Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW???????

That July is B's Locaversary!  Yes, ALL of July, because it took me that long to put her locs in!  This is B's 3 year Locaversary and her locs are more gorgeous than ever!  She loves them, I love them, everyone who meets her loves them!

In honor of B's beautiful locs I am going to try to do a few loc related posts over this month.

For today I wanted to share a video I found on youtube a while back about this girls 5 favorite loc accessories.  I liked it because she was using some things I had never heard of before - like a Dreadsock which looks like a great alternative to the sleep caps my girls use.  I also LOVED her idea for how to use multiple thin headbands.  Unfortunately, although we have those same headbands and love them, I tried to use them this way on B and it didn't quite work.  I am not sure if it is because he locs aren't as big and fluffy as the girl in the video, or just because she is an active girl and I knew that they would fall off in a matter of minutes.  I still love the idea :)  I also love, love, love the hair wrap.  I want to wrap B's locs so bad because I think you can get some really gorgeous looks this way, but we haven't invested in anything to wrap them in yet.

Hope you enjoy the video and stay tuned for more of B's locs, coming soon!!!!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

*UPDATE ADDED*
Did You Know??????


That after all of the great suggestions on what to do with B's Easter style, I loved the BIG flower idea so much I ended up putting flowers in ALL my girls hair!

I purchased all of the flowers at the Dollar Tree!  Nothing like keeping it cheap!  I didn't attach them to any kind of clips or anything, I just kept the stems long enough when I cut them from the bunch so that I could stick them into the hair.  They held just fine!
The only real change I made to B's style from the first one was that instead of 3 cornrows I only did two.  I had said that maybe I would split up the hair from the middle cornrow and add it to the two outside ones.  This probably would have made things really bulky so instead, I just took that middle section of hair and did NOTHING with it!  After I finished the two outside rows I brought all the hair from the braids and the center section together in one ponytail holder.  See original style and finished style:

Ok, now that I look at the pictures, I realize I had actually done french braids, not cornrows in the original style.  They both look nice.  And I parted the hair slightly different the second time around.  But I loved the outcome.  It was lovely.

I don't have a step by step for V's style this time either.  But it is pretty basic.  I guess I am into the low side ponytail, because I did it on both girls!  I had cornrows start at the front left of her head  - do a sort of squiggle pattern - and then end at the lower right side.  To do this I started with the middle cornrow to set my pattern and then just worked out to the sides.  I finished with a puff!

I didn't really take pics of Little E's hair.  It was just two cornrows, a typical style for her.  I added the 3 little yellow flowers at the back.  Originally I also had one flower in the front, but it looked weird, so I took it out!

And that was Easter hair for Katie's girls!

I also gave Young Man C a fresh line up.  He is growing out his hair right now, because he is convinced that if he grows it, I will braid it.  We'll see about that!  Have I told you the story of the last time he grew it out?  Anyway, it was a BUSY hair weekend for me, but ended with a beautiful Easter Sunday with family!  Maybe I will post some family pics tomorrow.

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Ever Wonder???


Why I have one daughter WITH locs and another daughter WITHOUT locs?  What went into our decision to give B locs?  Well, I know one of you was wondering since I was asked this question on our Facebook page last week!  Now you are all going to get the answers!

Miss V wearing yarn braids, Miss B with her locs!

To tell you the truth, my memory does not recall if I have possibly discussed this on the blog before, but you are going to get the story on it anyway.

Miss B had just turned 6 when we made the decision to put in her locs.  I had been getting a bit frustrated with the fact that her cornrows and other hair styles didn't stay looking nice for more than a day after I put them in.  Especially since it took so long to take down the last style and put in the new one.  Miss V's styles looked great for weeks, why didn't B's?  I think it all comes down to hair texture.  B's hair is a looser curl pattern, which is easier to comb and detangle, but just doesn't hold a style well.  It used to fuzz out like CRAZY within a few short days!

I knew a lot of moms were trying out locs on the hair group I was a part of, so I started talking to B about it.  I showed her pictures of other girls.  We talked about the many benefits of having locs.  The only drawback to the locs, really, was that they were semi-permenant.  I now know that many people have successfully taken out locs (but I sure wouldn't want to try it!) and so I told her that once they were in for good, the only way we could get rid of them was to cut them off.  This seemed to disturb her a bit, but not enough to keep her from trying them.   The good news was that we would have a month or two to make up our minds once they were in.  They could easily be removed in the first few weeks before we started tightening them.

So she went for it, and we have never looked back!  They suit her so well.  She has really wanted more independence over the last few years and being able to shower and wash her own hair is a big plus for her. Not having to worry about getting her hair wet in the summer is also great.  Being able to style it different every day and not having to sit for hair time very often is also fabulous!

If locs have been a good experience for B than why haven't we gone the same route with  Miss V?  V is about to turn 7 and has watched her sister with locs for almost 3 years now.  The thing is, she has NEVER once asked for them herself!  Even though I know V would love the benefits of getting her hair wet more often.  She would think wearing pigtails one day, and nothing the next and then a ponytail the next was fun.  She also somewhat loathes hair time.  She loves the results, yes, but sitting for hours, not so much!  So why hasn't she asked for them?  I do not know!  I have never suggested them to her, and she has never brought it up!  I don't mind because I enjoy the diversity of them having different hair.  I love cornrowing and styling V's hair.  I think I would get super board if I had to do the tightening process on two heads.  (I hate tightening, even though I don't have to do it that often!)  Locs just seem right for B, and no-locs seems right for V.

I am totally open to doing locs on V if she ever asks for them.  I would likely make her think about it for a few months if she did bring it up.  It is kind of a big decision, and I would want her to be sure.  I would be sad about not being able to do all the things I am used to doing with her hair.  But locs are SO much easier to take care of and way less time consuming, so a part of me would be kind of excited too.  I guess only time will tell!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know????

That we were featured on Happy Girl Hair today!  HGH is one of my favorite hair blogs.  The other Katie who writes it is SO knowledgable, I am amazed by all the detailed stuff she knows about hair and hair products etc.  She is also WAY creative.  She has two daughters with natural hair that she is styling and she gives them new styles, it seems like, every week!  And like me she seems to rarely do the same thing twice.  That is dedication!

Anyway, if you aren't reading Happy Girl Hair, YOU SHOULD BE!  It's a great blog.  Start today by reading the interview she did with me and Steph!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW????

That I just got through reading a great blog post with lots of pix showing how a Mom named Sara manages her toddler's tight spiral coils? She uses Teri LaFlesh's "Tightly Curly" method. I believe this child is biracial....and wow does her hair look great at the end of the day...I mean look at this curl definition...!

Did I mention this is a TODDLER? Who has presumably been wandering around doing TODDLER stuff all day? Dang!!

If you have a child with awesome coils like this little girl, I encourage you to go and read Sara's blog post about how she gets these results.

Let us know if you try it and what your results are!

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know?????

We are moving?  Of course you do, I have only mentioned it like 10 times.  Which seems crazy because this has all happened relatively fast and yet I feel like the actual MOVE day has taken ages to get here?  weird?  Anyway, I spent the last 4 days working on getting the kids bedrooms ready to move in.  The colors in the rooms previously were awful and I really wanted to do something fun for the kids since we haven't ever really personalized their rooms before.

All 3 of our girls share a room.  I wanted them all to feel involved in the process of decorating the room, but that can be hard to do with many differing opinions.  Not to mention that I am a control freak.  So in true controlling mommy style.... I scoured the internet for room decal stickers, looked at hundreds of them, and then showed the girls the 5 choices I liked best and convinced them that my favorite one was the best choice!  Guess what?  It worked!  ALL 3 of them agreed on it!  And they were super excited about it too!  So these are the stickers we chose:

The picture of the flower decals I found showed them on a green wall and everyone liked that too, so as you can see, we went with it.  But I didn't want the whole room green because I knew Young Man C would want a green room.  So I told the girls we would just do the flower wall green and pick a different color for the other 3 walls.  I brought home 2 blue and 1 purple swatch, and again, amazingly they all agreed on a blue one!  So what do you think?

I think it turned out really great!  I can't wait for the girls to start living in it!  I'm pretty proud of this room as it involved many hours of painting and then the application of 70 stems, 70 flowers, 10 grass sections and 15 butterflies!  Yes, Yes, hand over my mother of the year award please!  Little E was hanging out with me today while I did more work on C's room.  She likes it.

The Young Man's favorite color has been green since the day I met him, so it is no surprise he requested a green room.  He asked for it to be the color of his school soccer team sweatshirt.  It is a bright, cheery green so I obliged.  His room wasn't really photo ready today, but I wanted to share it with you anyway:

You can see the blue painters tape hasn't come off yet, I still have a tiny bit of touching up to do.  But don't both rooms just make you feel happy inside?  They do for me and it helps to keep me excited about this move even though it's a LOT of work!

***I MUST take a moment to give a shout out to my wonderful sister and brother-in-law who gave up their Saturday to help me paint!  Couldn't have done it without you two!  I also have to give HUGE props to my hubby who has been holding down the fort and taking care of all the kiddies while I have been MIA.  Love you babe!***

Anybody have any fun kids bedroom pics they want to share on our facebook page?  We would love to see them!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday - Introducing "KAERO"

DID YOU KNOW???

That my cousin Kevin (aka KAERO) is about to make it big in the music business? He writes his own pop/dance songs with a killer beat. This is his first big video gig, BOOM!, and G knows the song by heart and inserts her own moves. I guarantee you will be up and dancing around!

He has a facebook page....come and "like" him!  He is also performing in the Sacramento and Los Angeles areas. You can listen to some of his other music on his official myspace music page

One disclaimer....he does use the word "ass"....as in dancin' and shakin'. G knows that we wouldn't say that word in polite company so when she listens to it she says "hips." The song is so fun and hey, it's family....so we just shrug and shake it anyway. He did record an audio version of the song and just sent it to me....with "butt" instead of "ass". You can download it here.

So Moms, get up and prepare to shake it like you mean it!

 ENJOY!!!

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know?????

I bought this fun and festive yarn yesterday!

Pink with sparkles - can you guess what it is for?  I am super excited about an idea I have for V's Valentines Day hair!  I am planning to put the new style in this weekend and I really hope it turns out as cool as I am envisioning it!  Things rarely end up in real life the way I plan them in my head, but we shall see!

I believe I will also try to do something in B's hair with the yarn too.  Just not sure what yet!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know?????


That I have a ONE WEEK limit on free hair or puffs!  I do!  Maybe you have noticed.  Anytime I do a style that includes puffs, I tend to braid or twist the puffs or make some kind of style change a week later.

V's pretty little puffs from her latest style are no exception:

They held up quite nicely for the week.  Every morning when I sprayed her braids with our watered down Taliah Waajid spray, I also sprayed the puffs really thoroughly.  Then I used my fingers to work the spray into and all over the free hair.  Once satisfied with that, I would reshape them into those cute little rounded puffs.

Her cornrows are also holding up quite well for the first week, but I can now see them showing signs of frizzing!  Will I make it another two weeks?

As mentioned, I don't like to leave the puffs in for more than a week because I don't want them to get overly dried out, or overly tangled.  That would cause too much stress and breakage when I eventually did take them out.

So I decided to make each puff into a single braid.  The Results:

They don't want to hang straight down - but that's curly hair for ya!

If you can see - I didn't even take out the black, cloth hair ties I had on the end of each cornrow.  I separated the 4 ends from the puff - got them very wet, detangled and combed each one, then I combined the two smaller sections form the right so that I had 3 sections and braided!  Really Quick! 

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know?????

That trimming our daughters curly hair is a cinch!  There really is nothing to it.  Their kinks and coils are very forgiving.  That is, as long as you intend to have them wear their hair in cornrows, braids, twists, puffs and afros.  You really can't go wrong.  IF you intend to straight iron your daughters hair or blow it out straight, that is a different story.  In that case a professional might be money worth spending.  But since Miss V never wears her hair in those styles, I might as well do it myself and save the cash!!!

I pretty much say all that needs to be said in this video.  So give it a watch -



Have you ever cut your kids hair, or are you intimidated by the idea?

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know????

That I have really gotten into the habit of "re-fashioning" V's hairstyles one or more times during the 3-4 weeks she has them in?  I have really taken to doing this for a few reasons.

One reason is, I get bored quick.  I used to put in a braided style and leave it for a month without much thought.  But now that we have been doing this for a few years, I get bored with looking at the same style for so long and I need to change it up - even if it is just a little bit!

The other reason is that I think it can help disguise a style that is getting fuzzy, and not so fresh.  Maybe that is just an elusion because I am really just noticing the "freshness" of the changed up style, but it works for me!

So this was V's Christmas style:

After the first week I got tired of the ribbon so I took that out.  I also gathered all of the twists in the back and put them into a ponytail.  We used different fun and frilly hair ties on the ponytail every day to continue to keep things exciting.  (sorry no pic)

Now we have changed it up again to try to get us through the last week or so of this style.  I took out the braided headband which left me with some really curly braids from the ends of the cornrows up front.  Then I combined those curly braids with the twists in the back to make some funky little pigtails.  I could also do a twist out with those twists, but I haven't done that yet.

So I am wondering....Do you make small changes in your daughters hair styles to keep things feeling fresh?

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know?????


That we do things a little bit differently in the winter?  If you live in a state that gets cold - or brutally cold, you also deal with dryness - or brutal dryness!  There are quite a few things you can do to battle dry skin and hair.  If you recall, one thing we like to do is be sure to drink plenty of water.  Does that really help?  Don't know for sure, but it can't hurt!

I have also come to understand recently that the temperature of the water that you shower in really matters. I have dealt with my acne prone skin ever since puberty.  It has always been a vicious cycle for me.  I use semi-harsh products to fight the acne, which dry out my skin and cause me to need to moisturize.  But my skin is SO sensitive to ANYTHING I put on it that ALL moisturizers cause me to break out.  So, the trick has been finding products to use on my face that WON'T cause me to get dry in the first place.  Well, I have been using Proactive for many years and it has been the one thing that doesn't dry me out.  That being said, in the winter I do occasionally battle with dryness.  I finally figured out this year that if I avoid taking scalding hot showers and especially washing my face in scalding hot water, it makes a HUGE difference in how dry my face gets!  This has been a life saver.  I have only used moisturizer on my face once so far this winter!  I know it can be hard, since when you are cold to the bone, a nice steamy shower is sooooo tempting, but it really makes a difference.  Go for warm water instead and be quick about it!

I have applied this new found knowledge to how the kids shower/bath in the winter months also.

Another thing you can do is double up!  If you normally lotion up or spritz hair once a day, you can do it twice a day.  Maybe not every day, but whenever you feel it is needed.  My kids, especially V, get super dry hands in the winter.  So I set an extra bottle of lotion by the sink and tell her to lotion up her hands after EVERY hand wash.

I have definitely been able to see V's hair getting dryer looking faster this winter.  So in between hair styles, you can throw in a hot oil treatment for a boost of moisture!  After you have taken out the current style and detangled the hair, get a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, heat it up for a few seconds in the microwave, and apply it section by section to the hair and scalp.  BE CAREFUL not to get the oil to hot.  You will be applying it directly to the scalp and you don't want to burn your little one!  There are a number of methods you could use to do this, but I just use my fingertips.  I scoop a bit of oil up, apply it to the scalp and then use my fingers/hand to run it down and through the length of the hair.  Then put that section in a braid and move to a new section.  Let the oil sit for about 20 minutes and then rinse out.  Then wash or cowash as usual and be sure to add your normal form of moisturizer after the wash!

Young Man C is terrible at taking care of his hair and he is too old for me to have to be on his case all the time.  Since he doesn't want to take the time to add the needed moisture to his hair in the winter the answer is simple - we cut it off!  If you have a boy, do you go with short hair in the winter?  It probably doesn't keep their heads as warm, but it sure looks a lot nicer than a dried out little afro!

The other Katie over at Happy Girl Hair had some great posts about their winter hair and skin routines about a month ago.  Check those out for some more tips and tricks! (those are two separate links so click on each of them!)

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW???

We have a new advertiser on Keep Me Curly, over there in the sidebar. We thought we would let her talk about her business....it's a darling site called "Nandikids.ca" and it's owned by Lydia.
___________________________

Hi!  It’s Lydia from Nandikids.    Steph asked me to share a little bit of our story for this week’s issue of Tidbit Tuesday. 

Our adoption story started in January 2007.  After much heartache and waiting, we met our daughter for the first time in August 2009.  She was a little over 4 years old at the time and was very nervous to meet Mom, Dad and big brother for the first time.  We were also nervous, not knowing what to expect or how to interact with this complete stranger who was now my daughter.  We’ve taught each other a lot over the last year and have all been blessed in countless ways. 

One of our first challenges was how to handle her hair and skin.  I had done some research and thought I knew what I was getting into.  Boy was I wrong.  I washed her hair too much, didn’t moisturize her skin enough…..   It didn’t take long to figure out that I had absolutely no idea how to take care of her skin and her hair.  Upon our return to Canada, I found it really difficult to find the rights products.   After speaking to many other adoptive parents, I knew I wasn’t alone.  We’d all spent exorbitant amounts of money importing different products that were only available over the internet.  Unfortunately we found out that the majority of them didn’t work for our particular child’s hair.  Who knew Black hair could be so varied!  

That’s when the concept for Nandi Kids Boutique was born.  I wanted to offer a variety of choices for parents, at a reasonable cost without crazy shipping costs. 

During our adoption journey, I would take time out to do a little retail therapy.  I went to all the usual places looking for dolls that would resemble my daughter.  Why shouldn’t she be able to have a doll that was just like her?  My mom bought me dolls that were just like me!  I was shocked at the poor selection.  I had to have the dolls special ordered.   I’ll never forget the look on my little girl’s face when she walked into her room for the first time and saw 4 Black dolls sitting on her bed.  I believe her words were “ah, looks at that”.  It made all the hassle worthwhile!  

My mission with Nandi Kids Boutique is to make sure every child knows that they are special; Black, White, Brown, adopted or biological.  They shouldn’t have to fit into someone else’s mould.  They are special, beautiful and deserve to have products designed just for them.

Check us out at www.nandikids.ca  

Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!!

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know???????

What position we sit in to braid cornrows up the back of V's head?  Well, I am sure many of you have figured out good ways to do this, maybe you even have a better technique than I do!  But I have been asked this question many times, so I finally made a video to demonstrate!



V actually HATES it when I braid up the back.  Mostly because she doesn't want to peel her eyes away from the TV but also because it can be slightly uncomfortable.  Even so, she is used to it and with a slight grumble here and there she puts up with it pretty well.  This is probably because I generally don't put up with much complaining when it comes to hair time.  (here comes some un-asked-for parenting advice - oooOOOooo, it's like a double tidbit!)

Whenever my girls get whiny about hair time my standard response is.  "I am sorry that you are getting bored (uncomfortable, whatever the complaint may be) but please don't whine about it.  I am also ready to be done with hair time, but we still have a ways to go and I really don't want to listen to complaining the whole rest of the time.  My arms and back are starting to hurt too, but we just have to remember that you are going to look SO GREAT when this is done!  So just hang in there, we can do it!"

That might sound a little harsh, but it's honest.  I try to keep hair time as positive as possible so that they don't have negative feelings toward their hair, but I am not going to sugar coat the truth.  Yes, every few weeks we have to put some long hard hours into hair time.  No, that is not always fun.  But you are always super happy with the results, so the hard work is worth it.  And after we are done you will get to go at least 3 weeks without having to worry about it!  And they get enough positive reinforcement about how amazing their hair is that I think they can handle being honest about the sort of negative parts as well.

Well, that is your double tidbit for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know??????


That Katie's family just celebrated their 5th Family Birthday!

I can hardly believe how much time has passed since that day in December 2005 when we first met our C, B and V!  They have grown and changed and blossomed so much!  On the other hand, it seems like far more than 5 years has passed.  Like we have been a family for as long as I can remember.  I certainly couldn't imagine my life without them!

That's us in Liberia 5 years ago.  Getting ready to fly home and celebrate our 1st Christmas together!  Now we are about to celebrate our 6th Christmas.

I LOVE Family Birthday!  I never did like the term "Gotcha Day."  It just rubs me the wrong way.  For us, the day we met our kids was truly the birth of our family.  That was the day that a young couple went from being a "just the two of us," to a family of 5!  As the first anniversary of bringing our children home approached Camera Guy and I knew that we wanted to make it a BIG CELEBRATION!  We always want our kids to know what a blessing they are to us.  We want them to know that they day we met them was one of the most important days of our whole lives and that we love them, love our family, and love the way that God has brought us together!

So every year we do it up big!  And this year we had a blast as usual.  We went to the Kalahari resort in Sandusky, Ohio to the biggest indoor water park in the country!  Here are a few pics of us enjoying our getaway together...

How do you celebrate your adoption day?

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW???

Today I let G handle Tidbit Tuesday. It only took us about 6 takes to get it...plus it was way past her bedtime...hence the tangents and eye-rubbing.

She wants to talk to you all about STYLE for just a minute :) And some random comment about me warning against using hot oil on the head. I don't remember saying that, but....ok...DON'T use hot oil on the head. Unless it's not-so-hot. :)



It's true! Life got MUCH easier during our adjustment time when I stopped trying to control the clothing. When she was 4+ we would have battles in the morning about her not wanting to wear what I picked out, and one day I thought "why am I doing this?" The child has clothes on either way. She is happy with her choices. Let's call it good and go from there!

Do you have a headstrong child who wants to choose his or her own fashion, even at a young age? Do you let him or her? Even if the end result makes you slap your forehead?

Tidbit Tuesday

Here is the oft-requested instructional video on how to make the Fleece Comfort Dolls that we made for Social Service Sunday at our church, which we will be sending down to the Haiti Rescue Center, where they are helping the starving and the sick transform from this:

to this:

Many apologies for the crummy video. It was midnight and I had no one to help me hold the camera. So you get some nice shots of my sweatshirt and my lap as I try to hold the camera under my chin...not to mention my cluttered living room! Hey, now....some of that stuff you see there is waiting to be donated! LOL







Hope that was clear! If you are interested in sending these dolls to the Haiti Rescue Center as well, please let me know!

Tidbit, uh, Wednesday - I'm About to Lose Control and I DEFINITELY Don't Think I Like It!

DID YOU KNOW???

This morning, G insisted. INSISTED. That she wear HER ponytails as installed by HER, without any adjusting from me, to school. This crummy iphone photo doesn't do it justice.

It was all I could do to not force her to sit down while I redid the style. I was beside myself! Letting her walk out that door and get out of the car with her very lopsided, messy, horribly parted, locs hangin' out, lumpy low ponytails, was excruciating. I am praying it was just a one-time thing. I don't think I can bear losing Mommy-control of her hair yet, she's only 7!!!

Of course I could observe myself objectively being ridiculous for this behavior. I mean, eventually the child will be able to control her own hair that grows out of her own head. But, I am just not ready.

This girl has been choosing her own clothes, with only minimal input from me, since about age 4.5 or so. I just figured, during that early adjustment time, we were having enough head-butting. Head-butting about clothing was just not worth it.  So, she pretty much went out of the house looking however she wanted to. But she never cared that I had control from the neck up. I don't think it much occurred to her that she could say "NO I don't care for that hairstyle much, I don't want it. I won't be havin' it" until fairly recently. Because it has dawned on her that she can mess with her hair the very moment I drop her off at school and there's nothing I can do about it. So there have been more than a few times when I have picked her up from after-school care and clips have been removed and hair has been, like TIED to itself, in a bow-kind of thing, in the back, which I guess she thinks looks hip. When I see it I kind of just tilt my head to the side like Rain Man, mumble "Hi Shug how was your day poo, alrighty then" and just make a casual beeline for the head and straighten up the hair.

Is there something wrong with me?

Maintaining her hair is one of my joys. Styling it the way I KNOW it looks cute is like ambrosia to me. I love hair ballies. I love accessories...I mean not all overdone (anymore), but a couple here and there. Having her stick her hands on her head and block access to her hair while I'm about to put in an adorable clip or give her ponytails, because she is not in the MOOD for the style that day, is....well...

Because, darn her, she now has discovered that she has the right to have input as to her own appearance. Whenever she feels like it.

But I'm not ready!

There are so many styles left untried, bead mixes left unbeaded, ponies left untailed. But just coming up with cool ideas and then making them reality on her loc'd little head at my discretion has become pretty much a thing of the past. I have always ASKED her if she'd like me to do X style, but the answer up till recently has always been "YEAH!!!"

Don't get me wrong, it's not like this all the time. But this morning she was SO INSISTENT on those wacky ponytails (and it wasn't even crazy hair day!) I feel like I had a glimpse of fashion issues to come.

Sigh. I guess that is what we get when we raise our kids to be independent freethinkers. We get independent freethinkers!

I just wish there was a little on/off switch. :)

How have you handled letting go of total control over styling your young child's hair? Do you let them put in their own styles and go out sometimes? Is it painful? ;-)

Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW???

That I'm really late with today's tidbit?

I guess that's hard to miss, eh? Well today's tidbit is not so much a tidbit as a whole ginormous chunk of LOVE :)

Seriously, did you know that my church's kid's worship service has voted to help Haiti for this church year??? I was stoked when, of all the social causes out there, they chose helping children in Haiti as what they wanted to raise money for this year. This is the collection offering taken during the family/children's worship service in between the two adult services. Last year they raised $1,500 for Solar Cookers International.

I have helped to spearhead this project and we are going to split this year's collection, half goes to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC.org), which is partnering with several grassroots organizations in Haiti. They will hopefully be offering a work trip to Haiti early next year that our youth group wants to go on.

The other half of the money will go to an organization dear to me, that I've been following for some years now, "Real Hope for Haiti." Many of you may know their blog, HaitiRescueCenter.com. They are a small, family run operation that is doing BIG THINGS for their rural community in Cazale, Haiti. If you want to see what they see every day at their Rescue Center and Clinic, just watch this video and check out their blog. They post very often, sometimes daily. What you will see and read there is difficult, sometimes, but it's reality.

Here is a professionally done video about the Clinic and Rescue Center:

Real Hope For Haiti from Corrigan Clay on Vimeo.

I have started a church blog for this year of raising this money, so that people can come and see what we are doing, learn about these organizations, and hopefully also donate money to add to what our kids give during church. The money will be split and given to the organizations at the end of the church year. I really want to see this fund grow, so I can share it with the kids on Sundays. I can tell them "25 people came to our Helping Haiti blog and gave $50 to add to our collection! Yeah!!!! Here are some of their comments!" Can you imagine their faces when they see the power that exists in the world to do good....that people from all over care as much as they do?! To turn their weekly $20 into $40 or $50 or more? Yeah!

I am also heading up what we call "Social Service Sundays," which we do 4 times a year with the Religious Exploration classes. The kids do some kind of project for charity, something simple like making biscuits for the SPCA dogs, crafting fleece blankets for the local children's crisis nursery, stuffing Christmas stockings for Toys for Tots, etc. This last time we made easy fleece knot dolls for the kids in the Rescue Center to use for comfort. Something soft to cuddle and suck on if they are sick in bed. Our kids L.O.V.E.D. making them. So much that they asked to do it at home, too! (If you are interested in this project for your church or school, let me know, it's super easy. It would be great for any children's hospital or orphanage or any such place)

If you are so inclined, please check out the blog, leave us a comment, follow if you like, and  maybe donate even just a dollar. (Click on the red heart in the sidebar). You will be taken to our church's donation page and you just need to make sure to select "Haiti" when you donate. ALL the money goes to Haiti, every cent. None is kept for the church.

Thank you so much!