Half Way through the Dress Dare

I can't believe the month of May is already half way over. It has gone by so quickly, but then again my life has been pretty fast paced lately.

I just thought I'd check in and see if anyone else is still hanging in with the dress dare and is still wearing skirts and dresses!

I have been doing pretty good at the dare. I've worn a skirt or dress everyday this month so far. The only times I've worn pants have been to weed the yard and when we went salmon fishing in Oregon last week-- I figured those counted as "sports" in my book.

I've learned several things so far about myself and about dress wearing the last few weeks:

•  I don't like having to wear a skirt. In the weeks leading up to this dress dare I was already wearing skirts and dresses several times a week and I was loving it. In fact, I didn't have any desire to wear pants or shorts at all. Yet as soon as I made it a rule that I couldn't wear pants I started to resent wearing skirts. I've found myself cursing my skirts this week and wishing I could wear pants. I think what discovered is that I like having the choice. While I think that after this I will wear skirts much more than I did before, I like knowing that if I wanted I could wear pants. Besides there are times when wearing pants is really just easier. For example, I thought it would be fun to wear a big flowing skirt on the beach while we were in Oregon. Wrong. I ended up having to safety pin it together in about 10 places and even then it still wanted to fly above my head. That was when I was cursing this dress dare the most. 

• When I wear a skirt everyday it makes getting dressed for church different. Before when I got dressed for church any old skirt would do-- denim, casual, fancy, frilly-- it didn't matter what type it was because a skirt was a skirt. Now that I am wearing skirts  I've divided them into "day dresses" and "church dresses". I selected my nicest and fanciest skirts and dresses and set them apart as my church dresses and wear my more causal ones during the week. As a result I've found that I have been much more dressed up and "formal" at church than I was before. I like it a lot. It really makes me feel like I am putting on my "Sunday Best" and I think it has helped me keep the Sabbath day better than I did before.

• The fuller the skirt the more comfortable and easier it is to wear. I now completely understand why women wore full length dresses. When your dress is long enough, and the skirt isn't very tight, you have a HUGE range of motion. You can sit cross legged, climb trees, chase around little kids on the floor and just about everything else you want to do (except for walking on the beach in the wind) without  reducing your range of motion or worry about being immodest. I am finding that some nf my favorite skirts are the ones that hit me about mid-calf and have full wide skirts.  They are pretty much like wearing pants, except much more comfy. 

• I haven't ONCE been asked why I was wearing a skirt. I have found this odd, my only explanations are that 1) maybe no one notices, 2) everyone reads my blog ( I wish!) and so they know what I am up to, or 3) they already know that I am a bit of an odd fish and just chalk it up as one of my strange qualities.

Overall, I am still finding that I like wearing skirts and that I like how they make me feel. There is something about doing more "manly" things-- say, mowing the lawn or loading couches into a moving van-- in a skirt that brings me a lot of joy. But then again I am an odd fish.

I am still pondering and researching on the questions I had but I will share those insights later. In the meantime I'd love to hear how the dress dare is going for you!