My own kind of Beautiful

Last week I went to a special Women's meeting at church. A lady called "the Food Nanny" came to speak about meal planning. Though I am not currently very good at meal planning, I feel like I have been in the past and I hope to be good at it again in the future AND she's got her own TV Show......SO I figured there might be something she had to share that would help me get back into the habit. It was a great meeting and I did learn a new way to do a weekly meal plan that I'm excited to try. BUT that's not what this post is about. As you can see from the title, this post is about being my own kind of beautiful. So, why did I tell you about the food nanny?

Well, I'm kind of tired all the time lately, and I really don't get a ton of social interaction and sometimes I don't get dressed until well after noon. (When I am dressed before noon, I'm usually dressed in workout clothes and probably smell funny too) I put some effort into dressing myself when I went to the Food Nanny activity, I even put on jewelry, picked out a shirt and pants that would look cute with the boots my sister gave me AND I brushed my hair and put it up with a barrette! That's right, MAJOR EFFORT! And as a reward for my 5 minutes of major effort, I felt cute. 

I walked in to the meeting just slightly late and luckily found a seat next to some very nice people that I actually knew! It was pretty fun, until about half way through when the food nanny started talking about making soup and I really wasn't that interested in soup, I guess, so I started to look around at the other people in the crowd. I realized that I knew a few of the people on the row in front of me, they had been a part of our Ward (local church congregation) before it got too large and was split into two separate wards. I noticed these women because they were pretty much flawless in their appearance. Clothes right on trend. Hair perfectly coiffed. (I say coiffed because their hair was done, it was styled, as if they either had stopped by the salon right before coming to the meeting that night, that or they have some major skills and spent some time on their hair at home. Coiffed!) And they were wearing makeup, all kinds of makeup. I realized that I felt a little inadequate. I actually sunk down into my chair a bit. Luckily my focus was drawn back to the speaker when she started outlining how she did her meal planning. But when I got home I was telling Ken about the meeting and I remembered how I felt when I had been watching the ladies in front of me. I'm sure I made no sense to him when I asked "should I wear makeup?" I think I might have explained why I asked the question, but I guess it was more a question for me.

So I mulled the question over for a few days and I decided that I may not have a hairstyle- (or even know how to maintain a hairstyle after the first time I wash it after getting it cut) and I may not wear makeup- (or even know how to really apply makeup, it's true, I actually feel kind of clown like when I do attempt to wear it) and my clothes may not be new, BUT, I usually feel quite beautiful. And I decided that I should run with that, I should be my own kind of beautiful. Because I can't be anything other than me, genuine Kate.

So here I am, I'm pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. I have rosy cheeks and beautiful blue eyes. I have decently colored brown hair, it's trying to turn an awesome shiny silver and white, I haven't decided if I'm going to let that happen quite yet or not. But hey, if you have to go gray.....why not have it be shiny silver and bright white! Thank You Awesome Genetics! But there is so much more to me than just my looks. I'm funny, really, at times I think I'm hilarious and if I get people laughing......it's hard for me to stop trying my best to continue to entertain them. I like that about me. I also like to sing, and people say they like to hear me sing, and that's always nice to hear too. I've got my own sense of style too, and I think it's a pretty good sense of style.

So I'm going to do my best to remember, that I may not look flawless, because really, I not flawless, but I am Beautiful, in my own way. NOW.......if only I could convince myself that having giant piles of paper and homework and craft supplies on my kitchen counter was awesome..............