one foot, two foot, red foot, blue foot

What is the deal with my kids and their shoes?

When you enter my house, you will be welcomed by a large stack of shoes. I thought I would make life simple and have my kids take their shoes off at the door. Most people think I do that to keep our floors nice, and guest often ask politely, "oh, would you like me to take off my shoes?" The answer is, no need. The floors are already a mess, I just have my kids take their shoes off at the door in an effort to try to keep them from losing their shoes.

If they keep their shoes on, they will end up coming off at somepoint; bathroom, bedroom, living room, while playing, or maybe even in the kitchen, and then all chances of keeping the shoes together are gone for good. Im not sure why this is, but once the shoes come off, it's like the left shoe tries to run from the right shoe, and they are rarely seen together again. So, let's just keep it simple and keep all shoes at the door, right? Wrong!

While getting ready to leave for Pooper's swim meet championships this weekend, at 6am, I might add, Beauty could not find her shoes. I take that back, she could find plenty of shoes, just not a matching pair. She had a white flip flop in the play room and a pink one in her bedroom. There was a white tennis shoe in the hall, yet we couldnt find either pink tennis shoe. We took apart the house, the car, and eventually, after 20 minutes and risk of missing the championships all together, we found her nice church shoes in her closet. So, off to the swimmeet in her shorts and nice church shoes, aye!

I must have said a hundred times in complete frustration, "In our family , we keep our shoes by the door! How many times do I have to tell you to keep your shoes by the door? If you would just listen to me, you would know where your shoes are, and that would be, by the door! For goodness sakes, I realize that it's in your blood to do the opposite of everything I say, but trust me when I tell you to put your gosh danged shoes BY THE DOOR!" I say that often, and say it loudly when we are on our way out of the house, because naturally, one of my kidlets always whimpers, "I cant find my other shoe."

Im not sure how much easier I can make it. Perhaps it's a good time to pull out our Colombian Family to remind the kids that they should be so thankful that they have shoes, as their Latin siblings dont even get any, and they should cherish and protect and PUT BY THE DOOR their shoes!

Or, maybe I can input powerful magnets into the soles, or gps tracking devices. It's almost as if my house is the Bermuda Triangle for shoes.

In any case, with school and soccer beginning soon, and Little One starting to walk, Im going to be making a trip to the shoe store this week. The new pairs will exponentially increase the number of times that someone will not be able to find their matched footwear, taking me one step closer to that inevitable nervous breakdown.

** We will have a contest tomorrow!! Check back in tomorrow morning and you will have one day to submit your entry for the next poll question. All entries should be posted into the guestbook. If there are duplicates of the same question, the first person to enter it gets the prize, so come back early. The contest starts sharply at 8am Tuesday morning and will finish at 8pm Tuesday night, pacific standard time. The prize is a Starbucks gift card (mom, I know it's not quite as exciting as Pioneer Woman's prizes, but it still makes it fun.) I will post the winner along with the new poll on Wednesday morning**