Shroud of Turin

Easter has just passed, and as a result I've really been filling up my days with scripture and digging deep into all things Jesus.

One thing that has always fascinated me was the Shroud of Turin. It's one of those marvelous things that we may never know if it's truly our Jesus but to me it's something left behind to give us hope, and keep us believing. Tonight I listened to a very interesting podcast about the Shroud and I will post it here for those who want to listen. http://vftb.net/?p=5057

After listening to the podcast and Googling the images of the shroud again, another image popped into my head. At the beginning of this month as I was studying online about Jesus, I came across a website for an amazing artist. She is a child prodigy and is known for her incredibly detailed paintings of Jesus. I loved her 'Prince of Peace' painting so much that I used it as my screen saver on my computer. Her name is Akiana. Here is a link to her site. https://akiane.com/

Okay so as I am picturing the imprinted image of Jesus on this shroud, I am also picturing the image that Akiana painted. So that made me curious. Scientist whom analyzed this cloth Jesus was wrapped in also developed images of what the face of the man wrapped in this cloth would look like. Here is what they believe that man would look like, and then take a look at Akiana painting of Jesus... I tell you honestly I have chills!









This makes me feel that the shroud was wrapped around my Jesus. That when he was resurrected on that third day, that his image was forever stained into the cloth for all of us to witness the miracle that happened on that day. So that so many centuries later you and I could see it, and believe. Jesus is alive, he has risen and he existed! He walked the earth as the bible describes and yes he did die for our sins, but was brought back to life to fulfill all the prophecies.
How amazing! Today his image still remains in this shroud and no one can describe how!

Here is what the full Shroud of Turin looks like. It has the front image on the cloth as well as the back image.


This is so amazing to me. It makes me love him even more to know he left something for all of us to see and know he is alive!

Auburn to brown using Henna

Henna with Sheena

Freelance writing website???

I was using a free hosting site where I had my website www.sheenadiane.info. However that free site crashed and so did all my links for everything I published, all the websites I wrote content for, and all the blogs I wrote for :(. I don't think I'm going to start up another website because I do have my Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/WritingbySheenaDiane as well as this blog. I'm just not sure if I'm going to be able to find all the links to where my writings are published. Some were to a locked blog and I only had access to my article with the link, now that's it gone, I'm really not sure how I can get it back...

I guess I'll have to start from scratch. I do have a link to the site where I got published in a book! If you'd like to read my article it will be at the link below, and if you'd like to purchase the book, you can do so on Amazon It's called "Open To Hope". It's about how people deal with death with God's help.

Hearing the voice of my father: By Sheena Matos

http://www.opentohope.com/does-grief-end-hearing-the-voice-of-my-father/

2014 is here!

I really can't believe how quickly 2013 went by! We had a lot of wonderful things happen last year. We became home owners and got to build our house! I got a promotion at my job. Johnny is learning a trade as a low voltage electrician. Keira went to home school for 1/2 the year after not doing so good in Kindergarten, then in 2013 she was able to go to the school I work for and is in 1st grade. She is doing so much better now. Sasha is also able to go to PreK 3, and I actually work in her class so that's a blessing!

Johnny returned to church, that has been the biggest and greatest change in the Matos house! A family who prays together, stays together!!
At the beginning of the year we found out we were pregnant with #3 but shortly after lost it :(. After that experience we have decided we are completely satisfied with the 2 wonderful girls we have, and don't want to tempt fate on trying for another baby.

We had the best Christmas ever this year! Lots of gifts, family, fun, food, and love! Plus we got to have Christmas in our new house... I can't recall all the big and small things that has happened this past year, but there was a lot of good stuff in there, and many blessings. God never stops amazing me... I know 2014 will only get better!

Dying my hair with Henna

After doing A LOT of research... I decided today would be the day I tried dying my hair with Henna. I have always loved having red hair, most of my family has natural red hair and mine has always had a strawberry blonde tint to it all my life. So needless to say I know I can pull off the red hair look.

After reading many things, almost all of them say Henna is permanent, meaning once you dye it, you can't really change it with chemical dyes. You just have to wait till it grows out, or try to make it darker using more henna. With that being said I went ahead and took the challenge!

Most times when I dye my hair I get a very non natural looking red. I get a very deep red like Ariel (the little mermaid), or a lighter red that looks brownish with red highlights. I like both, but I wanted to go a little more natural. Because I do always go with the darker reds, I would have to bleach my hair to go strawberry blonde like I wanted this time around. After doing some research on natural hair care, I decided I would give henna a go! Here is a link to the instructions I followed, however I did change a few things, and I'll explain my process to you as well. http://offbeathome.com/2011/11/dying-your-hair-red-with-henna

I bought the same exact Henna from the link above. I got it from Amazon. I have shoulder length hair, and only bought 1 box because I was not sure if I would need more. However, after running out at the very end, next time I will buy 2 boxes to get better coverage. I could not go over my hair and fill in spots I missed because I ran out of henna. 100G was not enough for my shoulder length hair. I will need 200G from now on. I got my glass mixing bowl. a mixing spoon or fork (I used a fork). lemon juice. measuring cups. plastic wrap. 1 box henna (2 boxes will be used next time).

For application I needed: bowl of mixed henna (yogurt like consistency). a hair dye brush (got mine from Sally's). plastic wrap. gloves. I poured my henna into the bowl and poured 1/4 cup on lemon juice in it. I mixed it up. It's very thick and hard to stir. After I got most of the green looking brownish, I added 1/2 cup more lemon juice and stirred it up again until it looked like greenish brown mashed potatoes. I covered it with plastic wrap and left it on the top shelf of the closet for about 20 hours. In the link above she only left hers for 12 hours but I left mine for longer, because in other places I read the longer it sits the better the color will hold in your hair. Not sure how true that is but I did it anyway.

Once I was ready to put the dye on my hair, I had someone help with the application process. Gloves were needed, and lots of Vaseline was used on my ears, hairline, neckline and behind my ears. I wore an old shirt that I did not care to get stained. Note: I did not wash my hair, and it had been about 2 days since my last wash. I read that if you freshly wash your hair, that you will end up staining your scalp orange, because your natural grease will have been washed away. However some do wash hair before they apply, so it's up to you what you feel is best. I went with the dirty hair for my 1st application of henna.

I got my henna down from the closet and added another 1/4 cup of lemon juice. As I was mixing this thick mud together, I decided to add about 3 tablespoons of water (this is not in the link above) then as I stirred I continued adding lemon juice till I got a yogurt like consistency. Once I got the right consistency I went outside so I would not stain anything in the house because henna does not come out very easily.

This is where I needed help. My friend put on her gloves, took my hair dye application brush and started gooping it onto my head. Now if I would have mixed the correct amount I would not have ran out of mixture, so being that I didn't know I did not have as much henna on my hair as I should have. I did miss some spots, but because the color looks so natural it blends in very nicely.

After all was put on my head (took about an hour), then I wrapped my hair completely with plastic wrap. I quickly wiped all the dye off my face and neck to avoid staining. Then I got the hair dryer and got my hair and the plastic wrap hot. I used the blow dryer for about 5 minutes, moving it around my entire head. This also was not on the link above, I read this somewhere else and it said by heating it up, it will help the color to cling to the hair better. It stated that heating it up causes the color to be more vibrant. True? Not sure, but again this is my first try so I'm going all in.

Then I waited....and waited....and waited! Ok so the above link said to keep it on your hair anywhere from 3 to 4 hours and the longer you keep it on your hair the darker it gets! Being that I wanted a lighter, brighter color I decided to only leave mine on for 2 1/2 hours.

This was the gross part! I got in the tub placing my head under the faucet. This is because Henna stains and if you stand in the shower, you may end up with red stains down your back. I got on my hands and knees and started rubbing the dry mud out of my hair. It smells like spinach and dirt. I was sitting in a pool full of brown mud and it took quite a while to get all the caked mud out of my hair. Once I didn't feel the mud in my hair as much I turned on the shower and washed the rest of it out like taking a normal shower. I put conditioner in it for color treated hair. It helped to get more out. I stayed in the shower until the water started running clear. I still got a tea color from the water but it very light.

When I got out of the shower I decided to blow dry it right away, because I was anxious to see the color. Some places said you should let it air dry, but I could not wait. My final results was a beautiful bright orangey red. Yes orange. I'm not a huge fan of the orange look, however it looks very natural, and according to the link above it will only be orange for 3 days until the color sets. I really love it. Being that it was my 1st try, and I made some mistakes I think my hair looks really nice. I will be dying my hair with Henna forever more ;)! Below are the before hair shot, so you can see the color. This is my hair in plastic wrap This is what my hair looks like the day I dyed it with henna for the 1st time

Wash # 5 and #6

I am still only able to go no more than 3 days without washing my hair. No different then with regular shampoo. I do like the fact that I have way more body in my hair, however it's so hard to brush. It gets tangled so quickly and I do notice white powder from the baking soda on my brush. Wash #5. It still looked very dry, but it did have some nice waves going on. That's really the only positive thing I've seen so far. Most of the time my hair does not look very good, and I have been keeping it back in a pony tale most of the time to avoid the looks. Wash #6 was so greasy after I was done that I looked horrible. I did not change anything except that this time I left the vinegar spray in my hair a little longer, because I was shaving. The next day my husband wanted to take the family out to eat. I was getting dressed up all nice, and getting ready for a nice evening out. Before we left he leaned in to kiss me and put his fingers in my hair, and quickly jerked away and said, are you going to wash your hair before we go! That was it, that was my last straw with this experiment!!!! I only had 1 good day out of the entire month trial and good may be an exaggeration, because my hair was still dry and dull looking, but it had nice curls on wash # 4! I work in a school and the way I look is very important. I don't want to have nappy (yes nappy) looking hair for all the parents and students to see before school ends. So I gave into my old shampoo and .... My hair feels amazing again. It's fluffy, and silky, not tangled or knotted. I will miss the body but there are products for that. I know I wanted to go more natural but this project did not work for me. No poo is not for me! On to my next experiment! HENNA (Stay tuned) !