I feel like a woodland creature — the days have gotten just a bit shorter, a few leaves have started to turn, but it’s still 90+ degrees outside and very much summertime — and I’m already planning for winter.

Since I prefer to stock up on clothes (especially for the kids) from the US, I have to plan ahead.  (Well-made, relatively inexpensive clothes are much easier to come by at home — and living here has changed my definition of “relatively inexpensive”.  Shopping in Austria makes the stuff I buy from LL Bean seem like a bargain.)  Last year, I waited until it started to get cold (early October) to order clothes from the States, and we didn’t get the majority of our things until January.  It wasn’t very functional — we spent the first part of the winter trying to make do with clothes that didn’t quite fit and weren’t quite warm enough.

I’m not making the same mistake again:  I just finished ordering most of the boys’ clothes for the upcoming winter.  The few things I have left to buy I couldn’t get yet — because they aren’t selling them yet.  So, while at home, I would have scoffed at winter parkas and snow pants going on the racks in August, now here I am, frustrated that I can’t buy wool sweaters, fleece socks and cozy lined jeans for my kids.  I feel just like a squirrel storing away her acorns for the winter.