Waterproof

This summer I switched from wearing regular mascara to waterproof mascara.

Mascara is serious business for us redheads with pale or invisible eyebrows and eyelashes. I'm not sure how I had three children with thick, black, beautifully curled half-inch eyelashes. I was not blessed with those. Most people don't have to worry about this, but I almost always feel better about life once I give myself visible eyebrows and eyelashes.

Years ago I wore waterproof mascara regularly. Then my sister gave me a subscription to Ipsy, which is a monthly beauty product sampler and eventually I became a loyal fan of Buxom mascara. It's a lot of fun to try different beauty products and it's a bonus if you can discover a new favorite.

From my experience, the advantages to regular mascara are that usually it goes on much more smoothly and naturally, with fewer clumps, and of course it is easier to wash off at the end of the day. Waterproof mascara is a little more difficult to put on without clumps and also tends to look a little spiky, not as natural.

Some regular mascaras I've tried over the years: Better Than Sex by Too Faced and then Maneater by Tarte. Those were pretty nice. I also tried Dream Big by Pacifica and that one was really nice, probably my favorite after Buxom. (Pardon these entertaining names. Who gets to think them up?) I always thought Buxom went on the best and looked the nicest. I would use any of these again.

Two mascaras I would not use again: Anastasia Beverly Hills Lash Brag -- this one looked good on my lashes and came in a beautiful bottle but the problem was it would always flake off and give me raccoon eyes by the end of the day. Buxom Xtrovert: way too wet and heavy! Very different from the regular Buxom.

The reason I switched to waterproof mascara was that in May we made an offer on a house that did not go through and I was so crushed I cried nearly every day for a month and a half. I have been wanting badly to move out of apartments for a long time. This was the second time we put an offer on a house this year.

I may have felt extra emotional with the pregnancy. Anyway, I got tired of crying all my mascara off every day. It takes time to put on makeup! I switched to using a waterproof Maybelline that I'd bought a few years ago.

At the end of June we were able to put in a third offer on a house and it seemed promising. The location was perfect, the house was small but cozy and had two full bathrooms and a garage with storage and a fenced in yard for the kids to play in. Even nice new matching appliances in the kitchen, which was an unexpected bonus. I was so excited to move in and get settled before the new baby arrived. This time our offer was accepted and we got all the way up to the week of the closing date before finding out the sellers had decided to back out of the deal.

I have been reading through Proverbs this year and after my experience in May I thought often about the verse that says

A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

During the weeks leading up to our hoped-for closing date on this house I was praying that Christ would sustain my spirit in case of disappointment. I didn't want to fall into a black depression again.

Psalm 27 is my favorite psalm and I have been working on memorizing it this year. Verse 5 says

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

I realized that if I could not have my very own house to hide in, if I had to share a building and yard with unfriendly and sometimes creepy neighbors, then I had to rest in the fact that God is my shelter. After all, houses can be broken into, or burned down, or taken away, but God promises to be an unfailing refuge.

Thankfully, God did sustain my spirit and while I was very sad and disappointed about the house deal falling through and I cried a little bit, I didn't actually need the waterproof mascara.

But I decided I liked it after all. Unlike regular mascara, waterproof mascara helps eyelashes hold their curl all day long. I have a problem with my eyelashes being straight. Unlike the men in our family. Where's the fairness in that? I also discovered that waterproof mascara cleans up nicely at the end of the day with just a little bit of coconut oil and a baby wipe. (We always have lots of baby wipes around here, so I use them for everything. Wiping the bathroom sink. Killing spiders. Dusting baseboards.)

Plus, I'm glad the waterproof mascara is there when I need it, like most recently, getting a little choked up when I think about my second child turning five. It sure seems like the years fly by quickly between when you bring your tiny new baby home from the hospital and when they are building Lego sets, starting school and riding a bike. Excuse me while I go find a baby wipe to mop up these tears...