Maya K's 7th Birthday

The day started with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. To make it even MORE special, we ate our donuts outside on a table under an umbrella!!!

Once we were home, Maya K got to open one of her presents.

Nathan and Maya K went rollerblading for a while and Maya K worked to get used to her new blades. She was a little shaky at first, but she adjusted pretty quickly!!!

We took a "break" for the rest of the morning and Maya K went up to her bedroom to play with some new fairies that she got from her cousins yesterday :-). Then she got to open a few more presents before lunch.

Maya K chose what foods she wanted for her Bday meal and she chose porcupine meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, and fruit!!!! I didn't know how the corn on the cob was going to work with her missing and loose teeth, but she devoured that corn!!!!!

After lunch, we took Maya K on her first mini-golf adventure!!!! She had a ton of fun!!!!!

We were VERY hot and tired after mini-golfing, so we stopped at McDonalds on our way home for some ice cream!!!!

By the time we got home (around 3:20ish) we were all very worn out. Maya K was looking forward to her quiet time :-). She got to open her last two presents and then she went down for quiet time and I fell asleep on the couch while Nathan did the dishes (I love him!!!).

Dinner was leftovers and then Nathan left for his softball games and Maya K and I snuggled up on the sofa to watch Little House on the Prairie.

Maya K said multiple times today that it was one of her best days ever!!!!!

Happy Birthday, my 7-year-old little girl!!!!

Making a Decision

I have a hard time making decisions. I try to look at all the options and then if I absolutely HAVE to be the one to make the decision I normally put it off as long as possible to make sure I have thought of everything involved and worry about who I might upset and everything wrong that might happen with what I choose. I over-think every possible choice.

I have a decision to make in the next couple of days. I'm struggling to know what I should do.

Several years ago, I started doing seasonal part-time work scoring standardized tests from home. The job offers I have received have always been during the months of April, May, and sometimes June. If I accept a particular job offer, I am required to score tests for a minimum of 20 hours a week (they prefer more) and the jobs average around 2-3 weeks each. I do the work from my personal computer and can schedule my hours however I want/need to (between the hours of 7 a.m. - 9 p.m.).

In previous years, it made for some very long and tiring days. I would get up at 5:15 in the morning, get ready for the day, leave for school and teach all day, come home around 4:30/5:00 p.m. and get on the computer to start scoring. I would aim for around 3-4 hours of scoring each evening and then go to bed to get up and do it the next day. They were long and tiring days, but the extra income was greatly appreciated :-).

This is the first time since Maya K came home that I have accepted an offer to score a two week project in May (it starts just one week from tomorrow). It would seem that it should be easier to get my 20 hours in each week now that I am not teaching full-time and am at home with Maya K. But it is definitely going to be a challenge. I am homeschooling her so we have to get school done in the mornings. I do childcare three days a week and we have things going on several evenings each week. And I can't get up super early to score or stay up late into the evenings because the system is locked before 7 a.m. and after 9 p.m. I can only work during the day hours.

Nathan and I have talked about it and we agreed for me to accept this two week job for May. He is going to fix dinner every evening he can and I will go straight up to our room to work in the evenings (because I can't score after 9 p.m. I have to get my hours in before then). We're going to make it work :-).

(I seem to be long-winded tonight. Sorry!!!)

Here is the hard decision I am needing to make.

Last night I opened up my e-mail to find another job offer. This time it's a two and a half week project in June. During those two weeks, my calendar is already filled with Vacation Bible School, our 10-year wedding anniversary, and 8 sessions of swimming lessons for Maya K.

Do I accept the second job offer or not????

To be honest, we could REALLY use the extra income. We stepped out in faith when we brought Maya K home and I stopped working to stay home with her. God has been faithful in meeting our needs and we know that He will continue to do that. But is this job the way He wants to meet our financial needs, or does He have another plan?

I just don't know what to do right now. I only have a couple days to accept it if I am going to take it. I'm praying that God will make it clear to me.

Hair Day

Saturday is our "normal" day to do Maya K's hair, but if we have things going on Saturday, I will try to do it on Friday. This is one of those weeks :-).

I only shampoo Maya K's hair every 4 or 5 weeks. This happens to be a week that it needs to be shampoo washed, so that adds an extra step to the process.

I decided to write down times to give you an average for the length of time each step takes. I don't normally keep track :-).

Here is what her hair looks like before we get started.

I start by getting her hair completely soaked and then work the shampoo through the curls down to her scalp. I try to not rub the hair too much to prevent breakage. Then I rinse it all out. (This took 7 minutes.)

The next step is the most time consuming and results in the most complaints and whining from Maya K (keeping it real!!!). I work huge HANDFULS of conditioner into her hair. I do it a section at a time and probably use 8-10 handfuls. Then I use my fingers to detangle the curls (again, a section at a time). I usually end up with quite a bit of hair on my fingers that I throw in the trash. Then I add a little more conditioner and use a pick to comb through her hair more thoroughly. She despises this part of hair day!!!!! (This step took 15 minutes.) Here is her hair fully conditioned and detangled.

I leave the conditioner soaking in her hair while I wash her body. This is the easiest part of hair day :-). (2 minutes.) No photo.

After she plays in the tub for a while (today was 30 minutes), I drain the water and begin rinsing the conditioner out of her hair. Here is her hair after the conditioner has been rinsed out. (5 minutes)

Then I work a leave-in conditioner into her hair and use my fingers to pull it through the curls. (4 minutes) I pulled a piece down so you could see how LONG it actually is!!!!

It's finally time to get out of the tub, lotion her body, and get her dressed :-). (Btw - Absolutely NO towel drying of this hair is ever allowed!!!!) (9 minutes)

Today I'm going to put her hair into two-strand twists. They are simple and easy and don't take very long for me to do. She is sitting on her chair in front of the TV and I've got my tray table of supplies next to her.

It's hard for me to take pictures during the hair styling process because my hands are covered in hair product. But I tried to take a couple today :-).

I ended up doing something different than planned with her hair. I've been experimenting with things to do with the front and top of her hair when I do two-strand twists in the back. I like how the top turned out, but then it didn't look like I planned in the back. So I pulled all the twists up into a ponytail and then put barrettes on the ends :-). It's growing on me!!!

Styling her hair took  51 minutes today.

She got in the bathtub at 10:18 this morning and I finished her hair at 12:24 :-). It was a pretty quick hair day!!!! I like those :-).

"Vacuum??? In the BEDROOMS?!?!?"

I am not good at keeping a clean house. I'm just not. I'm being honest here.

I do decently well at keeping things picked up. Nathan is awesome about helping with that and so is Maya K. We have one end of our table that collects things, as well as a couple small piles on a couple stairs, and paper piles that slowly grow over time in our bedroom. But over all, we keep the "clutter" away.

I'm also pretty good with the laundry and dishes. I have my regular laundry days and get the clothes cleaned and put away. (At least they are put away within a day........or sometimes two.) The dishwasher gets run on a regular basis and the dishes are put away promptly. I try to hand wash the other dishes once a day (with the exception of Sunday; I often don't wash dishes on Sunday. I need a day of rest. Don't I???).

But when it comes to actual CLEANING, I struggle. I don't like doing it. So I put it off until we have people coming over and then I make sure I do the areas that people will see. Honestly, even the bathrooms don't get cleaned well on a regular schedule. (Sooooooo GROSS!!!! I know it!!!)

Over the years there have been times that I have worked out a schedule and cleaned on a regular basis. My best stretch was probably 2 or 3 years that I had a weekend cleaning rotation and it was great!!!!

But since Maya K came home, things have gone downhill.

About two weeks ago, I made myself a new cleaning schedule/rotation. Things HAVE to get better!!!! I set up a two week rotation of the regular cleaning tasks and have one or two tasks to do each day. My hope is that this way I won't get overwhelmed at looking at the need to get the entire house cleaned in just one day. It honestly doesn't take that long to just do one or two cleaning tasks.

I think the first few weeks are the hardest. Things are just so DUSTY!!!! I am doing a pretty solid deep cleaning these first few weeks and trying to get it all done right. It feels really GOOD to have a cleaner house!!!!!

I worked on dusting the bedrooms tonight. Our bedroom is still a work in progress because of all the stacks of books I have around the room. (I like books!!!) I also spent a few minutes straightening things up in Maya K's bedroom. (She does a good job of keeping her bedroom picked up, but small things accumulate in certain areas.)

When I came downstairs, Maya K told me that since I was working so hard to clean up the house, she was going to help me in the morning and work on cleaning up her room. I told her that was a great idea because I was planning to vacuum the bedrooms tomorrow.

Maya K: (shocked/quizzical look on her face) "Vacuum???? In the BEDROOMS?!?!?!"

Yes. I have failed. My daughter is surprised that the bedrooms need to be vacuumed. I am determined to remedy this mommy failure!!!!