Pooka Body Butter Club Unboxing #bodybutter

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Where have we been?!

Morning Pooka Family!

It's been a minute, I know!  I am, once again pledging to do better with this blog.  I have to admit, life has been hard and I've faced some devastating trials over the past months.  The only thing that

I can say is, GOD is still good and I am still here.  My family and I stay in prayer and know that our faith is carrying us right now.  I feel so blessed that through the trials Pooka has been a source of peace.  We've found peace working in the business and we're thankful that it's giving us something to focus on.  We are always so humbled by the support and love you show us Pooka family and we're forever grateful!

Okay, enough with all the mushy stuff, let's get down to business, today is the last day of ....the 2Fer sale!  We only offer our 2Fer 3 times a year and we urge everyone to take advantage and stock up, sooooo.....Enjoy!

Click to start shopping!

Pooka Chocolate Body Scrub DIY

Oh Valentines' Day!  Every year you come to taunt me, lol!  Well not this year!

I vow to buy my own gluten, sugar, dairy free candy and write my own card, full

of poetry and great little anecdotes about....me!  I'm also going to be making

this chocolate scrub and eating a little in the shower when I use it! WHAT?!

It's Valentines day! I'm allowed!

Join the Pooka Body Butter Club!!

We're excited to announce the Body Butter Club!

Click to visit the Body Butter Club

How to make tough decisions!

Dawn's New Vlog!! Shopping with a bad baby!

Commuter Life!

Morning Pooka Family,
I'm writing this blog while sitting on a stalled NJT train heading into Penn Station. Now that I am commuting and no longer working from home I thought documenting my commuting experiences could be fun. 
So this is my first experience with being stuck on a train. Let me share some the conversations I'm overhearing. The lady sitting across from me to my left is trying to get an appointment for 17 year old Shitsui who has been coughing for 2 weeks. She is berating the receptionist on the other end because she can't get an appointment to accommodate her schedule. Sitting directly across from me is my neighbor who is trying to catch a nap and tune her out. Next to me is the lady's son who keeps hushing his mom because he is laser focused on reading his kindle and she is interrupting him him with her conversation.
The conductor then announces that another train engine is going to tow us into the station because the brake hydraulic system has failed to work on our engine.  So we finally get into Penn Station and I run to catch my E train only to find out that it's delayed due to an incident at 5th Ave.  After waiting about 5 minutes the announcer informs us that the E train has been suspended on this track so we have to take the C train and transfer at 42nd street. Well, this has happened to me before with the E train so I wait while everyone rushes to to take the other trains and low and behold, the E comes.
I get to work and begin to tell my train wows to one of the admins where she politely asks me, did you have a seat to sit in? I reply yes. Was there air conditioning on the train? Yes. And I'm sitting here talking to you so you made it into the office unharmed. At that point I realized the importance of being grateful.

Stay blessed Pooka Family!

My Circle of Life!

The Jury is IN!!

Good afternoon Pooka family! I am writing this blog on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon and what makes it even more beautiful is that this is my 8th day of jury duty service and the judge informed us that the case has been settled. 

This is my first time serving on a jury. I've wanted to but I've only been called once and I was not selected. I've always considered jury duty as my opportunity to be involved in the legal process. I started college as a criminal justice major with the goal to become an attorney but ended up changing my major to business management because my dad told me that criminals don't have any money. :) I wish I would have followed my passion but I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason so I am where I am suppose to be in my life and career. 

So, about the case, since it's concluded now I can talk about it. The case involved an assisted living facility and a resident who had subsequently died as a result of a 2nd choking incident. The son filed a lawsuit of neglect as to the care and administration of his mother. In my opinion her care was not a conscience neglect by the facility but more of a lack of communication and execution of the well documented procedures of the facility. As a result I would have still voted for the plaintiff because the facility had the responsibility of care for the resident and it was a lack of execution in their process that resulted in the choking incidents (note plural on incident). 

I learned a lot from this case in terms of the difference between Assisted Living Facility, Skilled/Nursing Facility also regarding  dementia, NJ regulations on standards of care and internal practices.  One of the main lessons I learned from this case is no matter how reputable, highly recommended, expensive or effective a salesperson is; when it comes to the care of a loved one it is imperative that you stay involved and ask questions. When you put the care of your loved one in someone else's hands; although it is their financial responsibility to care for them, it remains your sole responsibility as parent, child or loved one. And that goes for hospitals, care facilities, day cares, schools and the list goes on.

Stay blessed Pooka family!!!

My new venture for BUSINESS OWNERS!

It's been a while and we're trying to do better but life keeps getting in the way :-) I just wanted to share a new venture for my fellow business owners. You know as entrepreneurs we keep evolving. I've been doing social media for Pooka for a long time and I'm also a graphic artist so it has been a little easier for me than some people. Lotsssss of people ask for help and I help as many as I can but its very time consuming, so I put on my entrepreneur hat and thought about what to do! That's when I came up with my next venture, the Social Media Genie(yes the name is a little corny but it gets to the point, lol) Every month I design 8-9 posts/campaigns and the content to go with them. Now all you have to do is download the graphic and post it on your site, VIOLA! All of your content created for you, I even put in a posting calendar so you know when to post it! I'm proud of my new endeavor! People always ask how or what type of business to start. The most important thing is it should solve a problem! Well problem solved!! Check out how it works and thanks for listening :-)

Click to check it out!

What I learned from getting NAKED!!

The Blow Out!

Happy New Year Pooka Family!!!  I hope everyone had a safe and restful holiday with family and friends!  Well family, I’ll get right to it…as you know from my previous blog, Taiye’s been asking to have her hair blown out.  I’ve put it off as long as I could but I had to come to terms with the fact that although I think her natural curls are beautiful, she wanted to try something different.  As a mom, I’m learning that my wants and desires for her should not impede upon hers and that I should be open to her creativity to try new things.  I caveat this statement with the following…”within reason”.  So on Sunday I took her to get her hair blown out.  Unfortunately, the stylist that I’d chosen to do it was booked.  I’d chosen Tia because she is very gently with the kids and Taiye is very tender-headed.  Of course Taiye was disappointed that Tia was unavailable so Supermom to the rescue.  I told Taiye that I would blow out her hair tonight (a feat I was not necessarily looking forward to).  Well suffice it to say, we did it and Taiye is enjoying wearing her poofy hair.  I allow her to do it every morning before school and I don’t interfere (at least I try not to).  I’m allowing her to express her creativity and independence by taking on this responsibility.  And yes, my child may look like Chaka Khan (no disrespect intended) at the end of the day but guess what, it’s what she wants.   I’m learning as a parent not to sweat the small stuff!!

 

Happy 2016 family!!  Stay blessed!

Peace & Blessings,
Tricia Akinwande

Be an inspirational complainer!!!

The Wiz!!!

Pooka family, I am so excited to see the Wiz this Thursday on NBC!!!  The Wiz is a fond childhood memory for me.  I’ve been following the video shorts and the cast interviews.  I can’t wait to see this all-star cast of Queen Latifah, Common, Stephanie Mills, and all the others!  I’m not going to begin to compare it to Diana Ross, and Michael, I’m just going to enjoy the live production.  I’ve even got Taiye hooked on hype of the show.  She recorded her version of, “Ease on down the road.”  Take a look at the video below but don’t tell her you saw it.  She made me take it off Facebook but it’s so cute, I had to share it with family.

Peace & Blessings,

Tricia

somthin, somthin, just ain't right!

My two boys are very different when it comes to food. William is a picker, he only likes certain things Pizza, Pizza, Pizza, Soup ( ramen noodles only) Pizza, Pizza, Spinach (Thank you Lord!) and Pizza. If it doesn't look right he's not eating it. Different food groups can not touch and has to be served super hot! So of course I try to feed him everything I can, which is a struggle for both of us. Wesley on the other hand will eat dirt if it has ketchup on it. There is NOTHING my baby doesn't like. Wait there is one thing: scrambled eggs. Other than that he will eat everything and more I place in front of him without complaint. His love of food is a concern because sometimes he will eat too much and make himself sick. So on one hand I'm shoving food down Will's throat and on the other I'm taking food away from Wes. Talk about stress! Anyhoo! One day I went into the kids room to put something back and I smelled this horrible smell. The boys were in there playing video games. I asked them what was that smell was and they were like" We don't smell anything" (I don't understand how they can never smell anything.) " What do you mean I say, it smells disgusting." I didn't know if they were in there just hanging loose ( passing gas) or what. I start sniffing around opening drawers and looking under stuff but I couldn't find anything. Ok maybe that was a figment of my imagination, but I know I smell something where is it? As I sit on the end of Wesley bed, thinking maybe he had an accident in it, I notice the top of his post wasn't screwed on all the way. I reach over to screw it back on right and the wave of disgusting smell hits me! There was something in the bedpost! What is this I scream! Everyone looks at me, Wesley slowly walks over and looks down into the bedpost. " I don't know, but it stinks." " REALLY?" I look in the bedpost and see some water, I tell Will to go and get me a plastic bowl. He brings it back and I have them lift the bed up while I unscrew the bottom of the post. What comes out is the foulest liquid stench you have ever smelt, and a banana stem. "You shoved a banana in the post" I yell at Wesley. Wesley said "No..... I ate the banana."
Lord give me strength......

Peace & Blessings
April

YOU NEED THIS!!! #becauseiloveyou

I am in an amazing space.... I am in my home and have had a beautiful experience that I soooo want you to share. It’s probably not what you think but here goes.... I’ve just taken a bath, wait...WAIT! before the eye
rolling starts keep reading :-)

 I’ve been working on a campaign for Pooka called the Ultimate bath. I believe that everyone should take baths because they’re therapeutic. Now, I love a good bath but I have to admit I take way more showers because they’re just quicker and easier. So although I was creating the “Ultimate Bath” campaign, I have to admit I haven’t taken the time to take one recently. So this evening I decided to take one and OH MY GOODNESS!

 Firstly, you pay upwards of $70 for a spa treatment and how many of us actually do that. I want to tell you you have a spa right in your house. Stop all of the negative thinking like, “I don’t lilke baths” or “ I don’t like my tub” or ”I just don’t have time”. 
YOU NEED A BATH. Baths can lower your blood pressure and can help reduce stress, thats reason enough. You have to start thinking of your bath as a treatment, yes a treatment! Something that you do every week to better your health. I now look at Sunday evenings as my health treatment day. With all of the ads on the market for medications and therapies, how amazing is it to know that you have one right in your house. So now that you realize this is a wonderful way to change your health, just like drinking water every day, I’m going to tell you how to make it the thing that you look forward to doing every week.

 I ran a hot bath and since I’m always experimenting I added a new natural bubble bar I’m working on. Lots of nice bubbles so now the tub looked kind of nice. Then I drizzled in some bath oil and dropped in a bath fizzie (are you getting this visual! Bubbles, beautiful fizzing going on?!) After that I lit a beautiful coconut candle. Now, this place is looking like a real spa! I think the best part was I turned on pandora on my phone and instead of my usual Jill Scott or Adele, I tuned into Spa radio and just had beautiful painos playing through my bath room. Then I grabbed a magazine and stepped into the tub, AMAZING! How could I have forgotten how this feels! I never even read the book, I just closed my eyes and thought about how blessed I am. I thanked GOD for all that I’ve been allowed to experience, I thought of my wonderful family and friends, I thought of how much I was enjoying this moment.......After about 30 minutes I decided to add to the skin treatment part and rub myself down with a new himalyan sea salt scrub bar that I’ve been playing with(look people there is always going to Pooka in every blog!) I started to massage my skin with the bar and I was glowing. I relaxed a little more and got out of the tub. After I toweled dry I felt amazing and I was going to throw on a T-shirt BUT not after that experience, I grabbed a beautiful nightgown that I usually would save for vacations, but why wait, everyday I’m alive should be a vacation. I was so relaxed and grateful after my bath that I sat down to write this. I had all kind of thoughts in my head about how I was going to buy a truck and go to peoples houses and prepare baths for them, lol! That’s how much I want everyone to have this experience. The thing is almost everyone has a bath tub so no matter where you are in life you can feel this way and you owe it to yourself and your health!

 So below is what came from my bath:
 I was totally relaxed, I’m sure my blood pressure was lowered
 I was so grateful and humbled and in the moment
 I was able to just focus on me, in a busy day when do we do that
 I gave my skin an amazing treatment, shaving years of aging off :-)
 I was inspired enough to write this blog
 I was HAPPY

 TAKE A BATH TODAY!!!!!

Hair

Morning Pooka Family!!  For this blog I’m going to jump right in…yesterday Taiye told me that she wants to straighten her hair.  I was devastated!!  I have tried so hard to instill in her the love of self and her beautiful natural curly hair but I knew I was up against a huge adversary with her being one of very few little black girls in her school.  I asked her why she wanted to straighten it and she said that she is always playing with the other little girl’s straight hair and she wants to be able to play with her own plus it takes so long for you to do in the morning that’s why we’re always running late.  Ugh!!!! I have failed as a mother!!!  I thought that she was okay with her curly hair, despite the ouches every day when I moisturize and fluff those beautiful black curls.  Her Aunties all have curly hair and they encourage her and tell her how beautiful her hair is and she gets so many compliments from the aftercare staff as well as from people who pass us on the street.  But again…I have somehow failed at instilling in my daughter that yes the other little girls in her class have long, straight hair and your hair is beautiful and curly.  I don’t want to deny her the experience of having straight hair so I will take her to the salon and let her get it blown out but I am prayerful that she will miss the uniqueness of her curls and hope that this too shall pass.

 

Open to any words of wisdom from other moms of little girls as well as naturalistas.  Keep praying for me Pooka family on this journey to raise a strong confident little girl!  It takes a village!

 

Peace & Blessings,

Tricia

We're in a Prudential commercial!

We have been blessed to be in a commercial for Prudential! It's short so don't blink, lol! It was lot's of fun to do! Make sure to come on down to Newark and visit us!

Happy 15 Year Pookaversary!!

Think...small.....