Cherish My Daughter

Once upon a time I was the beaded queen! Not for myself, but every style I gave my daughters included some beaded design. I gathered a nice collection of colors, shapes and sizes. I stopped using beads when I realized that the weight of my designs, coupled with the constant motion of the beads as the girls swung their braids around, were acting like razors to their ends. Their retention was stagnant and their ends looked terrible. I stopped using the beads but couldn't get myself to throw the collection away. I'm so glad I kept them because I think this new method of weaving a few beads through the length of the braids, while avoiding the ends will work much better for us. I asked HMG if she wanted the same style as her sisters. You should have seen her face--LOL! It was was like, "Mom.....SERIOUSLY?" LOL! What can I say? She'll always be my baby! We settled on this alternative. HMG was very happy with the outcome. She picked out the beads and designed

I confess that I haven't done the girls' hair over yet, because they are going swimming this weekend. I confess that I may be getting too comfortable with fuzz, and frizz, and almost never think twice about our hair when we leave the house. I confess that I'm glad I can't guarantee the gender of my kids, or I'd only be enjoying one mocha girl right now and I love them all so much. I confess that I don't always feel up to the task and am glad that God doesn't require that I never stumble, but is grooming me to position myself to let him catch me when I fall. I confess that it's not easy teaching my babies lessons I haven't fully learned myself--thank God I'm not doing any of this in my own strength.

Thanking God for my beautiful five year old! Her birthday is actually tomorrow, but I have to work for part of the day so we start celebrating today!

I'm learning more and more that what my girls want from me the most is my time. In the past I've been stunted by trying to plan the perfect event. Either I didn't have the resources or imagined the more stuff I could offer my girls the better. I'm learning that doing something cheap, simple, and fun often results in some of the most precious memories. My husband and son traveled for a father son camp experience, leaving us behind. The girls were looking to me for a special time at home, but I was exhausted from starting our homeschool, and the demands of chasing a baby on the brink of walking while trying to be available for quality individual interaction with four other children. My husband is very supportive, but my responsibilities demand a lot both physically and emotionally. I tend to fake it it til I make it . We watched videos. Turned errands into a fun window shopping trip. Made french bread pizza. Worshipped together. All these things were fun, but the

I styled Mocha Baby's (MB) hair as she sat in the exersaucer pictured above. I used a spritzed bottle of plain water with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar as an acidifier to help lay down her shingles for detangling. It DOES smell strongly of vinegar but if you can stand it, the smell fades away completely once the hair is dry. I prefer using the Aloe acidifying mix I mention here , because it's odorless. I tried the ACV, because I'm out of aloe. I think it worked just as well. I secured her puffs with small elastic rubber bands, found in any beauty supply store. I wound the rubber band around 3 times for most of the puffs, making sure I could slide a finger easily under the rubber band to her scalp. I want to avoid pulling the hair tight enough to cause tiny bumps and breakage. When it is time to take down the puffs in a couple of days, I will use scissors to carefully cut away the rubber bands.