Catching up

I've been embarrassingly slow to respond to all the wonderful comments left in response to my last post, but I do so very much appreciate the kind words each of you left. Such generous sharing of self and heart makes me ever more thankful to have, at least, an online forum in which to "meet" other like minded women! I pray that, with time and with your great suggestions, I'll soon meet a similar real life community! And if not, I just might have to convince Darren that a move to Texas is essential to my emotional well being. :)

So anyway, here's a small sampling of what we've been up to lately. I've fallen waaay behind on posting, so this is just one giant catch up post for my own compulsive purposes (plus, for my mom). :)

Let's see, one day last week I had the brilliant idea to sort and organize every outgrown article of children's clothing in this house. My mom hates it when I do this. See why?

It involves dragging a hefty ladder from outside to my bedroom, where it's lifted into place at an angle across the doorway, so as to provide access to the cavernous ledge above, which is where we store all said clothing. Whew! This is no easy task, let me tell you. The kids and cats all think it's great fun, but what a nerve wracking mess. Just look at the state of my bedroom! Disaster! But oh, it's so much nicer now. Everything is sorted by age and gender (for the most part), a few "new" items were found (including two pairs of sandals for Kristen and a few really cute shorts for Meghan) and several bags full of assorted sizes made their way to Goodwill. There are also a couple more large bags sitting in my garage to be given to a neighbor whose daughter is expecting, but we still have a lot of clothes we're keeping. The baby boy clothes are especially hard for me to part with. What is it about not having seen them worn in the last seven years that makes me so sentimental? They're just clothes, after all. With the girl clothes, though, it's more, "Oh, look how cute! I remember when Caitlyn wore that...and Meghan...and Kristen." I guess by now they're just familiar. I wonder: do you other moms of many children feel that way about your only son or daughter's old clothing? Perhaps (as I fear) this is just one of my many uniquely quirky personality attributes. I'm curious, though. There are a few of you I'm wondering about specifically. :) At any rate, the baby boy clothes are staying! (And most of the baby girl clothes, too, who am I kidding?) ;)

Okay, so this has become much more long winded than I anticipated. Who knew I could devote nearly an entire post to outgrown children's clothing? Darren will be home any minute now and Dylan's waiting for me to help him finish an experiment, and I've not even gotten yet to our Memorial Day trip to the Gila or the garden pictures I thought I'd share or any of the other little stuff I've missed in the last couple weeks. Oops, he's home! I'll sign off for now but hope to post again soon. :)