Okay, I used to love the show That Girl. Cute Marlo Thomas. The cute clothes. Silly situations. She was That Girl. Well, sometime between my very little childhood dreams of being cute and independent like Marlo (her character name was Anne Marie) I turned into THAT woman. And you now what I mean.

Marlo Thomas

I’m that woman who rarely seems to have time to get makeup on in the busy morning and actually goes out in public that way.  I’m that woman who wears flat shoes almost everyday when I used to love to live in high heels (remember this). I’m that woman who is looking for the manager’s special tags at the grocery store and buys 25 bags of pasta at a time.  I’m that woman who looks at the crumbs in her silverware drawer (and after briefly pondering how they got in there) surrenders to the fact that they are going to have to stay. I’m that woman who brings her sometimes not-so-quiet kids to the library and takes forever at checkout because we’re bringing home 20 or more books. I’m that woman with the dirty glasses, amazed at times I can see through them at all.

I remember the day I became THAT mother (Henry was sprawled on top of the dashboard of my minivan at the windshield, I was in the backseat nursing Lillian and we were blasting Journey with the windows down as we waited for the older girls to finish their piano lessons), but I don’t remember when I morphed into THAT woman instead of the That Girl I so longed to be.

I do know that with the pitfalls of being THAT woman are also the blessings. I’m saving money on makeup. My feet don’t hurt. I enjoy the challenges of being a thriftier shopper and the people at the library are now at least used to us. Also, when my glasses are dirty,  I can clean them and just like that all things are bright again. Of course, the greatest blessing is the five important reasons I turned into THAT woman to begin with–Helen, Mary Claire, Henry, Lillian and Clifford.