What's Playing in my ears and what's tasting in my mouth

My sis and I are avid runners, joggers, power walkers .. ... We run whether we loose weight or not, We don't do gyms. We hit the road and run. We may slack for 2 months but the spirit of running will enter us and we start running again. When i was preggies i walked and walked and walked. The spirit of keeping fit is in us i guess. We don't do well on diets, we can try portion control but we still try to be active. So right now im on another running and portion control binge, i run in the mornings and try to take a walk with T-boy while pushing T-girl in her stroller in the evenings. I figure ever little bit helps. My goal? a celebratory photoshoot in January to mark my birthday.... hmm fingers crossed. I'll probably add a trainer in december to help out.So, I'm always on the look out for hot music to listen to while i run and my sis didn't really give good reviews for marvin (Don Jazzy and His crew)'s album but i'm really really really feeling Tiwa Savage and Don Jozzy's

I also run to Seyi Shay- Loving your way and .Ms Jaie-  Kilon poppin

Now on to food, whether you like it or not, it's easy to get into the rut of serving the same dish every day at dinner and packing boring lunches for the kids to school.. so i'm always looking for simple easy recipies to try at home, who wants to get home at 6pm to start cooking a very long and tedious meal. Besides T-boy has a mind of his own, if he looks at it and doesnt like the look .. then it's off the menu. Well since we got back from Frankfurt i've been cooking up a storm! From caramel popcorn to Ila asepo, mini puff to wild rice and its been ...delic!Bobo can testify... the menu for the ila asepo i got from 9jafoodie.com
Unfortunately i haven't been taking pictures but i'm really looking forward to trying more recipies besides i'm still looking for my party trick (more on that later) So any recipes for a bizzy mom on the go you want me to try and let me know what's playing in your ear when you run, jog or do whatever it is you do

Reworking my wardrobe

Shameless splurge... the internet. internet junkie. That's me. The internet has been a trusty adviser and a very good friend, music, fashion, style, work, life .. and if i don't like what i see? I just close the page!  When i returned back to work 3 months after having T-girl and i wanted to continue bfeeding, i found a site for that ...something like 'work and pump mums' or so. I really really like the internet. I've found so so many great sites, the 33 project (that didn't work for me) and now www.puttingmetogether.com... really? it's like she's just gone into my head and put it on her site. After leaving the bank to have my babies, two things i wanted from my next jobs asides from the regular stuff was 1. be able to wear anything to work (well anything within reason) and 2. go back to engineering. Now i work in engineering, but i had been in a style rut especially since i was coming from a bank plus being at home  its two very different worlds, yes i had shed the suits and the blazers but how to work the new casual look without looking to casual. Being the only female in an all male organization probably doesn't help either. So yes i will be taking on her 'challenge', following her lead.... I already have two lessons from her.

Lesson: Make a list.

Hmm... easier said than done for me because my life transitions a lot with the kids, work, church, hubby, my crafts, but I will do it. I will write a list of what i  want to get. 

Lesson: Define my style

Because i want easy grab and go styles, i tend to stick to basics. Even though I still get to rock a skirt once in a while when i know i'm not going to site,For now i wear a lot of jeans and flats which will probably not change but i'm looking forward to infusing my wardrobe with colored jeans and accessories. I know i'm getting tired of the jeans and flats look but there's pretty much nothing i can do about that. I also like ankara prints a lot but still having a challenge of how to infuse it into my work wardrobe.

Really looking forward to my 're-working my wardrobe' project and will definitely post pictures as i go along. First stop... my wardrobe of course

To Fra and Back

After a 10 day vacation with kids, i had to take a 5 day sick leave before resuming back to work... whether i want to admit it on not, travelling with kids is ......a delight (ha!).... But its so good to be back on my feet again! Unfortunately, i can't find one single vacation picture that i wasn't looking utterly ridiculous and stressed. I had to swap my handbag for a ridiculous shopping bag because i had to take 2 sweaters, 2 jacket, an umbrella in case it rains, a bottle of water, a bunch of bananas in case they got hungry, and we had  to take their strollers.. Bobo and i started to feel like we were groupies and they were the stars! At one point i had to give Bobo a get of of jail free card for a day, so he took off, shopping, site seeing and all. I'm sure that was a high point for him, probably the highest point! One of the highest points for me will probably be, Angela and Francois, our wonderful friends.... mmmwah!!

I think i need to pat myself on the back, I packed everything possible, I just kept tripping myself! I mean E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! Food for the kids, their Drugs and of course my list!.... I need to give myself some props abeg, Zansi-Mother of Two, Wife of One, Engineer, World Class Traveler!

And of course my list! I always have a list when i travel. A list of where to go and what to do. Unfortunately, we didn't get to got the the museums and the carnival but i found a beautiful craft store and  got myself some fabric paint. Really looking forward to some crafting. Will definitely post pictures of my 'creations' ...

Dubai was a dream.... whether we care to admit it or not, we need to do something about our infrastructure in Nigeria.

First weekend back in Lagos, We were off to an owanbe, Bobo's niece's wedding. with gele and asoebi and all.

I don't really mind travelling with the kids again but its good to be home.

On my mind.....

Yesterday I got my weekly dose of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Anybody close to me knows this is one of the ways I get my weekend groove on. I know there's a marketing and charity side to it but Ty and his team are definitely angels! Who doesn't like the idea of someone coming to your house and turning things around. The episodes I watched this weekend touched my heart deeply;  two girls with SMA ( a muscular disorder), and two other girls that are amputees. And it made me take a deep look at my kids and appreciate God and them. My son is a ball of energy and it is very easy for him to start to grate on your nerves because he never stops moving and my daughter just started walking and she is picking up words really fast as well. A dear sister of mine told me once that parenting is about sacrifice. and the greatest sacrifice you can give your children is being the best of you that you can possible be. Our children need role models and the first role model that they see is their parents. It is very easy to invest all in our children and forget about ourselves but when your child looks at you what do they see? do they see a run down mum, struggling to keep things together? or do they see a strong African woman in touch with their generation?because whether we like it or not we have to be involved in our kids' lives. Don't let the only thing they see is you in the kitchen or at the ironing table. There  Their generation moves at such a speed. If you want healthy children, then you have to be healthy as well. If you want children that have a habit of reading, then they have to see you reading. You have to surround them with the culture of reading, a culture of healthy living. The girls from Extreme Makeover were extremely bright and positive and when I think of it, I'm sure their parents  had a lot to do with it.

Post Divalicious Taralicious Birthday

Wow! And the day's finally come and gone! After much preparations, tears and burns (yes burns from my trusted hot glue gun!). Tara's Birthday is on August 12th, and we decided to throw her a pinkalicious divalicious 1st birthday. Still can believe my baby is one, and she's growing every single day. So pre-birthday i went craftomanic, Bowties for the boys

Pink Hair bows for the girls

A Punch Box i saw on acasarella.blogspot.com, you can get the step by step on how to make yours and it was a hit with the kids.

Finished product!yay!

We had the diva cake going on.she had 2 cakes and Temi got a cake as well courtesy mum so he gets a bit of the spotlight and balloons, because nothing screams birthday more than balloons. So my babies woke up to see this. 

The Party invites, just paper and pink ribbons

I made a wreath for her. My inspiration was pinterest.com

Spotlight on the Olympics!

Since I was a kid I've always loved the Olympics. The history, the athletes, the countries, the opening and closing ceremony and even the sporting events so when i saw shine.yahoo.com's post on the wildest moments in Olympics history I was very eager to read it. From the 54 years marathon completion time to Estonian wrestler Martin Klein. what did i take away from it? In life, Sometime all you have to do is just show up... (on time). 

London 2012, My eyes will be on Nigeria's Basketball team. The guys are doing great things. And Michael Phelps.. I love me some Phelps!

Been a bit down with a cold and a bad headache. probably definitely aided by the fact that Divalicious Taralicious's 1st birthday is around the corner. And Bobo has decided that its either we go big or we go home. As 1st year birthdays go here in Nigeria, this is actually low key. Temstar's was really low key as we had it at my mum's and the guest list was really exclusive. So hubby decides he wants it at our place coupled with the fact that he has a large family, there's no crowd control so guest list is currently at 60 kids and 45 adults all this on a budget is really putting a strain on me. I just don't believe it's right to spend so much on a 1st year birthday!! its just plain ridiculous. So like all things diva, i dived right in and been searching for inspiration I've come up with a few sites i think are definitely worth checking out for inspiration; cremedelacraft.com, craftgawker.com, thesweetestoccasion.com and my absolute favorite pinterest.com . Will definitely be posting pictures of all i make!

Naija Girls Rock

I stayed up late watching the BET awards 2012. I did the same thing a few weeks back watching the BET Black Girls rock awards. It's really cool seeing Black Women celebrate Black Women. When i watch certain things i sticks to my brain days. So i haven't stopped thinking about Black Girls Rock. I've checked out their website, read news reviews and I just can't get the thought out of my head. It will be nice to see Naija Women celebrating Naija Women. Nigerian women are not given enough credit, We hold hold things down, We work, We support our Men, We raise our Kids, and we make sure we look good. We are Divas. I culled this from the highly controversial BBC documentary Welcome to Lagos
"It's the kind of single mindedness and strength that is common to a lot of the women here. Not only do they all pop out dozens of babies and cook and clean and look after the house but a vast majority of them have full on jobs too. Running their own businesses, hawking food, hustling with the best of them. So it might appear that the city is run by men, everyone knows that without the women the whole place will fall apart"
Naija Gilrls Rock!
Please note that not only do i not support the documentary, i actually condemn it because it shows such a slighted view of the beautiful city of Lagos.

Busy Cook

Hello, Its been a while. Been a bit busy but I've decided to commit more to blogging. Trying to switch up on our regular dishes at home. Since i work 8-5, i just want to get home and crawl into bed but that never happens. so mealtimes are getting kind of boring and downright predictable so its time for a switcharoo. Asides for browsing recipes on busymoms and Martha Stewart, i stumbled on a really cool site 9jafoodie.com and i'm just itching to try these recipes out!! when i try something new i never go for the easy or simple i dive right into the deep end. Keep a look out for 9jafoodie.com pictures and posts on my cooking adventures!!