Karisma and Kids - Thanks for the comment. I answered your concerns in the comment section as I'm not sure of blog protocol for commenting on comments. The new blog sounds interesting.

I know that little boys(& girls) tend to get filthy more often than not, and KJ was no exception. Even as recently as six months ago, he would routinely work on his frog pond and come in muddy and wet. I had thought though, at age 14, that he had outgrown that phase. Apparently not.

When I picked KJ up from his dad's Wednesday morning, his slip-on, checkered Vans were covered in mud and wet. I threw them in to wash when we got home. 3 wash cycles, lots of stain remover, and some bleach later, the shoes were semi-decent looking again.

On Wednesday evening, KJ announced that he had no clean shorts and brought his laundry to me. I washed and dried all his clothes, and on Thursday morning, everything was clean. He had left one pair of shorts at his dad's, and one pair is a hair too small, so he only had 3 wearable pair. (NOTE - He does have pants, but its been too hot for them.) Anyway, he wore a pair of shorts Thursday while hanging around the house, to a movie, and out to eat. So far, so good, they're still fine. Thursday evening, however, he and Taylor (yes, THAT Taylor) went outside for about 45 minutes. In that short amount of time they managed to get muddy and wet.

They both changed and were inside the rest of the evening. Friday morning, KJ wore the clean pair from the night before to a homeschool gathering at a local park. The younger children played on the playground and watched the local fire department (who were very nice) spray various water patterns while testing the fire truck. The older children, however, played in a nearby drainage ditch, catching fish. All four of them (ranging in age from 11-14) came back muddy and wet.

KJ changed into his remaining clean pair of shorts when we returned home, but now his lace up tennis shoes were muddy and wet. Of course now, he had no clean shorts to take to his dad's for the weekend so I washed them again, and told him to toss them into the dryer at his dad's house. On the way over, we stopped and bought another pair of tennis shoes (his old ones were in pretty bad shape anyway). I told him that from now on, he is to wear his Crocs or old shoes into any muddy situations. The problem is that he never plans to get into those situations. They just happen to him. I have a feeling that KJ will still be getting himself into wet, muddy situations for many more years. He'll probably make it a career.