Four Fun Inexpensive Birthday Tips(Making Your Significant Other Feel Special)

So, over the weekend, a friend calls me to remind me of her boyfriend’s birthday. She suggested we go someplace high-end and spoil ourselves to mark the day. Now, you can’t imagine just how excited I was that  we were going to be hanging out since it has been a while we all came together to have some fun plus free always sounds good J and high-end free sounds even better. I decided on a denim shirt and pants and was counting the days. She called me a couple of days to the time to tactfully tell me whatever I ate or drank was going to be on me(now, this might sound a little cheapskate to you but man! splurging on myself just cause it is a friend’s boyfriend’s birthday was definitely not in my plan). I shrugged off the thought that that sounded new to me. I know it is not so much of a strange culture in the western world but my Nigerian self believes if you invite me for a birthday, I should at least be getting a free drink.

I understand her dilemma, it sometimes seem like one would spend an awfully lot to plan a beautiful birthday but it really need not be. What matters most times is always the thought behind whatever one plans. I am going to share the following tips for those that have tight budgets but would love to wow their significant others.

• Surprise is always good and you can create it in different ways. Send a cake over to his workplace and show up just after the delivery to take him out if you have the time to or you could take him out to dinner. You can plan with some of his coworkers to have just a little decoration in the lunchroom if it is allowed at his workplace.

• Having friends around is equally good but you might want to plan some sort of refreshment too. This is always more pleasurable when you share same circle of friends. It helps the conversation flow better and the air would be friendlier. If you are really short on cash, it would be nice to tell your friends upfront so they can pick somethings up on their way to spice it up. You could watch a movie or hang out at a park. You can even go swimming or go to the beach. 

• If you are bent on going all out, then you can plan a weekend getaway to a nice spot. Do some adrenaline pumping things like visiting the amusement park. This would even be more fun if you have kids as they can also enjoy the day along with you. To achieve this you can save up from the year before and even check to see if you can get deals that would save you some money.booking ahead also helps to reduce cost.

• Always remember that what really matters is the thought behind whatever it is you are doing so don’t go overdoing yourself trying to be all you are not in a bid to impress or wow them. Handmade cards never run out of fashion, you can make one with words straight from your heart. I know the latest growth in technology has pushed cards to the background but they are still treasurable.

Back to me and my friend, we stayed back in the house and ate well prepared rice with peppery beef and turkey(tasted so good that I can still taste it)and creamy cake with loads of gist to spice up the day. We had so much fun and so did the celebrant.

Train Your Child In The Way He Should Go...

...And when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6)


Bringing up children is no child's play. It is not for the faint-hearted, the weak-willed or the unstable. Bringing up children requires a lot of time, energy and attention. Unfortunately, with the world in constant economic crisis, many parents do not have enough time or energy to devote to their children. In some cases, parents are too scared to stand up to their children or call them out on any ill behaviour, because they are worried they might lose popularity with their children. Such children are given a free pass to do whatever pleases them and later parents start to play the blame game on one another.

As parents, it is important to train your children with firm but loving hands. I was having a chat with a friend about the various difficulties she had encountered before she finally reached her point of success. She confided in me that there were so many times she was tempted to turn to prostitution just so she could make ends meet, but each time, she could hear her parents' voice in her head and all the values they instilled in her. She said even when she wanted to ignore her conscience, she could not ignore the lessons her parents taught her as a child.

Parents need to stop adopting a nonchalant approach towards their children. Praying is not enough to bring up a child, you need to be hands-on too. You need to teach your children about the word of God. I know there's hardly enough hours in a day but you can make it happen. Growing up, my father used to tell me which bible chapters to read during the day so we could discuss them over the dinner table. I didn't dare ignore his instructions because he is a string believer in "spare the rod and spoil the child". It is important first to teach your child about God and everything else will follow. When a child knows the place of God in his or her life, that child will have the right friends, make the right decisions and above all have the right kind of confidence. They say charity begins at home. If you don't teach your children the right lessons at home, the storms of life will cause them to absorb the wrong lessons from the world

A Real Man does not leave the Spiritual Leadership of the home to the Wife

"I think women are best suited to lead the family spiritually because they are more intuitive and closer to God."

"Don 't you see that in any church, the women are more than the men? They are more spiritual."

"I think I should leave that aspect of family life to my wife. My own job is to bring in the money and take care of the physical needs of the family."

These are some of the excuses that some men give when they relinquish the spiritual leadership of the family to their wives.

Every man should realise that apart from taking care of the physical needs of the family, he is responsible for spiritual growth of the family. Even though one is likely to find that the wife of the home is more spiritually mature. It is up to the husband of the home to rise up to the occasion.

The man is the head of the house and the Lord holds every man accountable for the welfare of the family - materially and spiritually.

So men, rise and take charge.

The Shoebox - A lesson in living together in marriage

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.

In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totalling $95,000.

10 things to note during a christian courtship before you say "I Do"

Before I list the 10 things to note during  Christian courtship, let me put this in the proper perspective by giving a definition of Christian courtship.

Christian courtship is the process of getting to know a member of the opposite sex that you have identified as a partner to marry. It also refers to that defined period for both parties to understand themselves.

I will advise that both parties enter into a courtship period of about a year. If less than one year, it might not give both parties adequate time to know each other. However, a period more than one or two years increases the tendency for premarital sex, among other things. Please note that an exception to this rule is a situation when one or both parties is/are still in school.

Here are the 10 things to note:

Check out this duet between Father and daughter...Enjoy

Hi all.

This is a duet between father and daughter - Alex and Jade. Enjoy

 

What's Your Excuse? (Facts About Maya Angelou)

When I heard about the death of Maya Angelou, I was saddened like everyone else, that yet another great icon had departed this earth. My sadness ran deeper because just a week before her death, I said to a friend, "Maya Angelou is one of the great women I would like to meet. I hope I get to fulfill that dream soon". Little did I know that fate had other plans. My reason for wanting to meet Maya was not simply because she was a well-known poet or a world-renowned speaker, it ran deep into the circumstances she had to overcome to reach the height she attained in life. I have always admired her and her poem 'phenomenal woman' is one of my favourite till this day. Maya fought many life battles right from her childhood; in case you didn't know, here are some of them:

• Maya was born into a society where racial discrimination was a norm and it was not unnatural to see a black man undergoing torture at the hands of his 'superior' white counterparts.

• Black children mocked Maya when she was a child, saying she was ugly.
• Considering the way she was insulted and mocked by those that were the same skin colour as her, Maya was more of an outcast; she felt less than the other black girls, and could not attain the societal standards of the white girls.
• When Maya was eight, her grandmother's boyfriend raped her. Maya testified against him in court and later heard he had been murdered.
• Maya felt guilty and hated herself for being raped and for testifying against the perpetrator. She felt her words could hurt and kill so she became a recluse that refused to speak to anyone, including her family. 
• Maya went to live with her grandmother who loved her so much and nurtured her. In spite of all the nurture and care, Maya refused to speak for years. 
• Maya's grandmother had a neighbour who gave Maya books and poems to read. With the help of her grandmother's neighbour and her grandmother's love, Maya began to speak again.
• At the age of 14, Maya dropped out of high school and returned at 17. She became pregnant and hid it from her family for as long as she could. In the end, she had a son she could barely support financially. Maya found herself thrown into the unrespectable profession of a stripper, and became a member of a prostitution house in order to provide for her son. 
• When the shame of being a stripper started to hit hard, Maya began to sing in night clubs. This led her to meet accomplished people that stopped over for drinks and to chat about the day's events. Through them, she met Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and so many other accomplished people. 

Everytime I feel like playing a victim of circumstance, I recall Maya's story amd ask myself "Demi, what is your excuse?" Everytime I am about to complain about how tough I've had it, I ask again "What is my excuse? Do I have a right to complain?"

Maya Angelou had a tough life, she fought battles that could cause any of us to faint and fall...and she did faint and fall. She made decisions she probably wasn't proud of but at the end of it all, she came out as a diamond, shiny and bright. She carried her scars and showed the world that life is not high enough to bury any of us. No matter what you are going through, know that God is with you and at the end of it all, you'll be shiny and bright. 

Rest In Peace Maya Angelou. You are a legendary star the world will never forget! Sleep on in the arms of God.