New Year’s Resolution

Happy Belated New Year everyone, I hope last year was as productive and enjoyable as you hoped it would be and that next year will be even better. At New Year’s dinner this year when everyone was declaring their resolutions for 2011 I found myself at a complete loss. Be a good mother? Exercise more? Eat better? No, those all rang cliché to me and not a “new” goal. I know that this year is going to be a tumultuous one, having just given birth the week before to a beautiful baby girl, E, and with the prospect of an international move on the horizon and everything that goes along with that. It seemed unrealistic to expect to achieve anything more ambitious than survival.


That being said, after a couple of days of contemplation I decided that my resolution this year would be to keep up appearances. It may seem vain and superficial but looking good makes me feel more confident and I know that even though they shouldn’t the world judges people based on looks. I don’t want to be one of those women people feel sorry for because they’re always wearing pajamas. I don’t want to be martyr mom who takes care of everyone but themself. That’s okay, I don’t need that cross to bare.

I recently had a fashionista friend help me audit my wardrobe and while she decided that I should keep my collection of T-shirts, they were relegated to the category of workout clothes. Ha! They were the lynchpins of my daily mom uniform.

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 :)

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