Laundry

Laundry is one of those things that unifies us in our similarities-we all have to do it, unless we're wealthy enough to have someone else do it for us. I don't personally know anyone in that category (that I know of) but I'm sure there are plenty of them. For me and the people I know, laundry is something we all deal with.

When we were first married we had no washer and dryer and we went to my parents every week and did laundry. With a small baby it was a lot of wash and we spend every Wednesday evening watching TV with my parents, the baby asleep on a blanket on the floor. Looking back on those days with the perspective of age is interesting because at the time I resented not having my own appliances to use but now I treasure those nights with my folks. Since they're both gone now I pull memories back often and think about how much I miss those days when we were young and life was all ahead of us.

Once baby number two came along we managed to get a house of our own and it included an old washer and dryer so I started doing laundry at home. By the time we had four kids the washer was running about every day, eventually each of them doing their own but still keeping the laundry area busy. Then, one at a time they began to leave home and the frequency of running the appliances slowed down...a lot! Now we're back to doing one load a week for the most part, whichever one of us starts running out of clothes first bringing the pile downstairs. We've long ago overcome our differences in how to pair up socks and fold pants, but we don't agree on everything so sometimes re-folding is in order. But all in all, like everyone else in the world, we wash our clothes, fold them and put them away on a regular basis. At least in our case we don't have to do it on rocks in the river. Now that's something to be thankful for!