Eyelash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of the Lenten season in the Catholic church, as well as many other Christian denominations. This meant that Helen and I got to attend mass at the bright hour of 8 a.m. Not quite as horrendous as it sounds since Ruthie gets dropped off at school at 8 a.m. every day, and the church is attached. We just needed to leave a few minutes earlier. And Helen was remarkably good in church this morning. Her recent visits to church have generally included dancing in the aisle and signing "once upon a Dream" while smiling adoringly at the congregation. Some parishioners find this adorable, but I'm sure just as many find it aggravating. But since our pastor regularly declares that it's okay to let little kids talk, walk, sing, etc., the grumpy ones are stuck with dancing Helen. She stayed put this morning. I had warned her that the priest would be placing ashes on both of our foreheads and she was surprisingly cooperative while this was done, and then looked at me and exclaimed "Mom, he put eyelashes on your head!" Later, the realization that she also had ashes (I guess she didn't beleive it until she looked in the mirror) was met with a cry of "Mommy, get the eyelashes off my head." So I proceeded to pluck her eyelashes out one by one....be careful what you ask for. No, I didn't. But I didn't wash her ashes off ether. It's against the rules and I don't want to go to hell and all, ya know.