The Friday Film

This Friday Film follows two American families over the years and the changes in the American economy. Watch the film and play the online game Spent if you haven't already and read my blog post about the game too.  Have you been through any of the situations these families have gone through,and how did you handle them? Have you borrowed from credit cards to pay for a college education or did you forgo college?Do you ever think America will ever make it out of this economic downturn in the next 5 year or will we still be in the same position?



Shelly

Curriculum & Resources: SPENT, An Online Game to Understand Poverty — YES! Magazine

Many of use make tough decisions on a daily basis and the SPENT Challenge is a great tool for kids as well as adults to understand the nature of  living on the brink. Of course, we can't get a true perspective of what it feels like to be working parents,who still have a job or income,but are living in a car,because they lost their home, while trying to keep your family together,or shared/communal living of multiple families living in a small 2 bedroom/1 bath home.Spent deals with the tough decisions that we make everyday, but more importantly it is an eye-opener of how close many of use can lose it all at any moment.


I realized by playing this game that I'm more of an activist minded person, I got two strikes with my job(one strike was because I wanted to form a union and the other issue was family related),so I'm guessing if you get three strikes then you lose your job,but I managed to hold onto my job,albeit with a pay cut, but I still had a job.


In the game I started out the month with $1,000, I believe everyone starts with this amount,but everyone has the option to pick where to work (not many choices),where to live, which insurance plan for your family, or the decision to opt out and take a penalty. The goal is to try to make it to the end of the month while making decisions about buying groceries, and many other curve ball situations that life can throw at you.

I took the challenge and made it through with only $14;my 18 year old daughter,Kennedy took the test and made it through the month with a little over $400 at the end of the month. After she took her test, I revealed to her that I had made it through the month too, but I only had $14 at the end of the month. We talked about how I got two strikes with my job and how she only got one strike with her job, and how these scenarios play out in real life.Now everyone doesn't get the same challenges, and she didn't really have too many issues with her job, and we talked about some illegal tactics that companies try to employ with their workers,and how people living  in poverty or on the brink of poverty feel they can't afford to strike or speak out on low pay or dangerous work conditions because they're just trying to live and get by.

 As you recall earlier, I said, I really was more activist minded while playing the game. I knew that I could get penalized for trying to form a union, but it didn't matter to me, all I could see was the big picture and how forming a union could make a difference in lives of workers and their families in the long run. This doesn't me, that I'm better than the man or woman who decided not to form a union because they chose a roof over their head and food on their table; this means that it takes all kinds to make the world go around, and that I am my brother's keeper.

Let's all try to keep each other and give whenever we can,less judgement and more of a helping hand please.

Take the Spent Challenge,did you(or your kid/s) make it through the month, and if so,how much was left?

-Peace-
Shelly

 Curriculum & Resources: SPENT, An Online Game to Understand Poverty — YES! Magazine

Winter Hair Care

A few days ago I read an article over at essence.com by Afrobella about winter hair care and I decided to check out some of the ideas. As we all know winter is a very dry time of the year and our skin and hair can become extremely dry during this time, but we can alleviate dryness of our hair and skin by moisturizing on a daily basis. Shea butter, olive oil, hair puddings and deep conditioning should really be used during this time to seal in hair moisture.


The article went on to talk about increasing oil treatments and toning down the use of harsh shampoos that can strip moisture from your hair since its job is to cleanse dirt and oil from your hair. If you're using a product that is striping your own natural oils from your hair then you'll have to add that moisture back in with some type of conditioning.

Avoiding glycerin based styling products was another way to avoid dryness during the winter months.They say glycerin absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, but if the air is dry it can drain moisture from your hair, and because of this many naturals avoid the use of glycerin during the winter time because its moisture draining.Personally I can't speak on this one,but I might give it a try sometime over the winter.

 The basics of cold weather hair care is moisturize, moisturize, and moisturize! Moisturize externally, but don't forget to moisturize internally too! Make sure you're drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day, I personally try to drink half of my body weight in water a day, to stay hydrated.Water will keep hair healthy and help stimulate growth.Also,don't forget to maintain a good diet that includes protein,dark green vegetables,and omega 3's like:salmon, shellfish,and nuts.



 















Oh yeah, don't forget to  protect your tresses from the cold temperatures and wind by investing in a good satin lined knit cap or you could by a satin cap to wear underneath your knit cap. Once again....you want to keep that moisture in your hair and wind and cold can strip moisture from your hair.

Hair Art

Style & Stylist: Flora Gala by: Adenike of The Woven Wool Hair & Body Experience 
thewovenwool.com 

The Friday Film

Watch the movie and tell me what you think? Did it make you think about where your food comes from, did it make you think about growing some of your own food or maybe if you're lucky enough....All of your food? Sit back and enough the film and please, lets discuss the film.

Ingredients - Trailer

This film seems very interesting, I think of myself as a person who stays on top of the latest documentaries(especially green living & food related),but this seemingly gem of a film has slipped right past me. The trailer looks awesome!!! In the trailer when the farmer mentions that farmers aren't even included in the Census anymore, since they represent less than 1% off the population was eye opening to me because I honestly didn't realize that farmers weren't represented in the Census as farmers, but as other. Now, I knew that we were losing a lot of our farmers and we need more young people to become farmers, but I never thought the numbers for American farmers would be so low.



My question to you is, have you seen this film, and what did you think of it?