10th Day of Empty Nesting...Style Show

One of the signs of the seasons is the changing of the wardrobe.  Even in Texas, summer shorts have to make way for jeans and sweaters, though t-shirts retain their most-favored status all year long.

In Empty-Nested life this isn't a big deal.  Swap out a few flannel shirts for some short-sleeved shirts, get out the thermal underwear, and call it good.  It takes all of maybe an hour, if I color-coordinate the closet while I am at it.  But in the past, with four kidlets to outfit and re-outfit, it took on the look and feel of a marathon.

A few chilly days ago I went to visit C and was met in the yard by her four little kidlets wearing shorts and t-shirts.  I was informed by one and all that the reason they were wearing shorts was that mom had failed to get out the jeans and sweatshirts.

Things have been rather busy in their house the last few weeks, so I decided to help out and sponsor the biannual Style Show.  This means we go in the garage and get out all the boxes holding out-of-season clothes and try them alllll one.

I like clothes.  Not the way most people do.  I like the feel of the textures and the weight in my hands. And of course the colors.  I like to mix and match them, and I especially like to think of the warmth and comfort they will provide for some small person.  I suppose I should qualify that statement to say I like children's clothes.  They are full of all sorts of promise when you consider the wearer.

Children's clothes have the added benefit of variety.  Adult clothes, at least in our house, stay the same year in and year out.  Some years we add a new shirt or two, some years something wears out, but basically, this year's wardrobe is last year's wardrobe.  Now with little people constantly on the grow, every year is a whole new world.  Well, at least a part new world, and it's fun to remember how little they were last year and then imagine how much they will change by next year.

So .... on to the Style Show ... For some of the kidlets it's pure fun.  For others...not so much.  They change in the bathroom behind locked doors, in the coat closet, in a corner of the kitchen, or in the living room behind a complicated "screen" made up of boxes and maps and the open doors of the entertainment center. Some would rather dispense with the ordeal altogether in favor of a ping-pong game in the garage.  One of them insisted that he would be happy to wear shorts all winter.

I began to run out of time, so I put away the clothes that were deemed "just right," and left the rest in piles of "too small," "too big," and some yet to try on.  There is still a big job ahead, but we have made a dent, and at least now when we have a chilly day they will have a sweater to wear.  If they will.