Hold on just a second!

Before you read this post…you must sign this waiver:

I, ______________ , understand that Laura will be showing us pictures of her very own hair cutting procedure, such as it is.  Some should not try this at home…or in anyone else’s home…or in any other location that is not a home.  I recognize that Laura is slightly crazy and that if I cut my own hair I will also be considered slightly crazy.  I acknowledge that if I do cut my own hair after reading this post, and I am not happy with the results…Laura @ HeavenlyHomemakers is in no way responsible and should therefore not receive pitiful emails from me.  Furthermore, the following post shall reveal several embarrassing pictures of Laura, and I hitherto promise to only laugh a little bit and shall refrain from rolling upon the floor and receiving a side ache with the hilarity of the pictures. 

___________________________ (Your signature here)
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Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way…we shall commence with the showing of the pictures and explanation of the hair cut.

I have no idea why I’m feeling brave enough to show you this.  Oh, yes…I know why.  Because last week I mentioned that I cut all of my boys hair and my husband’s hair and my own hair…and MANY of you wanted to know more about how I do my own….since it’s on my own head.

I thought about writing this explanation for how I cut my own hair: “Beats me.”  Because really…I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.  But then I figured surely I could give a little bit of a better explanation than that.

I started doing this about seven years ago when my first two boys were little bitty and I was pregnant with our third.   Getting out of the house for a hair appointment was very hard…or maybe I was just too lazy to make it work.  Either way…I just figured I could try doing it myself and that if I totally messed it up…then I could make it a priority to find someone to stay with the kids while I went in to have it fixed.

And so it’s been for seven years.  Hey, where else can you have a hair cut at 10:00 at night in your pajamas? 

So, I’ve been needing to trim my hair for several weeks…and your response from last week’s post made me jump into gear and finally get it done.

Remember…I told you that really, I don’t know what I’m doing.  I just play with it and have fun with it and see what I come up with.  Obviously I don’t have too big of an obsession with having great hair, or this wouldn’t work for me.  But, I figure as long as it is sorta decent and easy to fix…I’m okay.

But here’s the thing.  In my excitement to cut my hair and show you pictures I got a bit carried away.  Perhaps we could say that I gave myself a summer hair cut this time.  Truly, I did have a lot of dead ends that needed to be taken off.  But, um…I don’t think my hair has ever been this short.  <ehem>  I don’t really like it this short…but hey, it’ll grow back, right?

Anyway…here are a few shots that I had Asa (bless his heart) take of me while I was cutting my hair a few days ago.

Here, I had brushed it all forward in preparation for the cut.  Asa says to me, “Really Mom?  You want me to take THIS picture for your blog?  With you looking like that?”  I don’t know what his point was.  I mean, I think it’s one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen of myself.

I usually start with the bottom layers and then move “up”.  So, I use a big clip to hold up the top part of my hair.  In order to cut the back of my hair, I just pull it forward at my neck.  It mostly, sorta works so that I can see what I’m doing.  Again, Asa says, “Okay, a picture with your hair all up in that clip like that, with that weird piece all fuzzy at the top?”  (And he shrugs and takes the picture…then takes another one closer up so that you can really see the piece of fuzzy at the top…see below.)

After you’ve admired the fuzzy piece a while, you might notice that it looks like I’m chopping off a huge chunk of hair right at the top.  I wasn’t though.  I was actually just barely clipping it to kind of get a tapered look around my face.  If only I was ambidextrous, that part would be much easier.

I keep a trash can on top of the sink as I clip, in hopes of catching at least some of the hair in it while I cut.  As you can see…I had a bit of cleaning up to do when I was finished.  And I won’t even show you what the floor looked like.

Now, I will show you my finished hair cut.  But seriously…I am NOT very photogenic and I was trying to take pictures of myself because no one else was available (except Malachi, and that wasn’t working either).  So, I’m sorry if you take one look at this picture and gasp at my bug-eyedness and lack of make-up.  And at how much hair I chopped off.  Yikes!

Yeah, after about 56 shots, that’s the best one I could come up with.  I TOLD you I wasn’t very photogenic.  (Which means…if this is the one I posted…you should have seen the 55 that I DIDN’T post.)

Anyway…I cut it shorter than I meant to, but it’ll grow back and be just about right in about a month and a half. 

And there you have it.  A bit about how I cut my own hair.  If you do decide to try this at home…remember that you signed the waiver.  Don’t forget the waiver.  I’m sure you’ll do great and I’m sure your “after picture” will be tons better than mine…but just in case you are not entirely pleased with your new “do”…I am not to be held responsible.  (Although I would love to see your “after picture”.) 

Perhaps you’ll find some less crazy frugal ideas here?

Whether you homeschool or not at your house…I hope you won’t mind me sharing with you some of our hubbub! 

It’s the time of year again when we are getting all geared up for a new school year.  Summer break is awesome, needed and refreshing…but by the end of July, we’re starting to think about getting back into our schooltime routine again. 

Because homeschooling is flexible (one of my favorite parts about it), we usually begin our school year the first week of August and end the beginning of May.  This schedule has worked very well for us mainly because starting our school year in early August means that we get a great start before anything else we’re involved in begins.  (Public school around here starts Aug. 16, by the way, so we’re not starting much earlier than everyone else!)  Soccer doesn’t start until the end of the month, nor do any of our homeschool group events.  So, we have a few weeks to get established in our school routine without having to run here and there to soccer practice and field trips.

Okay…now that I’ve explained when we’re starting and why…can I just tell you a little about how excited we’re getting?!

I love this time of year!  Beginning fresh with crisp, never-opened books, freshly sharpened pencils and new notebooks.  (I get a little giddy with just the mention of the word, “supplies”.  Ooh, school supplies?  I love supplies.  I think supplies is one of my favorite words…)

The boys are starting to ask more questions about what we’ll be learning this year, and I can see the excitement in their faces.  (Okay, I LOVE that my boys get excited about learning!)

Here are a few of our homeschool hubbub highlights that I’ll share more about in upcoming posts:

1.  I have made my curriculum list and am getting ready to check it twice.  There are SO MANY great books out there, and while I’d like to buy $5,000 worth of books that look wonderful….I’ve decided that perhaps I’d better not.  I’m working to fine-tune my list so that I can call in my order in the next couple of days.  I’ll share my list as soon as I get it all figured out!  Just in case you might want to know what we’ll be reading this year…

2.  I always order just a couple of weeks before we want to start school.  We get so excited when the books come in…which makes the boys motivated to get started reading and learning…and I don’t want to lose that momentum and excitement with the boys.  If we start school just a few days after the books come it…the boys are pumped and ready.  A few days after I order, we all start watching for the UPS truck.  It is ONE EXCITING DAY when Mr. UPS Man brings our heavy box of books! 

3.  I’ll make each boy a list of the school supplies (supplies!!!) he needs…then we’ll head off to Wal-mart where each boy gets to carry his own basket and pick out his notebook colors, get a new crayon box, etc.  THIS is probably one of our FAVORITE days of the whole year.  I can’t wait to share more about this day with you!

4.  We always give our school room a thorough cleaning, and then we rearrange the desks and rugs and bookshelves so that we start our school year in a “new room”.  The boys love this part too.

5.  Each school year, Matt and I decide on a new “Godly Character Training” focus for the boys.  We make a fun chart so that we can reinforce the behaviors we want to see in our kids.  It seems that the beginning of a new school year is a good time to re-focus and begin fresh.  The boys always anticipate finding out what new chart I’ll make for them!  Here are the charts we’ve worked through in the past several years.  I am SUPER excited about the idea we came up with for this year.  I’ll be designing it and showing it to you soon!  I think the kids are going to love it.  (By the way, we never use these charts as a reward system.  All we have to say is something like, “Elias, you did what I asked without arguing or complaining.  You are really shining like a star right now.  Go put a star on your chart!”  His face will light up and he’ll put a star on his chart and that’s it.  We don’t give them anything for having a certain number of stars on their charts.  The reward is just having Mama and Daddy notice that they are being like Jesus.)  Okay, I am super excited to get this years chart finished up!

6.  We usually let the boys have one big “Before School Year Bash” where they can each invite one friend over for a little party. 

Okay…enough hubbub for now.  I’ll have the camera ready so that I can share with you all of our special days of getting ready for school to start!  Feel free to ask questions and I’ll try to answer them as I write these posts! 

I’m curious about any of the special before-school traditions you have (homeschool or not)!  And also…does anyone else get excited about the word “SUPPLIES” like I do?!  Just wondering!