Shop 'Til You Drop

...and I'm dropping, I assure you! It was a total shopping day for new shirts for the kiddoes. I posted this recent photo of the crew, as a point of reference for how stinkin' big my kids are getting! Gerrit, Dayton and Vanessa have all grown so much this year, that I had to restock their closets. Now comes the fun job of sorting and getting rid of all the old ones! That's where I usually drop the ball (nah... really?) Sadly, anyone who has visited my laundry room can attest to that fact. But, I won't linger on THAT depressing notion... Out with the old and in with the new! Glory, Hallelujah! I'm a changed woman! Hmm... A famous tyrannical world leader once said, “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” Ten bucks to the one who can name said tyrant! (no does... just bucks) I WILL brag, however, that I spent only $135 - total - on seven shirts for Gerrit, six for Dayton, nine for Vanessa (plus a pair of jeans!), four for Marin, and at least ten for myself; 90% being Aeropostale, American Eagle, Gap, Old Navy, Liz Claiborne, Abercrombie & Fitch and more (the other 10% just might have been Rustler, Jaclyn Smith, Under-Roos, Osh Kosh b'Gosh, Chic, and so on... ha ha...NOT). That works out to be less than $4 a shirt... gently used :) Not too shabby, huh? Now you can see why I'm ready to drop!

** Speaking of clothing... I've been using the clothesline, outside, to dry our laundry and it is really quite fabulous. Except in the rain... not so fabulous then... wink wink. On a sunny day, though, a load of laundry dries in less than thirty minutes, and that goes for jeans, as well! My mother-in-law had (and perhaps still HAS) a great clothesline in her backyard that stretched from the back of the house to a post near the fenceline a good twenty feet away. I think ours is the same style (four or five lines connected to a bar that retracts back into position on the house). I actually LOVE hanging laundry, watching it blow in the wind, taking it down and folding it... it's the putting it away (or getting the kids to put it away) that serves as my downfall! Unfortunately, Kevin has the same problem. He doesn't mind doing the laundry, UNTIL... it comes to divvying it out to be put away. Thus we find ourselves using baskets as our dressers, a good chunk of the time, and curse the whole process when clean clothes find their way to the floor, only to be washed again! Good thing I LOVE hanging laundry on the line, right? Right...

** I visited my sister, Karen, today. I sure do love her. Do you know that it was she who comforted her little sister, Donna, when the pressures of five to twelve years of age were just too much? She ALWAYS listened, sympathized, and validated my poor little spoiled brat feelings! She still does, much of the time, and for that unchanging fact, I will forever be grateful. Karen has the same sweet spirit of my mother... guileless is the most appropriate word, I think. I could use to pattern myself a little bit more after those Godly attributes.

** By the way, we read 3 Nephi 22, in the Book of Mormon, for scripture study tonight (aka... Isaiah 54). What a great chapter! The power and direct nature of this passage really impacted me and promoted a healthy discussion within the family. The last four verses are particularly comforting to me and I think I'll be rereading them often as a reminder of God's love for me and my family. I love to see the dawning of enlightenment in the eyes of my children as we read and discuss the scriptures. Totally awesome... (my eighties persona really wanted to say "dude" at the end of that "totally awesome," but I was "like... no way, man!" I'm afraid it might "gag me with a spoon" to use eighties lingo at the end of a scriptural commentary...)