pieces and ponderings

I knew it would happen…eventually.  I have a husband and five children, who aren’t all children any more, but are right now living in this house and so that makes them fall into the category of “children” for blog writing purposes.  All that to say, I have a lot of laundry in my life.  As I was folding a load of whites while the washing machine and dryer were humming in the background, I thought that maybe I should write down the thoughts gently floating into my head as I try to figure out whether or not the man’s medium-sized t-shirt belongs to child number 1 or child number 4.  Yes, I resorted to sniffing the shirt and I think I figured it out.  (Child number 4 just told me that I got it wrong.  Shirts have been switched to proper owners.)

So here are some random thoughts about laundry.

Way back when there wasn’t near as much laundry to do…but I thought there was a lot because I had younger children and didn’t understand that younger children grow up to be teenagers who have work-outs and laundry increases exponentially…back when ignorance was bliss.

In those days, the laundry room in the house we lived in had a soft light green color of paint on the walls and a bright white trim…soothing colors for a room where I spent a lot of time.  I used to separate the laundry into piles and sing “Climb Every Mountain” as I tackled the mountains of clothes to be washed.  It was inspiring.

Recently…that means in the past few months…I was playing the game “Whoonu” with a few of my children.  This is a game where players choose what they think might be another player’s favorites among the item cards they are dealt.  I love this game.  Anyway, while playing a round of “Whoonu,” it was my turn to be the “Whoozit,” the player for whom the others players guess your favorite things.  When I looked at the cards that were chosen for me to rank, “Laundry” was one of the things chosen.  It made me giggle when I saw the card…it made me laugh out loud.  Once I had ranked my cards as to my favorites, I asked the child who had given me the “Laundry” card why he picked that as a possible favorite.

“I thought you must really like ‘Laundry’ because you do it all the time,” he responded.  He was incredibly sincere in his answer…he was serious.  He truly thought that I just hang out in our laundry room for large portions of my days because “Laundry” is like a hobby for me…something I really like and am trying to improve my skills at doing.

His sincerity warmed my heart…at that moment I could have eaten him up (something moms may say when they are totally moved by their children’s cuteness and sweetness and possible innocence…even when the children are now taller than the moms).

The mountains of dirty clothes have only gotten bigger in recent years…but really I don’t mind.  Like shoes in my living room floor (see earlier post), dirty clothes are a sign of life…and I like the signs of the lives of the family that I love.