I am a dainty flower

I have to start by saying a HUGE sorry for my last post! I was writing it to be funny but it just came off as whiny! There are so many out there that have husbands that work far from home on long business trips, being called up for duty in various armed forces or no spouse at all. I didn’t mean to make it sound like my life was so rough. I was just being silly about my semi-lonely week but it was just whiny. My week was long but really fine!  Please forgive me! That’s what Jesus would do!

So, growing up with 5 brothers, I’ve never totally figured out how to be a girl. I loved frilly dresses as a little girl (I took up clogging just for the fluffy skirts) and my friend, Jessica and I played some serious Barbies well into middle school. But I have never had a real keen fashion sense, known how to do makeup or how to do my hair. It has just been a recent phenomenon that I have even bothered doing my hair, well at least blow drying it and such. I still have not bought hairspray in my 32 years. I am most comfortable in a T-shirt and jeans, flip-flops and windblown hair. A girl I used to work with used to call me ‘the truck driver’ or ‘bohemian’. I didn’t like her much.

I watch TLC’s What Not To Wear on a regular basis, wishing I could be on it so professionals could help me in my plight of non-girlness. I often wonder, though if I would actually stick to it. I have been given makeovers and they don’t stick. Barbara Streisand said it best in The Mirror Has Two Faces, “It’s just me in color.” And I am very comfortable with my T-shirt and jeans. Whenever I try to get more stylish things or just more girly I feel like one of those hippos in a tutu on Disney’s Fantasia!

My oldest daughter was born with more girl genes than I have in my right leg. I have no idea what I am going to do when she wants will be allowed to wear makeup. We can’t even go shopping together because what she thinks is appropriate for a 7 year old is very different from what I think is appropriate. She usually likes what I buy her so I try to do it by myself so we don’t butt heads.

I have also started something with my girls that sometimes I regret. I don’t allow sleeveless anything or short shorts or skirts. I feel I need a jumpstart on the modesty issue so later when it becomes a bigger issue we already have the ground rules and hopefully stick to them. Do I have a problem with little girls in tank tops and such? No, not at all! I just make sure my kids aren’t wearing them so when modesty is a bigger issue later, we won’t have to make huge wardrobe changes. So now my girls think anything sleeveless is immodest and wrong. Which is not what I intended but I am trying to deal with it. She has already complained about friends being allowed to wear tank tops and sleeveless dresses. A nice preview of what’s to come down the road, I am sure.

Anyway, she found a tank top the other day, we have a couple for undershirts, and these really short shorts that I would never let her wear in public-they are for under skirts and such. It was interesting to see the change in her. It was almost like she felt ‘sexy’ for lack of a better word. She moved differently, talked differently and acted differently. I started to wonder if I had done a bad thing by not allowing them. Suddenly, this tank top and shorter shorts, which are really no big deal, it’s not like they said ‘sexpot’ across the chest or butt, became something more to my little girl. They made her feel more attractive or girly. Is that instinctual or something? I remember having this denim skirt that was probably shorter than my mom was comfortable with and I walked around in that thing like I was all that and a bag of chips! Watching my girl change just from changing her clothes freaked me out! I really don’t know how to do it, which is probably why I started now. I am hoping it will make it all that much easier later in my girls’ life to be modest.

So my whole point is, am I very girly? No, but I am a dainty flower and to prove it and I wanted to show you my Homecoming and Prom pictures from high school.

          Homecoming with Russ Phillips. Note the peach dress (I think I had to wear a special bra for it) and the ginormo white bow and nice puffy sleeves! There are my acrylic nails and lip gloss in my hand!

Prom with Steve Goff. Check out his arm candy! That is some big hair, girl! I am pretty sure there are fake nails and lip gloss in hand.

Here is proof that there is a little girlishness in my body! So, even if I am not equipped to raise girls into women, maybe I can balance them out so they aren’t girlzillas! Especially my little redheaded diva!