The sock that broke the camel's back.

I think I am getting there. Making progress, little by little. Slowly coming to terms with my 'lot' and the responsibilities they involve. Slowly learning to joyfully give of myself daily, to get the jobs done with a cheerful heart. I think I am getting better, a little...? I hope! I am certain at least some of the laziness has been knocked out of me with all these children to look after, the house to clean the food to cook. Truly honestly I actually enjoy the challenge most days. I want to sink my teeth into it all, to do it and do it well. Another morning and we start all over again, and again and again, YAY! :)

But I must tell you that some days I am on the edge. Some days my sanity is very nearly about to come crashing down around me, and everyone nearby! Some days all it takes is ONE MORE FLIPPIN ODD SOCK and I think I am going to scream in frustration!!!!!!!!!

Do you hear me ladies?! Those blasted socks just seem to be sent by the devil himself, sent to trip us up and leave us pulling our hair out and on a really bad day- in tears. Ok, I don't know if I have actually cried over the odd sock situation...Yet! But what is it about those lonely little wanderers that makes the house seem far more out of control then their size warrants? Another item I find that, when out of place seems to have disproportionate impact on the apparent 'tidiness' of a room; coathangers!!! Can I get an amen out there?! The thing about coat hangers is that they not only make the room look cluttered and in disarray, probably because when a coathanger is not in the closet it is so OBVIOUSLY NOT where it is supposed to be. There is no good excuse for them to be lying around... Unlike socks, which have lots of good excuses, one for every little hand that pulled it off in a hurry and forgot to put them away. Or they lost their buddy in the washing cycle somewhere...sad, yet so terribly common. Living in Darwin this wasn't so much a problem as we only wore socks for sport or when visiting family down 'south'. Oh those were the good old days...

Yes I have seen those 'oh so cute' ideas on Pinterest for ways to store and even display your odd socks. Like a lovely glass jar in the laundry room, or a peg board with the slogan 'wanted' written above four pegs, where you can attach a sock missing its mate....FOUR socks? Are you kidding me?... If I had a peg board like that I would need about 137 spots on it! AND I don't think rows of jars with odd socks on our laundry shelf would look attractive...

I will tell you how I deal with the sock 'situation' as I am going to now call it. It is a situation that it is imperative you keep under control, we must deal with this or it will deal with us. Find a bag, a reasonably nice one, but not one you are going to need for anything else, because this bag will always need to be in use. I use a kind of canvassy/cloth tote that one of the girls decorated at school or something like that... I hang it on the closet door handle. I find an odd sock, I take a deep breath. I don't freak out, I don't question my organisational abilities, I don't panic. I put the sock in the bag. I forget about it.

Every few weeks, or months, or whenever the kids completely run out of socks, we tip the bag on the floor and sit there for a good 45 minutes or so and pair up as many as we can. There are always more that go back in the bag, but that is ok, that is what the bag is for. We gather them back up, we put the sock bag on the handle and we start again. I try not to think about it, and I try to remember how many socks we actually have and to NOT buy anymore.

I recently started a new odd sock bag, especially for Hudson's little boy socks. I do hope this makes him feel special. For Shane and I? I don't even bother, his drawer is full of oddsies and we just wear the closest match ups we can find. The fact that we live with my parents and sometimes intermingle washing just exacerbates the odd sock problem no end. Sometimes I sneak a pile of adult odd socks into their room when I can't take it anymore.

I had a brain wave a couple of days ago to do with the socks; to kill two birds with one stone. As a time out activity/discipline, instead of setting the timer as we so often do, I could give the child the sock bag and they would have to pair up a stated number of socks before coming out of time-out...Brilliant I thought.

How about you? Does the sock 'situation' cause you similar traumas as it does me? How do you deal with it? I know I am not the only one!!