My curly haired girl....

"How beautiful you are, my darling!

Oh how beautiful!" 

Song of Soloman 4:1a

This is my girl....and she has curly hair. 

For some of you looking at these pictures, thinking "that's not that curly". 

You are correct. It's not THAT curly, but it is curly enough to cause tangles galor. 

I can't even begin to imagine having to manage super tight curly hair. You can just comment when I'm done and say what a gift I have and to stop belly aching about it. :-)

What you're looking at is actually after I have stuggled, she has cried, and it is brushed out as straight as possible and put into braids. I absolutly love her naturally curly hair simple left wet and air dried. However, so do the tangle monsters. They not only love it, they adore her hair. 

Plus she's a tosser when she sleeps so that doesn't help with the inevidable tangles. 

This is a picture of her after waking up and what her braids look like which means mornings still have the rebraiding process. Which is better than the detangling process, but somehow they still creep in. She was actually putting a pin on her great-grandma in this picture. It was so precious. 

Last night was a rough brushin out night....

She cried as usual.

I got impatient as usual. 

Nobody wins in the hair brushing process at our house. 

Am I alone?

I was actually thinking about the recent Little House we had ready

where it spoke of Mother loving brushing out Laura's hair before bed

and what a bonding time that was for them. 

It made me a little sad because hair brushing time is not a great mother/daughter time for us.

Reagan is such an AMAZING little girl that hardly ever needs correcting

or discipline at all. So I always feel terrible after I've verbally told her to stop crying over

getting her hair brushed. I do believe that she has a very sensitive head. But still....

Well, I want to try very hard to set aside time (?) that we can sit down and

turn this hair brushing process around. What a wonderful thing to have it 

be a loving memory of time together instead of tears (from both of us.) Just kidding...well, most of the time. :-)

"Your beauty should not come form outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gently and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful...."

I Peter 3:3-5a

She is a beautiful little girl...inside and out. 

After our difficult hair brushing time, I laid in bed with her for a long time just cuddling and talking. 

Hopefully, those are the memories that she will take away.

From the blessed/annointed fingertips of Ann Voskamp at www.aholyexperience.com: 

“Like the to-do list that isn’t touched and the read alouds I don’t read with children and the memories I’m not making and the intentions I don’t follow through on. Like the decisions I can’t make– and then do make. And wonder if they were the right ones at all?” I don’t have to look up. I know how she’s listening, how her eyes are simply waiting to hear, understand. A mother can always be pregnant – full of grace. She must feel it, me all stirring. “It’s about getting it all right?” Did she speak this softly when I wailed through the nights, when she held me and rocked? “No…” Why do I always have soul amnesia? Why can your head figure things out so much faster than your heart? Why is it that what runs through your veins learns so slow? It’s about praise, not perfection. The only right is found in His righteousness and grace is always the most amazing of all. Yesterday, I decided that making memories in December is far more valueable than doing math. I've always talked about taking December off of school, but I feel so guilty....like someone will find out. :-)  My heavenly Father already knows that December is super busy for us (as well as many others) and He's that one that I'm trying to please.  So yesterday we did NO school. Insert gasp here.... But we did enjoy family time and learning happened along the way. I'm not an unschooler by any stretch of the imagination. However, as I journey along this homeschooling path that God has called my family to, I discover that my own expectations and requirements sometimes (often) take away the joy of learning.  Sweet Girl showed her brother how to properly wrap a Christmas present. It was so sweet. He was struggling to get it right and she said that she used to be bad at wrapping gifts also but that last year I had sat down and showed her how to do it and now it was easy. She was then showing him. It was learning being transfered.  We cooked. Cleaned. Played with puppies. Cooked some more. Wrapped presents. Made gifts. Talked about family members. Shared stories. Had dinner together with Daddy. Practiced piano. Had good and bad moments. Read more of the Christmas story. Stayed up too late just loving on each other.  Yes.....that's a good trade off for Math. That'll come later. But yesterday.....I chose to LIVE IN THE MOMENT!  Blessings to you and your family as you capture December moments together!