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.

Njama-njama (huckleberry leaves) is a vegetable that can be cooked in various ways. This recipe is made with groundnut oil. The traditional way of cooking Njama-njama is with red oil (palm oil) like in Khati-Khati.

Read: How To Cook Khat-Khati

I hope you like this recipe and find it easy to try.

How To Cook Njama-Njama (Huckleberry Leaves) With Groundnut Oil

Ingredients

To cook this meal, you will need:

Preparation

Christmas has always had the same picture in my head and it is that of me spending it with my family - parents, grandparents and aunts. It's been like that for years and even when I left for the university I will always return to spend Christmas with them.

It's the tradition in many homes but do we ever imagine a time will come when the picture will change? Well, not until the picture actually does change. I remember this one time I spent Christmas in Yaoundé. It was the first time I spent Christmas away from family. It felt weird but it was a new experience so I loved it. At home, Christmas a typical well-spent Christmas day involved eating the special 'Christmas rice' in the morning before going to church. This rice was accompanied by egusi (melon seeds) soup and some chicken. That's my grandma's speciality and no rice on earth tastes as good as Christmas Rice. Upon returning home to have our main Christmas meal. It's often the traditional meal of my village - Bafut, which is Achu and yellow soup with lots of meat because it's Christmas. We also have drinks and just stay at home chatting for the rest of the day. At times we had a few visitors but usually, most people just spend Christmas at home. I always loved to visit my friends and I did it right after church before returning home (with them at times). But Christmas is often a quiet one in my home town Bamenda.

But sometimes we want to try new things or simply break tradition no matter how attached we are to it. My experience with spending Christmas outside the home has been quite interesting though. It was quite different from family Christmas. It included going out for drinks in the evening and the menu during the day was quite different. I could cook anything I wanted or not cook at all. It was left for me to decide. I still missed Christmas at home though.

Over time, I got used to spending Christmas away from home. My family too. When it wasn't possible for me to return for Christmas, they won't make it a problem. I think it comes with becoming an adult. It made me realise that home is now where I live.

Now that I have a baby, I really realise that 'home' has changed or there is another home now - which is mine. All I want is to give my baby a home where we do things that will make her remember her growing up. Will there be new traditions? Maybe. I would have loved to start them this year but due to unexpected circumstances I had to prolong my stay at my mom's and we will be spending Christmas here.

It's my first Christmas here because we are new here and I spent Christmas all the time with my grandparents. I don't know if it's going to be the typical Christmas I know or did mom modify tradition? We will see.

So it's official. We are spending Christmas at my mom's. And I am looking forward to it.

Where are you spending Christmas? Are you spending it elsewhere or at your home?

It's almost 6pm as I write this post. My nine-month-old and I just woke up from a deep nap and she is using my bra strap as an anchor to get on her feet as I sit on my bed to write this post. She is so joyful when she's well-rested - I mean, who wouldn't be? I'm only glad that she didn't develop a fever after her vaccines two days ago.

Her nine-month vaccination day was last Friday - actually, I chose to go that day because nine-month-olds are vaccinated only on Fridays where I currently am. I could also choose another Friday but I just wanted to get it over and done with.

I hate vaccination days to be honest - anyone else? Apart from seeing your baby cry after being pierced (I know it's for their own good- rolling eyes), it's also stressful waking up early and preparing to go to the hospital after a night of insufficient sleep. That's how our vaccination day started but it later turned out interesting.

Highlights of the day

We woke up early - as usual (my little girl makes sure of that) and got ready quite easily as I had packed and set aside our clothes and other important stuff the previous day in the evening. I can't stress enough how much it's important to get ready the day before. It saves a lot of stress in the morning.

We are currently at my mom's in a village called Tangui. The hospital we went to for the vaccination is in a neighbouring town called Mbanga. It's a district hospital and I quite like the organization of the vaccination days, especially for nine-month-olds. Nine-month-olds are vaccinated only on Fridays unlike the clinic I would have vaccinated her at which collects numbers of the mothers and call them to come for vaccination when they have up to ten babies to vaccinate. From what I was told, one bottle of the vaccine used can vaccinate ten babies and once it is opened it expires after 24 hours. So it's necessary to have ten babies before opening each bottle of the vaccine in order to avoid wasting it.

The vaccines at nine-months are against yellow fever and measles. There is often a small talk given to the mothers before the vaccines are administered. We got there very early - when the nurse was still cleaning up. Usually, she waits for the other mothers to come before she starts but she explained that she couldn't keep us waiting till the others come so she started with the educative talk on what to do in case of a fever after vaccination and how to properly feed the baby at nine months.

It was quite an interesting talk and here are a few points that I retained from it.

Care before and after vaccination

- Don't give fever medicines to babies before or after vaccination until they show signs of fever like high temperature.

- In case of high temperature, wet a towel in lukewarm water and dab the baby with it.

- Rush back to the hospital if the fever persists for more than 24 hours and if the place injected still hurts or swells after 24 hours.

 Nutrition

- It is important for babies to have food which contains iron because it helps in blood formation and prevents the baby from being anaemic

- Vitamin C is important for babies as it helps their body to easily absorb iron. Oranges, pineapples and other fruits containing vitamin C should be given to the baby.

- It's important to introduce meat and fish to their diet once a day. It should be well cooked before giving the baby.

- Milk is very good for babies because it contains all the nutrients that they need.

- Breastmilk/milk alone at this stage is no longer sufficient to properly feed the baby. They need other forms of food to complete their diet.

- The baby's diet should contain a wide variety of food like vegetables, cereals, animal protein, nuts and tubers.

 Weaning

- Weaning a baby is a gradual process. It's not advisable to wean abruptly.

- Babies can still breastfeed for up to 3 years. (I intend to breastfeed till two).

When I asked to know if my baby's weight was normal, the nurse explained to me that the baby is expected to double its weight every three months. This made me realize that I had to make more efforts for my baby to eat well as she didn't meet her expected weight. I already know it's not going to be easy but I'll make the effort to get her to eat more

Read: What my six-month-old eats in a day

Overall, I had a nice time at the hospital. We were done by 8:30am and got home by 9am. If you are wondering how much she cried after the vaccine it was quite intense because they were done in two different places - the arm and the lap. But the crying only lasted until I suckled her immediately after. She fell asleep after that and I backed her and we left for home.

One of the things that made my day easy at the hospital was the niceness of the nurse. She was very nice and took time to explain many things to me though she is originally french-speaking and she had to explain to me in English.

It's really important to be nice to people because it brightens up their day.
 
Read: How I Manifested My Baby - My Birth Story
          Why I Started Jogging Six Months After My C-Section

Earlier, I shared with you guys HOW TO LEVEL UP YOUR LIFE and a lot of you loved it. I found out some new ways to level up and decided to do part two in order to share with you as much information as possible on this topic.

You can read the blog post or watch the video below. The video has more explanation and depth into the topic so you might want to consider watching it.

Self-awareness helps you to know yourself. It reveals to you the things you like and don't like. It also enables you to have a deep understanding of your reactions to different situations. Self-awareness is like having a new friend and making efforts to know them in order to build trust and a deeper friendship with them.

Take time to know and understand who you really are. It's very important to your level-up journey. It will help you to define your personality and what you want in life. And that is the foundation of your level-up journey

Doing the things that you love sparks some energy into you and motivates you to do even the things that you don't enjoy doing. Take a hobby or a passion and do it. The fulfilment you get from it will make you really happy and you need an energized and happy state of mind to level up your life.

Meditate on your desires to help them manifest. Meditate on them with belief and with a very positive mind. Think of all the positive ways that your desires can come to pass.

You can't do it all by yourself. You need God to make all your efforts worthwhile. Believe in God and ask him to help you do the right things to level up.

Believe in yourself because you were born to win and shine. You have all it takes to be a better person. You need to believe in your capacities because you were born with them. All you need to do is develop these capacities and become a better person.

This is one of the most important points you should consider. Work hard at the things that you need to do in order to level up. God will bless your hard work. Your desires will manifest faster when you work hard to achieve them. You will succeed easily when you work hard. Work hard and make your dreams come true.