Mom wear

I am blessed and grateful to have a husband who loves me. 


He met and fell in love with me knowing I was far from a fashionista.  I would love to dress in fashion but I'm generally too behind the times and too cheap to look fabulous all the time.  I did my best back then.


As a high school teacher, I tried to not look too frumpy and boring and amassed a sort-of fashionable work wardrobe. 


Fast forward to being a part-time employee and a part-time stay at home mom to my newborn son.  Read: part-time nice dresser and part-time sweatpants and t-shirts. 


For the first time late last summer my husband gave me a wardrobe suggestion.  Our newborn was about six weeks old and I could still only fit comfortably in maternity clothes.  He said, "I'm kinda tired of seeing you in those sweat-shorts.  Just go buy some new clothes".  He wasn't talking about the size of clothes I was wearing, but it was clear that seeing me in the same gray or black maternity sweat shorts every day of the week was getting a little old. 


I do love and respect my husband, but... I didn't buy new clothes... and I spent the following winter in sweatpants and long sleeved t-shirts.  Unless I was at work, of course, but believe me: If I could garner respect from college-age students while wearing sweatpants, I would do so. 


In my defense, I shower every day.  If I'm sick?  I shower.  Tired and want to sleep in?  I still get up before the kids and shower.  Kids sick?  Still I find a way to sneak in a shower.  I'm clean, the (frumpy) clothes I'm wearing are clean, and the house is clean, so who cares if I'm fashionable, right?  Also in my defense, my husband enjoys paring down to a white t-shirt and a certain pair of black sweatpants after work...


So, I'm not a great dresser.  I do have a nice, new summer wardrobe that has gotten me out of sweatshorts.  Today I'm going no place in particular and I'm wearing a shirt with a collar and khaki shorts.  What?!? 


I know that God cares about what is in my heart and what shows in my actions, not the clothes I wear.  That's what I kept reminding myself on a recent Sunday night when I took the kids out for a walk still wearing my church clothes - knee-length casual skirt and casual top, sport sandals, and a pony tail.  Little Lady was wearing a dress with no shoes (she was in the stroller), and she was sporting a Sumo-wrestler ponytail in her sweaty hair.  Mini Me was wearing a too-small shirt drenched in sweat.  We looked a sight. 


But God loves me no matter what I wear... and so does my husband.