Tuesday, April 6, 2010

this morning...

I stayed home a little longer this morning. My old-enough-to-know-better daughter announced her week as crazy busy, with a game and practice after it last night, with homework when she got home, practice and an awards assembly tonight, with a meeting for me before that and a far away softball game on Wed. and her basketball banquet on Th night after practice...and no clothes clean and ready for her trip next week, but their bags had to be into the school for inspection before the weekend...and no one has any time to wash clothes because we are all busy. So because I am the LEAST busy in the house...and probably the only one who really understands the WHOLE process of laundry ...you know, first you have to GATHER dirty clothes (they don't jump into the hampers by themselves..I have resorted to not picking up anything that is not at least touching the basket. But I still do the laundry)and TAKE them to the laundry room....where then you SORT them by what is allowed to swim in the wash water together...found the softball shirt in front of the washer, but the pants in her room...does that mean they weren't REALLY dirty?? Only the shirt stunk? gathered and washed them both. Put clothes INTO THE WASHER with soap as a bonus and let it rip...then the clothes much be dealt with. In our house, a lot of clothes get hung up, either outside or in the laundry room on lines. My dryer is too hot, so I don't dry any uniforms in there, just in case. They might get finished off if they are dampish in the morning, but if they hang on the line before bed, they are usually dry in the morning. So the clothes must get DRY one way or another and then they are thrown into a basket where they live, making lovely wrinkles for weeks until, in desparation, someone is punished with folding clothes if you want to ____..(fill in the blank) Exceptions to this is when you are looking to kiss up to mom...at this time, children may be found surrounded by folded clothes with hopeful smiles... The next step is putting folded clothes into individual baskets. In our house everyone has their own basket of clothes and this is a frequently skipped step for the folders. Fold clothes and then leave them in piles all over the family room floor for people to trip over and dig through and soon it isn't good at all.

OK, so now I've done all this ranting and raving about the laundry, but the truth is, for the most part, I don't mind the laundry when I have time to get it to the baskets. When I don't, is when I start to feel a bit frazzled. Even though I have hours of Tax return processing to do, there is a calming effect of settling into the routine of laundry. Make order out of chaos...providing a service for the people I love....Being ready to face another day..not naked...

9 day countdown...then I'll slip off for a weekend visit and come back and put on my apron and get life settled back in for a bit...at least that's what I tell myself :0)

3 comments:

Conny said...

You have one busy week ahead that's for sure. Laundry (even though its never-ending) somehow satisfying - the piles, not so much. Good luck this week. Counting down to something good, I hope: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...

Susan Anderson said...

Laundry is easy now that I have only the two of us, but boy, do I remember those days of full loads and even fuller baskets! I used to do laundry constantly, especially sports uniforms. Some days I got heartily sick of it.

Like you, though, I actually loved it in a way...or at least, the people that went with it. (These things always look more attractive in hindsight.)

=)

Unknown said...

I don't mind doing laundry when I have time but don't like it when it's a rush & just thrown inbetween the other nesesary chores.
I did hang a load on the line this weekend. They smell so fresh & clean that way.