Confessions of a beauty school drop out

Well, maybe I just never went to beauty school.  I probably should have since I am now the hair stylist for both of our boys.  Luckily layering isn't a difficult skill to learn.  What I do not have a grasp of is taking care of hair that is unlike my own.  My entire life I have had really thick hair that tends to be very dry.  As a result, I have always bought moisturizing shampoos, heavy conditioners & hair products that are oil based.  I am always attempting to infuse more moisture into my hair.

Our boys have not inherited my hair.  Yes, they both have thick hair but, they do not have dry hair.  As a matter of fact, they have oily hair.  We are always asking them to make sure they wash their hair twice and really scrub it clean.  I have removed all conditioner from their shower area.  They swear they are washing their hair really well.  Even with all these things in place, the boys still come out of the shower with oily hair.  I am not exaggerating when I say , as soon as their hair is dry, we are already asking if they washed it twice.  I have even taken to rubbing a bit of baby powder in their hair to remove some of the oil.  I mean, how oily can one kids hair be????

This weekend, it occurred to me, out of the blue, that I tend to buy moisturizing shampoos & maybe I had been doing that for the boys.  Oh my gosh!  Sure enough!  There were 3 bottles of different shampoos in their shower & each and every one was a moisturizing or hydrating shampoo.  Michael began reading the labels & right after water, Vitamin E was the 2nd ingredient in each one.  Agh!  Vitamin E is an oil!!!! I had been setting these boys up for hair failure all along.  Wowzers!  News to me!  Now I have to change my entire shampoo buying habits.  Can you teach an old mom new tricks?  For the sake of these oily headed boys, I sure hope so.

Armed with new knowledge, I went shampoo shopping yesterday.  Good heavens, most people must have dry hair.  The entire shampoo aisle is filled with hydrating, moisturizing, and smoothing shampoos.  I had to google 'shampoo for oily hair'.  I finally figured out that clarifying or deep cleansing were the buzz words I had to search for.  I found one!  Aussie has a deep cleansing shampoo.  I'm hoping that means 'oil stripper'.  I'll let you know how it goes when the boys wash their hair today.  Cross your fingers & hope for the best!

Fall Fest Chili Cook-Off

This year, our church decided to have a chili cook-off at our Fall Fest.  I must admit, I enjoyed last year's competition more.  We baked pies and that yielded some delicious competition.  The issue with chili is that its traditionally meat based.  Now, for most everyone at our church, that is not a problem. The problem is only which meat to use; cow, chicken, deer, squirrel, etc....  Well, maybe not squirrel but, I wouldn't be surprised by those meat loving peeps.

Since myself and both boys are vegetarian, we decided to make a vegetarian chili.  The good thing, is that the chili cook-off entries are lined up with no indication of what's inside or who made it.   So you may have already guessed, we didn't win the prize.  I think we won the great veggie prize though.  No one had any idea that there was a tofu chili in the line-up and our chili was eaten!  Take that meat eaters!  You ate tofu & didn't even know!!!

In other news, my husband made a meat chili, he used dead cow.  He didn't win either.  He didn't even win the great veggie surprise award that we gave ourselves.  Take that double, times 3, meat eaters!

In case you're curious, the recipe we used is below.  We didn't have any chili powder in our spice cabinet so, I made my own.  Its really super easy.  Just google that.  I also didn't have onion powder so I left that out of the chili powder mix.

Scrumpdiliscious Tofu Chili
Ingredients:

1/2 yellow onion finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic,minced
1/2 jalapeño pepper
2 teaspoons cumin
enough olive oil to saute your onion, peppers and garlic
14 ounces, extra firm tofu, frozen and thawed
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes
4 tablespoons of chili powder (recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/237172/chili-powder/)
2 (14oz) cans of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14oz) can of corn, drained
salt and pepper

In a large stockpot, saute onion, bell pepper, jalapeño pepper and garlic in the olive oil over medium-high heat until onions are starting to soften. Stir in cumin. Crumble the thawed tofu into the mixture and saute 5 minutes more.

Reduce heat to medium. Add all tomatoes, chili powder, pinto beans, corn; mix well. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

STAAR testing today

STAAR testing is going on at our house today.  Yes, our house.  Connor is partially home-bound so his tests are administered here at home.  The sweetest teacher showed up on our doorstep this morning, ready to roll.  Thank God for sending her.  His regular teacher is ill and he doesn't adjust well to change.  Luckily this teacher is also a vision teacher and has a heart of gold.  When she arrived, Connor was asleep on the couch.  She patiently waited while he awoke - that alone is quite a process these days.  One hour later, he's completed a few math questions and is now leisurely eating his breakfast.  He does not get in a hurry.

These tests are so ridiculous.  (This is where I get on my soap box.) Connor makes great grades in math but can't quite remember what to do when faced with a STAAR test.  He actually just said to me "Momma, I can't finish this test.'  Now comes the part where I beg and cajole him into completing it.  Completing is not quite the same as working the problems and actually getting correct answers, just so you know.  Believe me, we just want him to answer the questions and move on.  My expectations for testing have changed A LOT over the years.  I sure wish I could somehow convey that to the test creators.  Actually my expectations for our school system have changed A LOT too and I really don't care what the test creators do.  I just want Connor to complete this test and check it off the list.

Tomorrow our youngest take a science STAAR test at school.  He will finish his test in under an hour, make an almost perfect grade and the sit there for the next 3 hours bored to tears.  I generally pick him up early on STAAR testing days, but he's missed so much school that I am afraid of being taken to truancy court.  Yes, this happens.  My good friend, parent of 4 A students, all in gifted schools, has been taken to truancy court for 'excessive' absences.  (Am I on my soap box again? probably so.)  So tomorrow, after I pick Cayden up from what he will deem a horrible day at school, I'm taking him out for Fro Yo!  Here's where our tax dollars could really be put to use.  After STAAR testing days, all families should receive a gift card to a local Fro Yo place.  Oh my gosh, what a brilliant idea!  I think I may run for school board!!!!

Oh, one last tid bit about today.  The teacher here administering Connor's test  is allergic to cats.  Yep, we have 2 cats.  Poor lady is a mess!  I just hope she doesn't have a full blown anaphylactic reaction while she's here.  If she does, you can fully expect another blog post today.

Guilty pleasure

I have a guilty pleasure.  Don't fret, its not that guily.  When the kids aren't here, which is VERY infrequently, I watch Bones.  I love that show!  I like the science, the characters, the relationships, all of it.   I'm not a huge fan of television but this show is entertaining.  Now you know.  I am guilty of binge watching Bones.  Thank goodness Netflix has many seasons.  It is coming to an end though.  I think over the past year, I've managed to watch almost all the episodes.  What will I do now? Clean the floor?  Wash the dishes?  No! I guess I will have to read a book.

Still sick.....

We need a serious de-cootifying done at our house.  That and we need to make our kids wear gloves and masks when out in public.  Beware folks, cooties are everywhere!  Connor has had the stomach virus that plagued Cayden last week.  He's been feverish and grumpy.  I'm hoping today is the day that it ends.  Today is the day for healing.  #Getwellsoon

Sick house

Cayden was sick last week and running a high temp.  Took him to the pediatrician, but he tested negative for strep and flu.  Now, Connor and I are sick. Ugh! This virus is terrible!  It makes your back ache and apparently makes nice children turn into bratty little toads!

I'm here!

Its been more than a year since my last post.  How can that be?  Where has the time gone?  Did you ever keep a diary as a young kid or possibly even journal now as an adult?  Not me!  I try, I swear I do.  I've been trying all my life.  I will faithfully start out, well, first I have to find the perfect book and the perfect pen and THEN I can begin.  Time and time again I fail to keep up with it.  Reading through my journals one might think I often slip off into a comma. There are huge gaps in my written memoirs.  Well, here I am, back and attempting to blog.  I have a master plan.  Of course, don't I always? HA!  Anyway, I am going to install this blogger app on my phone.  Yes, that's going to solve all my slacker blogging issues.  I realize this will probably not be so, but I'm going to put forth some effort.  Actually, my big plan is to write a book so I figure I better start practicing my writing skills more often than just to record our grocery list.