Before and after

So, I did it. I waited three weeks for my haircut, looked at a gazillion pictures, and went in fairly informed with what I did- and didn't want. She was excited to do something totally different, but was quick to help me realize what I did and didn't like about certain styles. I brought lots of pictures, including pictures of past haircuts I did not like. Anyway, in the end, it wasn't drastic. It was longer than I expected. She recommended either chin-length, or a few inches below the collarbone if I didn't want it to bubble up like a curled under bob (which I did not). I love that Ashley, the girl who cuts my hair, doesn't try to sell me anything. She respects the fact that I'm allergic to practically every hair product out there, and is willing to use my own stuff to style my hair. I forgot hairspray, so the picture below reflects that.

The one thing I did learn from looking at pictures, is that there is no end to the "hair crisis." Even beautiful women get terrible haircuts or styles that are so unflattering to even the best-looking celebrity. Women change. Hair color changes (either on purpose or naturally over time). Weight changes. So I don't need to worry about finding a style I can stick with for 10 years. It's hair- it grows, and that's part of the fun, right? :)

And here's a 19-week pregnancy shot for you as well:

I'm off to bed so I can greet all those early-bird quarter-carrying garage-salers in the morning.

movin' movin' movin'

So challenge #5 from Lea's site, is to make something from scratch. She created an adorable poster (email her if you want the pdf to print). Since we are allergy-ful over at our house, that is a non-optional way of cooking for me. I can't think of very many things I buy prepared...I still buy pasta (regular and gluten-free), and coconut milk in a can. Oh, and tomato paste. Never tried making that homemade. However, I was a total failure at last week's challenge, so I would do well to put all my energies into continuing to pursue an evening routine and TRYING to get to bed before 11:30pm. I feel so much better when I do those things.

However, we are having a garage sale, or as my friend Jonesey likes to call it, The Annual Baring of Our Soul on the Front Lawn. It all started after our trip to IKEA, when we bought a more compact dining room table and needed to store our big beautiful table in the basement. We hope to add on a dining room to our current eat-in kitchen, but not right away. So what innocently started out as making a little room in the basement turned into an all out purging session. At that point we realized it would be easier to have a garage sale than list it all on Craigslist (although we did that, too, it will just be easier to have every interested party here within two mornings).

Everything is priced, the signs are up, and today's agenda includes picking up some extra tables and making two batches of Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls. To sell. A $5-7 investment for about 100 cinnamon rolls @$1 each, the kids have something to sell and keep them busy, and I will have one very happy husband. A good deal all around! (I'm sure I will be sick of seeing all that yummy goodness by this evening!)

Off to do some baking- hope your week is going well!

Five on Friday

1. Documentary Recommendations- click here
My friend (in real life, or my former life), Kate reviewed two documentaries last week on food. I had time to watch Forks Over Knives on Netflix and I thought it had a lot of great points. I'm not convinced I need to adopt a vegetarian diet, and I thought they left a lot of questions unanswered (were the studies done on raw milk? what quality of meat were these people eating who seem to get so many diseases?) but the overall message I got was that we need to include more raw veggies in our diet. Not a bad thing.

2. Haircut makeovers - click here.
Oprah.com had a six-part series with before and after pictures and wow! These are all just regular women, so it was more convincing than those haircut makeovers that start with supermodels who have long faces and perfect features. All the new haircuts aren't improvements (just being honest), but it was also good to see that they didn't give everyone a super short do. What I learned: most women over 25 look better with some sort of bangs and/or some framing around their faces. This seems to be the big difference between looking like you have hair vs. a hairstyle. Younger girls can pull off almost anything. I am far from old, but I am not in that category anymore. And folks, I was totally kidding about the shab. I do like the layers and the length, but anyone can look like that picture- just rub your dry hair with a towel to create frizz (and "lift") and voila- you have her look!And yes, Sarah :), she was THE ONLY one who seems to be sporting the hottest hair of the summer.

3. Bedskirt tutorial at Trends and Traditions- click here.
I have been putting off this project for Adeline's bed, and I think this will make it go faster. However, I priced out velcro, and it is far from a cheaper solution!

4. Homemade Almond milk- click here
Kimi, at the Nourishing Gourmet posted a simple tutorial for creamy homemade almond milk. I can't have milk right now, and the store-bought stuff has chemicals in it I also need to avoid, so I'm looking forward to trying this. We've been drinking goat's milk from the store, but it's not raw, and it's a whopping $4.50 a quart. Yes, a quart. So I am also avoiding goat's milk. :) I'll have to price this out and see how it compares.

5. The truth about Facebook-  click here.
Thanks to Abraham, of 22 Words, for this good laugh (although most of his stuff is hilarious).What's really funny is that 419 people "liked" this comic on their FB page.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hair thru the years: Long and short and back again. Alternate title: Fat and thin and back again

I did mention that I was having a hair crisis, something I expected to be over by this stage of my life. I thought I would have settled down into a nice, stick-with-you-through-the-years kind of style. My acne is finally gone, but the hair problems continue. I know why this is happening, because it always happens this way: I go too long without a haircut, and my hair gets uncontrollably long and I want to do something drastic, like cut myself some bangs (and by myself I mean literally, with my own hands). Self-control has won out the day so far, but I only have to hold out until next Friday. For some reason it seems SO far away. 

In an attempt to decide on a new haircut, I thought I should look at some hair history. This only takes us back to when my digital camera joined the family. I have some terrible hair pictures pre-marriage. There are no new haircuts under the sun, at least that's what I'm realizing when I walk down memory lane. But wait- there's  a twist (no pun intended): the older I get the more texture and wave I have, so I'm not limited to the cuts that only work for straight hair. But I'm getting ahead of myself- let's go back to the beginning.  It was almost as fun to see how Warren and I have both changed in appearance over the years!

Wedded bliss- the girl he fell in love with. Long blonde hair. I had grown it out for the wedding, and I was still coloring it at this point. I do miss that really blonde hair!

Six months later- newly pregnant and thinking I could be Meg Ryan. (Before you judge me, remember this was over 7 years ago!)I have come to terms with the fact that I do not have her face or cute, lanky walk.

First anniversary- trying to grow out all those layers. My husband equates the short bob with the 35 lbs (more to love!) I gained during that pregnancy, so we won't see that haircut again. Of course, he loves me no matter what I weigh- I've put him to the test- but he doesn't have that many preferences so I will steer clear of the bob.

A year later, things were looking more like the old me. Check out how much weight the man has lost. A career change made all the difference in the world!

Nine months later, baby #2 was here, and my sister got a great haircut and cute bangs, so I followed her lead. I needed a change, but this was not it.

Tired mommy. Bangs aren't a terrible option for me,  but I needed to push them to the side.

Until they grew out to a reasonable length. No short bangs. Please remind me if I'm ever tempted to do that again.

But 9 months later I was pregnant again, and the bangs were tucked in a bobby pin. It's very practical. Like me.

At this point I was just so tired I didn't care about my hair.

Baby #3 arrives. Baby # 1 turns 3 years old. This was my profile picture for a while. I'm saying, "Heeyyyy, let's see how long I can wait before I get another haircut!" It's hard to get out when you have three kids, barely three and under. And we were moving to a new town. Packing our whole house in two weeks. No time for a haircut.

But I did eventually find a salon in a my town. I hadn't colored my hair for over a year by now. And this was later- my frustrated "I want to get rid of these layers" hair picture.

You may remember this one. I was blogging more often at this point. The cut was good, but my hair was getting wavy by now, and it was hard to keep it straight. Did I mention I want great hair, but I want to spend no more than 2 minutes on it??

Ick. And so I let it grow again. Looking at the pictures makes me realize my hair grows super fast. No wonder I've had a hard time with shorter cuts. Maybe I need to find a cheaper salon, and commit to more frequent haircuts. Which would mean going more than twice a year. (Which is an improvement over my yearly cuts!)

A little wave, and I'm learning how to work with it. Such cute little bunny teeth on that girl!

Longer wavy hair to go with my fuller figure, which I didn't know would go away with thyroid meds. I didn't want to cut it because I was worried a heavier me with short hair would be a bad combo.

So, here we are today. This has been an informative (if not very self-focused) exercise, but it is fun to go back and look at all the pictures. I feel like my hair has been the same most of my life, but apparently that is not the case. I'm not known for being daring, so I don't expect anything drastic next Friday. But I do need a mid-pregnancy, early-thirties pick-me-up haircut. Any suggestions? I'm thinking about a longer shab but not exactly like those pictures. I would just look messy.  But it would work with the 2-minutes I am willing to spend on my hair.

And me now, not quite halfway through a pregnancy. Not wearing my hair wavy because it's too long. So I dry and curl it to keep it from frizzing. Looks a little like the first picture (minus the blonde).

Too cute NOT to share

My favorite place for printables, Jones Design Company, just posted a beautiful little thank you note you can print for FREE. You will love it (not that I'm telling you what to do). Notecards always seem a little less daunting than regular cards to me. I think, "I have a few minutes to jot someone a note." Silly, I know, since they are technically the same size. I've ordered notecards from JDC before and I've never been disappointed!

At last

Well, we made it through the night with no throwing up- a first since Saturday. The kids had the weirdest virus (?) that caused the boys to wake up at 12:30am on the dot and throw up. Three nights in a row. But they were fine during the day. No fever and no signs of slowing down. After two nights we got serious and made everyone sleep with towels under their pillows...and we were pretty careful about what they ate for dinner, knowing we might see it again shortly.  But I'm happy to say that we all had a full night of sleep and I think things will return back to normal.

My 16-week appointment with the midwife was uneventful, except that it took her forever to find the heartbeat. Three tries and several nervous minutes- or was it hours? My ultrasound is in a few weeks, and I am  anxious to name this baby. I've felt so good this time that I often forget I am pregnant. I still look down at my belly sometimes and think, "Suck it in!" Of course, it all comes back to me when I'm getting up several times a night to tromp to the bathroom. Or if I try to roll over in bed. But most of my previous ailments have been non-existent this time. I have such a strong negative association with being pregnant (not my attitude, just my physical state) that it's hard for me to believe I could feel good and be pregnant at the same time.

School is going along swimmingly. The kids seem to love Saxon Math 1, and both are keeping pace. I've taught Saxon Math for the early years many times over (pre-marriage), so even though it was a little more expensive, I bought it used and I will use it for years to come. The Phonics Museum has been SUCH a pleasant surprise, but I will save that for another post. This was also purchased used, and I was expecting to sell it after this year, but I may change my mind before the used curriculum sale comes around. We are doing some poetry memorization, and then reading aloud for about 45 minutes to an hour. Usually some fact about what we read ends up on the timeline and the map. This week's book is on Blaise Pascal. I keep asking the kids if they want to stop and switch to something easier, but they are into it. It's taken a lot of improvising on my part because the vocabulary is way beyond them, but I guess that's good for me, too.

I tend to thrive on order and a good (reasonable) schedule, so despite the fact that between chores, school, exercise, and lunch I am busy until 1pm, I still find myself getting more done. I think I have to be more purposeful about my limited afternoon "free" time. Ha...free nothing. Free to do chores, organize winter clothes, etc. I've yet to work in "hobby time" for me, but I'm sure that will come as I get used to our new format. Or not...this may not be my season for hobbies. But all the winter clothes are sorted and ready to be worn on chilly days, so perhaps I could just call that my hobby for today.

Warning: I am having a hair crisis (again). You will hear about it tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks:

Math- I'm delighting in the fact that it's still considered a fun part of school. I know it will not always be so!

Our time in Charlotte gave us a short (too short!!) visit with some dear friends.

Waffle breakfast, courtesy of Aunt Ashley. Such a sweet time with family.

 

For most of the summer, this is how my counter tops looked. The tomatoes and green beans are mostly finished, and the peppers make their appearance at a slower rate. I'm appreciating the seasons more than ever this year!

Week #4 of 52 Bites

So much to say, so much puked-on laundry to wash and fold. My update post will have to wait, but this week's challenge, led by Lea, was too good to pass up. Wait a second, that sounds like I haven't done the challenges on other weeks. I have, it's just that the other weeks didn't pinch me like today's challenge. So I thought I should get this in writing before my determination falls by the wayside.

This week's bite: Week 4 is to establish an evening routine. pick 5 things to do before you go to bed. little things that you will be glad you did in the morning.

Oh, how I need this. I have been dissatisfied with my lack of an evening routine for a while forever, but I always have a good excuse. Others have excuses...I have my reasons why. Yes, I like folk country. So here are my five things to do- not TRY to do- but really DO, before bed. I promise I'm not just copying Lea's list, although they do favor each other. It would be an honor to favor Lea.

1. Put away the laundry and leave the dryer empty. I am not good at this.
2.  Make a to-do list for the next day. I usually start this about 8:30am, and it would be more motivating to know what I needed to do ahead of time.
3. Look over Scripture memory. Work on verses while I do my physical therapy exercises in bed. I don't always fall asleep quickly, and this would be a nice multi-tasking and Biblical use of my time in bed. The Scripture, not the exercises. See how I worked two into one? Over-achiever that I am.
4. Get in bed by 9:30pm- light's out by 10pm. There are a lot of people who just have to go to bed early to be happy, and I'm realizing that if I want to have any hope of a nice morning routine, this is key. I can not be both a morning person, and a night person. So I'm ditching the night me (who is not very productive anyway).
5. Clean up my room/clear off the desk (also in our room).

Obviously not in that order. Are you in need of an evening routine or do you already have that down? What's on your Top 5 List?

Back to the regularly scheduled laundry.