179 Pairs of Socks and Other Random Facts

David just turned 8.  We had a very low-key party.  A few cousins, a chocolate cake from a box, and balloons to bounce around.  He said it was the best day ever.  He’s pretty easy to please when it comes to parties.

Last Spring, when the cold weather started to fade and it was warm enough to wear sandals, I stopped pairing up socks when doing laundry, and just threw them all into a laundry basket to get all sorted before winter.  I never did.  It sat in our bedroom…the hundreds of unmatched socks.  Now the weather is turning cold and we need socks.

So I asked Silje and David if they wanted to make some money.  I would offer a penny for every pair of socks they folded together.  David gave up after about 5 pairs.  Silje pressed on and finished. Afterward we counted up for her money.  179 pairs of socks, plus a few spares.  I just gave her $2.  Best money I’ve spent in awhile.  It was better than just going to the store and buying everyone a new package of socks, which I seriously contemplated doing.

I’m pretty sure I haven’t bought 179 pairs of socks.  I have no idea where they all came from.  My father-in-law was right when we bought this house from them.  He said this house is a vacuum that collects things at light-breaking speeds.  I have no idea where half of my kids’ toys come from.  Why do we even have that many pairs of socks?  That’s 25.57 pairs of socks per person in this household.  That’s not even counting the ones I threw away because they had holes.  Something needs to change.

I hate socks.  I can deal with the snow of winter.  I can deal with the cold.  I can deal with pretty much all of it.  But I hate socks.  Sandals are by far my favorite part of summer, and I will miss it.

I had some mom friends out last night.  We laughed together so much.  That was fun.  Knut didn’t get home until 3:30 am.  Soy beans are basically done now.  “Just” the corn left.  Rain came again today, so it will give a little breather before that starts.

Elias is really into drawing these days.  Actually, I’ve been quite impressed with some of them.  He turns 5 next month, but with crayons he shades and shows action through his drawing in some pretty insightful ways.  He’s also had robots on the brain lately as well.  Just like David did, he still rotates between using his left hand and his right hand.  We’ll see where that ends up.  I know David ended up being a lefty (except for sports, which is ironically the opposite of Knut who is a righty, except in sports he’s a lefty).  For now he likes using both hands.  So we’ll see.