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Monday, January 31, 2011

Beauty

I don't know how many of you read the Denton Sanitorium. Jen's a sweet LDS mom of 7 (I think! I might have missed one when I was counting, since I space things like numbers all the time now!). It's fun to read her blog. It's just as fun to read her son's blog. He's a freshman at BYU and hilarious, so I always enjoy when she shares links to his blog (which is why I don't have a link...I always just follow hers!).

Anyway, tomorrow she's having a linky party and I liked it so I'm going to try to remember to participate.  Whether I link up or not, I wanted this little reminder to me. So here's what she asked us to do. I'm posting it today so that anyone who actually still reads this is able to think about it and link up tomorrow too if you want.
    "Here's the challenge:
Straight after a shower or after you've washed your face, take some time to really look at that woman in the mirror.  What do you see that's beautiful? Ignore or re-evaluate those things that have always bugged or challenged you. What is your singular, personal element of beauty? Is it skin, ears, hair? Is it wisdom or humor or understanding in your eyes?  We all have one thing that not only makes us individuals.  That one thing makes us beautiful.  What is yours and why?"

I loved that!  We have things on all sides of us telling us that we're not pretty enough or not good enough and Jen's actually asking us to find those things that we love about ourselves! 

Here's mine (and maybe if you're all seriously unlucky I'll take a picture of myself straight out of the shower so you can see what I'm talking about): I love my eyes.  I always have.  They're a very pretty blue-ish color that changes all the time. My daughter has my eyes (which is funny since they started out looking like her daddy's) and she's always asking me if her eyes are blue or green.  The answer is yes. It depends on the day and the moment you're looking and what we're wearing. Along with my eyes, I love my eyebrows.  I've tweezed my eyebrows once, because I had one stray hair.  Coming from parents who have to tweeze a lot, I consider myself extraordinarily lucky.

I like the look of my dimple. Practically speaking, it's not fantastic since my dimple's insanely deep and I've been known to bite it when I smile.  But it's really cute to look at, so I'm okay with it. And if we go beyond face, I like my hair.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't always love how it looks when I'm done with it and it can be frustrating, but I love that I have a lot of hair and that I've got a pretty nice hairline. My forehead's not too big or too small because of it.

Now I should probably let you all know that I used to have quite a problem with how I looked. I looked in the mirror and I just couldn't see what my husband saw in me. (Quite frankly, you look lower than my shoulders and I still don't get it!) I've been lucky this pregnancy...sort of. I got really sick at the beginning and lost 10 lbs, which is fairly normal for my pregnancies.  After that ended, apparently I had gestational diabetes kick in, which normally makes you gain weight, but then I had my thyroid freak out (which is also normal for my pregnancies) which makes you lose weight.  So I'll be 8 months along on Thursday and weighed myself yesterday and I weigh half a pound less than my pre-pregnancy weight.  I also recently had my hair cut and dyed by my cousin who's fantastic!  I love how it turned out. A few weeks ago, I realized while I was looking in the mirror that I actually think I'm pretty.  I'm not sure how long that feeling will last or if it'll stick around, but for right now I'm actually fairly happy with myself.  I can still look at myself and see all of those yucky little flaws that we women see, but I choose to see the positive things. I'm a firm believer that 99% of the time, positivity is a choice and I choose to think that I'm beautiful right now. It helps me get through the day.

3 comments:

Faith's Place said...

Thanks so much for commenting on my blog...it's nice to "meet" other military wives who know what we go through!!! Good luck on your new baby...I know that exciting and stressful at the same time! Please keep me updated!!!!

jen said...

Thanks for leaving a link today. I have no idea how you found me, but I'm glad.
Good luck on your new baby, can't believe it's been that hard.
And here's the link to Tucker's blog:
http://tuckercdenton.blogspot.com/

Jamie said...

Sigh...I've always wanted dimples, even just one dimple would have been lovingly, joyfully accepted! Sounds like you have a rough time with pregnancies, hope all goes well for you. I really enjoyed your post, and I'm glad I hopped over from jen's link party!

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