Time To Swap Wardrobes

Yesterday we took the day off from school so that we could swap out clothes - putting away spring and summer, getting out fall and winter. I generally do not mind this "project" but this year I have been dreading it (all summer) .... knowing there were bags and boxes of clothing I had never seen, not knowing what would be servicable, what would fit and what would not, not knowing what we would need to buy (and how much of it, not to mention the cost) to get through the season ....

This project literally took over 9 hours, minus short lunch and dinner breaks.

We dragged lots of bags and boxes of clothing from the attic (given to us after the fire last spring - and just put IN the attic after seeing the children had "enough" clothes for the summer) ... we first sorted BOY and GIRL piles ... then sorted each of those into SIZE & ITEM SPECIFIC piles ...

Then I went through the piles with each child 1 by 1, gathering (and trying on) clothing ... then we emptied that child's dresser drawers and closet .... putting spring and summer items (plus "too small" items) into Rubbermaid crates, and refilling the closet and dresser with fall and winter clothing. We even sorted through their shoes, putting into the closet only the pairs that were needed (1 pair play shoes, 1 pair town shoes, and 1 "extra" pair).

Surprisingly, the girls were MUCH easier than the boys this year. They were THRILLED with so many choices and the enormous variety of clothes - even Cherub 5 with her unusual "style" found quite a few items that she LOVED. The boys liked the clothing and the choices, but being ANTI-SHOPPERS (by nature ?) they were not thrilled with the "process". HA !!

However, after all was finished ... in the attic are crates with summer type clothes plus some things that did not fit anyone for this season (clean and ready for next year's use) ... and the children's closets and dressers are filled with warm clothes for the cool weather than should be here to stay very soon. We have plenty of winter coats (except 1 of the boys who needs a play coat and a town coat), and even some mittens and gloves and hats for winter. WOW !!

DadToCherubs and I assumed we would need to purchase quite a bit for the children for this season, but BOY OH BOY were we wrong. We will need to purchase more mittens / gloves and hats of course for winter, plus socks and underwear for each of the children, 2 winter coats (1 play coat & 1 "good" for church), a few belts, 2 pairs of "church" shoes (girls), and a few shirts to "match" certain pants or skirts to complete an "outfit". Oh, and Cherub 6 needs a few pairs of PJs and some slippers. That's it !!

God is awesome !! And our friends, neighbors, and community were just so incredible and so very generous to us !! We were just soooooooooo incredibly blessed again and again and again after having lost everything after our housefire last spring ... and those blessings were even more noticible yesterday as we were filling the children's dressers and closets with Fall / Winter Wardrobes.

Thank You Lord !! And thank you to those who donated items to us !! It still literally brings tears to our eyes when we think back on those days ... and when we consider all of the families who were so generous.

So today ........ we are deep-cleaning the children's bedrooms, and stripping beds to be remade for "cold weather" (more blankets, etc) .....

Fall is here ... and looking at the weather forcast, might be bringing much cooler temps any day now ... which means winter is just around the corner.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is just 4 weeks away ... and Christmas is only 8 weeks away ??

We need to get busy on our Christmas projects - we have ornaments to make and gifts to create. YIKES !!

October 23 UPDATE: Today I finished sorting through DadToCherubs' and my closets and dressers. We weeding out a lot of "extras", and even took some items to some of the men who work on the farm. WOW !! Now we can actually "find" things in our closets and dressers. What an incredible blessing though, to have lost everything and then to have "plenty". God has been SO good to us !! It is official now - we are READY for the cooler weather now - and all of the donations that came to us after the fire have been sorted and put away properly. Whew !! What a relief to have it all finished and behind us now.