Beauty Shop Chatter

Every eight weeks I hop in my car and drive down to the beauty shop.

It has been about a year since I discovered that my fine hair looks best without layers.  The Texan in me took awhile to get used to this hair fact about myself.  I had gone all my life getting layers or texture of some sort and only in my wiser old age of 23 did I stumble upon this hair revolution.  One length looks healthier on me.

I am a highlight low light kind of person.  The year I got no color at all put in my hair was depressing.  I looked blah the entire year.  It was unfortunate.  It caused me to eat too many carbs and take too many naps.  So we found a way to get a hair line put back in the budget and I've been happier ever since.  I'm still eating carbs and napping but that is neither here nor there.

Tuesday night I couldn't sleep and was PMS-ing so naturally I watched YOU TUBE hair tutorials until three am.  I was this close to chopping my hair off and getting bangs when the second round of Melatonin kicked in and I finally fell asleep.

One of these days I'm going to do it though.  I'm going to go inside that salon with my candy bar and get a long pixie.  I am you just wait and see.

On a typical non-hormonal day, I am most content with an all one length bob.

There was the addition of my new hair piece that joined the family last Fall.  We have an oriental type store in town that sells all manner of faux hair.  I just wanted a pony tail thingy.  You have never seen so many options in one store.  When I asked the lady for help and told her it was my first time to buy hair, she reprimanded me and said, "Oh honey, you so behind!"

She would not let me try on the hair, per se, because some people, not me, but some people have things in their hair.  Ew.  Fine, I'll just take the one that wraps around my pony tail thank you.  Hair pieces are a fairly reliable option on a bad hair day.  I think the key to making it look natural is to pick it out a bit, but don't, DO NOT take your curling iron to it.  That will result in singeing your newly acquired hair which will result in an amateur emergency cut to remove said singed hair.

The beauty shop teaches me all kinds of life skills.  How to shellac at home.  The best kind of tortilla for a quesadilla.  Where to vacation.  I lay in the chair with my head in the shampoo bowl, country music blaring, and the beauty shop chatter makes me a better person.  Talk of eyebrows and air brushed make-up.  A wedding party bustling around the shop with fancy up-do's getting ready for the big day. Grandma in her white orthopedics along for the ride, her hair already coiffed.

In the olden days when I'd get a style, I lived for red lights so I could check out the new do in the mirror on the way home. Inevitably I'd catch every green light forcing me to wait until I got home to really check out the new do.  Those were stressful days of good fortune, what with the green lights and all.  These days my cut is the same and I like it this way.  Spruce up the old bob, stop by the library to grab my weekend reads, come home and try to take a nap which never works because I don't want to bend my pretty new hair.

The moral of the story is-get your hair done.  A beauty shop education will take you places, so get one every eight weeks.  How do you think I became as smart as I am?  Find you a style that suits you and be realistic.  One time I took a picture of the beautiful Jennifer Hudson in and got my hair done like hers.  Only problem was, she is African American.  Well, OK whatever, it didn't look great on me, lesson learned, maybe stick to a similar hair genre as yourself.  If you are feeling blah, slap some color up in their.  Download a hair app in the middle of the night and give yourself fire engine red hair and fringe bangs just for kicks.  You gotta keep things spiced up.  Sometimes when you've fallen off the fashion wagon, a trip to the beauty salon is all it takes to get you back on.

Three Years

Would you believe it has been a little over three years since I came home fully.

How?

Eight years of pouring my heart and soul into my business ended one July afternoon with an email and a phone call.  The ending of an era and ushering in of a new one happened in ten short minutes. 

It was done, I was free.  Feeling lost, I walked around my house looking around, not sure what to do with myself.  With a husband out of the country and the boys at the neighbors, I found myself in a rare moment of quiet.  Alone.  Unemployed by the doing of my own hands.  I felt like a stranger in my own home, uncertain of what you do when you cut the chains that have held you prisoner for so long, what does freedom feel like?  What am I supposed to do?

Like riding a bike, I did what I do.  I cleaned my house.  Left to right, top to bottom, the order always the same.  Familiar rhythms found their way into the first moments of this new life, birthed only moments earlier.   I started in my bathroom and worked my way around our home fluffing and shining every surface.  Vacuum lines filled the carpets in every room as things began to take shape before my eyes.  Every single lamp in the house was on and the sun flooded through summer windows.  The candle flickered on the ledge of the bar filling the room with a sweet fragrance.  When the last room was complete I sat on the couch and admired the work of my hands.

Order had been restored in my home, and the beginnings of order being restored in my heart had begun its work too.

That evening the boys came home and we ate a simple supper together on the patio.  Slowly the sun set behind the house casting long shadows over the lawn.  The atmosphere felt different that night.  We laughed easy and I felt light on the inside.  Time was spread out before me like an open field.  Dishes cleared and washed, boys in bed, I sat on my couch wrapped in a heavy blanket of peace.

I had done it, I had come home.  I took the leap of faith and obeyed what I did not want to obey.  I gave up what I had worked so tirelessly for.  I traded my fears of an unknown future in for trusting that God was my faithful one, never failing me, not even once.  The numbers made no sense on paper, and only time would unfold the story of provision so lavish, always on time.

Three years later.

How?

Another season silently takes her place on the stage of my life, as the old one quietly folds itself up. This time I am greeting my new post with a soul at rest.  A toddler almost three, two boys in youth, and an energetic second grader.  I have words to say and relationships to build.  My spirit is alive and I am filled with joy.  

the ONE thing that changed our marriage and rescued us

The night before, I had moved my pillow and a comforter to the couch so I wouldn't keep him up with my coughing.  Mid-episode of The Pioneer Woman I finally drifted off to sleep, it was the middle of the night.

I woke up to a kiss on the cheek and a Salted Caramel Mocha, and out the door he went for a day of work.  Our day went on as usual.  There was no big fanfare.  We threw burgers on the grill for dinner and topped them with bacon, cheddar and sautéed onions.  The six of us sat around the table and ate on paper plates.  After dinner we all ended up in the driveway enjoying a perfect fall evening.  The kids rip-sticked and shot hoops, the baby found a left-over bracelet from our yard sale and held her arm straight out in front of her so it would not fall off her arm as she toddled around.  We sat in camp chairs and talked.

There were no cards, no gifts, no diamond rings, no fancy trip.  It was us and a Thursday that carried on like the one before and the one that will come again next week.

But, even though it was business as usual, yesterday carried an infusion of celebration with it.  It was one of the best celebrations I have ever known.  Our day held contentment.  It held gratefulness that we have lived to tell about 15 years of commitment to each other.  Some years, this day has found us with a strained relationship, the hard times.  But this year our friendship and love are in a settled place and that is a gift more valuable than any store-bought thing.

If I could say there was one thing that has shaped our marriage more than any other it would be this:

Prayer.  Pray about every little tiny thing that is in your heart.  Keep praying and keep asking.  Trade in the fussing for prayer.  When the years come and go and you still don't have your answer you keep on.  Don't walk away from it.  You've been praying for seven years and things are still the same?  Keep on.  Don't you dare stop.  The work is hard but you keep fighting in prayer.

 

He may be a jerk and you may be angry but keep doing the hard work of trusting that God can give life to the dead places. 

 

Even when you go to bed alone and feel like you are stuck in a prison of marriage, keep on.  Don't stop praying and believing God can be trusted with even the most broken things. 

 

When you take one step forward and two steps back, keep praying. 

 

And when you see him blossom before your eyes because he has changed?  Celebrate. 

 

When you see yourself becoming a woman who is night and day different from the one he said his vows to? Rejoice. 

 

When you realize that contentment is defining your days and laughter has returned to your home?  You thank Jesus that He can restore anything.  You remember that He can be counted on.  Remember.

 

A good marriage does not happen by accident.  You show me a man and a woman who have a thriving marriage and I will show you two broken people who have hung in there and fought in prayer until the change came.

 

Date Night

Our neck of the woods has been so dreary.

The weather has been gloomy for weeks.  Along with the cloudy days, my crew has had one sickness after another.  I've been joking that we're running a hospital out of our home.  I have missed three Sundays of church and Home Church because of my nursing duties.

Several years ago we had a run of sickness like this and it felt like it might never end.

Tonight we had planned on having a date night and by golly, we're keeping to it.  Normally Friday nights are for couch bed night.  This morning we told the boys couch bed is being moved to Sunday and tonight is Date Night.

We are feeding the boys frozen pizza and they are so excited.  They love party pizzas.  We are putting them all to bed early and then it is Date Night at the Casa.  I'm thinking we'll get Tacos and bring it home.  We are so addicted to that place.  And the cheese dip, oh the cheese dip, come to Mama.

The next part of our date is pretty random but maybe not that random.  I blame Little House.  We've been stuck in the house for weeks so we've been watching our fair share of Little House On The Prairie.  Ever since Ma offered Doc Baker a piece of fresh blueberry pie and a glass of milk I can't get my mind off of a fruit pie.  My Mamaw taught me to brush melted butter over the top of the pie crust before I bake it and to sprinkle it with sugar.  I'll promise you right now that nothing smells better than a fruit pie baking away in the oven.  We've been eating healthier but shoot.  Tonight I'm having pie.  Pie and Tacos.  Yes-sir-ee, we are bringing some sunshine up into this place.

The boys were sad about having to reschedule couch bed night.  I don't know though, I think it's so good for them to see us prioritizing spending time together, especially in the midst of weeks like this when life has just been so, so hard.

Sometimes creating the beauty and the happy places can be tough, but we're creating the good even in the midst of the imperfect.

Well, my afternoon coffee is ready.  I'm off to finish fluffing the house so that everything is just so so that I can enjoy my little at home date.

Don't forget to light your candles and turn on your lamps and do something nice for yourself this weekend.

My Stitch Fix Experience

Oh boy.  My 40 hanger closet.

I'll put it like this.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  No worries, help is on the way.

I've got some problems:

• I have 5 pairs of black pants.  Cinco.  What in heavens name?
• I have 7 striped shirts.  I can't even count that high in another language but come on. 
• I yard sale'd my black dress shoes and when black pantalones make up half of your 40 hanger closet you really don't need to be prancing around town in your pewter flats.  A pair of black flats moved to the top of my fashion list because it was just getting awkward. 

Here is something really cool I've realized.  I can break my wardrobe needs down into three basic categories.

• Cute & Casual   (shopping/church/date/Friday night with friends)
• Everyday Comfortable (working around house/grocery store/errands)
• Special Occasion  (date night, wedding, funeral)

Your lifestyle is the biggest influencing factor in what type of clothes should be in the closet.

My dear friend Tiff shared something with me called Stitch Fix.  Do you know about it?  I wanted to share with you everything about my Stitch Fix experience so far.

Well for starters right now I am sitting here in my granny gown drinking sweet tea and talking to you.  Meanwhile, somewhere out there a personal stylist is shopping for mwah.  No I didn't just blow you a kiss, that was an attempt at French.  Please.  I don't know what is up with all the foreign language talk tonight.  Let's just go with it, wee wee?

How much have I had to shell out?
So far $20.  In a week or so, I'll be receiving a box in the mail (if you are a burglar reading don't you dare try to steal my box containing non-stripey paraphernalia) The box will contain 5 items.  I can keep whatever I want and the $20 is applied to the items I purchase.  If nothing works it can all be returned and I'd loose the $20.

Is it expensive?
That is a good question.  They say the average item is $55.  Personally, I'd never pay $55 for an item of clothing unless it was a fantastic pair of jeans that was comfortable and made me look exotically skinny.  I can't even pay $38 for a shirt in the store.  My clothing budget is small.  As in $20 a month or less small.  So then how am I going to fund my little experiment then?  It is called the consignment shop.  Today I picked up $100 from clothes that I dropped off.  Now I have funds to reinvest into current things that look good now.

How do they know what I like?
That is part of the fun of it.  When you sign up with Stitch Fix you fill out a Style Profile.  They ask you all kinds of questions.  Things like:  What kind of coverage do you prefer?  Do you like ankle length, regular or long?  Here are some pictures, rate them based on how much you like them.  What are your sizes and measurements.  If you have a Pinterest fashion board you can link it to your Style Profile so that your stylist can get a better feel for your taste.

You can leave a note for your stylist.  Here is what my note to my stylist said...

{Apple shaped body. Looking for pieces that can easily be mixed/matched. Our clothing budget is pretty small.  Recently I paired down my closet to 40 items.  I noticed I have 5 pairs of black pants and 7 striped shirts-oops!  Want cute everyday things that can also be worn to Bible study and dinner :).}

 

My friend Tiffny brought her box over tonight and modeled her new duds and OH MY WORD she looked like a doll.   They nailed it for her. 

 

Why am I trying Stitch Fix?

I want someone else who does not have striped shirt bondage to show me some cute things.  You know how it is.  We like what we like and our eyes don't even see the other stuff in the store.

 

My goal is to maximize my 40 hanger closet.  If this Fix goes well, then they will ship me another box in 3 months.  (you can get them to ship more or less and you can cancel at any time).  SO.  If I even choose 1 or 2 items every few months then my basic core wardrobe will stay fresh and cute.

 

If they send me things as cute as Tiff's, then I'm going to be so happy I'll probably have to celebrate with ice cream or something.  Of course that's what got me looking like the apple dumpling that I am, so maybe I'll just stick to a happy clap.  Naw, who am I kidding?  I'll have ice cream. I'll spread my birthday and Christmas money out.  I'll fill my envelope with my $20 each month.  And I'll keep consigning like a boss.  Today I picked up my consignment check and am using it to reinvest in my Fix. 

 

After working in fashion for 8 years I have learned something.  It DOES NOT HAVE TO COST A MILLION BUCKS TO LOOK LIKE A MILLION BUCKS.  Now I'm not saying I look like a million bucks.  Sheesh.  I've been wearing pewter shoes with black pants in public.  But I am a big believer in having some basic pieces that can be filled in with the cute/fun/trendy.

 

Let me know if you try Stitch Fix!  If you use my referral I get $25.  If you try it and like it let your buddies know and you'll get referral credit which is so neat.


 

 

 

Bed & Breakfast Weekend Inspiration

Here is the inspiration for creating a B&B Weekend for us each year...

 

*******

Dear FlyLady,

I wanted to let you know about the wonderful B&B my husband and I stayed at this Memorial Day weekend. The small but simply furnished kitchen was well stocked with delicious healthy snacks and meals. Homemade waffles with blackberries were served from a beautiful, clean kitchen. The living areas and bedrooms were furnished with fresh, plumped pillows, lovely matching sheets and down comforter, and scented candles everywhere. The bathroom – ah… bubble bath, lotions, and fresh, white towels. The library was stocked with books, magazines and yoga videos…

 

… Best of all, my husband and I spent time together with no interruptions, chores, or traffic. Okay – you guessed it… thanks to you, this is my home. Thank you, thank you.

*******

I LOVE THIS STORY from Flylady's Website.  A few years ago I decided I was going create a B&B Weekend for us.  It gave me something to look forward to during the month of January.  Once the tree comes down it can be kind of blah feeling around the house.

When we started doing an annual at home B&B Weekend, we both had jobs and very busy schedules.  Proactively carving out a weekend where we saved it for home and family was hard to do!  I love that now, every February, I can look at my calendar and see 3 days where we spend hanging out and having fun.

The best thing about a B&B is the ambiance.

Little bouquets of flowers from the table to the bathroom make everything so cheery.

Thick cut French toast served up with warm berry sauce and good coffee make a nice way to start the day.

So!  We re-create something similar to this every year.  I go to the store and buy a bouquet of flowers and divide it up into mason jars to spread throughout the house.  Kitchen, bedside tables, bathrooms, all of them get a jar of flowers.  It is an excuse to buy a new candle.  I also enjoy getting a new book or magazine that I've had my eye on.

In the weeks leading up to our weekend (like, now!) I start slowly working through our home to get it looking good (not perfectly organized and spit spot, but better than it was!).  I am very careful with my grocery store budget during January so that I can try to save extra in anticipation for our February weekend.  We also have some gift cards that we will cash in on during our weekend.

The story I started with makes me smile every single time.  There is no place like home.
 

The "Our Story" Part

Sometimes God works in surprising ways and every time He does I get re-surprised.  The "Our Story" part of my blog was something I knew I wanted to include, but was never sure what the gist of that section would be.

There is a part of our story that is changing.  I wasn't sure {and still am not 100% sure} of how much I wanted to share about it.  My reason for being hesitant to talk about it is the same as when I write about parenting and any other thing that I am in the midst of.  My heart is to encourage and maybe bless someone else.  The flip side of that is:  I am not an expert.  We are in progress.  It is not information that I share in hind-site, it is real-time life.  That means that my well-intentioned efforts that seem so good today could fail tomorrow. 

So this new part of our journey?  It began a few weeks ago when I walked out of a Sunday sermon thinking about what had been said.

For days I thought on what was taught.

Want to know what I was thinking through and trying to figure out?

Idols.  I was trying to see what idols I have in my life.  And the frustrating part was that I thought and thought for days and couldn't think of any idols in my life.  Not one. Sin yes, I can list them, idols, um_____, nothing.  That in and of itself was sending up red flags because it let me know that I was probably blinded to them!

i·dol

ˈīdl/

a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered

So I asked someone I love and trust very much if they could see any idols in my life.  And sure enough, there was a suggestion for me.  Could food be an idol in your life?  Yep.  That was it.  Food hit the nail on the head.

Here's the deal.  Obviously I'm not a health nut.  If we're at a party and I stumble into the circle of peeps talking about gluten or inflammation or sprouting things, I'm going to politely excuse myself and refill my punch glass and go find the crowd who's talking decorating or beach vacations.  No offense to anyone but health talk is just not my gig.

All this leads me to what I said earlier about our story changing.

The new part of my story is this.  I'm changing what I put in my mouth.

Part of the reason food health is such a turn off to me is because it seems to suck the fun and life out of everything.  It would be such a drag to be sentenced to ordering salads every time I wanted to go out to eat.  Give me fajitas or give me death, you know what I'm sayin'?

But this new part of my journey is not about becoming a health nut or remaining solidly in the foodie camp. 

It is about smashing down the idol that food has become in my life.

Grinding it to powder just like the golden calf.

Grinding it to powder like almond flour.

Just kidding about that last part.  It's just an almond flour joke.  Us healthy people like to talk like that from time to time.  You get used to it.

So there you have it.

If you want to follow along I'm going to be talking about our journey to make baby steps toward honoring God with how we eat.  I'll guarantee you that the journey is going to include a balance between enjoying the full-fledged good stuff, and making wiser choices on the in-between times. 

Be Back Soon...

We are taking the month of October to unplug and connect as a family and with the Lord.  Be back in November.

FULL DISCLOSURE

If I may, I need to be completely honest about a few things.

I talked in English class and passed notes and generally did not pay attention. 

You need to know that up front. 

You may also want to know that I love to over-Capitalize random words that I feel are Important.  There is something in my DNA that feels strongly about capitalizing many, many words that say your average Joe may not feel the need to Capitalize.

I thought about trying to write on my blog in all lower case or all caps so that you wouldn't catch on to my problem, but with auto-correct and what not it would have been too time consuming and/or confusing for my brain to process.

You may also be interested in my over use of the comma. 

Oh comma how I love thee.

Generally speaking I also over use the hyphen and ellipsis.

I have absolutely no earthly idea what to do with my semi-colon friend but I have found him useful in emoticon winking.

As long as you are good with all of This, and oh how I Hope you are, then we should be good.

My Commas Anonymous support group assured me that if I just got it all out on the table it would diffuse potential frustration on everyone's part.

Oh, and I am homeschooling my children.

Awesome.

Little Oak Table

Welcome to Little Oak Table!

Little Oak Table is my little corner of the web where I share about...

• Creating great meals to share around the table
• Finding systems that work well for keeping your home clean and organized
• Decorating the space you have with the resources you have
• Being a woman who creates a life giving atmosphere in your home
• Lessons I am learning as we educate our children at home
• Establishing regular times in the Word

What is the one word I want to describe my home?  Cozy.  There are a lot of other words like peaceful and relaxing, but cozy is at the top of my list.  I am passionate about creating a warm atmosphere inside of our home.

We are educating our children at home using the Charlotte Mason approach and I am looking forward to sharing what is working as we travel on this journey called homeschooling.

This space will be full of unedited pictures shot straight from my non-iPhone phone. 

When I dreamed up this blog several years ago I wanted it to be a little flower garden of hope, so to speak.  I wanted a cheerful, friendly place where you could stop by and be encouraged.

In an effort to make this a place without any strings attached for you, I have disabled the comments section.  I want you to be able to come, stay a little while or a long while, and my prayer is that you will be blessed.

At the bottom of my page you can type in your email if you would like posts sent directly to your inbox.

On the right hand side of my page you will find pictures to the most frequent things I write about.  Click on the picture and it will take you to all of the posts related to that subject.

 

Here's to building our homes one day at a time!