Team Gray!

Ok, so it’s not a traditional Thanksgiving preparation, maybe, but I was more concerned about hair today than turkey.

Now, if my oldest daughter hadn’t taken over turkey preparation a few years ago, I’m sure turkey would be on my radar. But she’s freed me up to worry about *important* issues–like the family picture.

We really like to do up Thanksgiving morning, with dressing up, remembering the first Thanksgiving with readings, five kernels of corn, a hymn, and baked French toast.

And after all the ceremony, I like to take pictures.

I had wanted Yanni to get her hair done yesterday, but she had swimming until evening, so I got mine done. I promised the little girls we would wash and straighten and curl their hair for the event. Their new clothes arrived today, just in time, and they squealed with delight at the idea of a makeover.

But we had a pesky thing called school to do during the day, followed by ballet and Bible study, and the evening commute. .. so we weren’t washing hair until after dinner. And, let me tell you, hair takes time. Especially fancy hair.

So I had to cut my losses and promise to get up early. Not that I wouldn’t need to get up early and cook, but now I need to jump out in front of cooking with beautification.

If you have more than a couple heads to style, break down your task as much as you can. Decide whose hair will dry quicker and wash their hair first. First I washed each girl’s hair separately. Then I divided each girl’s hair into sections and made knots out of the wet hair. By the time I finished washing the second girl’s hair, the first girl’s hair was almost dry. By the time I finished sectioning off the first girl’s hair, the second girl’s hair was not so wet. But her hair is thick, so it still had a ways to go before it would have air dried.

Then I used the blow dryer on each girl, braiding or twisting each section after it was dry. When I finished drying the second girl’s hair, I told her I would get up early and press her hair. The first girl has softer hair, and I flat-ironed it tonight. Then I rolled it up in five long curlers and put a pair of old tights over the whole thing. The other girl went to bed with tights over her braids.

Another way we redeemed the time was in sharing the task. My 9 year old daughter braided her baby sister’s hair while I worked with her other sister’s hair. All three girls will be ready for more beauty in the morning.

I will post pictures as soon as they’re available.

Freedom—free-falling, or free-flying? The potential is there for either one. I didn’t know that the decisions to homeschool was ultimately the decision to be free—and all that freedom implies.

I hear questions like “what is there for homeschoolers, or what do they do for gym?” Questions that don’t have anything to do with freedom. When I hear people say “my child’s teacher let me come in the class. .. “ I think, ‘what?’—Isn’t that your child? You’re not free to be in the place you send them all day? How abdicating, how hands- off!

I didn’t know I was stepping off into freedom. I knew I was stepping into the unknown, and I expected have a guide—the person I blamed for our doing homeschooling in the first place—for many years. Of course, I wouldn’t have done it (homeschooling) if it weren’t for God, and it was really cowardly of me to try and blame my decision on someone else.

And blaming that person was unfair to her, and totally missed the point. I’m sorry for that. Because this was about freedom! There is no guide. I didn’t get that.

I think I sensed that freedom can be isolating. You are free to make decisions that nobody else has ever made, right? So you have no guide, and a darkly lit path, if any. You may be forging your own path.

And sometimes I wonder at what cost freedom? For example, our children are free to decide whether or not they want to play on a team together. They are free to skip practice, or attend. They are free to wear whatever shoe color they want on the team, and free to choose their numbers.

They don’t look as cohesive as other teams they play, especially school teams. When they lose games, the coaches like to blame the schools and their daily practices. But we could choose daily practices, too. We have the freedom to do that. Instead, we choose to practice maybe 3 days a week, if we can make it. Maybe our attitude of complete freedom is not as conducive to a team situation as an approach that would emphasize community? Maybe?

As homeschooling parents, we are free to decide what our children should learn. Then we are responsible for what they learn. That is the case, whether we homeschool or not. That idea just didn’t hit my radar before I jumped off into the homeschool abyss.

That freedom can be a heady thing. They say after slavery was abolished, some folks just wandered aimlessly, looking for their people, not sure where to go or what to do. That’s easy to do without a plan.

I would urge anyone considering homeschooling to survey the landscape carefully and decide where you want to end up. Then you have the freedom to carve your path to that destination. It is an awesome responsibility, and an amazing journey.

Not to be entered into lightly. What do you think?

My friend Della told me she was excited to get this recipe for Thanksgiving. And then my computer choked under the pressure of producing video. But, with much less effort than producing segment 1, I present you segment 2. I hope to get segment 3 out before Thursday. But, (shhhh), don’t tell my computer!