Since we've been home from SoCal, we've been anxiously awaiting our trip to Texas and planning our last few cities to tour in Germany when we are there in March. But, we are back at the inn for about a week and I am gathering my Romantic Homes magazines, perusing my very dull wardrobe and trying to find the "girl" in me. Sometimes that's really hard for me to do because I love my hiking boots, my "men's" long sleeve thermals and today, ...me with no make up! Avoiding mirrors today has been easy but every once in a while I catch that plain middle aged old woman staring at me. When I say, "what are you looking at," she just smiles and goes on about her business. It's such a good thing I have a great sense of humor!
I really haven't minded getting older and you can ask anyone, I really didn't whine when I turned 50 last July either. I think I get that attitude from my paternal grandmother who seemed to take "life" in stride. She never complained much, she lived simply and truly enjoyed whomever was around her. And, lucky for me I got to spend a lot of time with her when she was alive and I learned so much just being in her presence.
I have also learned a lot from my mother too. She taught me and is still teaching me how to be a "girl." I'm not sure I'll ever grasp it fully but I can blame that on my dad who loved teaching us how to weed properly, mow the grass and change the oil in the car. Oh, and change a flat tire too. We were pretty proud of ourselves that we caught on so quickly and so was he. He got his boys in the three daughters my mom tried to keep in dresses most of the time. But, it was my grandmother again that probably has influenced me the most in my life. My mom says she taught her so much too. She says she was a better mom, a better wife and overall a better person for knowing her mother-in-law. But the most important thing my mom says she learned was to be sure to put a nice shade of lipstick on your lips first thing in the morning or immediately after you give birth. It was important to my grandma to look kept and tidy. So, if I could have picked anyone to write a book on etiquette in the recent past, it would have been my grandma. I'm sure it would have been a good book!
That lipstick thing always had me wondering and wondering if it would really be the first thing a woman thinks about right after delivering a baby. Well, it's not! It wasn't for me anyways but things change over time and each generation finds out what's important to them and what's not I guess. And the other thing about lipstick, it used to always crack me up to see older women in red lipstick and I don't mean just a light shade of red, I mean that Christmas candy shade of red. However, I'm living proof that a nice bright shade of red can do wonders to fading hair color, skin changes and tired eyes. No one will look at that other stuff when they have two stunning red lips to look at. Why would they want to miss all that!
I will keep leaving those red marks on my coffee cup and they will be a reminder that I can wear red lipstick if I want to and that my friends... will make me smile!
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