All this is to preface that last week Katie and I got to attend Mass together, alone. (Even though it was only last week, I forget the reason why. Probably one of the kids wasn't feeling well so we had to do tag-team Masses.) It was just so delightful spending time with her alone. I moved her booster up in the car so we could chat more easily. She kept asking questions during Mass, noticing all the changes. (Wow! She actually has been paying attention! Who knew!) We shared a missalette so we could sing the hymns together. And then she whispered a question that made my day:
"Mommy, were you an opera singer before you got married?"
Awwwww.
Only a child of mine would think my voice sounded that good. :) I explained that Aunt Mary could be an opera singer, but I only used to sing in the church choir. She was still impressed with that.
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Speaking of Katie, one of her birthday gifts was a set of beads for stringing into necklaces and bracelets. It came with login info for some online virtual jewelry-making club for girls. She begged and begged to join, so I visited the website, entered the secret code, and lo and behold, was welcomed to the website by a scantily clad, cartoon pre-teen!
Are you JOKING me? A short halter top and daisy dukes??
I was in shock. The set seems to appeal to the pre-teen set, i.e. girls under 13. You know, who have no curves yet. The fact that the mascot for this site modeled a body image that was impossible for girls this age to attain just stunned me. I know that our culture trains our girls to be dissatisfied with their bodies at a sickeningly early age, but I still felt ANGRY that this garbage had come into MY HOUSE to poison MY precious little girl.
Katie begged to join, and I gave the evasive answer, "Well, I'll think about it..." I should have just blurted out what I was thinking: "Over my dead body!" and then explained why I thought the site was e-vill. WHY do little girls have to think about fashion and body image when they're 7? Why can't they still be encouraged to stay in childhood and play dress-up princess? WHY do we have to take this natural desire to be beautiful and to wear pretty things, and warp it into a desire for an unattainable standard and perpetual dissatisfaction?
Of course, we do know why. "Show me a culture that hates chastity, and I'll show you a culture that hates children" (including their innocence).
/rant
Of course, big girls, even big girls raised in healthy homes with limited exposure to the culture of death, still feel the effects of unattainable standards and dissatisfaction with ourselves. I've heard this book is excellent, and I want to read it:
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I went Christmas shopping yesterday. On a Sunday. A Sunday in Advent. A Sunday after a long week. Even though I found what I was looking for, and mostly enjoyed my time out, I still felt so conflicted. I felt I was compromising my principles, betraying my identity as a Christian, falling short of Auntie Leila's ideal, and generally contributing to our misdirected consumerist society. Was it worth it, to get that shopping done before St. Nicholas' day? Should I have waited until tonight? Of course, the easy answer is that I should have managed my time better so that I could have completed all necessary shopping before Sunday. (If I were that organized I'd be running the world.) But we're talking about real life here, MY real life, which involves sick children and other unplanned events in addition to scheduled events and family members needing Mom's presence plus tendencies towards procrastination. Real Life is messy.
I guess that's my answer -- even though the ideal is to spend Sunday afternoon at home, doing peaceful things, sometimes the fallen world breaks through and we have to choose which is more important to us. Celebrating St. Nicholas' feast day by hanging and filling stockings is important to our family, and Sunday afternoon was the last chance Mom had to make sure that happened, so to the stores I went. I still felt our Sunday was blessed, even if my feet were sore afterwards. Mr. Pickles made a special dinner for us while the kids watched a movie, so we could spend some peaceful reconnection time after a hectic couple days.
But I think in the future that I'm going to try to keep Sunday afternoons sacred. I face the week with a better attitude when I do.
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So after the kids went to bed last night, Mr. Pickles and I watched Super 8. When I first heard the title months ago I thought it was yet another superhero movie, like Super Friends or something. :) But when I heard the real plot I was intrigued, although a little hesitant. I don't usually jump at monster movies. (and by "usually" I mean "ever.") But this was the kind of thriller that I could just barely handle -- it kept winding you up so tight, and then making you jump and shriek! At several points I had to use Mr. Pickles' hand to shield my eyes. We really enjoyed the movie, although it kept us up really late -- we had to wait a while for all the adrenaline to wear off before we could fall asleep! I think I dreamed about spider-like monsters and trains and subterranean tunnels all night long. I thought the kid actors were hilarious. Mr. Pickles says he knew kids like that (especially the pyro) in high school. :) I liked the scenes with the director-kid's family -- sometimes I feel like I'm living in that house (sans the scantily-clad teenager). :)
Good popcorn/snuggle-up-to-your-sweetie flick!
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We ordered pizza from Uno's the other night. I don't really want to know how much butter was in the crust, but it was oh-so-good. I don't know if we'll ever be able to go back to Papa Salt's cardboard pizza.
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And finally, for your linking enjoyment, here is Geek Dad's recommended 5 best toys of all time. Some good ideas there. I can vouch for every one of his recommendations.
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