Field Trip and Hair

Once upon a time, I was part of an all-natural website for African hair care. The reality is that I can't just keep doing this endless braiding of four heads of hair; I am probably getting carpel tunnel! Tori is getting old enough to handle her own hair, given the right tools; and I took seriously when my friend told me that straightening her girls' hair had revolutionized her life. Anything that is a hair revolution at this point? Count me in!  We booked Tori in her kitchen and Tori and I hung out for a few hours (like five...).

Here is her hair chemically straightened, yet not flat ironed.

I like it; this is what it will return to when we wash it.

 

Here is her selfie with it all groomed nice and flat.

 

 

The next day we went on a fun field trip at the local state park to learn about beavers and fire building.

 

We got to make some s'mores once we built the fire.

The park is overlooking the Potomac River; I hope to camp there in the spring.

Elijah and Bella

 

Tori-bug

Selah

                                                                                                  Jenny

Some Progress

 I feel like there is hope of catching up in life the next two weeks. While the mission trip and wedding were busy, they were enjoyable; Julia's hours of hair a day the last few weeks has just been frustrating. I am thrilled to say that we salvaged enough hair to braid and bead. At this point, she and Tori will both be due for a new "do" right before school starts, but until then, I can focus on bigger things.

My garden is starting to look rather neglected. I picked a good bit today, but need to weed and stake some plants. I think I overestimated how many grape and cherry tomatoes we can eat. I have been giving them away, but decided today to try canning them.

I added nothing and ran them through the course food processor to keep them chunky enough for pico de gallo. My three bowls made nine quarts total. (The bottoms will settle when they cool.)

I am still fighting the bills from Selah's dental surgery. We were told on two to three occasions that it would all be filed under medical due to the nature of the surgery. Shortly after we were sent a $4,800 dental bill. They were apologetic about filing it incorrectly, but we can't get anyone to actually correct it. After filing a $81,000 (That is not a typo!) medical bill that my insurance paid $31,000 on, we thought it was finally resolved. Not so - I got a new $4,800 dental bill in the mail yesterday. Want the best part of all? One of her caps has already fallen off and has to be redone! I'm going to see if my dentist will do it rather than dealing with the children's hospital dental billing mess again. Something has gone terribly wrong with our medical system considering I had a C-section for $6,000 back in 1991!

We were invited to speak on our family and adoption at a church a few hours away tomorrow, so we are all heading out bright and early.

Wow and Hair

I often think in life, "it'll slow down once..." but that thing generally comes and goes and is only replaced by another demand. My current obstacle is that Alei got her first job; she is working at the new CVS that is opening right around the corner. We are incredibly thankful because jobs are very limited in our rural area and she has been dreaming of working there since they broke ground. She also found out in the last few days that only two teenagers were hired; the rest are experienced adults! She also should have her license in just a few weeks, so I only have to run her back and forth for a couple of weeks. What we didn't know was a lot of her training is at other CVSs, which makes sense since they are operational. Last night, after completing several hours of photo developing training at the close CVS, they announced that her orientation meeting would be at a CVS about an hour away from 9 - 11 a.m. Thankfully, JD was scheduled to be home most of today, so I just took Elijah and left at 8:00 a.m. Right after I bought 10 boxes of ice-cream bars at Aldi's, I got a quick text from Alei that the training was going until 2:00 p.m. Elijah and I ended up doing a lot of shopping, (and cramming all our ice-cream in a friend's freezer for the day.) Once Alei actually got out at 2:30 and I checked out, we arrived home at 3:45 in time for JD to take the girls to a 4:30 eye doctor appointment. These are the days that have very limited school and I "plan" for by starting school early in August!

Other than not being home much, poor Tori is quite sick. She's been running a fever and rather lethargic for a few days. Today Elijah seems to have a low-grade fever and lots of snot. I'm planning a doctor run first thing in the morning; the problem is that we rented a gym for Tori's birthday party on Saturday afternoon. I'm crossing that bridge tomorrow after the strep cultures!



I got a question from a nice lady that attended our orphan, foster, adoption meeting the other night at church. She asked about my girls hair. My long time readers know that I have done many posts on hair, but more "complainy" about the time investment than helpful. So, I'm going to do a summery of what I've learned and how.

First of all, when we adopted Tori, she was bald - way bald, like so bald we wondered if her head had been shaved. I basically greased (our favorite Liberian term) her little head and hoped it would grow. Once it was long enough for tiny, tiny corn-rows, I had a wonderful friend from church faithfully drive to my house every other week and re-put in the corn-rows.

In the mean-time, we adopted Julia who had quite the head of hair. Since she wasn't going capable of sitting still too long at a time, I just learned to do simple twists and braids on her. In the hair care department, I've tried tons of stuff. I still buy things when I see how people brag on the wonders they've done for their children's hair. At this point, I don't buy anything that isn't organic, but really like the Organics line that is sold at our local hair store and Wal-Mart.

When I really learned to corn-row was when Dena cut her finger and was unable to do Tori's hair for several months. At first I literally sat by the computer and played Katelyn's You Tube video, paused it and copied it. After several attempts, my fingers figured it out. I'm no expert at this point, but do smile big when people ask, "who does their hair" and then look shocked when I answer, "I do."

As far as the whole "have their hair done at the beauty parlor idea", that is a very real possibility when they are older and we are beyond twist and corn-rows. For now, I wouldn't want to make them sit without breaks and I don't want to pay for it. We are very much do-it-your-selfers. We have been the general contractors on our own house, JD is the current basement finisher, JD fixes our cars, I do the house painting, we cut the boy's hair, you get the idea. Over the years, we have saved a ton doing projects our self, so the girls hair is no different for the moment.

So, I highly recommend Katelyn's how to everything on YouTube. I also joined a Yahoo group - adoption skin and hair care. Those have been the most helpful, along with real people I know that have walked before me in the hair realm!

Hair Tales Today

Julia headed off to church today with her hair loose and beautiful. She has gorgeous, little spiral curls, but they knot up the minute she takes a nap or rolls around at all. Here she and Tori are modeling their new Poppy Dip dresses (http://www.itspoppydip.blogspot.com.)

Once we got home, I settled on a fast, easy, no-small-braids or beads style. Here's the twists I watched a YouTube video on. They were fast and easy and I think they are cute on her.

I'm hoping they last until next weekend with a bit of freshening, but that may be wishful thinking!

The good news is that I'm done for this weekend. It would have been far less time consuming to have painted another room of the house. I guess that's what I'll plan on for next weekend!

Hair Horror

Ok, I learned a lesson the hard way. Supposedly, the smaller the braids or corn-rows, the longer they can remain in. So, I did Julia's hair is almost 80 little braids and left them in for a month. It was horrible to get out! Horrible! I'm embarrassed to admit that my cousin, who only has a Liberian son, came up with the idea of soaking the braids in oil to help get them out and that helped tremendously. (Why didn't I think of that?) I believe that we took over six hours to get that poor baby's braids out! I worked so long yesterday that my elbows ached so badly last night that I couldn't sleep.


Here's Alei doing a late shift; we were trying to accomplish a chunk of it while Julia slept last night.

The difference between Julia and Elijah is that Elijah had a long nap while Julia had no nap at all.

Alei doesn't wear her glasses too often, so Elijah was quite interested in checking them out.

He tried them on a few times; Julia slept through it all.

I did a lengthy shift this morning, in spite of my elbows, but we really saw the end when Alei and my sister pulled a double-duty hair shift this afternoon. I didn't want to work anywhere near the carpet the way we were dousing her with olive oil, so Moriah loaned Julia her portable DVD player. (I am hoping that it works again tomorrow after all the spilled tea evaporates out of it.)

When Julia got tired this afternoon, I got her blanket and pillow for her and the work continued.

Tomorrow Julia is going to church with wild and free hair, then we are going to attempt a fairly simple style that will last about a week. It will be quite a while before I do micro-braids again! In fact, I am planning on looking into locing her hair into permanent tiny braids. I know everyone has an opinion on the good and bad of locs, but continuing to spent this kind of time on Julia's hair is pretty difficult for me as a homeschooling mother of nine!


I wish I had taken a picture of Julia when we were done. I promised her that I would take her out for fried chicken when we finished - she about deserved Disney World with how well she did for so many hours. Anyway, she had her hair sticking up everywhere, a frilly, summer white dress, jacket and emerged with her red high-tops. It was beyond comical. I let her wear the dress, but convinced her to add church shoes instead of the high-tops, and Alei, Aunt Deb and I headed out with Julia for chicken! We had a good time.

Haiti and Orphan Future

I got all excited when I saw that the state on TN was making a list of home-study ready parents for orphans in Haiti. According to this article, I'm not sure there is any reason to do so. I'm thrilled that the in progress adoptees are being sent to their new homes immediately, but I grieve for all the ones that are left behind!

http://www.rainbowkids.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=691

I put tiny, tiny braids in Julia's hair the last time I did it - I'm really regretting it now that I'm taking her hair out. We've been at it well over two hours and I'm maybe 1/6th of the way through it! It's going to be a long day tomorrow - for her and me! I'm hoping to do a new style on her that will match her flair for fashion!


That's my girl.

Beads, The Basment and Orphan Sunday

Thankfully, last week's hair event was a success and I don't have to do any hair this week! I cornrowed the front of Julia's for the first time and it isn't too bad. It's not like I'm ready to open a braiding salon in my free time, but I'm learning. I also put beads in Tori's hair after Ms. Dena worked her magic. Here's my beaded princesses.

Tori and Julia had two birthday parties on Saturday. The first one was a fancy tea-party. Thankfully, I got a deal on this year's Christmas dresses, so we broke them out. Here's Tori -

and Julia - The girls did well with the tea and china.

JD is back to Geo-thermal work in the basement. He finished the down-stairs last year, but has about three rooms left to install for the upstairs. In the meantime, we have regular forced air heating, it just costs a lot more to run than the Geothermal. Here's the beginning of the end. The grey tracks have to be drilled in, then the red hoses snap into the grooves, then the foil, insulation and ceiling can be installed. It's going to be a long project I'm afraid.

The good news is that Elijah is pretty capable on the stairs these days, so he makes his way down to "help." Here he is selecting a tool to help his Dad.

His glue choice was actually one of the safer options. The unfinished side of the basement isn't exactly child friendly.

Far more important than beads and basements is that today is official Orphan Sunday.

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Groundhog Weekend

I feel like this weekend was a re-run of last weekend. JD ended up making two trips to a friend's house for trees and a trip to the Amish saw-mill. Although we were done with the wood trips, we were blessed with free big trees to make posts out of, so about three more trips and our fencing stash should be done. Speaking of Amish, my tomato plants I bought from them are still going strong. It's amazing how many tomatoes I've gotten off three plants. I'll be buying my vegetable plants from them again next year.

I am half way through Julia's braids. The Zulu knots lasted a few more days than I expected, but we needed a hair-do that will get us through next weekend. I really want to get better at corn-rowing. Here's Julia having a hair break.

It really isn't Julia that requires so many hair breaks. It's this little guy. He isn't impressed with his Mom focusing so long on someone that isn't him!

JD and I spent quite a bit of time today on the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace budget. We have definitely increased our expenses drastically the last few years with our international adoptions and our new house. So, after putting all our expenses on paper today, it turns out the kids are way expensive! I obviously already knew this as it seems every cent we have goes to one of them for something, but it seems so much worse now that it's on paper. Another big expense in my life is all these animals. Mind you, I rarely intentionally go and get them, but I find them around town and lately they get dumped in my driveway. We really don't even do vets anymore; I get everything rabies shots and spayed or neutered at the low cost clinic, but I still feed them all and put FRONTLINE on all of them! I still have two kittens from the dumped litter to get fixed this fall! Here's Kaden enjoying Elijah's attention. You know he's a good kitty to put up with Elijah's "petting."

The good news is that next weekend won't be a re-run; we are going on our annual "back-to-school" mini-vacation. I am really praying that my neck improves a ton this week!

On a P.S. happy note - I found my missing teacher's manual! I offered a $5 reward, but found it myself. It was on the piano shelf, folded open, blending in with the piano books. I'm just thrilled to be back on track for school tomorrow.

Wood and Hair

Yesterday the boys helped JD stack the last load of Amish cut wood. Our "red neck" wood shed is now at max capacity, as James and Ben stacked the left side as high as the right.


Here's the over-flow fencing stacked in the barn. It'll be interesting to see if there will be any left after the cow fence.


My biggest yesterday project was Julia's hair. Here she is playing outside with her wild fro.

Here's my simple hair-do; I think they are called Zulu knots. They were pretty fast and easy and I already have the parts ready to go for longer lasting braids.

Last night at bedtime, we were met with the unpleasant news that there is a leak in a Geothermal line in the basement. So, other than cleaning up all the water, JD has spent the afternoon diagnosing and fixing the leak. There seems to always be someone or something in crisis mode around here.

Amish Trip, Neck Pain, and HAIR

Since my neck was aching yesterday, JD took Elijah with him on errands twice. Last night, Elijah went even went to soccer practice and grocery shopping with his Dad. He really likes his Dad and he was absolutely devastated when JD left without him for Amish country this morning. We thought the trip was too long and he would need his Mom at nap time. He spent quite a while pointing out the window and crying, "Da-da." I tried to distract him with Cheerios.

Although that didn't work, the camera helped.

In spite of my neck, the girls desperately needed their hair done. We took Tori's out several days ago and the friend from church who usually does her hair is out of town for a while. Yesterday I called another friend's daughter, who is also adopted from Liberia, and she came last night and corn-rowed it. Thank goodness, one down....and I think it looks really cute.

After taking this picture, Tori suggested I get a picture of her big eyes. Tori is known for her big eyes.
We took part of Julia's braids out yesterday. This morning, she was fighting getting the rest taken out. I assured her that she wouldn't be going to church tomorrow with her current look.

Since I'm the hair-washer and re-fixer, I assigned Alei the unpleasant task of getting the remaining braids out. I was surprised how quiet it was while Alei was working. This is why....

Julia is still on the couch asleep and I'm going to look online for less time-consuming hair styles for the next few days while my neck continues to heal. Then I'll re-braid.