Clean up!

There's something very therapeutic for me when I have a load of laundry going before the kids even wake up in the morning. This morning was one of those mornings. Still in my jammies, drinking my first cup of coffee for the day, I took a quiet moment to fold the load in the drier from last night and get a new load going in the washer. I even had time to pre-treat stains with my favorite stain remover, Fels Naptha. It's a delightful bar of soap that seems to take out almost anything you throw at it, even set-in stains. Alright, enough of the product endorsement. Back to the story at hand!

The most exciting part was that the load going in the washer the final load. All of our laundry bins are empty and our drawers are now full again with clean, neatly folded clothes. You have to understand. This doesn't happen often in our household. With a family of six, the laundry is abundant. In fact, it is absolutely never-ending. I do okay with the washing and drying. It's the folding and putting away that I struggle with. There are many days that the kids search for clean clothes only to have me tell them, "Go look for something in the pile of clean stuff on the laundry room floor." That's where it sits until I manage to find the time to fold it and put it away. Worse yet, "Look in your dirty bin. Maybe there's something you can wear one more time before the wash!" Don't worry. I never make them turn their underwear inside-out! :)

But this morning is different. For this short time (maybe as short as one hour), I'm going to enjoy looking at my clean bins, my neatly folded stacks and breath a sigh of relief. Just wait until the kids wake up. That's when the laundry starts again! What's that I hear . . . the sound of last night's jammies hitting the bottom of the laundry basket?! Hmm . . . another day has started!