Want a piece of the pie?

I have been laughing to myself a lot lately about the silly things that young children say. Sometimes those things bring tears to my eyes.

Last week I took Jena with me to get my hair cut. My hair is pretty short now and Jena made it VERY clear to me that she didn't care for it. She believes with all her heart that no one can be considered beautiful unless they have long blonde hair. (I think that most of the world agrees with her too.)

Anyhow, the next morning I was blow drying my hair, a luxury in my morning, Jena walks in and looks in the mirror at herself and says, "My hair is more beautiful than yours Momma." Wow! Where does she get off? I was feeling so defensive that morning and I wanted to yell at her, "Yeah, well, what do you know? You're only 5!" But of course the Lord shut my mouth in the nick of time and I responded something silly like, "Jena you know that really hurts mommy's feelings." (To be honest, I really did feel like crying at that moment. Sometimes it is ok if other people don't like your clothes or your hair cut, but when your own flesh and blood voice what others are thinking, it really does sting.)

So I left Jena to admire herself in the mirror. Later that day Paige says to me, "Mommy your hair looks like a mushroom." Again, I was taken aback! How did she put that together? But then she redeemed herself by saying, "Actually (this has become her favorite word lately) your hair looks like eggplant." Oh how the Lord brings humility through the mouths of babes.

Just yesterday the girls were playing on the playground after school when I walked up to them. One of Jena's friends has an older sister in 2nd grade. I complemented her by telling her that I really liked her t-shirt. She said thank you and another little girl asked, "Do you like mine?" "I sure do," I said, admiring her Wal-mart sticker too. Then I responded, "What about my shirt?" Ok, a voice inside is saying, "Probably not a great idea to listen to a bunch of elementary school girls talk about fashion, but what do I have to lose?" Then Jena's friend's sister says, "Oh it is a little boring but not quite like what my granny wears. " There, that was the warning I should have listened to but I kept it going.

I am sure that others have quietly kept their mouths closed about what they think and they are entitled to that. I haven't quite come around to really appreciating the honesty that I have heard from my girls either. Annie wouldn't even look at me when I got home from the salon. She has since forgiven me though...she laughs at me when I walk in the room.

Duane has been very vocal about what he thinks and it all seems to be positive, of course he is a very good actor! I think that he seems sincere about it, although he teases me a lot. Do I sound a bit insecure about my hair?

So I purposefully didn't include a picture of myself in this entry because I would like to keep you all guessing what a granny wearing t-shirt, eggplant/mushroom haircut woman looks like!
Of course you are also welcome to stop by and have a taste of my humble pie, it is due out of the oven soon.