I’ve spent the past couple days tinkering with my kids’ hair.
I first tried out my new clippers and shears last Thursday night. I worked on my oldest on and off for two hours, referring to this video for guidance. At the end he looked like this:
I wasn’t satisfied, so Saturday he spent another half hour or so under the shears. That looked pretty good, but I couldn’t help myself, and on Sunday morning went back at him to try to even out his bangs. Um, now his hair is a lot shorter.
I also cut my other son’s hair, on Saturday and Sunday. His hair is a lot easier to cut, but he is much squirmier, and requires a promise of two lollipops. These pictures are from in between the two cuts:
Basically, I’m out of hair to practice on until theirs grows in again. It doesn’t look perfect, but the new equipment makes a big difference, and the video definitely explains it well. I could also forgo the scissors and just do clipper cuts, which would be easier. I want to snip away at my daughter’s hair, but I know she is really going to be hard to keep still.
It is a thrill when the clippers get going and a big hunk of hair falls away. Wheee!
The special shears, by the way, are super sharp. My left hand has 3 stab wounds and one sliced finger, from where it failed to get out of the way of the right hand as it cut.
I was supposed to go out with my BFF on Saturday night in Atlantic City, but my husband got sick, so that was a bummer. Hoping to reschedule that somehow.
This week, my middle son starts going to pre-K full day instead of half day (still 3 days a week). Today was the first day, and it’s already so awesome. It’s got me really excited for next fall, when (probably) all three kids will be in school all day. I used the extra time today to… nap. Eh. It’s raining.
Doing pretty well on the food front. Haven’t eaten out since the King of Pizza last week, and I made a point today for lunch to make something for my daughter and I that would use up leftovers. Still working on the decluttering, and hoping to sell some more stuff.
Beyond the haircuts and the decluttering missions, I’m not feeling too inspired. The weather, the cold, and the readjustment from the holidays has left me feeling stuck in neutral. Not in a bad way, necessarily… I just want to curl up and keep working on the giant jigsaw puzzle we started over Christmas vacation (from the thrift store) and keep reading Bark, Lorrie Moore’s latest short story collection (thanks Mom). It’s good because it keeps me from shopping or planning costly home improvement projects. (I did a lot of online browsing after Christmas but ended up buying nothing except socks and underwear for the kids from Kohl’s and the 75% off stuff from Bath and Body Works.) I also have been working on the piece of writing that I want to post on here by the end of the month (eek! maybe). And all I need for that is computer access, caffeine, and time.
McGuire Domestic Enterprises 
Mom also got me “Bark.” I devoured it in about three nights. I was really starved for something to read but now I am without a book, so any recommendations are welcome.
I definitely don’t read as fast as I used to. I finally just recently finished “Visitation Street” and liked it more at the end than I did at the beginning. Someone whose books I’ve been meaning to read is Elena Ferrante. She’s Italian so they are translations. Maybe look them up. Supposed to be really good. Also do you ever go on http://www.therumpus.net? Good way to find out about authors and books.
I also want to read “Wild” and this book by Tracie McMillan, forget what it’s called but it’s about food in America — she worked on a farm, at an Applebee’s and somewhere else, to study the food chain, so to speak. But my unwillingness to pay for books at the moment is getting in my way. I put in an Interlibrary Loan request at Colls Library for it but I think it vanished.