Homeschool College Expectation vs Reality

Your boy (O&O) has jokes, but launching him to college has probably been one of our most challenging seasons as parents.

We had full confidence in his academic abilities, sense of responsibility and social skills but we felt so many conflicting emotions in watching him spread his wings.

Bottom line is that we really enjoy his presence.

I have spent so many years asking O&O to turn his music down, and to stop drumming his beats on my walls. Those crooked paintings and wall hangings were such a big deal to me at the time. Can I tell you that I missed all of that?

The differences don't stop there. Every family member has a role to play and when one member shifts, we all shift and renegotiate our roles. Change is necessary and we adapt, but a certain level of grieving is inevitable. Interestingly, O&O didn't need to go very far for the change to be felt. Though his college campus is relatively close, by not being in our home functioning in his familiar role we have become a new Mocha Family. We're thrilled for him, we miss him and will forever treasure the memories we've made homeschooling him.

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Please leave that baby's hair alone!

I'll never forget the first time I saw Mocha Girl One (HmG). She was an emergency c-section, and had to spend several days in NICU. She was born four days past her estimated due date and looked huge in her incubator. I imagined her to be especially delicate and feminine. I couldn't wait to frill her up, and more importantly to do her hair! The only reason she wasn't sporting a barrette the day we took her home from the hospital, was because the one I brought to match her lacey outfit, slid right out.

Mocha Girl One's baby hair was silky straight and fine. As the weeks rolled by, it became wavier until she had a lovely curly fro. I washed it all the time. I brushed it several times a day. I tried snap clips, and moved to velcro barrets when the clips slid out. I bought a different head band for every outfit. Meanwhile her curls continued to wind tighter and tighter.

I kept everything in a pretty box, dubbed the hair bin. I was really frustrated at not being ab…

Why Braidlocks?

If follow me on Facebook and watch my YouTube videos, then you already know that I recently started a set of locks for Mg2 by braiding up her hair. I've recently been asked why we chose to start with braids and thought I would spend some time explaining it in more detail here.

There are multiple ways to start locks, perhaps more ways than we will discuss here. Choosing which way works best for you will depend on your personal situation. Consider your lifestyle, hair texture, sizing, and the way you would like your mature locks to look.

Most people are familiar with comb coils and twists. However, people also start locks by freeforming, backcombing, interlocking and braiding. Let's have a closer look.

1. Freeforming involves letting the loose hair clump and matte in whatever formation it likes. This may yield locks of various sizes and shapes depending on hair texture and performance.

2. Comb coils or finger coils are installed by coaxing sections of hair into forma…

Mocha Baby's bald spot is gone!

Here's what I did:

1. I mainly kept her hair in a baby 99.9% of the time for almost the entire first year of her life. I used an occasional head band for special occasions, making sure it wasn't too tight around her head.

2. I washed her hair as needed with a mild SLS free shampoo and followed up with a moisturizing conditioner. Sometimes I rinsed her hair with plain water and followed up with a moisturizing conditioner. I allowed her hair to get wet as she splashed in her bath. Nappy hair loves water. While all the moisture will probably wreak fuzzy havoc on our carefully designed styles, the resulting suppleness means more growth retention.

3. When MB's fro got long enough in the back that it was constantly flattened whenever she rested her head on a surface, I began styling her hair in about 6 loose puffs. I used tiny rubber bands LOOSELY to secure the puff and removed them carefully with a seam ripper to wash and re-style. I braid up the puffs in the back because …

Cherish My Daughter

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