Dressing Your Truth

I've been reading a book by Carol Tuttle that's not titled dressing your truth but that's what it's about.  She has a profiling system which takes into account personality, habits, a bunch of different stuff, and categorizes people into one of four "types".  She uses this for a lot of confidence and "be who you are" kind of stuff, including dressing to match your type.  If you google it, she has a bunch of videos that go through it all and I find it interesting.  But then I've always struggled with clothes.  I've never felt like I have a secure hold on how I look and feel pretty.  I'm hoping this helps.

As I've been reading it though, I've noticed that children instinctively pick what they want to wear and then feel good in it.  I don't know when it will really kick in that my girls need to wear what other girls are wearing but for now they are happy being themselves and I like that.

I have really enjoyed having a boy.  Boy clothes are simple and easy.  Of course William's not old enough to care.  Except about shoes.  He loves shoes.  I think that he feels like if he's wearing shoes that we're going somewhere because he LOVES to go (especially when mommy is chasing him -- I don't really need to exercise outside of chasing this boy).  My mom sent new shoes to the girls -- sparkly boots for Abby and sparkly shoes for Megan.  William LOVES those boots.  He throws a tantrum when he doesn't get to wear them and was very excited to find them unoccupied and brought them to me today.  Abby is the sweetest girl and so good at sharing.  She doesn't mind in the least if William wants to borrow her boots!!

And of course she got them back later.  Right now her clothing obsession is leotards.  She still wears the pink one with the attached skirt but I finally threw away her black one because it was too small and had a hole in it.  She dug this one out of the costumes today.  It's one that a friend gave me from a recital her daughter had done but had outgrown the outfit.  The problem is that wearing leotards always results in Abby's butt cheeks hanging out so I make her wear shorts or pants over them when we go out in public.  It makes for some great combinations.

Megan has not let kindergarten affect her preferences at all!  She still comes up with some wild outfits that just make me laugh.  I'm not one to insist on coordinating clothing, just weather appropriate clothing.  I do hope though that she doesn't get made fun of.  Kids can be mean.  She can too, I've seen it.

Monday night she and I went alone to Target to get a gift for her teacher for teacher appreciation week.  We went through the women's department and of course all the swimming suits are out.  She was very excited to point out all the colorful bras!!  I had to inform her that those were swimming suits called bikinis and she wanted to know why I didn't wear one like that.  So we talked mostly about modesty and I thought mostly about my rolly, saggy, fluffy body.  But regardless of whether or not I would actually look good in a bikini (I would not), I've never felt comfortable exposing that much skin.  I think it went a long way towards keeping me modest as a teenager and I hope that the girls feel the same way.  It will certainly make for less battles!  But I don't know how to instill that in them.  Especially when they see so much skin everywhere they look.  

I've been thinking a lot about the values that they need to survive out there lately.  I feel like I've been very thoughtful, reflective, philosophical?  lately.  It has been such a positive experience to have Megan in kindergarten.  She has grown so much in ways that I could never have helped her and her academics are fantastic!  But I kind've feel like I need to make the most of the summer and steep her (and Abby) in the values that matter most.  I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle that project but I'm considering approaching it much like you would approach homeschooling for academics.  We'll see.  Last summer I had grand designs and pregnancy sickness destroyed it -- well maybe that and a little summer laziness.  But rest assured we will not be purposefully getting up in the morning to study!!  So maybe I can achieve something positive!