Body Modification

Well, today all three of my daughters got their ears pierced. This was not such a big deal to me, I've had my ears pierced for years and don't feel strongly one way or the other about it. It was a bit of a big deal to my husband (who also had pierced ears, for a while anyway), for whom the whole body modification process seemed to imply an arrival at a certain maturity, which is dubious in the case of most if not all of our offspring. In other words, I said: "sure!" and he said: "uh--". This morning, after he got the treat of telling our seven year old that she was indeed allowed to go with her sisters and get her ears pierced (joy!) the female members of our family loaded ourselves into the van and headed for the local mall where a very frou-frou store (Claires) offers ear piercing services.

Nobody cried. Not even mom.

Christmas

Well, it's that time of year again. The time of year when I think I have everything ready for The Big Day but there is so much sneaky work left to do I end up feeling like I will never be ready. Special occasions are a lot of work, especially when you have four children depending on you to provide the lights and magic.

It is through the stress of the season that I discover the most grace however. Feeling overwhelmed reminds me that I have a family, a lot going on, volunteering responsibilities, food to get on the table, gifts to wrap...all the things that I have that are stressing me out are the things I would miss the most if they weren't there. So I'm taking this moment in between cleaning like a dervish, trying to keep up with the ordinary clutter and getting the kids finished with their semester to reflect briefly on all the wonderful mess in my life at this time of year. Maybe I'll get a load in the wash while I'm at it.