Sometimes I Write

What do you get when you cross three children who are growing faster than a speeding bullet and a tight budget?  Frustration.  When we were in full time youth ministry, I had friends who would pass little boy stuff on to me for Max.  I don’t think I ever had to buy him a jacket until he was 7.  But then I had a girl.  Saving Max’s hand me downs wasn’t helpful.  My youngest is a boy, but there’s a 4 year age difference and we’ve never lived in a place that has a ton of storage space.  Instead of saving things for Pete, I passed them along to other mothers or to Goodwill.  Then we moved to Denver.  Somehow I find myself with no friends who have kids in the right stages to pass me down their used goods.  I pass stuff on to my neighbors, take it to our Friday school group and to Goodwill.

We’ve been riding the growth spurt roller coaster all year and it always seemed to peak when it was the most inconvenient for us.  Like a week before payday we’d discover that Zoe’s pants were all too tight and ripped out in the knees.  Pete’s pants were too short and ripped out in the knees.  Max’s pants were…well, his fit fine and were ripped out in the knees.  See the pattern?  I don’t mind the ripped out knees for most occasions.  I was a child of the 80’s and there was a time we fought for the right to keep that style when it exasperated our parents.  (That was after stonewashed jeans and the tapered and rolled up or pinned at the bottom look.) 😉  And just a few years ago people were paying to buy jeans that were already ripped.  But there are some places we go where I’d rather my kids be a little less..uh…holey.

My daughter is 5 but is the size of most 8 year olds.  She’s only a few inches shorter than her 8 year old brother and he’s no shorty either.  After one of our “I can’t believe this doesn’t fit you anymore” discussions, I was frustrated and got online to post a note to our Friday homeschooling group on the message board asking if anyone had hand me downs for Zoe’s size.  For the last three weeks, a few different women have brought me bags of clothes for Zoe to try on and told me to pass the rest along to someone else who might want them.  There were some really nice things in those bags!  One lady even thanked me for motivating her to go through her daughters closet and clear out stuff that didn’t fit her or she never wore.

I’m so grateful for hand me downs which save me money so I can fill in the rest of the wardrobe needs.

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Head on over to Laura’s blog – Heavenly Homemakers and link up.