Have you ever looked back to what your thoughts and

Have you ever looked back to what your thoughts and believes were as a child to what they are as an adult? It is funny how we can change our minds about things as we get older. Part of it is peer pressure and wanting to fit in and another reason is that as we get older we base our thoughts and opinions on the experiences that we have had. As I have aged I realize that some of the things that my parents did for me that I thought were lame, took a great deal of effort and time. You do not realize these things until you become a parent yourself.

When I was growing up my parents did not have a great deal of money. We were not poor, but they worked hard for everything we had. When I reflect back they always put us kids first. We had new clothes, shoes and other things before my parents bought things for themselves. My mom is a gift giver. She liked to surprise us with gifts and tokens even though there was not a lot of money to purchase these things with. Barbie dolls were a big deal when I was a kid. The neighborhood girls would get together to play dress up with the Barbies. I had a Barbie doll, but not very many Barbie doll clothes. They were expensive to buy. My mother began making Barbie doll clothes for me to play with. I was the only one that had homemade Barbie doll clothes. Often times when I went to play I would leave the home made clothes in the box and only take out the few store bought ones that I had.

A few years ago my mother had to go into assisted living. My sisters and I started going through the house picking out the things for mom to have in her apartment and dividing the other things and also preparing for a yard sale. In the attic we came across a few boxes of toys that mom had saved through the years. We found a box filled with my Barbie doll things. Many of the handmade pieces of clothing were still there. Now that I have sewn a few things I realize the patience and time it took my mother to sew the small intricate pieces for the Barbie doll clothes. She put a great deal of time into small details. On the gowns she had sewn sequins and small beads to make them special. Looking at these clothes as an adult I realized that I had more beautiful clothes to play with than any of my friends, yet I left them stored in a box because they were not bought in a store.