a shoe for all reasons

This past weekend I began to tackle the change over of the clothing from fall/winter stuff to summer wear. I have to take this job in stages as it's one I dread. We are very very lucky to receive clothing from family and friends that their children have outgrown. But this also means I have bins upon bins of clothing I must go through several times a year. I pull out the bins of clothing I've put away because I need to go through all the potential summer clothes and shoes to see what fits, what's outdated or too worn. I make piles around the room of clothing to put into their closets and drawers, clothing to donate and too big clothing to put away for next year. Then I make a list of what I need to purchase for that child for the upcoming season.


Next, I take out the clothing from drawers and closets and pile it all up on the floor too. Put away the stuff I just sorted and begin sorting the clothing from the past season. I have a pile of clothes to put away for someone to grow into and clothes to donate. I can usually only handle doing one kid's clothing at a time. It seems like I finally get done with this most onerous task by mid July. I am determined to be done earlier this year.


This past weekend I went through shoes. We have a system in our house for shoes. It's very simple. Shoes they wear often go into a little basket near the top of the stairs. House rule is shoes come off when they come in the door so they sit on the stairs and put shoes on and off. Each child has his/her own basket for shoes. That way I don't have shoes everywhere and they know where to go to put away or find a pair. On Saturday, I took each one upstairs and tried on sandals, sneakers and flip flops from last year to see what fit. Nothing. My kids continue to insist on growing. So I sifted through last years shoes to make my trusty piles, to keep, donate and some just needed to be tossed. Made up my lists of what each needed and then hauled them all off to the mall to shop for shoes.


It took us over two hours. I just wanted cute sandals for the girls, summer sneaks for all, all purpose sneakers for Sam and then something each could wear to and from the beach, like flip flops. The choices for little girl sandals is HORRENDOUS! I don't splurge on kids shoes. They beat them to pieces and I am frugal so we usually go to Target or Payless. We went to over five stores before I found sandals I would allow Teresa to wear. She is six years old and the options in her size were, in my prudish opinion, not at all appropriate for a little girl. They looked like something you'd see on a practically nude Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. I finally found some simple sandals at Sears. After exhausting ourselves at the mall, we had most of what was on my list, minus summer sneaks for the girls. I then went home and got the shoe baskets all sorted away. This innocent little task revealed something very interesting about Teresa. She has a very real, and growing, shoe addiction.


Here is Sam's basket...summer sneakers and beach sandals. He was wearing his all purpose sneakers.




Next you have Katie's basket...a few more but that's to be expected for a girl. flip flops, sneakers, crocs, and what girl doesn't have a shoe with a little (or a lot) of bling.




And finally we come to Teresa's basket. She has so many shoes that it is overflowing and she even stuffs pairs into the banisters. She's got her sneakers for sports, her flip flops, orange summer sneakers, crocs, black ballet flats, pink ballet flats, sparkly silver ballet flats, two pairs of white sandals (she insisted on keeping last years), and, you can't see them because they're buried, some sketcher sneakers too. And that doesn't include the shoes she has in her closet that aren't considered everyday wear. She has a few pairs of dressy shoes in the closet, should she need them.



I should have realized, back when she was a toddler this would, one day, come to pass. I remember coming home from shopping at some consignment stores and I had found a pair of sneakers for her. She was just over one years old. They were very cute canvas sneakers with some embroidery and gems. I took them out and showed them to her and this person, just barely out of infancy!!!, gasped in delight and with a rapturous look on her face took them from me and hugged them to her chest. She had to put them on immediately and everyone we met was forced to admire them until she was satisfied that they too appreciated what a treasure these sneakers were. I thought it was cute and funny and didn't realize how this love of shoes was going to continue to grow and grow. I can only imagine the future. I think I'll need to get her a bigger basket.