'If you don't shower, mushrooms will grow on your body!' and other stories...

Ok ok- that's not entirely true (at all), but that's what Little Miss O thinks. You see, sometimes I make up stories to explain why she should or shouldn't do certain things...and since the girl doesn't like mushrooms, this little tale of mine has proven quite enough to put a stop to the 'but I don't wanna have a shower now Mummy' tantrums that I hear all kids pull at some point or other!

On the topic of stories, I have a confession...and this is probably an awful thing to admit from someone who loves to write, BUT I was never much into reading as a child. The thought of sitting down, quietly with a 'novel' pretty much filled me with dread - bleugh! I just didn't 'get' the meaning behind the stories - the stories that seemed to take forever to get to the point, the stories that seemed to bear no resemblance to my own life, thoughts or ambitions. In fact, the only book that I really engaged me as a child was 'Are You There God, It's Me Margaret' by Judy Blume'! I was also enjoyed 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', but that was because of the chocolate (!)... and if anyone asks, Roald Dahl himself is to blame for my undeniable chocoholic-ism!


Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.

It is fair to say that pre-1995, I just wasn't interested in the written word. That is until I accompanied a friend and her parents to watch an open air performance of a Shakespeare play. Now, I can't remember whether it was Othello or The Taming of the Shrew, but I can remember that there was a character called 'Bianca' in it! I was only 10 years old, and it only cost £3.50 (which seemed like a lot of money  then), but I was fascinated. It was my first play, my first open-air play, and my first experience of 'live' art. I relished just being in the atmosphere and although I didn't understand the language of the performance, I finally 'got it'...I 'got' literature...the words came alive and I understood.

From there, most of literary experiences formed part of my studies, but on the sly, I fell in love with Shakespeare. Over the years, I've also found a few authors of fiction that I can really enjoy - Paulo Coelho and Alice Seabold are up there and of course there are my favourite poets Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. I love reading about love, life and what I call 'real stuff'. I have dozens of little books of quotes that I enjoy dipping in and out of. Actually, that's probably why I enjoy reading other people's blogs so much. I like things that I can relate to, things that I can 'get'...

But what about Little Miss O...well, despite only being 3 feet tall, she is quite the opposite of me in terms of her early years love of books! She absolutely adores being read to and would read 100 books in a row if I let her. She needs no encouragement whatsoever, in fact more often than not, it's me who is begging to go to bed! Baby girl knows the words from many of her favourite stories off by heart and corrects me if I mis-read something. I usually do different voices for the different characters and if I mix up the voices, she's the first to snigger and tell me:

'no, that's not his voice Mummy!'

[sometimes I deliberately mix up the voices, just to hear her cute post-toddler giggle]

Through Little Miss O, I have found a new love for reading and actually, I'm not so bad at making up alternative endings myself. I also love it when she holds up one finger and asks me for:

'just one more story Mummy, a really magical one, just from you - you don't even need to read it from a book!!'

No pressure then! I'm J.K Rowling you know! Still, I always try and baby girl seems to think I can 'make' magic which is kind of sweet really...

Anyway, today on the radio 4, I learnt that it is World Book Day on 1st March and I'm really excited (I still surprise myself by choosing this station sometimes!). I'm even thinking about entering the Storytelling Superstars Competition... you just have to upload a video of yourself (or whoever) reading a kid's story... simple, right?

Now, all I have to do is decide which story to read and how I'll make it 'magical'. I am sure Little Miss O will be full of ideas..!

What is/was your favourite book?

Lonely Boy

I'm not in the habit of posting videos on my blog, but this is one that I just had to share. I can't remember how I stumbled across this clip, but I did and I'm so very glad!

This dance routine has brought Little Miss O and I many hours of fun. She doesn't understand the lyrics, but she gets the dance moves. She's currently trying to persuade me to 'make me on TV like the funny dancing man'.... I took this to mean 'let's make our own version Mummy!'.... and I have to say, for this, I would be tempted! Until then, I look forward to performing this routine in the a club near you with my cousins and sister! Ladies, it's on!

Hope you find it as entertaining as I do!!!

M

Helloooo silver lining!

The last time I blogged (bar yesterday), seems like sooooo far away! Here are few things that I'm walking into 2012 (Happy New Year btw - can I still say that?) with:

- a new home - yipee!

- In relation to moving, I have now completed my first month of pure,  fun SAHM-ness and I've absolutely LOVED it. The novelty is yet to wear off and I am LOVING baking, painting, home-making, chilling, painting my nails and reading magazines with my gorgeous little girl. It's as though I am falling in love with her all over again (not that I ever fell out of love with her!), but having time for and with her has just been amazing.

- As much as I love this SAHM phase, I know at some point, I will want to go back to work, at least part-time, but this time career/PhD-ing will not take over my life. It's all about balance, right?

- Similarly, I have also now done a whole month of house-wifey-ness. I'm actually quite good at it. Big respect to my girlfriends who are making the choice to SAH. If and when I do return to full-time work, I plan to do it differently...and if I can't do it the 'O' way, then I'm just not going to do it at all - simples.

- I've realised that when things work out in a way that you might not have hoped or prayed for, sometimes its part of a bigger plan and sooner or later, the silver lining reveals itself. Hello silver lining - nice to meet you!

- I love sharing my life with my extended family... it all seems to revolve around rites of passage - birthdays, births, marriages etc ... it's all quite traditional and I love it! I managed to get all my brothers and sisters in one room at the same time for no reason - the first time since our wedding - and I loved just being in their company... In particular, my little sis and I have had some really fun times lately and I'm looking forward to having more of that time with her.

- I've finally found a range of hair products that my curly locs are thriving on. Let's hear it for 'Davines - Natural Tech, whose shampoo, nourishing pak and conditioner are fab and the perfect compliment to my homemade shea and coconut concoctions that I use for styling my hair.

- I've accepted on a whole new level the fact that I always have a choice - even when I think I don't. When I do nothing, I'm making a choice to do 'nothing'. Sure, it's not the most profound realisation, but it led to me choosing to leave a situation that was just not good for my soul. Period. I allowed the situation to sap some of my energy, some of my zen and that is one area that I have actively chosen to change, and let me tell you, it feels A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! My energy is going in one direction now and I like it.

- A few years ago, I discovered Bobbi Brown's long wear eye-shadow and raved about it, here. Now I've tried MACs version. I am now a MAC-Bobbi and back to MAC convert! The MAC stuff remained perfect, uncreased and flawless from 10.30am till 4am the next morning! And let me tell you, I put the stuff through its paces! That is a £££-saving find, so had to share it! That said, Bobbi will still be my first stop for nude lipsticks - bare pink and twilight all the way!

So, all in all, I'm flying into 2012 feeling: full of love, light and ummm curves (I definitely over-indulged last year!).... so will be starting up my fitness regime again soon...

That's all for now!
x

E.C.L.E.C.T.I.C. not electric!

I haven't blogged for ages.... so much has changed since I last blogged and recently, I have had a number of times when I thought 'oooh, I could write about what just happened' or 'ooooh, I bet other like-minded people would like to know about x, y or z...'... That is just not really good enough for me at the moment, I feel like I want to share, and at the moment, I have time to do so. So for today at least, I've decided to start publishing some of my blog posts again...heck I may even start you-tubing lol

If you're still with me - thank you for sticking around!

If you're new to my blog - hello and welcome!

Be warned, there has never really been a clear direction to my blog. Some people classify themselves as a 'mommy blogger', 'homemaker blogger', 'christian blogger', 'natural hair blogger', 'music blogger', 'style blogger' etc etc, but I am none and all of those. To be honest, I kind of like the variety in my blog - it reflects who I am - it's eclectic (am I the only one thinking of Sister Act?!). I like that I don't heavily edit or plan my posts - I like that this is my little space to write whatever I want, whenever I want. Freedom of speech is amazing isn't it and I'm lucky enough to live in a part of the world where I get to use it! Sure, this means I may never have 1000s of followers, but hopefully if you've stumbled across this blog today, you see something that makes you laugh, perhaps even cry (!), something that inspires you, or perhaps that makes you realise that you're lucky to be in the shoes that you're in, maybe you'll realise that there are other people out there doing the same thing as you - day in day out... these are things that I have got out of other people's blogs, so why not try to do the same.

From a personal point of view, by posting on here again, I get to practice my writing skills... yey! What better way to discover what I most like to write about than to actually do it. I suppose I will also get an idea about what I am best at writing..so comment and rate away : )

So, for now, variety is both the spice of my life and my blog and I'm embracing that online, as well as offline. Hooray! I'll probably be blogging about all the same things as before...maybe more direction, maybe even more diverse than before- I'll just see where the cyber-wind blows me... and I'm looking forward to it.