Help! I'm a grown woman and I can't seem to dress myself!

If your doorbell rang right now, would you want to answer the door in what you're wearing? If your child's school called, telling you your child is sick and needs an immediate pick-up, how comfortable would you be running into the classroom in your outfit du jour?

Somewhere along the road, I got used to seeing myself in sweats and tee-shirts everyday. The sweats often were holey, and tees were a bit frayed at the neckline and cuffs. I was just so glad to not have baby spit up down the front, or peanut butter in my hair, to really notice that my appearance had slid so far down the hill.

I used to be able to dress myself. Even as a university student, I always looked decent. I had nice, comfortable clothes for after hours, no holes, torn seams or mystery stains.

Now, my most favored at-home pants are sweat pants. They're comfortable and warm. I love the stretchy waist. But they do look sloppy after a time. My current two pairs have holes in the seat. Not pin holes, but a few big gaping holes. I do have a couple of pairs of jeans, but even with spandex in them, they just don't reach the same level of comfort (and warmth) as sweats.

So, where am I going with all this?

You know the day I'm about to describe. I'm deep in a project, check the clock, and realize that I'm 15 minutes late to leave to pick up my girls from school. I grab my purse and head to their school. In the drive down, I check myself in the mirror, look down at my shoes (gotta make sure they both match), and discover my hair is sticking out every which way, I've no make-up on (did I remember to wash my face this morning, I wonder), my shirt has a glop of wood glue right front and center, and for pants, I'm wearing my holiest of sweats. "Ugh!" I say out loud to a non-existent audience in the car, "well, I'll just park at the far end of the lot and wait for the girls to come out. We'll hightail it out of the parking lot, be back home in no time, and no one will see what a wreck I am today."

Wouldn't you know it, this is the one day that daughter no. 1 comes out to my car window and tells me, "Mr so-and-so wants to talk to you. Can you come in right now?"  I have a few seconds of scrambling for excuses why I can't come in today, then give up, straighten the loose ends of my hair, and hope I can get in and out of the classroom with gaping holes in the back side of my pants unseen by any and all passers-by. (Fortunately, these sweat pants are so baggy and stretched out, that the holes tend to get lost in the folds of fabric.)  I am beyond the "Fashion Don'ts" page of well-known fashion magazines!

So, it's clear to me now, I really don't know how to dress myself properly. I need some Garanimals (kids' clothing from the 70s, each piece having an identifiable animal on a tag with it, so a child could choose pants and top with same animal and know the outfit went together) in my closet, so that I can reach in and grab two pieces that are designed to go together.

But I need an at-home wardrobe suited to my DIY, crafting, gardening-in-the-mud, and baking-from-scratch, lifestyle. So, my constraints are the clothes need to be comfy, stretch to move with me as I move, be stylish enough to be seen by people outside my family, be easy wash and dry items, and be cheap enough that if I get another glob of wood glue on myself, it's not a big deal.

I've been hitting the thrift shops with my daughters for the past couple of years. (Those two love the thrift shops. They say that there is much more to choose from in a thrift.) I have found a couple of tee shirts, and one sweater and that's about it. I'm picky about fit. Clothing has to fit well and be flattering. I want it to have a certain amount of style, as well.  Later this week, I'm going to a locally-owned consignment shop and hoping for more of what I'm looking for. But I really don't even know what I'm looking for. And perhaps that's been part of my problem.

My questions for you, when you are at home, how do you dress? I know some of you will tell me that you dress in nice slacks, a blouse and cute shoes. But surely, there are others out there who lost their ability to dress themselves, with the onset of motherhood, too. Have you ever had a day when you were caught completely off-guard with your wardrobe?

How have you built an affordable and presentable wardrobe that is also super comfy? What should I look for, style-wise, so that as a middle-aged (gulp) woman, I neither look totally ridiculous in overly trendy stuff, nor like a granny ready for the rocker? How can I incorporate comfortable pants with stylish tops (my current style top is a long-sleeved tee in winter, short-sleeve in summer, not exactly a hallmark of style)?

If you had to choose just a couple of basic at-home clothing items, that aren't made of fleecy sweatshirt material, that looked pulled together, but you could definitely wear while mopping the kitchen floor, what would those pieces look like?

I'll continue my search through the thrift shops, but also am hoping a consignment shop might offer something suitable, stylish, comfortable, and at an affordable price.

Any and all help and advice are welcome here, as well as a comforting tale or two of your own clothing mishaps (so I don't feel like such a bag lady).

My garden notebook

the Italian prune tree, set in an oval hedge of dwarf boxwood, in the backyard

When are you supposed to start tomato seeds? When the oak leaf is as big as a squirrel's ear? Or is it when the crocus have bloomed and faded? Or perhaps when the weeping willow drops 17 twigs per hour? Oh I don't know, and I can't remember when I started my seeds last year.

And that's why I started this gardening notebook! I could never remember when I started certain seeds, and then when to begin the transplant process.

This is just a leftover plastic binder, from a conference my husband attended many years ago, that I've made pretty with some fabric. As nice as it looks from the outside, it's what's inside that keeps my gardening organized.

These "special features" are just binder odds and ends. Several years ago, our garden club put together garden notebooks. We each brought our own binders, then shared packets of notebook organizing pages, purchased from Office Depot.

The 4-section photograph holder page is perfect for keeping notecards with special how-to info, such as making hypertufa, using herbs and blossoms in bath bombs and salts, and making hosta leaves with concrete.

The multi-section business card holder is where I keep info like the guy who grinds stumps for us, and the service that takes out or trims trees, the contact info for a stone mason, and stone supply, etc.

I have a couple of large sheet protectors for full pages of information,

and photos and sketches of gardens that I love.

There's a pocket page for catalogs, tree tags and other items that wouldn't otherwise fit into other pages. I do save old fruit tree and vegetable seeds catalogs, for their valuable information on care and disease/pest prevention with our trees, and seed planting info that goes beyond what may be on the back of a packet of seeds.

And, of course, there's that sheet of when I am supposed to start certain seeds indoors, when I should transplant seedlings to the garden, and by what date do I start seeds for the fall garden. All important stuff.

To prettify my plastic notebook, I wrapped fabric around the exterior of the notebook, and adhered with a rubber cement-type adhesive.

I could cover the inside ends with sheets of scrapbook paper. Maybe I'll get to that soon. For now, I'm happy with how it looks and works.