2002-01-20-11:31 a.m.

We'll be wearing red clothes for a week. Red, orange, pink, anything that might bleed onto the light-colored clothes.

I washed the red clothes before we left to go visit relatives at the end of the year. We picked out the ones we wanted to take and put them in the dryer, then I hung the rest on the clothesline in the garage to dry. They've been there ever since. If you want to walk from the through the garage to the back yard you have to duck under the clothesline and push a shirt or a towel away with your arm. We've been doing that for three weeks.

I wonder how many things we could live without for three weeks and not even notice.

Abby had some pajamas in there, some shirts she sleeps in and a regular tee shirt for wearing in the daytime. Stan had two red tee-shirts. Daniel had one. Benjamin had several shirts and pairs of shorts. His favorite 101 Dalmation outfit was in there. Megan had one pair of shorts and her orange choir uniform shirt. Becky had a whole stack of pink and red stuff: a sweatshirt, red, orange AND pink tee-shirts, one little shirt that's size four - she won't let me get rid of it. She's saving it for her own little girl to wear when she's four! Andrew had two pairs of red shorts.

That's a lot of stuff to not even miss for three whole weeks.

Andrew saw his little stack on the bed and his eyes lit up. (His eyes always light up when he sees his stack of clothes on the bed.) "Are dees MINE?" I told him to go put them up, but, of course, he had to put a pair of shorts on right away. All the kids will probably feel that way when they see all their red clothes in their drawers or hanging in their closets. They won't say anything, but they'll be happy to have their old friends back and they'll all probably wear something red or pink or orange tomorrow.

It's a pretty easy way to find a little gladness, really. There's always something I haven't really seen or paid attention to for three weeks. A project. The garden. A book I put aside. My scrapbooks. Something. They're not going anywhere. All I have to do is get up and find them. I might have to make time for them. I might have to let something else go - like making sure there's milk in the refrigerator or dusting window sills. But it's okay, because some days you just need to wear a red shirt.

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