Well, it's official, I've "let myself go." I've heard my mom and my grandma use this phrase my entire life. Often it was used at the Sunday dinner table to describe young women at church who used to spend a lot of time getting themselves ready and always looked "put together"...then they got married, had babies, and "let themselves go." Saturday we had a big picnic at my mom's house. My mom does this every year with all the families I grew up with at church. There were about 30 of us together. I'm sure my mom and my grandma were expecting me to show up looking "put together." I don't see these people very often, and you'd think I'd want to at least pretend like I still care a lot about my appearance. I actually did intend to fake it and get on some make up that day. But, I have three little boys and we had to get to the farmer's market early so we could get to the picnic on time. It just didn't happen. First words out of my grandma's mouth..."I'm worried about you, you look awful. Really, you don't look good." Excellent. She repeats this again as she's leaving the picnic, this time in front of all the girls I grew up with who clearly have not "let themselves go." So, I check in with my mom. I asked her if I really look that bad. Her response..."Not that bad, but tired." Yep, there you have it. So, then I start wondering about the Sunday dinner conversations around Gahanna the next afternoon. "Did you see Kerri yesterday? Wow, she's really let herself go. Birkenstock's, no makeup, jeans that were clearly from at least three seasons ago." I thought maybe the best idea would be to just acknowledge the obvious and stop the talking...YES, I HAVE LET MYSELF GO. Here's the really great news, my husband LOVES it. About twice a month I dig out the makeup just for fun, but that's about all I have left in me. And if you think it's bad now, just wait until we add two more kids to this family!
More food news, yes, I'm obsessed with food preservation lately. I made 17 cups of freezer salsa today. It's in 1 c. serving sizes in the deep freezer now, and it's so good. Eric brought home another 20 pounds of tomatoes today that Farmer Kevin gave us. After these are processed we'll have preserved 80 pounds of tomatoes in a variety of forms! So, we'll be enjoying local, organic, summer produce well into the winter. We also canned 17 quarts of applesauce last Friday. Farmer Kevin gave us a sweet deal on the apples and we put the KitchenAid to work. This new toy is AMAZING!!
Way to go on the tomatoes! As for letting yourself go, ehhhh, some people think such things! For the record, my mother thinks the same thing about me. The first time I heard it I was offended. But that was about 24 years ago (my oldest child is 25) and I just ignore it now. And yes, my husband loves it too. He has a saying though that I sometimes hear on the rare occasions that I put on makeup. He says, "Well, even an old barn needs a new coat of paint now and then." I'm not offended by that. I'm amused by it. ;)
CookinsForMe said...
9:33 PM
I though you looked great! You do not look like you let yourself go. The comments are mom things....you get used to them, i.e. What happened to your face?! Uh, it's a pimple, but thanks for noticing. At least you're past the facade, while some of us are in the thick of it.
Alie said...
11:37 AM
I spent some time in Belize this summer where I had no access to make-up, hair products, etc. At first I felt like it took away from my feminity... and then I started to feel refreshed. It is amazing how I have/had let my looks define my identity...
notreallydoingthis said...
4:20 PM