Laundry

Ok, Ok...today is the day (even a bit late, at that!) for all the cute christmas pictures, the update on the toys that JAC got, the wonderful connections via phone to friends in Canada and here in the US. But instead I'm going to talk about Laundry, because I feel reflective. I'm a bit celebrated out, and still have tomorrow night at Vernie and Co. to survive.

Laundry - the bane and the bounty of my existence. In the house I live in, I'm in charge of laundry. I go through weird phases with my clothes (physically and emotionally) where I just want the same darned clothes to wear over and over, and I want them clean. I am quite fussy about wanting them clean. I like to WEAR my clothes. I use them as dish rags, snot rags, paint easels, spot cleaners, and various other tools. They get dirty, and I like that they get dirty. And I like that they clean up nicely. :D Favorite right now are some Talbots pants (black, smart casual), some Blue Fish shirts and one of their pants, and of course my ever fashionable Blue Canoe. Beats the Target brand, but until I get my body back, this is what is working. And wearing!

So off I trudge, down to the basement (where there is a nice little TV that only seems to work for dh!? Just a big fuzzy screen for me - not even any audio) and the cement floor in my inevitably bare feet, to move, sort, pile, fold, dry, hang and wash the endless stacks of laundry. Stacks, perhaps, gives the impression of order. No order. Not until it makes it into the piles. The piles take over the floor, but they get done pretty quickly - a day or two at most. Don't try getting into the deep freeze, playing ping pong, or otherwise trying to use that space while the piles are in motion, however. The piles take OVER that space. And then the piles are gone, schlepped upstairs to sit for days, even weeks (for stuff that is moving out of seasonal circulation, for example) at the end of the big parental bed. Both kids know where to find clean underwear. JAC seems to be the only one who doesn't. And then the stack builds up, and after a few days, new piles are formed - darks, blands, brights, whites. At the end of a very very long day, those baskets may be all I have to show for 7500 worth of calories expended solely within the house. The vacuuming, floor washing, bathroom cleaning, and various other adventures in mindful home management seem to make no impact. But the laundry - thank god! - provides me with a tangible and ever wonderful smelling (Sun laundry liquid is the BOMB for clothes!) PRODUCT at the end of the day.

It's also a never ending project that is often quite disgusting (given that O is just 'barely' out of diapers and makes frequent mistakes, and JAC himself, though not newly out of diapers, seems to be heading back into them some days! There are things I LOVE about the laundry - my mama pads made by Happy Mama, seeing Beca wear the clothing I choose with love for her, seeing Orin's happily painted upon t'shirts and JAC's dirty knee'd jeans from his weekend of working away around the house and yard. I do love these tiny symbols of the people I love more than anything, anyone in the entire world. But it's all with a grain of salt, people, because look - there goes a whole pile of stuff from B's weekend sleepover, right down the chute and onto what WAS a nice, small stack.