Sunday, March 22, 2015

African-American Hair Care Week #3

My sweet girl wanted a pony tail this week.

Bath time went great, her hair has been staying soft and untangled for the most part.

This week was the first week we didn't have anxiety about hair day or meltdowns over it. In fact, M was looking forward to it. We have special time while the other littles are napping and she gets to watch a movie on the counter.

Our look for this week! Super cute and girly. 
This week I was eager to give her a new part since the last two styles had her hair parted down the middle. I wanted to give her hair a break and have it in different directions. So I started with a braid centered on the top of her head with a new area parted.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Controlling the Chaos: Traveling with the littles.

Traveling with littles.

Going to the doctor with our group can be a huge adventure! :) The picture below is six of my kiddos while my oldest daughter was still in school. 

My new foster son put a bead up his nose, yep, he did.  Surprisingly, this was a first for me as a parent. It was way up there and we all had to go in, to a new doctor mind you, since he and his sister just came into my care a week earlier. 



Planning so we are early or on time: 
I have learned that the more I am rushing everyone, the more they are bound to meltdown from the stress. So for the sanity of everyone involved, I work hard to keep at a calm pace. This gives me extra time when I suddenly lose my keys while buckling everyone in the car and spend over ten minutes looking under all of their bums and carseats trying to find them; or for the times when the seatbelt has been pulled over and over by one of the kids and completely locks up and won't stretch to the buckle, and it won't retract because it is tangled in the carseat loop; or on the mornings when I hadn't even had time to look outside and I see that my car is completely frozen over. I plan in order to make time for the chaos. :)

Expectations:  
When we arrive at our destination and sometimes even while we are driving to our appointment, I go over all of the rules before we get out of the car. I talk to the kids about walking with a buddy and staying in our group while we cross the parking lot. I remind them we have to have quiet voices in the waiting room with no fighting or fussing. I let them know that I packed a special treat and if they can do these things, then they get a treat when we get back to the car to head home. I usually keep it a surprise so the anticipation keeps them going. Otherwise they sometimes decide that it isn't worth whatever I have. :) 

Controlling the Chaos: Large Family Style


So I love a good organized system. I have lived and learned, the hard way sometimes, how to get rid of  unnecessary chaos. Below are some of our new and improved systems in place since our two new littles joined our family. Right now we have kids ages, 8, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3. Take a peek below and see how we add a little organization to our lives. :) 


One of the easiest decisions I made was to give each child a day of the week. If it is their assigned day then they get to make special choices, they get to serve snacks and meals to the other kids (one of their favorite things to do), and they get to be the line leader when it is time to go. This completely eliminated arguing over who's turn it was to do something special and fighting over every single time there was a choice to be made. 

Now they all ask, "Who's day is it?" And problem solved! With five kids we did the weekdays and my husband and I got to make choices or it was a free-for-all on the weekends, but now we have seven kids to fill seven days a week! 


Lining up to go out the door for school can be chaotic when you have tired kids.
So to eliminate the pushing and shoving I created line up spots that give each kid their own bubble space. I started after the door mat so I have the space to unlock the door before everyone piles out. The rule is that if it is their special helper day as mentioned above, then they get to be the line leader that day. The rest of the spots are free choice.  When the kids are ready with their shoes, coat, and backpack they get to go line up and I know they are ready to go. They love it and it has worked so well! This is one of my favorite ways we control the unneeded chaos. No more crowding each other, knocking each other over, there is a perfect amount of bubble space marked with painters tape on the floor.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Dahlin-07: Update for our family.


For a while you can call the kids, Dahlin-07. (My husband is proud of his play on 007) Almost two weeks ago we had two new foster kids join our family. Here is my attempt to share with you how God has called us to this place, as foster parents, once again. 

My husband and I had been praying about adopting again for quite some time. We put that on hold after we learned that our son had a bio sister that was born but after she didn't come to us, we decided to officially continue the adoption process.

In December of this last year, as part of our annual giving-back gift, we were told about two kids in foster care who could use some extra gifts. So we gave the gifts, and I ended up connecting with their foster mom afterward online. We became an online support to each other but that was about it. The kids we gave gifts to were African-American siblings, a four-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. 

African-American Hair Care Week #2


Here are more of our hair care adventures….I hope you enjoy and get inspired!

This is our finished style for week #2 


African-American Hair Care Week #1

We have two new foster kiddos with us for a while, long story, and when I am finishing digesting it, I will post about it. I promise. :)

But in the mean time, M and I have been doing "teamwork" each week as we have hair day/wash day. Hair was a huge stress for her when she moved in, and I have been trying really hard to take care of it and help teach M that it is important to take care of her hair.

I feel like I am finally able to use all of the information I learned a few years ago, after taking an African-American hair and skin care class. Although the reason I took it was because my son, had over 9 inches of length in his hair before we were allowed to cut it. So I did get some practice doing his hair a few years ago. :) But it has been so fun to practice girl styles these last few weeks.

M has come so far in her ability to be calm while I do her hair. Here are some fun pictures and information that has helped with our experience. I am in no way a trained professional, just a adoptive mother trying to pass along helpful information.

Week #1

Our style for the week!  

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Art Birthday Party

Here we are another year later celebrating two of my daughter's birthdays. :) This year they asked for an art themed party. It was a huge success and a lot of fun to put together.

This was our main attraction. I am all about the sit down activities with a big group of kids. Granted 7 of them were mine. :) Aprons over the chairs, and each child had their own set up ready to go. When it was time to get settled in their spot I let them choose six colors of acrylic paint to put on their pallet. We did this activity first and let them dry on the counter so they were dry when it was time to go. I did forget to put down napkins for drying their brushes when they rinsed them.
I spent the day before making over 20 of these cups. So one large box of each jello color was a perfect amount. It took about 90 minutes for each layer to solidify so I could add the next one. I had a ladle that was about a 1/4 of a cup and it worked well.  We didn't do the white whipped cream layer in between as you often see because several of my kids are dairy free so I was happy this turned out just as pretty!