The Weather Outside is Frightful (and why does eyebrow threading hurt so much?)

Here it is! A picture from the archives of my kids dressed appropriately for cold weather. We were in Nebraska.  It was seven degrees.

It’s 37 degrees in Houston today. If you’re a mom (especially one who lives in a normally warm climate), you know what this means…
Your kids are completely baffled about what to wear.
The cold weather mystifies them. When Catie walked down the stairs in her favorite Justice workout shorts and Halloween (WHAT??!) t-shirt, M said, “Catie. There is frost on my car.”
“Frost?” she asked. Clearly, the idea it was cold enough outside for frost meant nothing to her as she did not run back upstairs for some jeans. Or even a long-sleeved shirt. Instead she glanced outside and reported, “Looks warm enough for shorts to me.”
Ditto for Elisabeth. Sam, too. Nate howled when I tried to coax him into socks instead of flip-flops.
There is no reasoning with them when it comes to cold-weather clothing. As a result, all four of them are spending this frigid December 21 in outfits they could also wear in July.
Perhaps Catie said it best, as she walked out into the frost-covered grass holding her jacket…”Mommy, I don’t really care about things like how I look or what I wear.”
To be honest, I’m afraid the apple might fall a little too close to the tree here.
Because even though I love clothes (LOVE!), and I love shopping, I can get a little lazy on the day-to-day. In other words, I’m often too lazy to spend forty-five minutes blow drying my hair. Or applying make-up. Or, say, showering.
I know…gross. But why take the time to get all dolled up to drop the kids off at school? Isn’t this a season-of-life thing? Why would a mom, who spends a chunk of her day changing diapers and cleaning up messes waste time blow-drying hair she’s just going to pull into a ponytail?
Friends, it’s sad, but I think I’m alone in this philosophy.
Because whenI drop off my kids, I see every other mommy DID take the time for under-eye concealer or brushing her hair, or (in extreme cases) skinny jeans and Tory Burch boots.
As I’ve noticed this more and more, I’ve started to worry I’m pre-maturely letting myself go. I was worrying about that in the mall yesterday as every other woman I passed looked like she had slept more than two hours last night. (I feel like I should be clear that I sleep more than two hours every night. That’s just how I look.)
So, I turned right around and marched to the eyebrow threading store in the mall. Yes, in Houston, our malls are filled with these places. Maybe because of our large Iranian population? Maybe because Houstonians are especially committed to a nice eyebrow shape?
Anyway, on the recommendation of several people, I thought eyebrow threading would be a one-shot, quick beauty help that could make me look more awake…without having to actually use under-eye concealer. Or shower.
The woman looked fierce (as in, angry and intense). When I asked if threading hurt, she looked disgusted. Unfortunately I took that to mean, “Of course it doesn’t hurt. Would thousands of women do it if it HURT?”
But, surprise of all surprises: it hurt. In fact, it was INCREDIBLY painful to have a woman thread out each of my eyebrow hairs at the follicle.
So painful, in fact, I began to cry and had to ask her to stop. Let me just say this scored me no points with the Iranian woman. It was a mess. I was embarrassed. She was really disgusted.
On the bright side, my eyebrows did look better. On the not-so bright side, my eyes were now red and puffy…AND still had dark circles under them.
But, I told myself as I waked away sniffing, “That’s okay because I don’t really care how I look”
I guess Catie has a point.