Shorts story (or, how I lost my mind and then found it again)

You ever find yourself looking for something? Something you know exists, somewhere in your house, but you just can’t seem to find it… Until you think you’re just crazy? That was me, earlier this year, frantically trying to find shorts for my boys once things started to heat up here in Minnesota.

My boys, they’re 7 and 8. So we go through a lot of clothes. A LOT. I knew I had shorts for them last year, so where the heck did they go?

I tore apart every box in the basement. Every box marked “clothes” or “boys clothes” or “boys stuff” or “garage sale” … Even those marked “toys” and “books,” thinking maybe I had a lapse in judgment (like the one time I found $300 cash I’d apparently squirreled away inside a fitted sheet). No joke. No luck.

So I did what any thrifty, self-respecting suburban mom does… I went to four different stores and tried to get as many pairs of shorts as possible, for the smallest amount of money. I spent thousands of dollars (ok, not thousands), and scoured clearance racks for what felt like days. All so my boys could stay cool this summer. They got their shorts. And I got my sanity. Mostly.

But the missing shorts still plagued me. My mind flitted back to them at least once a week. It was one of those going-to-bed-now-brain-so-stop-freaking-out thoughts. “Where the heck are they?”

It’s now July 29, and summer is two-thirds over.

It’s just another day. Right? WRONG. So wrong.

It’s a day of discovery. Of adventure. In my cluttered basement. What treasure did I stumble across today, you might ask?

A box.

A simple, unassuming cardboard box, in an inconspicuous location in our basement.

A box labeled “boys shorts.”

WHAT.

Sure enough, it was a treasure-trove. Forty pairs of shorts, at least half of which would fit my younger boy this year. Even a few outlier pairs that were too big for the big kid last year, but will cover his butt just fine this year.

They’ll be home from day camp in a couple of hours, and will probably be excited to see shorts they recognize. Shorts that are now overflowing from their already-full dressers. Jam-packed full of shorts. So. Many. Shorts.

I really do hope they’re excited… They’ll be wearing shorts ’til Christmas just to make it all worth it.