I'm Back

It’s been a long time. Sorry for the long absence, life gets crazy, especially when you add to your family ;-) That’s right Baby is about to be a big sister. Yay! I’m due with another girl in January. I spent the early part of the summer just making it one day at a time. It was rough. By the end of the the summer I was feeling better but had family in town basically for the month of August... So that’s what I’ve been up to.


A, formally known as Baby, is blossoming into a beautiful little person. She amazes me every day. In fact her favorite saying these days when she sees something she likes is, “wow! Amazing!” Ha! I love it! It’s hard to imagine loving someone as much as I love her, but I know it will come. I’m not the first person in the world to have more than one child ;-)

I have come across a couple of good recipes that I’m going to post and more natural hair web sites that I’m devouring :-) I’ve also been doing some research into more natural cosmetic products. My cousin sent me this link http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ and I looked up my products and to my horror almost everything in my bathroom was ranked high on the toxic scale. We have since switched most of our products to more natural alternatives, i.e. no more lotion, less toxic deodorant, less toxic tooth paste, etc. I guess I was leaning in this direction anyway so it wasn’t much of a stretch.

The Spice of Life: Allspice

This is a favorite Jamaican seasoning that also goes by the pimento. Allspice adds a zest to any meat dish – it is the secret ingredient in jerk (chicken, pork, etc.). It looks kind of like a black pepper seed in whole form, but the flavor is closer to cloves. I use this spice on EVERTHING. It’s what gives my food the, as hubby puts it “well seasoned”, flavor.

Since allspice is native to Jamaica it’s super cheap there so I always stock up when we visit – I actually stock up on all my spices there, they are ridiculously cheap there for some reason.

Forced Diversity?

A few events have brought this issue into my life recently. The first one is the drama with my local school board eliminating the county diversity policy and the second was a recent trip to a local branch of the world’s biggest store to buy a doll for the baby. The only doll of color in the whole store was a Dora that was way more then I was looking to spend. I was told by a manager that the demographics of my area didn’t qualify that store for an adequate number of dolls of color.

In regards to the store – I have decided to vote with my feet and take my money else where. The school situation is very complex and I won’t get into it here, but this all got me thinking – is it going to far to force diversity? I seek out people from other cultures to find mutual interest, is that necessary? Should I just ‘let’ diversity happen or actively initiate it? I grew up in a university town and went to school with kids from all over the world, all we knew was that people were from everywhere and no matter the race or religion we could play together.  It was a great experience that I would like Baby to enjoy, but this area isn’t like where I grew up.  If I don’t initiate the connection it may never happen…

The Big Chop!

I did it! After 6 months of growing my hair out I finally cut off all the relaxed hair. Planning for this for months really helped keep me from freaking out as I looked down at all of my hair on the salon floor.

There was a lot of it. I caught a couple of the other women looking shocked as the stylist clipped away, but it was a good experience. My stylist was natural herself and knew exactly how I wanted my hair. She also gave me some great tips for how to best define my curls and moisturize my hair. That is the name of the game now – no more ‘the straighter the better’ now it’s ‘the more defined and moisturized the better.’

My Hair :)

(face blocked for privacy)

Coupon Clipping – is it Worth the Effort?

I have recently been inspired to save more money at the grocery store by a mom who is a coupon guru. She has it down to a science and saves a small fortune every month – so I thought I would give her method a try. The most important principle she taught me was to save your coupons for when something is already on sale. This principle does however trade the logic of buying only what you need for buying only what’s on sale that you have a coupon for - even if you won't need it for another 6 months. I am now saving about 20% at each shopping trip, but…

There is an issue, not with the coupons per se but with the way that we are buying food – there aren’t any coupons for the produce isle or anything that is fresh. Things are often on sale, but you can’t get the satisfaction of extra saving like you can with the processed food, so I found myself buying things I wouldn’t normally buy in the name of saving money.

I didn’t enjoy eating them as much as I thought I would, so the coupon clipping has since been scaled back. I am still buying things as they go on sale, but not buying anything simply because it’s cheap. Eating well is better than eating cheap and I thank God everyday that I’m not forced to choose the latter.

The Spice of Life

My favorite seasoning right now is garam masala. It is a blend of common Indian spices that add flavor to what ever it is that you’re cooking – I usually like to add it to meat, poultry or fish.

Last weekend I took whole chicken split down the back and seasoned it with garlic, onion, allspice, cayenne pepper, and garam masala. Bake covered at 300˚F for 1½ hours then uncover and turn up the heat to 375˚F for the last 30mins – basting ever 10mins or so. Everyone loved it, including hubby who is sick of baked chicken lol.

Living Naturally

I want to be natural. I am going natural. In different contexts these statements can mean very different things. I embrace both. I grow veggies in the summer, buy organic food for Baby, and try to eat minimally processed food as much as possible. I have also decided to no longer chemically alter my hair – thus, going natural.


It’s not the first time that I’ve made this decision, a couple of years ago I attempted to break free from the 8 week cycle of processing but gave up when it took 2 hours to comb and I didn’t know how to manage my actual hair.

So here I go at round 2, the last processed hold out among my friends and family and I’m ready to take the leap mostly for my little girl. I’m not going to process her hair and don’t want her to think that kinky/curly hair has something wrong with it that needs to be fixed. When I was a kid everyone I knew had chemically straightened hair – except me. I was so jealous of the easy time they had while I struggled for hours never satisfied with the results. I realize now that I didn’t have the tools or information about how to best manage my hair and I don’t want Baby to suffer through the same frustrations.

This time I have resources, information, and tools that I didn’t have before. I also have a hair style and a plan for growing my hair out and cutting (the BIG CHOP!) off the processed part.

Here are a few websites that have been passed on to me that I found helpful:
http://www.tightlycurly.com/welcome/
http://bglhonline.com/
http://nappturality.com/
http://www.mynhcg.com/
http://www.naturalblackhaircare.com/index.html
http://naturalsunshine.ning.com/?xg_source=badge

So I will keep you updated on my progress. So far there is nothing to report. I had my last touch-up early September, so that would make me almost 6 months out. I’m styling my hair in a twist out and using the tightly curly method. So far so good…