Great Parody

                                                                                                                                                                  

Who knew that's what it took to grow long natural hair? LOL!!!

When you decide to go natural......well, let me say.....when I decided to go natural, I knew this would be a journey and I'd enjoy every step of this journey. Now don't get me wrong, there were some difficult times for me because I've been natural for 14 years now and the movement wasn't this big. Back then it was either you're growing locks, wearing braids, sewing in weaves or rockin the perm.
I've always loved the look of locks. Freeform locs are actually my favorite and I wished that I could've grown them.  My parents thought they were horrible ( when I was in high school) and my then boyfriend at the time(now my husband), didn't want to see them on me. Eventually at 23 yrs old, I decided to grow out my perm and I haven't looked back.

This natural journey should be a time of getting to know you're hair (if you're a newbie) and a time to nourish not only your hair, but your mind, body and spirit. So, don't keep fretting over how fast my hair is or isn't growing. It might be easy for me to say because I'm known for cutting my hair a lot. I seriously have a problem. My hair is very thick and grows pretty fast, but my hands always get real itchy when my hair gets past shoulder length, and then it gets cut to ear length.

So, I don't have a problem with patience with hair growth, but gardening is a different story.

Do you have patience when trying to grow out your hair? If not, why and why did you go natural?

Uplifting People and Communities

On March 17, 2014, HBO premiered the documentary Paycheck to Paycheck, a film about Katrina Gilbert, a 31 year old single mother of three who is struggling to make ends meet. Katrina works as a CNA(certified nursing assistant) in a nursing home where she makes under $10 an hour, caring for our elderly. She's a hardworking woman living on the brink and sometimes I just feel like some Americans just don't get it.

Before the HBO documentary premiered, I took the opportunity to watch a couple of promo videos about the film, I was already pumped to see the film, but I became even more enthralled with it. So, I decided to read the comments and I was shocked(well sort of, we all know about the trolls) to read such negativity and angered directed at the film, but most of all I was surprised that many people(especially women) would even think that she's gotten what she deserves because she doesn't have a husband, many even said, "no husband, 3 kids, what did you think would happen",  I just wanted to scream, SHE WAS MARRIED AND ALL 3 OF HER KIDS HAVE THE SAME FATHER!!! But instead I took a deep breath and thought about what people were actually saying. They were saying, we only feel compassion for a widowed woman or the woman who spent her life being a homemaker only to have her husband leave her the children with nothing, but you single mothers....you can.....just...kick rocks, and you better not ask for any kind of  assistance at all! I don't know maybe HBO and the Shriver Report should've said a 31 year old divorced mother of three, and many people wouldn't have been so pissed off, but to me it doesn't matter, she's still an unmarried woman working her tail off  trying to raise her kids.

After watching the film on youtube, I was moved to leave a comment because I was still pissed off about the harsh comments about Katrina and the film. My comment was basically a thank you note o the Shriver Report and HBO for airing such a powerful documentary that touched on issues such as: affordable childcare, health care, food insecurity and a living wage. I also asked others to think about what they can do in their own communities to help others, and then I shared a story about how I helped a young single mother of one when I used to be an in home daycare provider, and I decided that I would watch her infant daughter at half the rate( $70 a wk). This particular client did not have a car at the time, and she had just moved back in with her parents, so she would get a ride with her mother every morning to a train station (that was a 30 min ride) and ride the train across town and catch a bus to my house Monday thru Friday. Now their were some people who thought I was a fool for charging so low, but I just wanted to help anyway I could, and besides she seemed so determined, it just felt right and you know what, within five months she was able to get her own car and an apartment. So,  I said all of that to say, think about your special unique skills and what you can give back to your community.  Maybe you have clothes to donate to a family in need, maybe you're a frugal shopper, volunteer your time to help a struggling family become wiser shoppers and budget, maybe while you're at your child's school, you decide to put a little extra money on a neighborhood child's lunch account because you know one of the parents just got laid off.  Or simply maybe you're the man or woman behind someone at the grocery store that pays for their  groceries because there isn't enough money on the  debit card or EBT card to get your groceries. By the way please read this beautifully written thank you letter by Andrea Gardner to the woman behind her in line at the grocery store http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-gardner/to-the-woman-behind-me-in_b_5082769.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share  

So let us remember that impoverish people aren't just single moms and the elderly and there are many reasons why people might need a little help from time to time...don't look down on them....help lift them up. Many of us live on the brink or a few paychecks away, so while we're waiting on policies to change in America, lets be that change in our own communities.


Have a wonderful day :)

Shelly

Gardening Chores

My outside chores for this week are :

Separate a few of my garlic plants because there's at least 6 cloves of garlic growing in one hole together.


Turn compost, because I want to see how well the pile has decomposed.

Put compost around lettuce,spinach, kale, and broccoli.




I know this really isn't a blog post, but I wanted to do something on this blog, since this and Pinterest  are my favorite kinds of social media. People are probably wondering how can blogging be your favorite and you don't even post that often, but I had two blogs years ago and I loved writing and reading blogs. I just want to get my groove back and if it means posting gardening chores then so be it.

Have A Great Day :)

Happy New Year!!!

Hope this New Year I'll be more productive with this blog, I've been spending a lot of time over at Pinterest becoming a Pinaholic.  Pinterest is just such a wonderful place, you can't help getting carried away with building boards and building a following. This post wasn't really about anything special, I just wanted to have a post on the board for 2014. Well here's to 2014!!!!

Confidence is Cute

They might have so called frizzy hair, but one thing they have is confidence.

Confidence is key to feeling good and looking good. This video looked like a lot of fun and I was glad to see some of my favorite youtube hair bloggers in the video.

Breaking: Courts discreetly confirm MMR vaccine causes autism

Here's an article that I found at naturalnews.com and it's truly a fascinating eye opener.

Breaking: Courts discreetly confirm MMR vaccine causes autism

This case could possibly give many parents a true voice in their child's health care. To many times as parents, we're told that we're being naive about deciding to vaccinate later in a child's life or choosing not to vaccinate at all, and then we're labeled crazy, irresponsible, and a danger to public health. Now, I'm a parent who chose to vaccinate my younger three children when they entered Kindergarten, because our third child did have a reaction(swelling at injection area, rash, high fever and uncontrollable crying)  to the DTP vaccine as a baby, and I was told...it's normal, just give her some Tylenol. To the doctors and nurses it was common, but to me it wasn't  normal, so I decided I'll wait the other vaccinations out until it was time for school or maybe I won't vaccinate at all. Building my children's immune system became more important to me than making sure that they were shot up with a live virus.

How do you feel about vaccines, do you vaccinate or not? If you vaccinate are there any vaccines that you opt out of, for yourself or your children?  I personally don't allow my girls to get the HPV vaccine because it is still very vague. When HPV was recommended for girls only, I said, no to it because boys are carries of HPV too and I felt that they should be vaccinated too, so I opted out. Now, I'm still deciding to opt out because it doesn't protect them from the many other strains of the HPV virus.  Another vaccine I take issue with is the Chicken Pox vaccine, I know children can die from chicken pox, but it isn't an epidemic. You don't have a thousand children dying from chicken pox a day. My personal opinion is, this vaccine was set up to keep schools from having a chicken pox outbreak and keep the school year flowing a lot better.

Well, you know the drill....leave your comment down below and have a wonderful day :)

P.S. Did you know about the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program? If not, check it out!


Peace,

Shelly

The Sustainability of Self

*Parental Advisory*
Please take the time to watch this gem of a film, it is really deep and had me thinking about my purpose, my community, family and the future. The film takes us on a journey to Ethiopia and exposes the effect of International Aid, education and community involvement  in the country and then brings us, the viewers back to America to live out what they've learned.

 After you finish watching this film please leave a comment.

Did you learn anything from this film, if so, what?  I did learn something and I'll just say it has something to do with the recently government shutdown this country experienced, but I'll keep it at that for right now.


Shelly :)