"Hair Help" provided once again...

In spite of all my reading and well intentioned preparation prior to Mercy and Odesco's homecoming, I am still learning how to manage their African locs...I must admit, this one area of caring for them has been one of the most challenging aspects of our transition. The Lord knew I needed help and over the past 3 years has sent Miss Hope, Miss Britt, and now another special friend Mrs. V, to assist me! A few weeks ago, after we removed the yarn extensions from Mercy's head, , Miss Britt graciously gave up a good part of her day to braid Mercy's natural hair (no extensions). Unfortunately, her hair was so knotted and snarled that there was only time for the front and sides to be put in a style. On Wednesday, I 'picked the brain' of my friend, Mrs. V who is quite experienced with ethnic hair ... she has had plenty of practical experience with 4 daughters and her own head :) She bravely invited me to come with all 4 'littles' for a day of hair care. Her hubby kept an eye on the kiddos(who played with their brood), as Mrs. V went to work. He even made snacks and dinner....I told him I felt like I was at an upscale salon :)!! We were there for 8 hours, and I was so blessed by their heart to serve this clueless Mama. How kind of the Lord to know just what I need, when I need it. Mrs. V was able to cut Odesco's hair without giving him a complete buzz, which is usually what we have to do when it gets this long. She showed me how to trim it with scissors first and then how to pick it out making it possible to use the clippers with the guard on. Odesco was thrilled to be leaving with hair on his scalp as he was anticipating a 'buzz'!! Mercy had her hair relaxed and Mrs. V painstakingly worked through all the knots and snarls like a pro. She trimmed off all the dead ends after she blew it dry and flat ironed it. Mercy was thrilled with her 'new look'. The most amazing thing is she can now actually get a comb through her hair with ease!! Enjoy the photos...

Look out Tina Turner....the eve before 'hair day'.

Yep...it was a desperate situation and once again, the Lord provided this clueless momma with much needed help.

Some of 'the girls' at the beginning of 'hair day'

The girls keeping busy...

12 year old Miss M attempted to prepare Mercy's head by combing out some of the snarls prior to Mrs. V applying the relaxer. We thought maybe Mercy would be a bit more cooperative with Miss M working the comb!

Miss.M with her adorable 18 month old baby sister~

These boys need a haircut!!! This is before Mrs. V put her hairstyling skills to work on DJ's and Odesco's heads! Notice how long Odesco's hair is...he is pulling the slack out of one of his curly locs!!

AFTER!!! What handsome fellows!!! (Odesco's forehead is still healing from the nasty knock he took a few weeks ago) Mrs V. flip flopped between working on Mercy's hair and the boys...she had a very productive hair day!

Oh, the drama!!...Step one...applying the relaxer

Blowing it dry and working out the knots! After this, she flat ironed Mercy's hair.

Miss M is keeping an antsy Mercy entertained during her trim

Mrs. V demonstrated the "wrap"...a new way to prepare Mercy's hair before bed...we put a cap on over this to try to preserve her new do.

Mrs. V and Mercy...they look like sisters in their matching shirts!
Thanks so much, Mrs. V for this day long labor of love!!!

Voila...Isn't she lovely?! :)

Wow, what a difference 8 hours makes!!

Now off to 'wrap' Mercy's hair before bed!!
With a grateful heart,

Just what I needed....

Today was like a cool drink of water in a dry and parched land. We are in the throes of our homeschool schedule. Life is full as I attempt to juggle the at home schoolwork and the HDO loads of all 6, in addition to preparing for the classes that I am assigned to teach. Add in the daily routine of keeping our home functioning and I was beginning to feel the 'cost' of homeschooling and mothering more than I'd like to admit. This morning we dropped P and C at the Di's who have graciously invited them to join them on a trip to the Poconos for a couple of days.(Yes, they will have to do some school while away!-another perk of homeschooling-they can easily pack up their work!) There were many tears shed by L who misses his big brothers terribly when they are away. (Truth is, I also miss them greatly and can't believe how quickly they are growing up!) Mercy and Odesco were struggling with 'it's not fair' attitudes regarding their big brothers' opportunity for fun with our special friends . All this to say: this morning was a bit draining as I tried to deal with all the emotion being spewed forth. I attempted to help each child to see that they have an opportunity to rejoice for their brothers....and I vainly tried to convince L that the fact he misses his brothers so much is a good thing...that means he has a special friendship with them...he wasn't buying it as the tears continued to flow!!

I decided to let the 'littles' have a break from their school book work after we returned from the big boys' drop off. We watched part of the WWI film," Sergeant York" since we are studying this period in our history curriculum. Soon after an early lunch, we had to leave the house in order to arrive on time to their homeschool soccer game. This was the first time in 3 years that I did not get lost on the way to this particular field... yeah, things were starting to look up :) The weather was amazing today... blue skies, warm sunshine, mild temperatures.... the trees are just beginning their autumn display of color and the 40 minute trip to the field was filled with, "ooh's and ahh's" as we all marveled in the glory surrounding us. The kids had a blast playing soccer and after the games, we headed over to the playground. I left the kiddos there with my friend Kim so that I could bring the van around and as I walked, my heart was overwhelmed with gratitude as I took in the view of the many homeschool families with their children of varying ages, in the middle of the afternoon, enjoying a beautiful fall day outside together. After I pulled the van around and the kiddos were loaded up, I rolled down my window and said to my friend, " Can you believe we get to do this?? We are so blessed!" To which she answered, "Yes, and we get to do it with our friends!"...I reminded her " And grandchildren!" as she had just been visiting with her 2 sweet granddaughters at the park moments earlier.
While I will admit, mothering and homeschooling is probably the hardest work I have ever set my hands to, His grace truly is sufficient and I am in awe of the privilege that I get to do this!!!
With a grateful and refreshed heart,
MamaB

Practice makes perfect...

In early September the girls along with Miss Em prepared dinner for both families. For the past 2 years or so, we have been s-l-o-w-l-y going through a simple curriculum called Home Economics for Home Schoolers on Thursdays when Em is with us. The girls wanted to practice their newly learned culinary skills so they carefully chose the menu and we set a date for our 2 families to enjoy their home cooked meal together. Mrs. Di hosted all the boys for the afternoon and I kept the girls here for a few hours of cooking...they did a great job and the meal was delicious!!

Here's Miss Em attempting to make biscuits out of my dough blunder (by now you are probably noticing a pattern...often the word 'blunder' is used by me to describe my adventures in the kitchen!!...the truth is: this class is as much for me as it is for them!! ) I had prepared a double batch of dough in my bread maker but it didn't mix well so we had a sticky blob of dough. The girls were up for the challenge though and some how we were able to salvage most of the dough for homemade whole wheat biscuits.

A generous dusting with flour did the trick while they prepared the biscuits~

Ta-Dah....the fruits of their labors (from l-r): Homemade whole wheat biscuits, Chocolate Chip Bars, Dump Cake, Salad, and Easy Oven Fried Chicken. We carefully made our way over to the Di's house for dinner and miraculously managed to do this without burning ourselves on the sizzling hot dishes or dumping any of the contents :)!!

The official taste testers... the boys were most interested in the desserts--no surprises there!

While the moms chatted and the girls played, the 'men' went down to the basement for a serious nerf gun war!! Mr. Di is on the left, out of view hiding from the enemy~

If only Mrs Di and I could convince the girls to showcase all they have learned from the cleaning and organizing sections of the book...somehow it is much less appealing to our future homemakers...I wonder why??
Thanks for checking in :)
Love,
MamaB~

The Birthday Boy!!!

We celebrated Odesco's 6th birthday on 9/18. Grandmom and Pop Pop B along with Mimi and Pop-Pop joined us to celebrate on Sunday(yes, I know I am shamefully behind on this post!)
As part of his birthday celebration, Odesco went home with Mimi and Pop-Pop after his party for a special overnight. Mercy and L were definitely 'off' the following day -- it took a few mini meltdowns for me to realize they were truly missing their brother! Once I asked though, the tears began to flow and they both admitted that they wanted Odesco home!! Again, another evidence of God at work in our midst:) When he walked in the door, Odesco sighed and stated, "L, it's good to be home!" We all enjoy Odesco's belly laugh and 'groovin' moves' when he thinks no one is watching him... He brings much joy and laughter to our home...I'm so grateful the Lord in His wisdom chose to add this 'little' man to our family!!!

All smiles on his special day!!

Odesco is the first to 'christen' our newest tradition...the addition of a Birthday plate to the festivities...

Modelling his newly created Star Wars cloak from Mimi...

Another amazing Mimi creation...we all thought the 'hair' on this cake looked like Odesco's! We also enjoyed Grandmom B's famous brownies and pumpkin bread...what a feast!

Mom , look what we found!!!

Last week the kids were riding their scooters in front of our house when they spotted this wild looking creature moving very quickly across the cul de sac. Of course L couldn't pass up an opportunity to sketch this creepy crawler. I ran inside to grab my camera and caterpillar guide off our bookshelf but there was nothing that looked like this in the pages! The kids called 2 of the neighbors over...both were stumped as we attempted to identify this critter. Thank goodness for the internet... within minutes, the kids and I learned it was a Hickory Horned Devil Caterpillar which, if it survives, will mature into a Regal Moth.
I'm always amazed how the Lord seems to bring these marvels of nature right to us!!

Scary looking isn't it?!!!

Our resident artist at work....

Isn't it huge!?! Here Mercy is relocating this freaky creeper to our yard so that it doesn't meet it's demise under a car tire. I looked for it a few minutes after she moved it and it was nowhere to be found....

Busy Days...

Since we began school a few weeks ago life has been 'full steam ahead!' We have been super busy with C's Fall ball (baseball-first time he has played in the fall), P's first year on township soccer, Homeschooler's Day out each Wednesday, history coop every other Friday, homeschool soccer on Thursdays... and of course, just life :) I uploaded all my pictures to the computer and realized it's been awhile since I've posted... Today was a challenging day and I needed to see these pictures and rejoice in the great things He has done and is doing in our midst. How easily I can lose sight of that and fall into discouragement and unbelief...so, here are a few 'snapshots of grace' from the past few weeks....

Staying dry and keeping entertained at P's first soccer game...all new to us!

Snuggling to stay stay warm at another soccer game...

L and Odesco were playing ball and collided...as you can see Odesco's forehead took a hit---yikes!!! Our good friend Dr. Di checked him out and felt it was just a hematoma...we kept and eye on him and he seemed just fine. A week later, there is still a small bump evident.Thankfully, L's head was just fine...

C pitching 'under the lights'...'Fall Ball' another first for our family!

G keeping busy at her big brother's ball game :)

Who says yard work can't be fun?!! Wheelbarrow rides in Daddy's Father's Day gift :)

Mercy wore a helmet...just in case!

Sweet sibling moments melt this Momma's heart....

Another 'snapshot of grace'...the younger crowd playing cards peacefully! together :)!! ...it is good to be reminded of the goodness of the Lord in my midst--especially on one of 'those days'...

The guys on Labor Day...literally~ working with Daddy on splitting wood in preparation for a cold winter~

I love seeing these 2 working together...

Mimi and Pop-Pop are back from Indiana!! Here Pop-Pop is helping Mercy with her flashcards...we are trying to get Mercy in 'mental math' mode but here she is counting on fingers and toes....sigh :)!!

Knitting class at HDO...these girls put me to shame!

L's first in home Art lesson with Miss Gina...he is so excited for this!!

Goofy kiddos...preparing for their first Homeschool soccer practice a few weeks ago..today they all had their first game. All 6 of the kids play...makes for an interesting game day with kids on 4 different fields in the same complex...There was much rejoicing today as most of the kiddos scored at least one goal...including L--a first for him!!!

I am so grateful for these full fall days...