58 degrees - 8:47 - scattered clouds...
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| "Mountain Clothes" |
Our 2-year old and 6-year old are very hard on their clothes and shoes, like most kids their age are. Almost all children like to play outside. They like to run in the grass or play in the dirt. Therefore most families have their “Nice Clothes” and their “Play Clothes”. Life up here on the mountain is a little different so we have our “Town Clothes” and “Mountain Clothes”.
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| "Town Clothes" |
I am a type-A personality; a perfectionist who likes to be in control and have things go a certain way. My husband may not like to admit it but he is a ‘closet’ type-A personality as well. I dislike clutter and messes. Everything has to be clean and everything has its own place. Since moving off-grid and living in a home that is under construction with a yard that is still mostly dirt, we have found that we have had to lower our expectations a bit. (When I say we, I mostly mean me.) There is just too much to do and simply not enough time to do it.
Even though I have had to lower my expectations a bit, I still expect beds to be made every morning, clothes still need to find their way to the laundry hamper, and toys still need to be picked up before bedtime. Yes, a messy house or dirty kitchen still stresses me out, but I am getting better.
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| "Mountain Clothes" |
One very large exception, at least I think it’s a large one, has been the clothes. Stain Stick and OxiClean have always been good to me but sometimes they can’t even help with the messes our kids make. Seriously now, how do you get tree sap out of a pair of jeans or a t-shirt? Please someone tell me! Before if a shirt had a stain that I could not get out, or a pair of pants had a hole that could not be repaired, they would be thrown away. I like everyone to be dressed nicely. That does not mean name brand everything. Just clean, matching clothes that fit properly with no stains or holes. These are called our “Town Clothes” and now when they get stains or holes, they turn into “Mountain Clothes”.
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| "Town Clothes" |
In the morning when it’s time to get dressed, I will now tell the kids to pick out “Mountain Clothes” or “Town Clothes” according to what we have planned for the day. Yet sometimes when they are in their clean “town clothes”, and I send them outside to get into the car, the will somehow make a detour to chase a grasshopper or move one more dump truck load of dirt in the backyard and end up with their little smiling faces and clean “town clothes” smeared with dirt. And once again I try to explain the difference between trying to keep the “town clothes” clean and being able to get as dirty as their little hearts desire in their “mountain clothes” only!
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| "Town Clothes" |
The battle between keeping “Town Clothes” from becoming “Mountain Clothes” is never ending.
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| "Mountain Clothes" |
