Musings from the Threshold

Category Archives: Alongside

Our developing laundry system

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve finally figured out a laundry system that we seem to be able to implement with some consistency. Here is more about that system and its evolution, in hopes that some part of it will be helpful or inspiring to you.

I should start by saying that the whole laundry thing has been a blight on my homemaking existence for years. I’ve often thought with a bit of (naive, I’m sure) jealousy back to the times when folks just had 2 or 3 outfits to wear and wash. Nine people worth of clothes and laundry just adds up! I never know whether to laugh or cry when one of my friends on Facebook mentions in their status that it’s “laundry day.” Every day but Sunday is laundry day here, or else Mt. Washmore raises its smelly head in our laundry room.

Several years ago, one of those miracle moms with 10 children and an immaculate house talked at our home school support group about home management. She had a lot of great ideas, some of which I have implemented with varying degrees of success. One idea we adopted was that of giving each child (that is old enough) a day on which it is their responsibility to do their laundry (and for the older ones, the laundry of an assigned sibling, who would be taught more responsibility as they grew). We bought stacking plastic laundry drawers per her suggestion as well.

Over the years, we’ve tweaked the system here and there. Last year we bought two three-bag laundry sorters, one for the girls’ room, one for the boys room. For some reason, this did not work for our Blessings. I’m not sure why, but it just didn’t.

Several months ago, we moved the laundry sorter to the laundry room and all the Blessings bring their dirty clothes and put them in the appropriate bag (we have two bags for darks, one for lights/whites). The children still have their day to do laundry, but the requirement has changed to doing two loads of laundry from start to clean and folded, choosing whichever bag(s) most need to be done.

This was a big improvement, but Mt. Washmore still had a tendency to rise, because we didn’t have a spot for the towels/sheets/blankets. This “other” category seemed to spread all over the floor AND inspire children to drop their dirty clothes on the floor instead of in the proper bag.

So, a couple months ago, we bought two large sturdy (and cheap!) laundry baskets, one white, one blue. The dark “other” laundry goes in the blue basket, the light in the white basket. These baskets are now included in the “what most needs to be washed” selection process. This seems to have been the piece of the puzzle that we’ve been missing!

I haven’t posted about the evolution of our laundry system for a while because for so long it just wasn’t working! But this incarnation has been in place long enough that I think I can say with some confidence that it’s working for us.

Here’s a picture of the laundry room yesterday morning, in a pretty typical state for a Saturday:

It’s not perfect, which is fine with me. There is no mountain, no stench, and no shame. A couple of notes:
~ The laundry sorter’s usual home is to the left of the washing machine, so that children can reach the washer. I moved it for a more compact picture. And so that you can’t see the mess on my sewing desk.
~ The tan basket on the dryer is the sock basket. It’s supposed to have only unmatched socks, but often a whole load worth of socks gets dumped there. It’s a process, right?
~ The white laundry basket on the dryer is a rest stop for clothes that no longer fit anyone, but that are nice enough to save. There is a larger tub on top of the big freezer that I can empty this into occasionally, and which I sort through at the seasonal clothes changeover. This is another recent addition which I like much better than the accumulating pile of too-small clothes in my bedroom!
~ I noticed when I looked at this picture that I need to remind the Blessings to throw the bag into the washer when they get to the bottom!
~ Jonathan and I have a blue basket and a white basket in our room. I throw our laundry in in the evening and/or on the weekend.
~ With baby will arrive daily diaper laundry. This will require more diligence at prompting the Blessings to start their laundry early in the day and finish it in time for me to put in diapers in the evening.

So tell me here or post on your blog and share a link. What laundry ideas work for you?

The Clean Up Project

In mid-December, amidst the joys and busy-ness of the Advent season, a nice gentleman showed up at our door. Unfortunately, he was the J. County Solid Waste Division Field Inspector. Near the beginning of November, someone had called in a complaint about the state of our property. (Isn’t the response time impressive??)

The short of the Inspector’s visit was that we had some cleaning up to do.
Two major projects were our direct responsibility:

1) Cleanup of the pile of lumber that we brought over when we moved from our old house. Good lumber that the boys and Jonathan had been working on getting de-nailed and stacked neatly. The progress was slow, and the sprawl resulting from sorting through boards was unsightly.
Here the boys are working on de-nailing-

2) Cleanup and disposal of various appliances and such that Jonathan had taken out of folks’ homes when doing installs of new stuff. We had several working appliances that we just hadn’t gotten to their new homes yet, as well as plenty of “stuff” from work that needed to be cleaned up.
No, I don’t have before pictures of this part. It was always an embarrassment to me, and I purposely avoided taking any pictures of the appliance mess.

Another major project didn’t have anything to do with us or our friends/landlords, but needed to be taken care of anyway. The folks who had lived here before the Duchene’s bought the house had indulged in the common rural habit of dumping old appliances, furniture, trash, tires, etc., in an “inconspicuous” place.

Inconspicuous? Not so much, if you walk around by the creek…

Jonathan getting started:

We had extremely cold weather here in December and January which followed a lot of rain. So the junk in the dump was solidly frozen into the mud. It was very tough work! At one point, Jonathan’s dad pulled his van around and they tried using it with a tow strap to try and pull out one of the washing machines. The tow strap broke. Twice.

Nonetheless, there was a great deal that they managed to get out. Here are a couple shots a few days later of some of the stuff that was hauled out of the “dump”:


We passed inspection and they closed the complaint against us, but as you can guess from the following picture, we’ll be continuing to work on cleaning up the area. Hundreds of trash bags, the contents of which have long since disintegrated, were pulled to the surface of the dump as the guys pulled out the larger items. There are also some things that were still too frozen to move.

Come warmer weather, we plan to work more on getting this area cleaned up. It actually could be a lovely usable space.

Baking Fun

Jonathan got me this wonderful mixer for Christmas. Doesn’t it remind you of the tail light of a ’60-something Chevy? I love it!

I also love that I’ve started making bread again, thanks to this strong reliable mixer and its dough hooks. I just can’t handle kneading bread, and this does the hard part while allow me to do the fun stuff. The above shot was on New Year’s Day. I was working on my “first” batch of bread while playing Apples to Apples Bible Edition with the boys.

Here’s my second batch of bread. Should’ve gotten it out a little earlier, but it is still very yummy.

Also yesterday, I brought Katie “alongside” and she helped me make this Cranberry Crunch for dessert. She really did most of the work, and it was such fun to do it together. She even let two of her siblings go ahead of her in line for computer time because she was enjoying her time in the kitchen so much (she and Grace also helped me make quiche for supper).

Mama Stuff

Stacy at Your Sacred Calling has a great post up today about Kiddos in the Kitchen. Before you read on here, I’d love it if you’d go take a look, and be sure to read the article she links to at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee.

Done? Good stuff, wasn’t it?

The whole “Did he know what He was doing when He gave them me?” question resonates with me (and probably most moms) deeply. I’ve spent a lot of time beating myself up for my failures instead of accepting His forgiveness and moving on in HIS strength. But He keeps working on me, and it’s wonderful to know that His grace covers my mistakes, failures, impatience, etc.

On the kiddos in the kitchen business…
I have long admired and desired the parenting “model” that brings your children alongside you as you work through the day. It made sense and it sounds so lovely (two links there). But man oh man, it seems so hard to do! (Listens for the Amens) So I continue to desire to live with my children alongside me, and keep looking for ways to make that workable for me.

Here’s how my efforts have often gone in the past. I have something to do, think it would be something with which the Blessings could help. I gather them around, thinking what a fun and bonding experience this will be. 30 minutes later, the project is complete, I feel like I should be half bald from pulling my hair out, and I go to take a nap wondering, “Why do I even try?” A couple months later, I might get the courage to try again.

That probably doesn’t sound at all familiar, does it?

Well, first of all, I’ve been working lately on my heart attitude toward my Blessings. You know I don’t call them that just because I think it’s cute, don’t you? The world around me needs to know that my children are viewed as Blessings. And me? I need the reminder! Yet it is so easy to fall into viewing them as burdens instead of blessings, and I’m continually needing to ask the Lord to give me HIS heart toward my children.

Another very practical thing I’ve realized is that it just doesn’t work to bring all seven of my Blessings alongside me at the same time! The goal of bringing them alongside as I work dovetails beautifully with my (also often unrealized) goal of spending time with them one-on-one. So lately, I’ve been working on remembering to call them to me one or two at a time to help with something.

This has been a great help when it comes to special projects as well. We made gift jars for Christmas presents this year (something I plan to post about separately), and I had them help in teams of two. Each team helped me put togetehr a batch of 6 gift jars. Stephen “helped” on more than one team. Similarly, when we made edible Christmas trees, it was just two or three at a time at the counter.

So while this is a cute pictures of the Blessings and their trees,

I realized while reading the aforementioned blogs that they’re not a realistic view of how those trees happened, and I don’t want to add to anyone’s Mama complex by presenting a false view!
They happened like this:

and this:

one, two, or (at most) three Blessings at a time. Then when they were all done, time for a fun picture, then the eating!

So what I’m trying to say through all my sputtering is this: Take heart, fellow Mamas! Keep stepping along with baby steps, seeking the next thing you are to do, treasure your Blessings, and know that God’s grace covers you and them when you fail. And don’t forget that one of the greatest gifts you can give your cbildren is for them to see you honoring, respecting, and loving your man!