Monday, January 14, 2008

the girl who tackled Mount Washmore!

So my washer is broken.

And I have four children.

One who regularly soaks his bed because diapers just aren't built to take that kind of overnight load.

One who is hit or miss with soaking his bed because he can't wake himself up to pee.

One who likes to change clothes a million times a day because dress-up is his favorite game and he hates being dirty.

And one who will go commando to school because he just doesn't like underwear--so I guess he saves me a bit on laundry there.

Plus there is myself who goes through a billion towels cleaning up messes around the house caused by these four lovely children.

And factor in pajamas every day in addition to the daily outfits, along with bath towels for six because no, we can't just hang a towel up and reuse it, we must toss it on the floor either intentionally to soak up the water or intentionally because we are too short/lazy to hang it up again.

Are you starting to get a picture of my laundry needs here?

My landlord, bless her heart, has been playing "second opinion" and between my schedule and DH's, well, its hard to line that up. I think we might actually get it fixed next weekend.

Pray for me.

So, because of the massive amounts of laundry that my family generates, I was in desperate need to do some washing. And a laundromat would have been hideously expensive. Luckily for me, I work at a hotel with an on-site laundry for doing towels and sheets and such. So asked for and got permission to come in and utilize the massive, industrial size washers and driers on property.

Want to see how much laundry a family of six can generate in two weeks time?


The four year old is there for comparison of size. That's two laundry hampers, two sterilite bins that I use for sorting and four sheets bundled with whatever didn't fit in the actual laundry containers. Yes, I am ghetto.

It took two loads in the industrial sized washers plus two loads in the smaller industrial (think extra-extra large capacity, it took one hamper and one bin) to complete this mess.

On the bright side, I got all of my laundry washed and dried in about four hours.

On the down side, now I still have to fold it and put it away. A task that may take another two weeks.


Ian is still bald. This is his new favorite hat. For today at least. The boy has always loved hats and now he has an excuse to wear them more often. Little fashion victim that he is. Yes, he is sleeping with it.


And we have a thumbsucker! I thought for awhile there that he was going to be a knuckle-gnawer (say that five times fast) but he recently found his thumb and seems quite happy at the discovery. Of course, I also suspect that he is teething. We have just started formula and cereal together. Next up will be veggies! Yum!


Want to show off my Target dollar spot find. Look at this cutie-patootie, totally Elsie inspired apron! $2.50! I lurve it so much!

And of course, my layout a day quest continues. I have done so well so far! I am four layouts away from finishing Zachary's 7 year old album and recently finished up year 6. And, since we are half-way through year 8, that means minimal catching up there. Once I'm done with Z, I'll work on Ian, then Matthew, then Eli. This is a good time for catch up as I seem to always have a slump in picture taking between Christmas and Easter.

Here are a couple from this week. Not all, as I don't want to overload you, but a couple of favorites.

"E"

This is Eli's title page to his album. It's 12x12 picture that I had printed at Scrapbookpictures.com on metallic paper. It is so much lovelier in person.

finding neverland in your own backyard

This one came together so quickly. And I love the journaling. I've had people say they love the "quote" but I gotta brag, it's all me! I wrote that! It says: "Never again will playtime be this free and unfettered, fluid and changing, limited only by your imagination. This is the secret to youth."



Which Way to Fun?

Another example of take everything you have and throw it on the page. I *think* this works. In any case, it's fun.

And I'll try to pop in a picture of it later, but my big news from the Z-Man is that he was chosen "Student of the Month" for his school! Unfortunately, I did NOT receive a tacky bumper sticker to slap on the back of my official Mom mini-van to thumb my nose at other people's apparently sub-standard children.

Darn!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a whole lotta laundry! Thank goodness for working at a hotel! (it's got to be good for something, right?)

LOVE those LOs! And I love the thumby little Eli - soo sooo sweet!

Elizabeth R. said...

Hi there, I came to visit from the Bad Girls site. I saw you were having a BAD day. I've been enjoying all your mommy stories. I guess it's making my life seem calm compared to your mountain of laundry and craziness of raising 4 boys. No, I did not just call YOU crazy. Girl, I feel for you with that mountain of laundry. I just HATE folding and putting away clothes. I hope your guys find a way to make you laugh tomorrow and cheer you up.