Summah - tiiiiiime

It's just begun and it's already over.  The summer, that is.  I just looked the calendar and realized, the big kids go back to school in about two weeks. 

I started emptying their rooms of clothing to go through it and see what fits/what's salvageable and there's currently six bags of Freecycle-donations to go in the back of my car.  ( I posted them on Freecycle, and got four hits immediately,  and she just picked them up.)  I'm really glad that I left the back of the car open yesterday to throw the bags in, because it killed the battery.  Super.)

The boy had been wearing the same size for a long time, and is also prone to taking clothes off the top of the fresh laundry and only wearing favorites, so his pile of never going to fit again clothes had to go.  He and I hit up Old Navy for the $10 jean sale - and found that he can wear a husky size and I must get back there and clear out the rack if the sale is still on.

My oldest daughter is in desperate!! need of new and appropriate clothing, she's in the same size as she's been in for a long time too, but that is Size Impossible, and will require many shopping trips to find what a girl can wear to sixth grade and not look 40.  Clothing is awful horrible terrible to shop for at her age and size.  I don't mind getting her new things, but it's damn near impossible with her size and shape.  She's my height (ACK!  I'm going to be shorter than my kids soon!) lighter than me, but with her shape, and nothing FITS.  I have a feeling we'll end up at LB

I will say it again, if I ever have the means, I want to fund a clothing line for young girls. 

If you think for ONE STINKING MINUTE that this child is going to slide into a pair of "skinny jeans?"   She tells me, "my friends wear skinny jeans," which translates to "I would like to, also, please." If she did, we'd be seeing Hanes Her Way underpants all day long.

*Related -- I have to say that one of the best things about moving HERE as compared to our former town?  She's not the only overweight girl in her grade.  Do you know how much of a relief THAT is?  To not stick out like a sore thumb?  I would have loved some chubby friends in late elementary school and junior high.  I was one of very few overweight kids in elementary school and into junior high -- and the only other kids I remember who were ALSO bigger -- were miserable and bossy or shy and reclusive.  (I wasn't.  I am who I am, just a dork, and I never fit in any group.)

Not that I want a grade full of overweight children, but... when you ARE you look for peers.  Finding someone that can relate at least a little -- is helpful.  (I won't delve into the problems it creates later -- when you find someone that becomes your eating partner in crime, BUT...)  For now?  She's not alone, but she is naked!  We need to shop.

I have gotten most of the school-supplies covered, until we get the list that says:  "You need:  12 Red Pens, 4 Folders in these colors, etc..."  The boy has a pile of shirts and a few pairs of jeans, the baby has a few outfits, the seven year old has six pair of jeans that need to be hemmed, and uh... that's it.  It's SUCH an undertaking to buy clothes for four kids at one time.  I can likely shop online for the younger two for anything else - likely at Land's End for dresses/skorts and tights for both, and take the older two TO the malls.  But, UGH!  Everything is going to seem like a fortune after gettting $10 jeans the other day.  

While checking out -- I asked for the 10% off -- you know what they give when you open a credit card.  They said no, you have to open a credit card.  I said that I'm not using credit cards anymore -- at all.  She's like, "everyone is saying that!"  So could I have the 10% anyway?  Ha.