Day 9- Wavy headband

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I don’t have a video tutorial for this one.  So sorry!  There will be a tutorial for how I did the curls though later on- promise.
Has anyone read the Hunger Game series?  I’m obsessed.  Last night I had a dream that I was Katniss.  It was so awesome!  I cannot even wait for the movie.  We have to wait an ENTIRE year!  Are you kidding me?  Holy crap.  If you guys have not read them I suggest you do.  It will change your life.  For real.  And does anyone have any suggestions for another great book?
I hope you guys had a wonderful mothers day!  My cute little husband took Boston and let me sleep in!  AND he made me breakfast, muffins and all.  I’m so lucky to have found him.  There was a cute story on our program at church yesterday and I thought I would share.  If you have a second, you should read it.  It made me cry!
Invisible Mothers

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.I’m invisible – The invisible Mom.Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more.“Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?”Some days I’m not a pair of hands; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude – but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!One night, a group of us were having dinner,celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.’And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.’At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘You’re gonna love it there.’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

I just wanted to add how grateful I am to be a mother.  Being able to stay home with Boston has truly been a blessing in my life.  There are definitely those moments when I would kill to have a normal job.  To be able to wear clean clothes that aren’t soiled in spit up, having people recognize and appreciate me, having normal conversations with grown ups and feeling like I’m important.  Not to mention the money would be awesome!  Yes, there are those moments.  And while I’m living in my parents basement, clipping coupons and our date night is a box of pizza and a DVD, I’m reminded that “No other success in life can compensate for failure in the home” {said by former President of the LDS church, David O McKay}.  I am building a great cathedral.  And that little boy, man he has given me the world.  So while it would be nice to have all the things of the world, I am so grateful I don’t.  But one day, I will have beautiful children who will hopefully want to come home from college and bring their friends along because like in the Invisible Mother, they are going to love it there!

Abby Smith

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11 thoughts on “Day 9- Wavy headband

  1. One way i found how to do curls is do a lot of buns all over your head, go to sleep, and when you wake up, you take the buns out and Volia! curls!

    I LOVE your blog!!!

    ~Gracie

  2. I know the Invisible woman is awesome huh? I don’t know who wrote it, but just google it and it’ll come up! And share share share!!

    Mallary, thanks so much for all those nice compliments. And I am so going to check all those books out! Thanks for the list!

    And Whitney! We totally need to get together huh?! Yes the play is over but this 30 days is taking over my life! ha ha so much more time consuming than I anticipated! But we MUST get together! You commented somewhere you were going to do a 15 day shorter hairstyle thing. That would be so fun!!! After the 30 days I’m going to do a week or two of short hairstyles on my sister. Don’t let me step on your toes though because you will do such an awesome job with that! Plus you can’t have too many hairstyles!

  3. I LOVED that story for Mother’s day! Do you happen to know who wrote it or where it came from? I might just have to steal it and put it on my blog. 🙂

  4. I am SO happy that I found your blog!! I have been wanting to do some cute things with my long blond DRY hair… and this has been AWESOME! I love how you mentioned step-by-step how-to on what you put in your hair. THANX!

  5. Okay, I’m really loving your blog. I watched your video on the …fancy ponytail and thought, there’s no way it can really be that easy. It was! And I love it! Your pictures are always beautiful, as well, as always. 🙂
    Books? I could recommend so many! I love, love, love to read. I don’t know what you really like to read, but here are some of my favs.
    Matched by Ally Condie
    Shiver by Maggie Steifvater
    The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
    Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
    There are so many! You could just look at my blog too. I review every book I read on there. https://ramblingsofascribbledmind.blogspot.com/
    I know, it’s long…and not as cute or exciting as yours.
    Loves!

  6. You are so stinkin cute and I love your hair like always. Your blog is so much fun to go to everyday. Thank you for the sweet comment it made my day. seriously! I bet the play was so much fun but it will be so nice to have that time to do projects and crafts right?! Yes! We need to hangn out now and it will be more fun in warm weather anyway. Our babies need to play too 🙂

  7. Oh thank you for sharing that. I think I need to read it on a weekly basis! I dream of being able to wear nice clothes and have adult conversation, but there is a time and place for everything, and I’m so thankful for my place and time here with my babies!

  8. Your hairstyles are so cute! I just found your blog and I’m lovin it! So excited to try out some new styles, thank you so much for your hard work {doing your hair everyday! kudos!} Also loved the invisible mother story you shared, thank you, just what I needed!

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