Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I've been thinking about laundry lately.

I have a love-hate relationship with my laundry. I really like sorting the piles, filling the machine, hearing it all working as I'm doing something else, and even switching out the loads. But when it comes time to fold and put away... ugh. I hate it. I mean, in theory I like it... fresh, clean clothes for the family, stacked neatly in all the designated drawers. But in reality, it's always been the most horrible, daunting, BORING task ever.

That is, until I started listening to my husband.

Martin has been practically BEGGING me for YEARS to start doing smaller laundry loads. I felt this was impossible because then I'd never catch up. In my own laundry method, I fill the washer with as many articles of clothing as I can possibly fit (too many, it's true) and then I have to run each load through the dryer at least twice and usually three times to get them all dry (my loads are too big to hang it all on the line outside, but usually a few things get out there) and then when they are finally dry they sit in the dryer for days (DAYS) getting all wrinkly again.  Sometimes the pile comes out of the dryer and sits on a chair or bed or floor for an extended period of time until it's been stepped on/slept on/sat on so much that it all needs to be washed again.

Yeah, my laundry method is awesome.

So, I finally decided to try Martin's way. Small loads. Just a few things at a time, but more frequently.

AND IT WORKED.

I've been caught up on my laundry for about a week, and it's incredible. With small loads I never feel like I don't have the time to fold and put away! With small loads I can do MANY loads in a day and I actually enjoy it!! I have been hanging up shirts again and putting away my own clothes! (My clothes all go upstairs... it's a long way from the laundry room to the bedroom.) I'm telling you, this method of laundry-doing has changed my life!!  And the best part is, I never feel like "laundry" is a dark cloud chore looming over me all day long. I encourage all of you reading this to try doing laundry this way (if you don't already... maybe I'm the last person to hear about this.) See what you think! I love it.

In other news, we all have sunburns, which is a nice way to start out the summer season. Mothers Day was really, really fun, aside from one very, very obnoxious trip to Lowe's that the girls and I had to endure in the morning.  We spent the afternoon over on campus celebrating Mothers Day along with Martin's sister's graduation--I guess she is now Dr. AunT!

As you can see, we had lots of fun! The weather was absolutely perfect. PERFECT. And I love graduation time... it's such a happy time! Being on campus on Sunday was really fun. And from there we went out to Prophetstown for a picnic with my side of the family which was also really fun.  The girls were sunburned and filthy when we got home... it was a pretty good start to the summer.

This morning on Facebook I saw that the local u-pick orchard was ready for strawberry picking. Yahooo! Martin left us the car and the girls and I met my sister and her kids out there.  Greta and I together picked 10lbs of delicious, juicy, sweet strawberries while Anja and her cousin Grace picked 11 pounds! They won the prize (a dandelion.) All those berries went home with Grace, which is fine with me because we ate strawberries all day long and still have half our box left. Yikes! I guess we'll be eating strawberries all day again tomorrow.

And here's a picture of the little May Altar that Anja made. That pretty statue was my own contribution... but she liked having the Little People Mary on the table, surrounded by a flower headwreath and then completely buried in these funny pink silk flowers that we have. While she made it she was wearing a cat costume.

And speaking of costumes, Anja is in another I-Only-Want-To-Wear-THIS-Dress phase. Her dress of choice is her very fancy Easter dress from last year which is a pale pink with little white beads all over the bodice. She loves it, and she seriously wears it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Oh look! She's wearing it in the picture above at the strawberry patch! About once a week she brings it to me and tells me I can wash it. It's getting so gross.  It has a hole in it and is covered in stains. Ew. I hope that since it's such a fancy dress and she is a 4 year old girl people who see her will realize that she is wearing a nasty princess dress because she loves it.... it's not like when they get attached to one t-shirt that gets disgusting and then it looks like you just don't do your kid's laundry.

And we're back to the laundry.