Week 32, Day 6 - If the ONLY thing I got done today is mating socks....

...then I can look back on my day and feel like I've accomplished something. It's kind of like those dumb little things that bother you day after day, yet it just never gets done even though it would only really take just 15 minutes out of your day to just do it!

Like touching up that one corner of the wall that the kids keep knocking into and paint has started to fleck off. Or giving the highchair a quick wash...usually all of these little things are quickly done, but add it all up together and it is so overwhelming!

Anyway, today we got paid. Hallelujah! The past couple of weeks have been interesting, practicing discipline as we literally had *no* extra money at. all. I'm going to be much more careful this month with budgeting and keeping careful track of what I spend where, so that no one category gets ballooned out of proporton when I spend.

On my list to get when we got paid, those bare essentials that *are* necessary but not like RIGHT THIS SECOND so, we have waited a good couple of months past when we should have, to do this: buy socks for the kids. It's easy to go through the summer wearing sandals, and even a month into school they're still wearing sandals, but when the fall hits it's like uh-oh. Am I really spending a whole 10 minutes of my morning just looking through the sock basket for socks for 6 kids?? REALLY??

I bought a lush and soft package of 10 pairs of gray/white socks for the boys ages 9 & 10, and anothe packge of 10 pairs of pink/white socks for the girls ages 5 & 7. Rachel12 has been telling me she has NO socks for the past couple of months so she was on my list to get as well, but when I got to the women's section there were SO many options and she is pretty picky, so I decided to just wait until I have her with me.

I'm glad I did, because when I got home and paired all the new socks and put them in the sock basket, I just winced. There were SO MANY unmatched and colored/patterned socks in there...ugh.

We basically have a family sock basket - I rarely sit and mate all the socks when I do laundry. Because only Bret & I have dresser drawers (everyone else keeps their clean laundry in the family room on a shelf in a basket, kind of like a family closet) - I just keep all the socks together. When I got sick with this pregnancy, I counted myself to be lucky just to have CLEANED the socks, lol, so they were all just put into the basket as is once cleaned, not mated.

I threw out ALL the girls' socks no matter what - some of them are purple, some pink, that they like - but my logic is this. Yes, when they're both matched up it's great but it's so much easier just to have 20 socks that MATCH each other so that when they do go through the laundry, I can simply mate them and wah-lah, no hunting for *that* perfect matching sock.

I had a big mound of misc colors and sizes when I was done - all destined for the trash. It felt so nice!!! And what else did I find? Hmmmm....about EIGHT PAIRS of socks that are Rachel's, misc colors of course...but still. I'm debating whether or not to chuck all of hers, and Harmony2's, and Jack3's to do the same...it'd just be so much simpler to have 1) pink/white for the girls, 2)white/gray for the boys, 3) Adidas for Rachel, 4)all white for Harmony, and 5) all gray for Jack.

Y'know?

I just love the idea of needing socks and there you go, there are 10 matching socks for each person. Plus, I'm also starting to gear up towards having the baby and trying to get them to do wayyyy more on their own.

I always get their clothes ready for them in the morning. ALWAYS. Just cuz, it's way easier and they're sleepy and I can hand them clean socks/underwear/shirt/pants and say HERE, get dressed. But now Grace7 lately has been whining about not being able to find her own clothes, she doesn't know what to wear...blah blah blah. I wonder if I'm creating lazy monsters by doing this?

Regardless, especially when I have househelp for the next 3 months....and esp when the baby comes, I need them to be able to get their own clothes. I guess that means weeding out the "not okay to wear in public" type clothes so that the only options they have are good clothes. Then comes teaching them how to mix & match, lol!

That's why I LOVE The Children's Place clothes, though - boys are super easy, just jeans & a shirt, any shirt. But girls, they're all about pinks and purples and flowers and stripes and orange and greens and don't forget the sparkly rainbow tights! So TCP I love because they always have the same exact colors that mix & match with ALL their shirts & bottoms. I am hoping in the next month or so, to totally revamp the 5 & 7 year old girls' wardrobes - the clothes are pretty good quality considering the prices, and they should be having some good sales pretty soon.

Since we got paid, I dropped all the kids off at school and then went to Walmart with my huge long humongous list of stuff. Every month I do one big shop at Walmart, WinCo, and Costco. That lasts us for the entire month since I buy in bulk - like today I bought two big boxes of diapers and won't have to buy more unil we get paid again. So I was able to take care of my Walmart list, which I was thankful for! Then I went to Once Upon a Child to see if they have anything on our "needs" list for the kiddos - shoes, coats, etc. I finally got smart and started writing it all down so that helps a TON when I'm faced with so many cute shoes and all of a sudden can't remember who needs what or what size and OMG these are sooooooo cute, Marie5 would LOVE them! (um....oops, when I get home, find out SHE's the one with all the shoes and Grace7 has none....)

When I got out of there it was 10:30 and I was soooo tired, I forget that my body can't take much these days, this babeeeee is getting heavyeeeeee! I got gas and was contemplating running home to change a diaper/put the groceries away/then get Marie at 11:15 but got a call from Isaac9: he's convinced he has a sore throat AND a fever and can I come get him? Argh...their school is 15 minutes away round trip...! So I did that, then got Marie, and got them lunch when we got home, then mated the socks.

But now I have a million bags sitting on my counter to be put away and the house is still in dire need of the daily pick-up-from-the-craziness-of-morning. So even though I DID get the socks done, you'd never know I even did anything! But as long as in my head, I know I got that little project done then I think I'm okay - I feel like I accomplished something....

PS I'm so excited, I haven't sold anything on Ebay in a loooooong time but since DH said whatever extra money *I* make I can use for my room, I put a few things up. One of them is a pair of jeans I bought for Grace7 a few weeks ago at Once Upon a Child for $6.50, cuz they had diamonds on them. But no elastic button on the inside waist so she doesn't like them...and I happened to notice that they are the "Miss Me" brand which my sister Victo.ria who is 16, is ga ga over - apparently they're like $100+ at ,pupscale stores. Onto Ebay they went and they just sold for $41! Yay!
My "Miss Me" Jeans Auction