* Everything is Beautiful

I remember a song from years ago that had the line "everything is beautiful...in its own way." This was not a concept I grasped at the time, and I haven't thought of it in....well a very long time. The notion came upon me the other day when I watched my daughter prance away. She was wearing yet another combination of clothing that caused me mental anguish. (Did I mention that she has climbed up into her closet to retrieve the summer clothes I did not put away high enough? We have now compromised and she is allowed to wear skirts with pants underneath and bathing suit tops only when covered by a long sleeve shirt)

I have learned that she picks out her clothes based on the beauty of the individual items, rather than the combination and overall look. Matching? What is that? Due to this approach we often leave the house in something similar to the following

• Blue jacket
• Light pink long sleeve shirt with a horse, complete with pink stringy tail
• Hot pink Skirt
• black pants/leggings with pink ballet slipper design
• shiny pink "mary jane's" that are neither light pink or hot pink in color

I might also note that not a single pink in that outfit coordinated with any other pink in the outfit. In fact clash comes to mind. She thought she was beautiful. She walked with assurance of her beauty throughout several stores as we did some Christmas shopping. I had to refrain from telling everyone we met that she dressed herself. That I as her mother did provide adequate clothing in matching colors. But as I said I have been practicing my deep breathing and instead told no one, and merely agreed with her that everything was beautiful, that she was beautiful, in her own way.

And she was.

Un-Manly

A couple of days ago MSN had a link to an article entitled, "Top 50 Unmanly Things to Do". From this article, you are conisdered unmanly if you:
49. Shave more than 2 times a week. Really? Most of us have jobs that need for us to look professional, let alone my wife kind of digs that smooth skin!
47. Washing dishes. I think if any of you ask your wives if washing dishes is attractive, they would rank that up there with vaccuuming, and giving the kids a bath!
43. Remember an Anniversary. Seriously? Unmanly?
36. Going to tanning beds. OK, I can see that one.
26. Letting your woman work while you are at home playing the Xbox 360. I agree with this one as well. Being a worthless dirtbag is completely unacceptable.
5. Hitting a woman. Enough said. It is never EVER OK to hit a woman.
And the number 1 thing you ask?
1. Answering anything but" Sure, they look nice honey", when a female asks you if her shoes look cute. Oh, come on. How is this unmanly?

I am sure the article is more for tongue and cheek, but it is a little scary that some would actually believe this junk. Being "manly" requires us guys to do things that usually go against what our culture tends to teach us. Men SHOULD open doors for ladies, and show them all kinds of respect. Men should take care of their ladies in every capacity they (the men) possibly can. Men SHOULD show that they appreciate all that their lady does for them.

Being a man is getting rid of that junk in your head that says things like "I am a man. I don't do dishes." or "Your the wife. The kids are your problem." There ar a litany of others. These comments are nothing more than insecurity issues. To be truthful, they are more on the order of being unmanly than a lot of the things in this list.

Guys, treat your woman right. Make her feel like a woman. Make her feel appreciated. Make her feel loved. And if you have sons, teach them how to do this by treating their moms that way.

* The Beginning of Winter

We have returned from our week long trek into the world of Thanksgiving visits. Both Judah and myself hold fiercely to our family gatherings, so that requires going both places. This is something we used to attempt on Thanksgiving itself until our son was a toddler, when we then switched to going to the second place on Friday, revamping the alternating pattern used by most couples. With Thanksgiving over my brain has decided it is winter, a few weeks before the official date. I also now have permission to decorate the house for Christmas and play holiday music whenever I want.

We began decorating Sunday night and succeeded in getting the trees assembled and lights on. Judah's tree took much less effort since he rejoices in jerking it out of the box in one (three foot) piece and plunking it into the stand - DONE. Both children were very much into helping and staked their respective gender claims, my son took the yellow and black tipped branches and my daughter the red and pink, leaving me the green, white, and brown to place into my larger than three foot tree. When the time for lights came they were both still enthused about decorating and wishing to help. I must now state that I am a bit particular about the storage of our Christmas lights and have repackaged them each year as they originally came so as to not have to untangle anything. It has been a great system. Thirty seconds into the lights my daughter had already removed an unapproved twisty tie and lost it while not moving from her place, something only a three year old can do. She was removed from her post. This may sound harsh but it is the way of things. :) She was not beaten, just demoted. Perhaps she can reapply for the position next year. My son held the post of twisty tie unwrapper beautifully. Not losing one of them through the remainder of the process. His method was unorthodox but effective. As each tie came off he twisted it into a man/alien figure that marched around the dining room table. He proudly took the twisted figure into show Judah in the other room. His father was decidedly reserved since he has known me far longer and has also been demoted from Christmas light twisty tie removal in the past. In a hushed tone Judah asked his son

"Does your mother know you did that?"

Bless them both. :) Admittedly I nearly fell over the first time I saw the figure, but I have been working on my deep breathing, and he definitely wasn't losing any.

We are doing the remainder of the decorating today, ornaments. Pray for us.

On another topic.....

It snowed here yesterday, which in my brain was perfect since it was December 1 and seemed to symbolically agree with my notion that December should be a winter month. Nothing stuck but it was beautiful to behold. The kids came out of karate in the middle of it. My son ran around and stuck out his tongue and generally looked so stereotypical that it was adorable. When we were driving later we turned a corner and hit a larger flurry that took my breath away. Fat fluffy flakes swirling around - perfect. I felt like Elijah in 1 Kings 19"...for the Lord is about to pass by.... and after (all the big stuff like earthquakes and fire)... there came a gentle whisper." I am thankful that God passed us by yesterday.

May He give you eyes to see the same.