A while back, my dear friend blogged about how she was tired of everyone always “slumming it” everywhere, and she decided that she was going to actually get dressed and put make-up on to leave the house.

A foreign concept to me!

I started thinking about it, and it really is a great idea.  I mean, there is not a SINGLE picture of my precious MamaSara in workout clothes, or without makeup, or with her hair in a pony tail.  In MamaSara’s generation, people dressed well.  People put on clothes and makeup, and they looked nice all day, every day!  MamaSara always looked impeccable.

I don’t have many pics of her in the day to day life that I am talking about,  but here are a couple.

MamaSara is on the far left with cute blue pants on, a button down shirt, hair fixed, with a scarf around her neck…to run around and play on the Indian mounds.

Think Donna Reed.

So, I decided I should try it.  One day I dressed in real clothes.  Nothing fancy…just a pair of nice jeans and a shirt with some boots that have a heel on them.  I even put on makeup and jewelry!  I enjoyed wearing real clothes.  I could tell I had a swing in my step and held my head higher.

The first hour of the “new and improved Kate” felt great!  I loved feeling “dressed and put together.”

Then I almost killed myself trying to step around toys in my heels, and my back was aching.

Then I got something on the shoulder of my outfit.  I have no idea what it was, but I think it was baby food of some sort.

THEN, I was bending over to wipe my child’s bottom, and my new earring fell out of my ear.  I heard the horrible “PLUNK” as it sank into the deep dark depths of the toilet on top of my child’s POOP!

Well, of course I am going to include a picture for you!  (Sorry, dad…but the moms understand this!)

I wanted to cry!  I fished it out with a hanger and washed it the best I could at that moment.  Then my poor earring lived in a paper towel in my closet for weeks because I just could not bear the thought of throwing it away…nor could I bear the thought of putting that in my ear.

It was then that I decided that dressing up is overrated!  I have FOUR kids!  And I have at least one, and usually 3 with me at all times.  And I want them with me, please don’t miss this point.  I want them with me.  I do not want my earrings in the toilet, but I like having all these wild maniacs around me!

So I wear workout clothes.

I might even go as far as wearing cute workout clothes, but I can confidently put on my workout clothes and hope that at some point in my day, I accidentally find myself in the gym.  I figure I am much more likely to actually go to the gym if I am already dressed to work out, and not dressed in my heels.

But that brings me to the point of this post.

I love it when I am dressed in my workout clothes…hoping that at some point I make it to the gym (slim chance, but I guess there’s a chance), and someone asks me,

“Hey, did you work out today?”

And usually I stare at them and tuck my tail and say, “Well, no, but I thought I might, so…”

But you know what?!?!

YES!

Yes!  I worked out today!  And THAT’s why I’m dressed like this!

I didn’t go to yoga, but I did all kinds of contortionist moves driving down the road trying to find Georgia’s pacifier, or hand AnnaLeigh a sippy cup, or swat at someone acting a fool in the backseat.

I squatted and bent over 4,579 times today picking up toys and clothes and shoes and children!

I sprinted across Target pushing 3 children in a buggy, because my child had to go to the bathroom “NOW!”

I lifted a sleeping child from the back of our car, over the middle seat and out the car and carried her in the house.

I chased a STUPID dog down the street as he barked at a passing runner.

I changed a darn crib sheet, and I swear that should be a CrossFit challenge.

I nursed a baby 100 times, which has to count for something!  I mean, that burns calories, right?!?

I wrestled a child that was FREAKING OUT and was in great need of discipline…or the LORD.

I brushed my hair and my teeth and put on socks and cooked dinner and did laundry and scrubbed countertops and tables and swept the floor and unloaded the dishwasher…all while holding a child in one arm.  And yes, that one arm is markedly larger and stronger.

And you know what?  You just can’t do that in real clothes!

A banker wouldn’t wear dickies to work, and a plumber wouldn’t wear heels.  I feel it is okay for me to dress for my job.

I am a mother!

So hand over the yoga pants, because this mama knows there is a time for looking cute, and there is a time for being a mama!  Today, I choose my workout clothes!

And if you ask me if I worked out, just know that the answer is going to be “YES!  I worked out!”

And if I do happen to make it to the gym for a “real” workout, you can guarantee that my next stop will be The Cookie Company or Chick-fil-A, so I can reward my efforts.  Because if I really make it to the gym, it’s only so I can eat all that junk and not feel as guilty.

So, happy working out, Mamas! :)  We can dress up when we grow up a little more…or when our maniacs grow up a little more.

-kate

.