Beyond Education: Breaking Dust Bunny Hearts

Some days SugarPlum (5) is a maid's worst nightmare. I'm not sure how many outfits she tries on or wears each day, but I keep finding them hanging out in dark corners with our friendly household dust bunnies. Horrors! Textile/dust bunny fraternization is strictly prohibited (but ubiquitous). I'm pretty sure a third of her socks have eloped. Maybe they just went on adventures. I'm not really sure, but that's an entirely different post. I'd rather not think about how many loads of clothes I've washed that were clean--no tomato sauce, no mud-splashes, no watercolors, no orange juice, no nothing--except for the residue of SugarPlum-aided dust bunny adventures. 

At the risk of breaking a few sock hearts, I've instituted a new routine:

SugarPlum and I lay out her clothes for the entire week on Saturday night. Sunday's clothes hang on the closet doorknob and the clothes for the remaining six days are folded and laid neatly in the handy-dandy hanging organizer. There's even room to add socks, shoes, and accessories the night before. Best of all, I found the handy-dandy organizer on clearance. Stores have been marking down all of the dorm-room items they put out mid-summer. I love dorm room stuff. It's bright, cheery, and so much more fun than beige. I bought these over a month ago. There might still be a few on the shelves if you want to give it a try.

I want to make messes with my kids--wonderful messes that we'll remember. When the simple everyday things swirl into complex vortexes that drain my time and energy we end up with a mess, probably one that we'll remember, but it's not very wonderful. So this school year I'm thinking ahead and trying to make as many things as possible simple and repeatable. I'm rethinking everything. I'm even willing to break a few hearts (provided they belong to socks).