Clothes, Clothes. EVERYWHERE!!

Oh. my. goodness. I have been in the process of changing over from warm weather clothes to cold weather clothes. For. 5. Children.

Let me start by saying we have been incredibly, incredibly blessed with hand-me-downs. In 10 years and 5 kids, we have bought almost nothing except underwear (hee hee I said underwear! That would cause my children to collapse in giggles.) shoes and socks. It has literally saved us thousands of dollars I am sure. If you wonder if friends would be blessed by hand-me -downs, the answer is YES!! YES!! YES!! And we do pass the blessings on when ever we can.

This is more than pulling a few sweater out of some rubber bins. This involves going through dozens of bags of clothing to determine what will fit who this year. The boy is easy, keep the t-shirts and change to jeans, add a few sweatshirt. For the girls it is a major process.

Ella is soooo picky about clothes. She hates socks and hates to have anything around her waist. She would wear her summer dresses and sandals year around if I let her. Which I don't.....But I have given in on the socks issue. IF her feet get cold enough, I guess she'll wear them. AND don't tell my mother-in-law (whom I love dearly!) that you cannot catch a cold by not wearing socks. Unfortunately, the dress supply is not as abundant this winter as it was in the summer. Three days in a row, she has worn *gasp* pants. Up until now, she was known as 'the girl in the dresses' by several of her preschool classmates.

Charis, well, it's jeans all the way, baby. And that can be an issue when your waist is still a size 12 months and your legs are 4T tall! Thankfully, Olivia wore 4 Slims when she was 3 (Charis is 5 1/2) that are adjustable at the waist. I just cinch them as tightly as possible. (And they are still roomy!!)

Olivia.....I can't even begin to describe her fashion sense. She always looks adorable in what would look ridiculous on anyone else. The biggest problem for her is she needs a 4T in the waist and 7 in length....

Gracie? This year she'll wear whatever is in her drawer. But she's in 5th grade. I doubt I'll have that luxury for long. She was so excited today because she wore a new (to her) shirt to school. "MOM! Guess what happened when I got to school today? Some sixth grade girls came running up to me to tell me how much they loved my shirt!!!!" She was so excited!

So, I've gone through what was in the attic. A clothing monster threw up all over it. Now I am down to getting all of the summer clothes washed, and sorted out and put in the right bags, bins and boxes. The trick is getting it done before the kids rewear their favorites making them need washing again. How can someone who has a family of 7 hate laundry so much? Maybe that is WHY I hate laundry so much!