Skip to main content

For the love of laundry...

The thirtieth of March was Mothering Sunday here in the UK.  To celebrate, our church had put together a little presentation of things the children had said about their mums.  It was pretty cute; you know the kind of thing.  "How would you describe your mum in one word?" got answers like, "Fantastic", "Beautiful", and "Bossy boots".  The next question was, "What is your mum good at?"  I was just giggling at some of the responses, when up on screen flashed:
Hanging the washing out. (Toby, 3)
Now, our church is a large one, but I'm pretty sure we have the only three-year-old Toby in it.  Therefore my son thinks that my lifetime pinnacle of achievement, the one thing I could win awards in, is putting clothes on racks to dry.  Isn't it great to know what you're capable of?

It really is as exciting as it looks.
I have to admit, I have had rather a lot of practice.  In fact, ferrying clothes from washing basket to machine to drying racks to drawers sometimes seems to take up most of my waking hours.  And it's not what you might call an absorbing pastime.  Especially when you turn around and whooomph! that washing basket which was empty five minutes ago has mysteriously filled up to overflowing.  I didn't know we even had that many clothes!

And cloth nappies.  But you never have enough of those.
One of those things that people tell you about is doing everything to the glory of God.  Somehow this gets a special emphasis when your "everything" consists of wiping little noses, picking up endless toy cars and being woken up in the night, while trying to tell yourself that this will produce functioning  adult humans in, um, twenty years or so.  And in amongst the sleep deprivation you wonder how that heap of dirty washing you keep stepping over is supposed to glorify anybody, particularly God.

I don't have the whole answer, but I think one important part is remembering to be thankful.  I can groan as I yank another load of sheets out of the machine, I can yell at Toby as he runs through a puddle in his third pair of trousers that day, I can pull my hair out as Theo calmly dirties a nappy not five minutes after being changed... or I can say thank you.

  • Thank you for the invention of the automatic washing machine - and that we can afford to have one.  (Just imagine having to do all this by hand!)
    O lovely washing machine!  You certainly earn your keep.
  • Thank you for clothes to wear, and the generosity represented by all the friends who gave us babywear as gifts.
  • Thank you for space to hang all this washing, and for the spring weather that makes pegging it out in the sunshine a pleasure.
    Except that all that pegging makes it take twice as long - oops, I'm meant to be being thankful!
  • Thank you for happy, healthy children that enjoy life - even when it's hard on their clothes.
  •  And if nothing else:  Thank you that one day, those children will be able to do their own laundry!
Happy washing!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor   Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Derwent Valley: Belper and Duffield

I'm getting into familiar territory with this walk. Duffield is one of the closest places that I can easily drive to and climb a hill, so I've done lots of walking around here. It's surprising how many new places I still see, though. Temperature: warm. Likelihood of being attacked by hordes of nettles: low. I decide to wear shorts. It's a good choice. The paths are well-trodden, and the sun is bright, though there's a pleasant breeze. There's plenty of free parking by Duffield church, so I drive there and walk across a field to the main road. Veering left up King Street, there is lots to see: the Methodist church, a butchers, and a penny-farthing gate. At the cemetery, I turn right and pick up a path towards the golf course. I'm heading towards the Chevin Hills here, which are the absolute lower reaches of the Pennine range. The ancient trackway along the ridge of the hills is another favourite walk. But today I'm just going straight down the other side ...
Post a Comment
Read more