To sum up this month so far: slightly interesting, a smidge difficult, and mostly very annoyingly inconvenient. I’ve been getting tons of great questions, so just to clarify my goals and guidelines for this project:
I chose 7 pieces of clothing from my wardrobe. Those 7 pieces are the only 7 I can choose from when I wear clothing this month {which will be most of the time, rest assured}. I doesn’t actually matter how many I have on at one time {I could wear all 7 at once, but that would be uncomfortable and silly}.  These 7 pieces will last me the whole month. I can’t trade out pieces {as in “oh I’m tired of wearing this gray shirt, I will trade it in for a pink one, because that’s essentially what all of us do every day – we trade out clothing at the end of the day, and trade in new clothing each morning. Some of us do several trades in a day}.  This restriction on clothing means: no jewelry, no accessories, no random shirt changes in the middle of the day ‘just because’, and pretty much no looking fabulous.  It also means I have to plan ahead.
The purpose of the entire ‘7’ project {imitated from Jen Hatmaker’s initial experiment} is to help me realize that I am capable of ‘doing without’; I can and will survive if I have less. Fewer possessions, spending less, fewer clothes, less time spent with technology, less waste, more time focused on appropriate priorities, less gluttony. I have already tackled possessions and spending. This month is clothing.
I realize this month’s challenge is a tad confusing and I’m sure most of your thoughts include some ‘what the …..’ phrasing. It’s ok, I know it’s odd, but if I’ve learned anything over the past few years it’s this:  if you hinge your salvation and life’s purpose on Jesus’ life, death, and un-death, then your aim should be to imitate what Jesus did here on earth. And if you are truly trying to be ‘like’ Jesus and imitate his perfect ways,  that means your life and actions shouldn’t really fall in line with  the lives and actions of other people on earth.  I’m sure He was called ‘odd’ because he didn’t just fall in line with the cultural norms of the times in which he lived. He was different. So I’m okay with being different too. Sometimes different means saying no to the excess that we have come to know and love in our country.
So far I have worn 5 of my pieces at least once every day. I’ve been working in the community garden a lot, which is dirty and stinky work – I usually wear my tennis shoes, running shorts, and gray shirt. For any other ‘non-dirty’ activity, I wear my skinny jeans, white sleeveless shirt, and flip-flops. The other 2 clothing ‘items’ I have are my scrubs and a formal dress {that I need to wear to 2 weddings later this month}. I don’t feel the pressure to wash the gardening outfit often, since it’s just going to be icky again. The jeans and white shirt have proven harder to keep clean because a) I wear them every single day, b) if I take them off and wash them, I have to wear the sweaty gardening clothes until the nicer clothes are ready. I don’t want to wash them, but I need to wash them… it’s a predicament.  I just need to get into a good routine -hold on to your nickers, I’m about to channel the Wilder family and wash some clothing by hand.

 
On a lighter note, today was my birthday and we spent it surrounded by friends {but you may as well just call them family}: it started with Church, then tending the garden with friends, then a cookout with an even larger circle of friends. It was a beautiful day and my heart feels so full right now. You’ll probably see some pics from those adventures later this week {though not from me; I brought my phone and my dslr camera. my phone died and my dslr had no SD card in it….. so exactly zero pictures will be from me}.
Here’s a photo of what I wore to church this morning {before changing into ‘get dirty’ clothes for gardening, before changing back into this outfit for the cookout}.

 
Our picnic lunch at the community garden.

 
And an obligatory Charlie Grace photo: playing on the playground at church