fast in my opinion. 

Related post coming soon : Dear ambitious African woman, how far with your goals for 2023? 

In the meantime I'm optimistic about this new week. It's my second week of using my new skin care products I got last week. I got more sivoderm products for myself and some products for the kids. There's been some changes after I used them this first week so I'm looking forward to how it will be this week. 

I hope you have a great week too and take care of yourself. God bless you and thanks for reading. 

While in a taxi the other day I overheard a conversation between the driver and someone on the phone (and yeah the driver shouldn't even be on the phone while driving) but what they were talking about caught my attention. 

He said he just payed school registration for his child and went further to talk about the many mouths he has to feed at home (probably holiday makers). He also mentioned it is not an easy task and wondered how an aunt of his who had a fuller house managed to feed everyone three times a day. 

Their conversation reminded me of the fact that it's not easy to confront this hard economy especially during this back to school period. It's stressful. Overcoming the pressure of this hard economy needs a strong mind that can stay focused and take the right decisions. It also requires you to learn how to deal with stress related to your finances and to make a plan to turn these challenging times into opportunities for real growth and change. 

Most of all you need to calm down and relax to avoid stress related issues. I know it's not easy but you'd have to. 😉

I hope your back to school preparations are going on well and may God provide where we lack in Jesus name. 🙏🏾

I don't know why I take fine pictures and hesitate to post them. Maybe I'm not used to being 'fine' anymore. (Warning ⚠️ This is a Vulnerable post). 

After I became a mother, a lot of things about my body changed. I embraced those changes and applauded my body for the amazing job it did to procreate. My body was even making a lot of effort to heal. But it needed more time to do so. 

And then I felt ok about myself but not 'fine' enough or as 'fine' as I used to be. 

Looking at the mirror these days and seeing a resemblance with the person I used to be before I became a mother makes me feel happy. I'm finding myself again I tell myself. But i still feel scared when I remember it's possible to lose the image of yourself you identified with because of something you wanted to do with all your heart. 

Hopefully I get used to being and looking fine so that I can post more 'fine' pictures of myself. 😉

This morning I read a post about someone who realized he no longer had his good friends around after he made a list of guests to invite to a party he wanted to organize. He said it was due to the exodus of most of his friends abroad for a better life and related the problem to the difficult conditions of living in the country which pushes people to leave. 

I feel touched by his post because it made me remember that I am almost is the same kind of position. My case may be a bit different because I still have some of my close friends in the country but they are in different towns. In addition, most of us have become mothers and also have careers that makes it difficult for us to see even when we are in the same town. Death has even made the distance further for some of us and the circle of friends that once used to be together is now dispersed. 

It can be hard to make new friends for some people and I'm one of them. And when I say friends I mean good quality friends like the one the author of the post I read was referring to. Good friends like the ones I had who are now far away time and distance wise. 

I have never been intentional about making friends - maybe I should. The friends I've had started from being a good classmate or a good neighbor with whom we clicked and with time they proved they were trustworthy. I still love and consider them my friends and look forward to catching up when possible. Building a life is not easy and I believe we still pray and wish each other well as we focus on our busy lives for now. 

I also guess that time where we made friends naturally is gone now. But how do you make friends intentionally? Honestly that's is a million dollar question for me. 

Do you have a circle of friends? How do you relate with them now that you are grown and busy? 

Hi guys, 

How are you doing?  

Last week was a busy week, but I managed to get some me-time. Please share with me how you unwind after a long week in the comments. 

Considering that I was too tired to go anywhere, especially with the kids, I settled for something easy and within my reach - Watching Nollywood movies on YouTube. I do this a few times a week to relax and entertain myself and it's mostly at the end of the day before I go to sleep. But this week I wanted to spend the weekend especially Saturday watching Nollywood movies. Friday was the busiest day of the week for me. I had some maintenance work going on at my apartment so I had a lot of organisation and cleaning to do. The walls in the rooms were repainted, the window/door blind holders and anti-mosquito nets were installed plus other little stuff that had to be taken care of. The workers were not able to finish on Friday and will hopefully finish it today. 

The movie I enjoyed the most was Original Husband Material with Maurice Sam and Ekamma Etim Iyang as lead actors. It's a romance movie and romance movies are my favourite.

Some images taken during the week: 

By the way it's a public holiday in Cameroon today and tomorrow as well. Sunday and Tuesday (is assumption day) are public holidays in Cameroon and a day between two public holidays is usually declared a public holiday. 

How are you spending the public holiday if you are in Cameroon? Is it also a public holiday in your country today or tomorrow? Please share in the comments. 

Ngumabi. 

Please follow me on social media:

Here are a few pictures to further describe my day: 

It was a challenge to keep avoiding the mud at every step.

Another view of the market.

I got fried chicken gizzards. They were so delicious.

Tigger nuts

Oranges

This boboloh was freshly made and it was really good.

I don't know how they call this fruit but they look like cherries and I love them. But I was a little disappointed this time because there were more soft ones in the ones I bought than usual.

Progress is progress, even if it's baby steps. What matters is that you are no longer where you used to be after every step. 

Progress is not perfection, it's improvement. Stay patient, work hard and trust your journey. 

#ngumabi 

We've been on holiday in Tangui, Cameroon at my mom's for a while now and it's been great so far. 

I needed a break from my usual life in Yaoundé and I'm glad I had the chance to do this at this moment. 

Currently it's the long term holiday in Cameroon so the kids and I are visiting my mom for a while. Other members of the family are here too so it's a family reunion holiday. It's been fun and memory filled do far.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been through a lot lately emotionally and I was even feeling depressive. Being here has been a good way to rest and reset my mind and body for a better life. 

Tangui is a village in the Littoral region of Cameroon 🇨🇲 and it's the source of the mineral water brand called 'Source Tangui'. It's a rural area so life here is different from that of Yaoundé which is an urban area. 

My highlights of my time spent here has been harvesting and eating groundnuts from the farm, peeling cassava, breathing fresh and clean air, going jogging on a road with lots of vegetation around it, reuniting and catching up with family. Thus area is a hot zone so it's been a challenge to manage the heat especially with the kids. I'm grateful that there's been more rain falling these days and so the weather is less hot. 

Here are a few pictures of our stay in Tangui, Cameroon.

Planning my content creation after taking a few days to rest.

This break has relieved me of lots of accumulated stress and I feel much more rejuvenated. 

I made a series of vlogs on my YouTube channel of our stay so you can visit by clicking this link to watch or search Ngumabi on YouTube to watch. Please do subscribe when you visit my channel. Thanks 👍🏾. 

Thanks for reading and share with me your thoughts or when was the last time you took such a break or went for a holiday?