Kate the Great!

The sun has shown itself a time or two this week and the temperatures have finally grown warm enough to force me to undertake the task of swapping the children's winter clothes for their summer ones.

I do not enjoy this task of requiring the kids to try on every piece of their new season's wardrobe and then sorting and then unloading drawers and then reloading them and then sorting once more. I try to keep things in perspective by telling my self what a blessing all of these "formerly worn" clothes really are.

The kids are always excited to get a fresh batch of brightly colored summer clothes after a long winter of thick and restricting layers and I am always excited to get the task behind me.

No one, however, is more excited about summer clothes than Kate because summer to her equals FLIP FLOPS.  This year Kate's "pre-owned collection" included an interesting pair of shoes with which she fell head-over-heels in love. She wears them only inside. She wears them often. She wears them with everything. She wears them for all indoor tasks...

She steps on our toes with them because...

...they are about four sizes too big and...

...apparently they make her feel like she's ALL THAT!

Kate has been heavily blessed with clothes for summer, and she seems to be feeling the pressure to wear a large portion of her wardrobe daily so as not to leave even one piece of clothing out.  

As a result, I've been policing the children's dirty clothes hamper pretty aggressively. Four or five times a day, I ask, "Kate, why did you change clothes?" or "What are those shorts doing in the hamper?" Usually I'm answered with a grimace and an outstretched hand which proceeds to take the offending article of clothing and place it, neatly folded in the dresser drawer.  

A few days ago I found a shirt that Kate had only worn for about two hours wadded in the hamper. "Kaaaaaaattttttte! Come inside a minute!" 

"Yea Mom?"

"Why is that shirt that you just took off in the dirty clothes hamper?"

"Oh, its got water all over it---" 

I drew a deep breath to begin to calmly explain that water did not qualify a shirt for the dirty laundry, when she continued...

"and worm guts."

Well then.

Thank You LORD for laundry detergent, and hand-me-down play clothes that must be sorted. Thank You for Maytag and for shiny purple high tops...and...worms. And Thank You Lord for a little girl who makes this life on earth SUCH an ADVENTURE!!