Thursday, March 27, 2008

Oh...the laundry!

To start a long post, and hopefully motivate you to keep reading, here is a joke I read recently:

Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, “What setting
do I use on the washing machine?”
“It depends,” I replied. “What does it say
on your shirt?”
He yelled back, “University of Oklahoma.”
And they say
blondes are dumb…

Warning this is a loooooong post...but it just had to be done all together, and if you want to know why, you must read the whole thing.

The laundry that a mother of 3 has to gather, treat, wash, (and sometimes rewash) fold, and put away is NEVER ENDING. My friend Tracy told me that if you ever want a glimpse of eternity, you should just compare it to laundry. Eternity will be different and hopefully a lot more fun than laundry, but the cycles will probably very similar. Clean, put away, wear, dirty...you get it.

I have posted about laundry before...here and here (for the more spiritual side of laundry). It shouldn't surprise you that the subject has reared its ugly head again. I am a mother. And mothers are made of the stuff they learn while laundering. Some of us glean more lessons than others. That is why I like to take so long to do my laundry...I have the opportunity to learn so much more this way.

A couple of weeks ago, Faye and her mom, Grandma Henderson stopped by. They were on their way to go and help a very pregnant cousin, but some bad weather gave them a "wait out a Southern storm" pit stop at my house. They were greeted by my 10 loads of laundry waiting so patiently on family room floor to be folded. The pile had been growing for at least three days.

Grandma didn't even try to contain her amazement, as I kept bringing her basket upon basket of clean and wrinkly clothes (the only way we fold laundry around here is wrinkly). I have to give Grandma credit though, she was so cute, as she just kept folding steadily and cheery.

Grandma grew up with 10 siblings in a log cabin in the hills of North Carolina. She also raised 4 children. In response to the hour of the 3 of us folding constantly (except when I stopped to snap photos) Grandma said with all seriousness, "I have never seen this much laundry in my life. It reminds me of when I was growing up and my mom didn't do laundry between Christmas and Old Christmas, and even then we didn't have this much." (Grandma didn't know what Old Christmas was, but you can read here for a good history lesson...so interesting)Yep, I can always amaze people; even when they are aged and think that they have experienced everything, they really just haven't spent enough time with ME!

Well, I have to say that I was kind of embarrassed, and partially relieved...luckily, there was no lingerie in the pile. Faye also did my dishes; it was lucky for her that they had only been piling up since that morning. (did you know that I have NO dishwasher? - married for ten years and I have only had a dishwasher for a total of 10 months - and THAT is something to brag about - my hands are even still soft at times)

It was so nice of Faye and Grandma, especially considering they were only here a total of 2 hours. What can I say though, LG is a product of some of the best women in the world? I hollered out as they were leaving, "Any time you want to come and do my laundry or my dishes, just stop on by."

It can probably go unsaid, but laundry is always something that I have NOT mastered. What can I do to make it less torturous...I have no answers...yet.

So, when I was out with some girls the other night, we sat and talked and talked. We had so much fun, even if The Olive Garden fed us "puke dip"(affectionately named by the one and only Cally) OG's new Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta Dip is NOT good. That was an understatement..it was nasty (what a bummer) And, yes, I took a picture of it. (Keep reading this does have to do with laundry)




If you want to read from the girls I was with, go to Cally, Lori, and Mandy. Sorry, Rachel doesn't have a blog (what is she thinking?) I had no idea that Cally and I shared an affinity for Black Tie Mousse Cake....YUMMY! But they changed the crust from Oreos to cake. I hope they go back, it used to be so much better; I was so disappointed.

Come to think of it, I was disappointed with the only two things I ordered that night, between the girls and the bread sticks, I didn't even notice.



Anyhow, back to the laundry. Throughout the night, I was laughing so hard because it was as if we couldn't start ONE sentence without the word blog in it. Here are examples of starter sentences. "On my blog", "Oh your blog", "Did you read that blog", "That is some great blog material" or the best being "I have got to blog about that".

On the way home, we were discussing how pathetically addicted we all are at the moment...and it only makes it worse that we feed off of each other.

To change the subject, I proposed the question, "Can anyone help me with my laundry dilemma?"



We had a great lengthy discussion of many great ideas that I am too lazy to try and have already ruled out. The discussion really led to my confession of forgetting to stay on top of my laundry because of my blog. The girls and I all decided that they should send me random "do your laundry" reminders in the my blog's comments from time to time. This way I couldn't conveniently forget. You can imagine my delight, when a week later, Cally posted this. (She has a way with surprise...she waited just long enough for me to forget the conversation...the Cruze's are so good with the element of surprise)


This is what the boys did while we went out. ..




Maybe I should have taken over my laundry for them..surely we would have got home before 2 am if they were folding instead of warring....Man, I can't remember the last time I stayed up until 2 when blogging wasn't involved.

13 comments:

Lindsey Rose said...

Oh the laundry, the laundry. Don't you love that at the end of laundry day, there are clothes sitting in the hamper once again. It really never ends for sure. I wonder what it would feel like to have everything clean for a day. That just might be a mothers fantasy though right! I love that cally reminded you, sooo funny!

Anonymous said...

Have you seen that family that has like 12 kids or something. . . they have a laundry room, but its full of drawers and hangers and stuff so basically all the cloths go in that room after they are clean. Each kids has a area in there, so they don't have to carry the laundry back to a room. Does that make sense--its early I don't feel like making sure it makes sense!

tiki_lady said...

Alice, this is probably the only part where we differ. I am a laundry addicted fein. Your post gave me hives to think that there were clean wrinkled unfolded clothes crying to be folded. If by chance my laundry sits in my dryer long enough to wrinkle I have to pop it back on for 5 minutes or so, to de-wrinkle and then they HAVE TO HAVE TO be folded right there on the spot. I can give you my laundry regimen. When I wake in the morning I throw whomevers clothes that did not reach the laundry baskets in the baskets. Straighten my room and make my bed and get fully dressed. Quickly wipe down the bathroom counters. Gather the clothes basket do a quick sweep for clothes in all the bedrooms and head down stairs straight to the laundry room. Rotate the wet clothes from the washer to the dryer (I put a load in b-4 I went to bed) and then start a new load. Hop on the computer and when the laundry buzzer rings, Go and fold them and rotate the laundry again and start another. Usually that is my last load for the day and it waits for the night clothes. After folding that load I then I pull out what will be for dinner. My kitchen is clean and the rooms were previously picked up quickly the night before.(flylady) I entered the yahoogroups. mormon world about 8 years ago. I was so addicted to having people talk back to me and loved it. FLYLADY saved me. I had 4 young children and suffer from perfectionism. I would obsess over one spot while the entire house fell apart. I LOVE FLYLADY! To this day, I still do many of her habits and changed them to fit me better. I love her room challenges and the 21 fling. NO clutter. I'm sorry this turned into being a book. But, I have to help a fellow sister out with laundry! I am passionate about laundry. Quite sad really.
Ok, so now I need to clean my downstairs windows and dust the downstairs only. YARD WORK AND CARS are for tomorrow. It is suppose to be BEAUTIFUL.
Don't ever give up blogging! You will be able to find a system that works for you! Give yourself time.

Renee said...

Oh Alice, I so feel your pain!Laundry is my least favorite chore because, as you illustrated, it never ends.

Things have gotten a little easier now that my children are getting older and more helpful. My boys are folding all the laundry this afternoon and then they're all, including Sophia who's 3, putting everything away. I'm so grateful to be able to be a stay-at-home mom, BUT there's a difference between that and a live in maid!

By the way, you have a wonderful extended family!!! It seems I can never manage to live close enough to mine.

cally said...

I loved this post, and I'll tell
you why. A couple reasons: I have been craving something, and now I know it's breadsticks and alfredo sauce. I thank you.

Next, I feel closer to you through common tribulations.

Finally, you are so darn funny.

PS: I think chrys is a fictional character you made up to introduce us to another dimension. i do not and will never know that realm of existance, if it truly exists.

now wake up and come to my house for lunch.

Alice Faye said...

I love your blogging friends and laundry woes. I won't say much because I like doing laundry-I know-CRAZY!! And not that I want to rub it in, but I only have to do it for two now. YEA!!! Even though I have always liked doing laundry, I turned the kid's dirty clothes over to them about the age of 12 or 14. Can't remember for sure. Maybe since I can't remember, I really didn't like doing laundry when they were all home.

After going to Hospice yesterday, I guess I feel lucky I can even DO laundry. One of the Social Workers asked me if I knew anyone who lives in Kingsport who could do laundry for a woman who has emphazema so bad that she needs help doing hers. She has to take it to the laundry mat and she doesn't have the energy to do it anymore. I guess laundry can even be a blessing-sometimes!!!

Lori said...

The only people who are truly done doing laundry are the naked and the dead.

-paraphrased from Emily Watts

Anonymous said...

So...how's the laundry going? Is it piled up again?!? I feel your pain and I loved chrys' post and need to try her advice even though I technically don't know her, but that's beside the point. Thanks for posting about this and now I'm off to do laundry!

Yvonne said...

Never thought about comparing eternity to laundry ; )
It doesn't ever end that is for sure. I have to admit I don't mind doing it because it does give me a sense of accomplishment--even if it's just for a minute.

Cute post--love that your friend reminded you on her blog to do the laundry.

Marilyn said...

Hi-I'm back-dang-my son is in the Nashville mission. There must be a Lebanon in every county....Oh well. I will still check in with you on a regular basis to see what life is like in TN!

Gina said...

So how's your laundry today? It never ends and I have two less kids than you. Ugh.

Chrys... is she serious? Wow, that woman needs an award!

Funny you mentioned that fonduta... Uck, ick... you are right!

Mia said...

I always tell me husband that I am going to make everyone go nekid for a day just so I can get caught up on the laundry. He doesn't buy it! I actually tried the flylady methods for a while and some of her things worked for me and some didn't. It is basically start small, be consistent, and be proud of what you do accomplish don't beat yourself up over what you don't accomplish. Really she makes it make so much more sense!

Shellie said...

Laundry is a subject that crops up a lot in my life too. I think it's somehow sort of symbolic of life, I'll have to read your other posts after I pick up the kids.