For the past 2 weeks, it seems like my life has revolved around laundry because we’ve been minus a washer. Our washer was scheduled to arrive today, but yesterday the order status online showed that it was completed and THAT WE HAD ALREADY RECEIVED THE THING. Oh, I was LIVID and got on the phone to complain to Home Depot and the delivery company. So at 7:00 this morning guess what showed up at our house!! Yep, no more complaining from me. Here it is…our brand spanking new, undamaged and FUNCTIONAL washing machine. This is a picture of when they were testing it after installation. I’m like my 8 month old daughter…I’m in awe with bright shiny flashing lights. So, that’s why I had to take a picture of this thing. No more hand washing and complaining from me! The past 2 weeks made me appreciate my mother’s hardships more than I ever realized before. Having to do things the hard way to take care of your family and keep things orderly is rough. I feel extremely lucky to have a washer and to lead the life my husband and I have created for our children. We have food, hot water, transportation, and an income. Those are ALL things that my mother didn’t always have. Dear God, bless her heart. She never complained and she always went out of her way to try to do better for us. My kids and I are soooo spoiled, and I feel a little guilty because I would fall apart if I had to endure the hardships my mother experienced trying to take care of her family. Oh, how my heart breaks for her.
365: Day 9 February 26, 2010
365: Day 7 & 8 February 26, 2010
I’m horrified!! This picture of our dirty laundry is the ONLY one I took on Feb 24th. So, here you have it…a picture of our dirty laundry piling up!! But, thanks to a brilliant friend of mine who suggested (gasp) laundry mat, these loads of laundry weren’t dirty for too long.
Which brings me to my next picture…(365 Day 8):
This is the laundry mat!!! It wasn’t so bad…the building was definitely old and unglamorous, but the place smelled WONDERFUL and fresh…clean. The machines worked great, but they had an accumulation of detergent spills on the outside, which contributed to the dingy look. That’s because the laundry detergent is filled on TOP of the washer, which really invites spillage. Still, I had envisioned a laundry mat being dirty and smelly… but the insides of the washers were clean and that’s all I cared about. Most of the people there were there washing comforters.
My son got a sticker for helping me take the laundry out to the vehicle, and he had a helping hand from another son who was there helping his mother too! Of course, laundry mats cost money…lots of it! The TRIPLE Load washers were 14 quarters and the DOUBLE Load washers were 8 quarters. I think the MEGA Load washers were about 24 quarters, but don’t quote me on that. I felt safe and treated it as a new adventure. I haven’t stepped foot in a laundry mat since I was a kid…we lived with my mother and we were very poor. The laundry mat was about 20 miles away and we didn’t always have an operational car, so my mom did a lot of hand-washing too. One winter that sticks out in my head was when she hand washed a bunch of jeans and hung them outside overnight to dry so we would have something to wear for school the next day. When it was time to get ready for school, we discovered that all of our clean jeans were FROZEN. After going through almost 2 weeks of hand washing and going to the laundry mat (and whining about it on facebook by the way), I have a new respect for my mother, who did it without complaining for YEARS.
