somebody pass the ketchup

It's time once again for me to make a feast of my words! It's been a tradition in our family to craft the girlies' Halloween outfits, and we've had fun with that. So much fun, that in the past few years, I'm sure I've said (smugly, to myself): "WOW! I am such a great mom. I make my kiddos costumes! No store-bought stuff for us, thanks. Crafty critter here is able to make anything that her little ones' hearts desire!"

Humph.... Yeah, not so much this year. This year Miss K and Miss MA are set on being mermaids. I've tried to talk them out of it. "How about poodles? Belly dancers? Cheerleaders?" "Mermaids, mommy! MERMAIDS!!" Good night, Irene... How in the word does a crafty critter, who's probably more critter than crafty, make mermaid costumes? I looked at patterns (which I don't really understand the mechanics of, anyway), and sparkly fabric...and then stopped by Party City, just to see what I might spend on boughten costumes, were I to buy mermaids rather than try to craft them. Ariel costumes were on sale. Hmmmm.... I could go buy sparkly material, and then spend hours trying to craft mermaids, or just be done with the whole thing in the next 10 minutes for the same amount of money.

Needless to say, I walked out of Party City with two Ariel costumes tucked under my arm.

So I'm in a quandry. One that I tend to find myself in often in parenting... thinking that MY way is the ONLY way, only to discover that that's absolute rubbish, and that a great deal of flexibility is required as we help our girls grow into the women that God created them to be. That's not to say that there aren't absolutes in parenting - there are - but as regards stuff like this, I'm so thankful that there are so many other people out there who can help me stretch and grow, and learn that MY way isn't the ONLY way for things to be done well.

That doesn't mean that I'm going to leave the Ariel emblems on the costumes, though. Still have to add a bit of originality for crafty critter's sake. I'll post pics after Halloween!