Befitting

My oldest gal needed a special dress for the Christmas play. I had waited way too long to begin looking. The dress needed to be a flashy number to properly attire the diva-like character that Meg was set to portray. As I looked and looked and as the play's director looked and looked, a problem surfaced. It was a problem that has been presenting itself frequently as my family and I shop for clothes befitting young ladies.

Befitting clothes--ha!

Befitting clothes--good luck with THAT!

Befitting--I must be dreaming!

My Man and I spent a bit of time at the mall on our own the other day seeking this flashy dress for our gal.
It. Was. Depressing.

We sought flashy and fun and colorful, we found fleshy and revealing and suggestive. After a long search, we gave up and returned home sequin-less with no flash and no dress and with little hope in the future of the whole befitting concept!

What gives?

Who is buying these clothes for their little girls? How are there entire stores full of clothing that barely covers a human body turning a profit? It must be because they are spending so little money on actual fabric. I have purchased potatoes in more covering material than in what clothing marketers feel I should dress my daughters.

Again I pondered the target audience for this line of clothing as we went from store to store until, while moving hangers from right to left and right to left in yet another store, I heard a female voice say to a young teenaged girl, "Oh yeah. That's HOT! THAT's the one you're getting!"

Hmmmmmmm, thought I, must be her hip-trendy aunt taking her shopping, surely her mom is coming around the corner in a minute with a bag full of common sense in hand to step in and fix the situation. 

The next word I heard broke my heart.

"Mooooommmmmmmm," she said, exasperated and rolling her eyes, she took the swatch dress and headed into the fitting room. I continued my search for something with both snazz and material. The young girl came out of the fitting room and with her back to me, faced her mom AND a man whom I assumed was her father. The mom flitted and fussed over there almost-dressed daughter and the dad remained SILENT.

When we left the store, my girls' dad was not silent, saying something along the lines of, "In a few years that mom is going to wonder what when wrong and when it happened..." I had been thinking similar thoughts, completely flabbergasted at what we'd just witnessed.

My next thought was that perhaps we might find, somewhere on this planet, a flannel turtleneck covered with sequins with a matching prairie skirt? Or even something like these...

Then I began to wonder what kind of clothing options Kate and Molly will be faced with as they stand on the threshold of their teenage years? The optimist in me hopes for a trend that swings back in the direction of more material and less flesh. The realist in me thinks that perhaps Kate has the right plan...

 I think we can put this in the category "If you want something done right..."

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!!