April 11th & 12th

Picture-A-Day:

Monday. 4.11.11. Remember these? Old fashioned floppy disks? These aren't even the OLD old fashioned ones. These are the "small" floppy disks that aren't really floppy because they're encased in a plastic shell. I found these in a back corner of my desk. I spent the afternoon clearing off my desk to make way for a *different* desk (not new). These were from college years and beyond. I found one with my old Mail Center number on it. I suppose it was mostly papers, journals. The yellow-ish box is a little disk-holder that the college gave everyone. Nowadays they give everyone a laptop. I just realized it's been 15 years since I graduated high school. My entire childhood (including college) happened in the 1900's. Sounds historical, doesn't it? I threw some of the data stuff away, but kept my written work, even though I can't access it. Someday when I'm long gone it will be like a time capsule. It's probably a time capsule now. Sheesh.

Tuesday. 4.12.11. The changing of the seasons means each of the Eubanks kids needs a whole new wardrobe. All 5 of them. Talk about expensive! Tonight we went to Target to get sandals for 4 out of our 5 kids. I think this was our 3rd trip to Target in the past month. The first time it was track clothes/shoes for Alyssa (that's not even summer, that's just an extra curricular!) The second time was for swimsuits for Sage and Jayna, and Alyssa got a pair of shoes and maybe some other things. And then tonight. Of course, you go for "swimsuits" and you end up buying half of Target while you're there.
Alyssa, being the oldest, doesn't have any hand-me-downs. I don't think she would wear them anyway, she's become so particular about what she'll wear. Then since there's such a big gap between her and Sage, I don't save Alyssa's clothes (though I'm starting to wish I had now!) So Sage doesn't really get hand-me-down's either. But fortunately, her birthday is at the beginning of summer, so that's a good opportunity for her to get some new clothes. Jayna is 15 months behind Sage, so she gets a LOT of hand-me-down's. So far, she doesn't mind. This summer, for the first time, Jayna is smaller than Sage was LAST summer, so Sage's last-summer-clothes don't fit Jayna. (didja follow that?) So for the first time in her life, Jayna does not have enough hand-me-down's to get her through the season. She hardly has any summer clothes. And unfortunately, Sage has continued to grow, so her last-summer-clothes are now too small for her.
And since our last two are boys, and the same size... no hand-me-downs for them either. WITH FIVE KIDS, DON'T YOU THINK WE'D HAVE PLENTY OF HAND-ME-DOWN'S???

 

When the girls were babies and toddlers I pretty much bought all their clothes and shoes at thrift stores. It works great for babies, since they grow so fast they usually don't get to wear their clothes too much - so the second hand clothes are still in really great shape. Then somewhere around age 3 they turn into falling-down-dirt-machines! If I buy them second hand clothes, they're worn through or completely stained within a month. It's kind of ok, I figure if they make it through the summer, it's all good, right? Well, now that the girls are all in school, I don't really like the idea of sending them to school in old stained-up, ratty clothes. I am by no means a clothing snob. I actually really don't like being a walking advertisement for clothing compaines. But I figure if I buy a dress for Sage for $10 at Target (versus $2 at Goodwill), since it's starting off new, it just might be ok by the end of the summer. And then the following summer Jayna might be able to wear it, and it still might be ok by the end of the summer. And with shoes - so many times I have bought a pair of junky $5 shoes from the dollar store or something, and BOOM, 3 days later, they look they've been playing in the yard for a year. Or they fall apart. Don't get me wrong. I still frequent Goodwill. I just don't often find exactly what I'm looking for. I still buy a lot there for the boys - they're still young enough to go through clothes faster than they wear out. So, here I am, trying to find balance between buying cheap junk (you get what you pay for), and paying more for decent clothes. For 5 kids. I really didn't know that kids would be so expensive. Even though everyone says it all the time. I guess I thought they were exaggerating.
Thanks for reading (if you're still here), tonight was really a rant.