Is Honesty the Best Policy?

Shhh. Hear that? That, my friends, is the sound of nothing. No TV. No arguments. No telephone. No requests. No-thing. School began yesterday and today I am finally blogging again. This year my three girls are attending three separate schools: Katie has moved up to the middle school, Hailey is now one of the "big" kids in fifth grade and Hannah has returned for one last year at her preschool, leaving me entirely alone for two-and-a-half hours every afternoon. Ahhhh.

Anyhow, on with the blogging part...

At age twelve Katie's skin has become oily, resulting in--gasp--facial imperfections. You know. Zits. Let me rephrase that: zit. Singular. One little bump that looks more like a small mosquito bite showed up on her chin earlier this week.

"Mom, what is this?" Katie asked, pointing at the minor flaw.

"What are you talking about?" I asked in return, trying to downplay the whole situation.

"This! This big bump on my chin," she said, exaggerating her pointing.

"Oh, that. Let me see. Does it itch? It looks kind of like a mosquito bite."

"No, it's not a mosquito bite. It's more like a knot and it doesn't itch."

"Well," I paused. "It's probably a pimple."

"What? A pimple?! Right before school starts???"

"Oh, it's no big thing. You can barely see it and it really does look more like a mosquito bite. Just leave it alone and it will go away," I reassured her. Thank God she believed me and walked off happily.

Later that night we sat down as a family to supper. The minute Katie sat down across the table from Carl he said, "Is that a zit on your chin, Katie?"

Terrific.

Katie looked over at me with a mixture of humor (thank goodness) and astonishment and said, "Mom said you can hardly see it."

I gave him the look, but he continued his teasing torment by saying, "Well...mom lied."

I began to bumble, trying to repair the potential damage when Katie interrupted and said, "It's OK. I don't care." Thank God for that.

Either Katie has me fooled or she truly is one of those people who don't care what others think. What a blessing, a blessing I plan to cultivate and grow over the coming teen years.

And it seems that while I'm doing all this planning and cultivating, Carl achieves it naturally. Go figure. Maybe honesty actually is the best policy.