Laundry Queen

My housecleaning skills have never been more than adequate, perhaps a little subpar. Things don't get so far out of control that I cannot dig out, but I am not visual, so I don't see the clutter until the doorbell rings. It is when I see the place with "other's" eyes that I become aware  of my surroundings and think, "Oh. my."

That doesn't mean that I am not interested in the whole process. I am charmed by books of cleaning "hints". Articles about home orginazation facinate me. My husband once told me that I needed a new cleaning manuel, one that said put down this book and get busy.

On the other hand, I have always liked to do laundry. It's a good thing, too, because we had lots of wash when the kids were growing up. When he was about 9 years old, our son Matthew, the third oldest of our eight children (pictured far left), claimed  we should be eligible to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Dirty Laundry". Opening the laundry shute was dangerous business for a little kid. Clothes are heavy when a giant pile comes flying down a couple of stories and hits you in the face.

The biggest task for going on one of our singing tours was packing the necessary clothes. That meant everybody helped fold laundry.  I especially needed help matching socks. Even taking only five pairs of socks each meant 50 pairs of socks. Most everything else had at least a ten in front of it. Ten pairs of tennis shoes, ten pairs of sandels, and ten pairs of dress shoes, add the fifty pairs of socks, and we were ready to at least dress our feet. Add to that shirts, pants, dresses, shorts, underwear, swimming suits, singing clothes, sweatshirts, jackets,(each x's ten x's five) and you get the picture.

Fortunately, we traveled in a big blue bus, so once the necessary clothing was gathered, at least we had a place to stash it. We even designed our second bus to have a giant "dirty clothes box". And, because I did not like dirty laundry building up, it also meant many stops at the laundromat on that three and a half week trip every summer. Here we are when the kids were a little older (we are missing a couple of kids in this picture and that's our daughter-in -law Alyssa on the far right), but you get the idea.

Once, when we were in a laundromat in Nebraska wheat country on a rainy day with all the kids, one of the fellows who was there washing clothes asked if we were following the harvest!

It still amazes me how little laundry I now do. Which I guess is okay, but I like doing laundry

Katherine