How I ended up with kids that are extremely picky about their clothing can only be attributed to their father. I cannot identify with moms who lay out some clothes and their sons actually put them on. No, mine have specific likes & dislikes from a very young age. (I avoid packing for hubby when we take a trip for similar reasons.) If I buy a shirt and the boys don't like it, it hangs in the closet unworn until they outgrow it. A couple weeks ago I cringed when JS walked into VBS wearing an unironed, rip-in-the-sleeve everyday shirt- his reason? "I didn't have anything else in my closet that I liked." I've learned years ago not to make a dress for A without first having her approve both the fabric & the pattern.
Their taste changes from time to time, but currently jeans have to be carpenter style, shirts have to be soft fabric -no stiff oxfords- and as much of a plaid as we allow is good for JR... dresses have to have a flared skirt that swirls when twirling, pantyhose have to be just the right shade of brown, etc. etc. Oh, the chists when someone changes preferences mid-stream!
So, with school bearing down on us and closets lacking school clothes, yesterday we took our annual trek to the city for a day of shopping the thrift stores. It's a tiring day -over 11 hours of close fellowship in the van, intermittent humming or singing just to irritate sibs, a back-seat driving teen, racks & racks of clothing to sort through, elusive tags to read, deliberations- is this item worth this much? or should I get this one or will we find a better deal at the next store? or what does dad/mom say?...
The fun part is sorting everything into piles when we get home to see what everyone got. The triumph of bargains! Yesterday we did exceptionally well with clothing for JS. Other outstanding purchases were a camo beanbag chair for JS and a denim one for A for $4... a $5 snowboard for JR... a like-new set of Adventures in Odyssey cassettes for 99 cents, as well as a Nicholas Sparks and a Hank the Cowdog book-on-tape... a nice punch bowl without all those annoying little punch cups I don't need/want... and an American Girl board game. Can't wait to play it with A, but I bet she'll whip the socks off me because I'm not as versed in A.G. trivia. All things considered, a successful day.
P.S. The van shopping came to a screeching halt. The Montana only needed a new air flow sensor. The boys are disappointed; they think we had a perfectly good excuse to buy a new van but ruined it. R & I are delighted not only with the huge savings ($112 vs the price of a new van) but with how the van now runs better than it has for years & years. Gas milage is also higher than we've ever had with this van (we're seeing as high as 29mpg)!
And the washer that was making hideous sounds probably just needs some new belts.
4 comments:
Sounds like this is your lucky day!
Were you in Columbus yesterday too? I thought about thrift stores...briefly.
PGD would have been much more fun!! :) Saturday I heard they had 50% off items $50 or more two different times. Had friends that mopped up. Should have been there then!
If we were really lucky we would have gotten the wicker rocker for our front porch. While Richard came dashing over to tell me about it another woman snagged it. It was 50% off, too. Oh well.
Good news on the van! The boys shouldn't complain... it's not like you're hauling them around in an orange 71 Olds or something.
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