A week's worth

Last year we checked out a fun book called What the World Eats. (photographed by Peter Menzel ; written by Faith D'Aluisio).

The published describes it this way: "A photographic collection exploring what the world eats featuring portraits of thirty families from twenty-four countries surrounded by a week's worth of food."

It was great! Food and diet are generally interesting to me and I enjoyed flipping pages to compare diets around the world, along with the major health problems people in those countries faced, which were also listed. I learned that in other places in the world people die from unsafe drinking water--while here in the US it is heart disease and diabetes. It would be interesting to take a photo like that of our family and what we eat in a week . . . but first I'd have to figure out exactly what we did eat in a week. The most striking was the family from Africa (can't remember which country) that had 4-5 large bags of grain in front of them and were sitting outside their tent. If your library has it, it is recommended reading from me. Let me know what you think.

Anyway, this isn't our typical weekly diet, but it is our typical week's worth of laundry. Of course a few things are different, Nathan normally has 5-6 button up shirts instead of 2, but this is a pretty average week for our laundry. I begin after breakfast and finish somewhere close to dinner time--it is usually 5-6 loads . . . can't remember today's exact count. I wash ALL the laundry on Monday because I like saying it is DONE, (even though that only lasts a few minutes) and then I usually wash another 2-3 loads at other times during the week--towels, sheets, and kitchen laundry, as well as the item that has to be done so I can wear it.

I like doing the wash on Monday because it is the day I generally stay home for "Weekend Recovery" and avoid needing to shop. I love the Wrinkle Guard feature on my dryer that will keep spinning the laundry every few minutes up to 2 hours, because it seems like the next load is always ready to come out when it is meal time or I am headed out the door, or something else inconvenient sneaks becomes more urgent than taking out the next load.

I wash 98% of the laundry in our house, but I only put mine and Diana's away, and she is in training. The kids frequently help with moving laundry from one place to another as well, and have enjoyed living in a one level house for laundry duty. Many weeks I designate a "Laundry Helper" whose job it will remain throughout the entire day, but often I do not. I usually listen to a general conference talk or two while sorting and folding. One of my favorite family home evenings a long time ago was teaching Andrew and Bryn how to match socks. Even Caitlin "folds" her own socks, she was frustrated at me last week for not doing it her way.

My favorite solution for stains is OxiClean. It works really well on our typical stains, and has only ruined only one item of clothing because it was too harsh. (Actually I think my letting it soak TOO long was the real reason). I use liquid All and Tide--it depends on how dirty the load is. Tide is for dirtier loads. I also use mostly cold water since it is less expensive and works just as well for most things, but I do use warm or hot on loads that are more heavily soiled. My machine has a cycle called "Whitest Whites" that really does make them brighter than when they went in. My fabric softener is Target brand dryer sheets.

For most of you, this is more information than you want, but if I'm not around on a Monday, someone in my family might need this information! Washing laundry is one of my favorite household chores. I guess it's because of the visible evidence you've done something with your time and mostly the machine does all the work. My aunt wrote a memoir of my Grandma Parks titled, "My Mother, the Laundry Guru" so I guess it runs in the blood. My mom also likes doing laundry and Monday was always her day, as well.

The saddest laundry time in my life was our first year in Chicago when our dryer didn't work. We hung everything somewhere in our apartment until it was dry. It was a long, cold, wet winter. That period ended when Keith, my brother in law, fixed it with a 4 inch piece of wire in about 30 seconds.

The happiest laundry time in my life has been the past year--since my parents gave us our new washer and dryer, and my kids have grown to be such great laundry help. They make my Mondays a little brighter! Happy laundry to you.