Children of God...

The Kindergarten through 5th grade students at G's school put on a concert yesterday.  Mrs. L came along with the boys and I to hear the fun program with songs all about trains.  G loves to sing and puts 100% of herself into every song that she sings, and as parents, S & I find such joy in watching this.  But the final song that they sang yesterday with the whole group, Children of God, seriously brought me to tears.  What a wonderful thing to see this group praising God with their voices!!

Click here to watch a video that Mr. Shields, the principal, took of that song

lesson on value...

I love a good deal.  But I also love good quality and understand that it does not always come cheap.  So after being frustrated with my clothing choices for skirts and dresses in my closet, I threw my good Dutch sense to the wind and went into one of those expensive clothing stores that basically dress you.  This one was geared towards mommas and it had a fabulous kids area with snacks in the middle of the store close to the dressing-room area so that they could stick me in a room and bring me a plethora of outfits to try on while my boys were happily occupied.  Fourty minutes later I left the store with 2 skirts, a dress, leggings, and 3 happy boys (H slept through the whole thing and W&C loved the play area and snacks) and was so happy with my experience there!  (normally clothing stores = kids going mad bonkers)  Well, when I got home and tried on the clothes for S, the clothes didn't look as good as they had in the store (seriously do they do something to the lights or mirrors?).  They did all fit me well, but the colors weren't right and the dress and leggings was seriously stretching age appropriateness (hard to believe I am not 20ish anymore!).  So I grumbled and decided to return all my purchases. And on the same day I returned them, I happened to head for a couple of favorite stores of mine that have sales and good clearance racks since the kids and S needed a few things, as well as a few other errands I had to run, and when I got home I compared the value of what I had returned and purchased.

(2 skirts that fit but wasn't happy with the colors and 1 dress and pair of leggings that stretched age-appropriateness for this 30-something gal)

=

4 polos for S, 2 skirts (much happier with the colors and they fit well!) and 2 tank tops for me, a dress and a skort and pair of pants and leggings for G, a sweatshirt and a t-shirt and shorts for W, 2 t-shirts and a pair of shorts for C, a Zagg screen shield installed on our new iPad, PLUS lunch at Panera for the boys and I...and I still had $35 left over.

So while I have no issues with good quality expensive clothing, I was happy that I was able to return it and get many needed and useful things for my family this time!

and maybe instead of the fancy salespeople 

I just need a good shopping buddy...any takers? =)

is this recycling, momma?

We finally had some shorts weather today...and the kids were SO excited to pull out their "new" shorts.  Aahma B came for a few days last week and along with helping out with baby-sitting the boys while I had a horrible time at the dentist getting a crown put in, she also took all the kids' jeans that had holes worn in them and turned them into adorable shorts for the summer by trimming them in cotton fabric.  They turned out ADORABLE, the kids loved them (and loved picking out the fabric for their own shorts), I was so happy to re-purpose these pants that still had lots of wear except for the knees, and I don't have to buy three pairs of shorts for G, two each for W & C, and one for H.  Ok, H didn't wear holes in his jeans over the winter, in fact he won't fit into any jeans he might have worn even last month, but we couldn't resist turning a pair got on clearance into cutey-shorts so he could have a pair too. =)  So thank you SO much Mom B - kids call them their "aahma" shorts, so you are thought of lovingly every time they wear them.

G asked me, "Is this recycling, Momma?"  I smiled and said it was more like re-using.  She responded, "Whatever it is, I like it."