New Month and Updates

Hi everyone! Welcome to the month of June! Sheesh, I can't believe I didn't update this blog for over a month. That's not because I didn't have anything to say, but I've just been so busy! Where do I even start from now? May was quite an eventful month, even though I feel like it flew by and I couldn't slow it down long enough to finish doing all I had planned.

On a personal note, I'm thankful I had a good month, I have many many reasons to be grateful to God. He remains faithful, the only One in my life that has never and would never let me down. I'm grateful for another year added to my life, and the many joys I have enjoyed. I'm grateful for my family and friends, for my health and for peace of mind. I'm grateful for provision and protection, for God's mercies, favour and guidance. I'm grateful for answered prayers, and even pending ones.

In other news:



I've started working on a new novel. My previous WIP manuscript has gone up in smoke. While it was a painful decision to throw it away, I have had time to reflect on it and I reckon, no knowledge is wasted. I've learnt a lot while writing it and I dare say, that my writing has improved. I may return to it much later in the future, but I would have to do so much work to edit it, that I fear it may not be worth the trouble.


Myself and some of my fellow writers (of the In My Dreams It was Simpler series) were interviewed for The Mantle. It was a fun experience, and we were thrilled to be approached by Shaun Randol, the Senior Editor to do a joint interview. You can read the two parts of the interview by clicking the links below:

The Mantle Interview (Part 1)
The Mantle Interview (Part 2)

I've got a feature in this month's edition of Reconnect Africa Magazine, also based on the series book. It turned out really interesting, so do check it out here:

Feature on ReConnect Africa

And finally, our group blog In My Dreams It Was Simpler has been nominated in three categories for the 2010 Nigerian Blog Awards! If you haven't already, head over to the Nigerian Blog Awards link right now to vote for us! We are in the Best Group or Collaborative Blog, Best Writing or Book Blog, and the Nigerian Blog of the Year categories. We are up against some tough competition, but it's great that we got recognised for our work! Do pop over there now to cast your vote. For us, of course. LOL

Have a lovely weekend and a blessed month!

FG

Musing and Rambling

Excuse me if this post is a bit all over the place.

I've had a couple of inspiring weeks, both spiritually and professionally.

Spiritually, I'm grateful to God for the many lessons I've learnt in the past year. If I was to write them all down... it would take too long. Okay, I guess I could share a few....

Since I left my job, I gave up my income, so I've had to learn to depend on hubby financially. That was one huge step for me because I was brought up to think I should never rely on a man to provide for me. I think God needed to teach me this lesson because earning my own income made me proud (not in a good way), such that I could give hubby attitude if he wanted to know what I was doing with my income. I also felt like I didn't need him to agree with me regarding any purchases I made, afterall it was my money, not his! Now I'm a lot wiser and calmer, I'm also less wasteful, realising that I don't need to buy everything the fashion mags are throwing in my face. I'm also learning to be humble because I've made the mental shift from thinking "it's my money" to "it's our money".

I like the way God uses the mistakes I make and turns them around for my own good. Several times I've been kicking myself for making a wrong move, and then a couple of days later, I realise that the mistake I made was actually a good thing!

I've been learning to trust and rely on God every step of the way. I've had to pray that God should help me to be better organised with my time (and stop procrastinating). I think I'm a lot better at managing my time now unlike in 2007 when I was swimming in oceans of time without structure, and still not managing to be productive.

God has been helping me with good ideas, inspiration, meeting the right people, organising my work, prioritising my projects, etc. I think it was a great idea to make Him my CEO. lol

Professionally, I've been attending a few literary events at the Southbank Centre since the beginning of the month. So far I've attended three book readings including the Booker Prize reading, a Book Club discussing Sadie Jones' "The Outcast" and a creative writing class on blogging. I've learnt a lot, and got some great ideas for my work. I've also met some really nice people that I intend to keep in touch with.

I'm considering the idea of getting rid of my anonymity. I know a lot of people know who I am but I have still managed to cling to the idea that I'm still an anonymous blogger. Hmmm.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Adding Another Year

You know you are getting old when a fourteen year-old is shocked you know who Ciara is. Two young friends of mine were talking about music videos and one of them was trying to remember the name of the singer who released a song featuring Justin Timbalake recently. When I helpfully suggested it was Ciara, she looked at me in surprise and asked: "How did you know?" .... and I'm like, why shouldn't I know? Silly girl. lol

It's my birthday this weekend, so I do know I'm getting older. I've been in a bit of a reflective mood lately, it seems that life moves so fast nowadays and I need to hurry up to catch up with the days. On a good note, I'm feeling really positive too, because I am definitely growing more mature everyday. It might sound funny but I know I'm a much wiser person now, than I was a year ago. I've learnt many lessons in the past twelve months and I'm still learning more. Bring on the wisdom!

I'm very thankful to God for adding another year to my life. I'm not comparing myself to anyone else, I'm very happy with who I am and where I am at the moment. I have everything I need: I have God, my family, my health, my friends, enough money to meet my needs, abundant joy and peace of mind. And I also know I have a bright future ahead of me! So I have reasons to give thanks.

On that note, I'm going to celebrate this weekend with hubby, my lil sis and a few friends. Will have a drink on you all! xx

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend!

Thankful

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great weekend, and your week has started on a good note. I had a nice weekend. On Friday night, we had our friends round for games night, complete with pizza and lots of finger food. We had a blast and I won the games so I was chuffed. Didn't go to bed till past one in the morning! Saturday was more chilled out. Since I'm on a mission to lose weight by summer, I decided to go and check out the gym near my house. I was given a one-day membership voucher last week,so I put it to good use. I'm considering signing up. The only worry is that they will be swiping their money by DD out of my account every month. I hate direct debits! That's due to a few bad experiences while I was a student. LOL.

I'm counting my blessings this week. You know, it's easy to overlook what we have when we think of what we don't have yet. I had posted this previously, but I wanted to write it again, so I don't take a lot of things for granted. So here goes:

Today, I am alive. Today my husband is alive and healthy. We are together and happily married. Today I was able to hear my alarm and open my eyes. Today I was healthy enough to get out of bed. Today I was able to wash myself. Today I have a job to go to. Today I had a safe journey to work. Today a bomb did not go off in my city. Today I had money to buy lunch. I can even eat lunch! Today I didn't get sacked or laid off from work. Today I had a safe journey back home. I even have a home to go to. Today nobody in my family died. Today I did not have any accident or injury. Today my husband didn't lose his job. Today I enjoyed communicating with my friends and family. I have good people around me. Today I heard some good news. Today our house didn't catch fire. Today I am safe in the knowledge that I am God's child and He will never leave me or forsake me. Today I had angels watching over me. Today I can go to bed safely knowing that the angels are going to watch over me and my family as we sleep.

And to encourage you Buki I'm tagging you! Write down all the blessings you had in one day :-)