We send the children off to school in jackets because it is chilly in the morning when the get on the bus. Towards afternoon, the weather begins to warm up. The Children are likely to toss off their jackets into a pile on the ground. At the end of recess, they will probably retrieve them. If just one of the children who tossed a jacket into that pile happened to have head lice then the lice probably jumped onto all of the other jackets. This pile of cloth is the perfect playground for those little biting opportunists to spread. The children will probably slip... more

I bought my first cell phone when I was 34 years old. Somehow, I managed to survive the teenage years, college days, and travel without a cell phone. Of course, now I don’t go anywhere without it. I feel completely lost if I accidentally leave it at home during a simple trip to the grocery store. When my teenagers start driving a car I make sure they own a cell phone and keep it with them. I feel much safer with them on the road knowing they have a cell phone with them. Whenever, my teenage sons go away for a weekend, I make sure they take their older brother’s cell phone... more

Micheline's hair probably has the tightest curl known to man. She has even had other women with African hair comment on how tight her curl is. Unfortunately, the tighter the curl, the harder it can be to pick out when it is in an afro.

African hair may seem strong and wirey, but it is actually very fragile. Since she cut it herself last August which led to a stylist shaving her head, I am doing everything in my power to get her hair to grow once again so we can attempt to style it rather than keeping it in a teeny weeny afro. (TWA)

I... more

It's funny how sometimes you look and look for something, only to find that what you wanted all along was right in your own backyard.

That is how it has been with shampoos for my children of color. When Ben came home six years ago from China, his hair was incredibly dry. I tried a plethora of different conditioning shampoos, but none seemed to do much for his hair. When we were at a Families with Children from China event, I looked around and noticed that many of the little girls in attendance also had... more

I am pretty picky about what I put on Micheline's skin, because it is very dry and she gets eczema flare-ups quite often. If we aren't moisturizing her skin twice a day, she can become very dry and itchy.

For the most part, I prefer to use pure African shea butter mixed with coconut oil. I mix them pretty much 50/50, melt them together in the microwave to make it smooth, and then add an essential oil for a scent since shea butter that has not been chemically treated has a smoky odor.

I've been frustrated... more