I have very fine, thin hair. I feel like I am always stuck with the same hairstyle because I don’t have enough hair to do different styles. Although I am limited on styles, I have found these things to help my hair grow.
Apply warmed coconut oil or conditioner your hair. Massage your scalp with the tips of your fingers in a circular motion for about five minutes. Rinse and blow dry. Because my hair is so thin and fine, I always use mousse in my hair for added volume. You can try gel but it doesn’t work very well in my hair.
Eat a healthy diet. Make sure you are getting vital vitamins and minerals along with eating plenty of protein. Also eat foods high in vitamin A, B, C and E, iron, magnesium, copper and selenium. Include a good mix and variety of foods. Our bodies need vitamins to come from food and not just supplements. It is important to drink milk and eat cheese, yogurt, eggs, peppers, avocado, fish, beans, fruits and as many veggies as possible. You can also enjoy fueling your body with fruit and vegetable juices. The list can go on and on. Get creative you would be surprised what you come up with.
I flip my hair upside down for a couple minutes a day to allow blood flow to improve circulation which is suppose to help hair growth. I also blow dry my hair upside down for that extra volume. Blow drying hair upside down doesn’t make it grow any faster but it does give it a lot of extra volume.
Try to stay stress-free if possible. I know, easier said than done right? From what I have read in many different articles and have heard from my daughter who is a cosmetologist, is that stress disrupts the normal hair cycle and sends hairs to enter what is the called the fall-out-stage. Get plenty or sleep, spend time with nature and God to keep stress away.
I haven’t tried this yet, but it’s next on my list. My friend told me that she uses aloe vera to help her hair grow. Yep! Just apply dress aloe vera gel mixed with lemon juice and leave on your hair for about twenty minutes. Shampoo as normal to remove aloe vera from hair. You can use aloe vera once a week.
If your hair is not growing or thinning, please speak with your doctor about it. There are some medical conditions and factors or medications that can play a role in hair loss and thinning. It never hurts to be sure that there is not a medical problem causing concern.
Please feel free to tell me your tricks to hair growth. I am always looking for fun, new ideas. Now go pamper yourself!
Hey there! I am not an expert in marriage by any means, but I have been married for twenty-six years. I met my husband when I was too young, at fifteen years old. So we have traveled a lot of road together and I am here to tell you that marriage is not always a walk the park. There are lots of highs and lots of lows. You have to die to self and fight to stay alive in this world today where it is very much the norm to get a divorce if you get ticked off at your spouse. It is easy to give up.
Being a young bride at nineteen, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I did. But I didn’t. It’s so easy to think that life will be a bowl of cherries and that love will get you through anything. It’s true, it may, but it’s hard and ugly sometimes. You have to have stamina and commitment. I am about to share my personal struggles and triumphs along the way and why my husband and I choose to say “I love you, but I don’t like you”.
Some of my opinions are probably different from some brides that were older when they married, but maybe not. I am not here to judge anyone or make anyone else view marriage the same way I do. I hope to be able to encourage anyone that may feel or be experiencing the things I talk about.
We were married when I was nineteen, he was twenty-three. Yes, that was a huge age gap for the age we both were at, which is one reason we dated for four years before marriage. And still, looking back I know we weren’t really mature enough to be a healthy married couple. We did it though! Come hell or high water we were going to make it work and prove everyone wrong that we weren’t too young. Well, so far we have succeeded, but not without bumps along way.
Due to me having Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Endometriosis, we had our children right away. My husband had absolutely no experience with children and I absolutely believed I was born to be a Mom and that was the most important thing for me to accomplish in this life. He of course wanted me to be happy and he did want children as well, but we really weren’t prepared for what was going to hit us financially or emotionally. We hadn’t talked about raising kids, paying for kids, birthing kids, educating kids, etc. You get the point. We were so young and really were in our own world. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not resentful at all that I had my girls young. I just know that some struggles wouldn’t have been there if me and their Dad had been a little bit smarter or maybe I should have been more thoughtful and more of a planner. I can talk about all the things I should have done but I am not going to bore you with that. I am glad I have the experiences I have and everything happens for a reason.
My husband was not established in a career when our first daughter was born and jumped from job to job trying to figure out the best way to support his family. I stayed home with the baby as we couldn’t afford childcare. I ended up doing daycare and teaching childbirth classes to help ends meet, but oh how the struggle was real. Three years after my first daughter was born we welcomed a second daughter. As much as I don’t like to admit it, lack of money caused a lot of problems between us. We didn’t have two nickels to rub together half the time and it was stressful. We were late on our bills, we used food pantries, I was angry that we let ourselves get into this situation and for many years the anger engulfed me and the person I used to be was gone. I became so focused on how to survive every day that I forgot about uplifting each other and our marriage. My husband felt guilty and frustrated all the time so times were difficult. It became easy to be frustrated or angry with each other and not extend grace to each other like we did before we were married. This is still one of our struggles today after almost 27 years.
I feel like when we are young and seeking a mate we look at life through rose colored glasses. I know I felt like we could conquer the world and as long as we had each other, we could get through anything. God tested me with this attitude. My husband was working construction and got hurt on the job. We went through eight years of work comp. People think work comp is great, but insurance companies starve you out, which means they don’t pay you and make you take them to court to get money to live off of. I practically had a nervous break down several times during this time frame. I had my girls that made me get up every day and work my butt off to provide for us as my husband had five surgeries in four years. The struggle was so real. Pain changed my husband. He wasn’t the man I married. He wasn’t fun and easy going any more. He became depressed and angry. It was during this time in our life that I had to say to him, “I love you, but I don’t like you.” That’s a hard truth. He was my best friend, gave me two beautiful children and dang it, we had plans for our family. One thing is for sure… God’s plans are usually different from our own. Looking back now, I am thankful that God knew what he was doing because we sure didn’t. Nobody really knew how bad it was for us. Over time we lost our home, became isolated and no longer wanted to socialize and spent every waking moment surviving each day. We didn’t like each other anymore and yet we had to depend on each other to survive. Neither of us would give up on the other even though there were so many harsh feelings. I know I married this man for great, fantastic reasons and qualities, but life had beaten us down so mush that we seeing the negative way before the positive. The struggle was real.
I write these struggles specifically to let you know that marriage can get dark. Very dark. It can also be wonderful and fabulous. In my case, I feel like I was extremely young at fifteen years old to even be able to comprehend the magnitude of what it meant to be a wife and to know what I would want in a spouse. Keep in mind here, that I am not bashing my husband. He is a good man and a great father that would die for us girls. The issue is that I didn’t know what to look for. What was my type? Yes, I thought my husband was very handsome and was a great person, but that can’t be the main reasons you get into a relationship. A person can be a great person but that doesn’t mean they are your match. Also, I don’t think he knew what he wanted, we were just attracted to each other and had fun driving around in his car and shopping together, so in my mind, we got along fine. We never took the opportunity or knew to take the opportunity to really dig deep into who each other was. I feel like I ended up forming to be who he wanted and not totally becoming who I was meant to be. Being totally honest and real with you, it is still one of our biggest struggles in our marriage.
I encourage everyone, no matter what age you are, to listen to the opinions of the more wise before you make the life long commitment to marriage and to be totally honest with yourself and to your possible spouse with what your wants, needs and criteria are for marriage. If you want six kids and your possible spouse only wants two, that is a problem. Discuss money! You don’t have to be rich but you both will be much happier if your on the same page about who’s making the money, how much money you need to live off of, how much money to save and spend, etc… Talk about raising kids, does your spouse expect you to cook, clean or massage feet? Even the little things can turn into big things. The big things can turn into little things if talked about between you and consideration is made for each other. Communicate, even if it hurts. Another thing my husband and I say is “I would rather hurt you honestly, that hurt you with a lie.” It’s in life’s darkest moments that reveal our true selfs. “I love you, but I don’t like you.” is our way of expressing unhappiness to each other without degrading or using more hurtful words that would be hard to recover from. I hope you find hope and encouragement in this post and be blessed. Please let me know what you do in your marriage to stay happy and considerate of each other.
I can only imagine that “home” has many different meanings. I was very blessed as a child. My parents divorced when I was four years old and even though they were no longer married, they co-parented very well and remained friendly for my sake. I had two older sisters. One was sixteen years older than me and the other one was eleven years older than me. So growing up, I had many homes that I stayed at and it wasn’t until I was older that I realized how different I was from the majority of my friends. Most of my friends had the normal family or at least in my mind they did. They had both parents living together, they had siblings, usually younger, and of course the family pets.
Although, my family was different, I loved it, even though I thought all my friends had the normal family that somehow had passed me by. My life was interesting for several reasons. Because of the fact that my sisters were so much older than me, I would frequently stay with them and I felt very at home with them. They played a huge part in raising me seeing that they were so much older when I was born. I was always included in their life activities and it was like I had a separate home with each of them. I was one lucky girl. On top of having my sister’s homes to go to, my Dad remarried and in the summer I would go stay with him. Much of my time spent with my parents were between the states of Illinois, where my Dad lived and California, where my Mom lived. So between my two sisters and both my parents, I already had four homes to consider my home. But that’s not all! At some point (I don’t exactly remember when) but my Mom was struggling with depression and I went to live with my Grandparents. They were wonderful and I felt right at home there as well. I was a well loved kid. Thank goodness. I had five wonderful homes that I was considered to be a part of. It wasn’t as if I was a guest either. I truly was wanted and felt like all these different houses were my home.
So when asked what does “Home” mean to me? I will probably have a very different answer than some of you reading this. I personally think that “home” is the place that you feel wanted, safe and loved. Where you can lie your head down and night and sleep knowing that you are in a good and welcoming place. A place that you will wake up happy.
Home at my oldest sister’s home meant talking, giggling so much and not really knowing what we were giggling about. Home with her was being together and cooking tacos. Oh, the tacos! I still love tacos. Her home was my home because together we shared so much. She taught me how to be Sassy too! I was the little sister that wanted to hang out with the big sister and luckily she loved me enough to include me. Thanks Sis!
Home at my other sister’s house meant talking and being silly. I always remember grocery shopping with her and being included in day to things. I remember going boating and eating at restaurants with her and my niece. I babysat a lot for my niece and I loved it so much. Her home was home to me because we made memories and jokes that nobody else understood.
Home at my Grandparent’s house meant lots of food and fun times with family. Grandma would cook every day and expect people to show up. She would start cooking every morning, not knowing how many people would be there for lunch or dinner, but somehow she always had enough for everyone. The amounts of food that woman could cook in such a short time was amazing. Home meant desserts too. I don’t remember a time where there wasn’t something sweet after a meal. Yes, I do blame Grandma for my sweet tooth. Home meant pure silliness and dancing and playing video games with Grandpa. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t beat me. Those were the days. Home meant love, joy and time spent with each other.
Now as an adult with my own home and family, the meaning of “home” to me is different. Home to me is still where the love is and where I feel safest, but home is where my family and friends come. Home is a warm and inviting place where we share stories, memories, make new memories, love each other and if I am being totally honest, occasionally have a disagreement or argument. But because it’s home, that’s where we can be honest and open with the ones we love. Home is my happy place where I go to escape the rest of the world and try to make sense of all the crazy stuff going on in this world. Home is where my grown children come to visit. Home is where we give each other hugs and forgive and encourage each other. Home is what we make it. It’s like legos. You learn to build a home one brick at a time. There is not the perfect home, but there is a home that is perfect for you.
I would love to hear your stories of what “home” means to you. Please share if you feel so inclined. It would totally make my day to hear from you. Have a great day!
If you think about it, communication is the key to life or maybe I should say is the key to finding success in life. We use communication every day. Communication isn’t just talking. It’s in our actions, it’s in our body language, it’s how we say things and how we put extra effort into someone else to tell them we care about them. Communication can be as simple as speaking to someone you know or maybe don’t know. Your communication can cause someone to have a great day or a horrible day. It’s up to you to decide how you communicate and it can be a lot of work for people who struggle with positive communication skills.
I really want to talk about tone of voice. Think about it. When your talking to a child, most likely you are using a more quiet voice and not screaming or yelling your words to them right? If it’s a baby or a young child you probably even change how your voice sounds. I know I do and my family tells me I sound silly, but I don’t mind. Kids love it. It makes them more comfortable. No, I am not suggesting that you go around talking in a funny, little voice to everyone. I am suggesting that paying attention to tone may help you have successful communication with people.
When you are talking to a boss or going on a job interview, you tend to carry yourself a certain way. You want the job right? You dress to impress to communicate that your professional, you answer questions to the best of your ability without saying “Um” too many times and you don’t walk away from your boss while he’s still talking to you. It speaks volumes when you put an effort to make the other person feel heard and acknowledged through communication. It’s not always easy, but I do feel these are reasonable standards to go by.
One thing that I do not like personally is when people won’t look at you when you are talking to them or they are talking to you. Eye contact is something that I feel is no longer being taught with the younger generation. I am not sure why but it really bothers me. I feel like when people won’t look at you when talking to you or being talked to, that they may be hiding something or arebnot trustworthy. Am I alone in this thought process? I understand that there are people with anxiety and some disorders that may be the reason and I am not down playing that. I just think it’s important to be comfortable enough to be able to look at someone when they are talking to you.
I absolutely hate it when people point or shake their finger at you when they talk to you. Stop doing that! It’s belittling and demeaning. It makes you look like a “Know It All.” It comes across as overbearing and sometimes as bullying. I get it that some people are animated and need to do something with their hands when they are talking, but for me, pointing and shaking their finger at me causes me to focus on their finger instead of what they are saying. Just throwing this out there for people to think about.
Another big thing that can cause a problem in relationships and communication is a person’s body language. If I am telling someone something and they have their arms crossed, rolling their eyes or looking away as I am speaking, this is very disrespectful and I will call you out right there. If I am trying to have a conversation with someone and they are paying more attention to their phone than to what I am saying, I will probably ask you to repeat what I just said. Most of the time the person can’t tell me. So frustrating. Put the phone away and actually communicate people!
People communicate differently. I understand that and I am not asking for perfection. I just want people to be aware in today’s fast paced world to slow down and take time to listen, talk and respect each other not only in professional atmospheres but also at home with your kids, spouse, siblings, grandparents, the waitress, the cashier, etc… Think about how many people you communicate with every day. A smile or a wave of the hand can be a friendly hello. Communication is key to many different types of relationships.
Most importantly, I have found that having good communication skills will actually help in scenarios that there is miscommunication. Having good body language, staying calm, having eye contact, talking respectfully and with good tone can go so far in helping a uncomfortable or upsetting situation. Work on it folks! It’s not rocket science but it doesn’t always come natural either. My husband is very socially awkward. All this that I have discussed here is not a natural or easy thing for him. He thinks I am over the top with some things too. LOL. All I want to do is encourage better communication so that relationships, rather casual or professional can be improved and easier. Thanks for reading my ramblings. Please share your thoughts with me on this topic. Would love to hear from you.
