Part A – Share about your family’s laundry. Where is it kept? Who does it? How does your family sort it? Do you wash by hand? Hang clothes on the clothesline? Make your own laundry soap? How often do you do laundry? How many loads each day/week? Indoor laundry room, in the garage, or laundry mat? Even more fun…share a picture!

Part B – Do you have an area in your life that you know that the Lord is tugging at some heart strings that needs to be cleaned up? Have a testimony of your past struggle(s) that might help another homeschooling mom? Share a piece of your heart (dirty laundry) that you are seeking a good washing or how it got cleaned up. Sharing with one another is a great way to have your post feel human and real.

Part C – FIND a scripture this week that pertains to this assignment to help you with your laundry and share it this week.

 

This assignment came on the perfect day.  Normally we (or better said, I) do laundry on Mondays, but with all the activities as of late, I fell a bit behind.  When I read the assignment, I was motivated to capture the whole laundry process.  (Now remember in a long forgotten post I mentioned that I am a compulsive sorter, so please don’t laugh at my process.)

 

First off, the main laundry sorting station is a corner of my bedroom.  I built this screen from old French door window dividers to hide the mess.  Works very well.

The kids each have their own hampers (actually colorful big buckets) in their rooms where they put their dirty clothes when the mood strikes.  In my sorting station there are two three-section sorters and a hamper for towels.  Clothes are sorted as they make it to the ‘center’.  The sections go from left to right: mending, sheets, reds, darks, lights, and then whites.  In front of the bins is a tub for seasonal clothing.  I keep a trash bag on top of that for Goodwill, a little container for the ‘lost soles’ and another for nylons.  One of the sorting bins has a rack attached that we keep odd jackets and hangers.

 

 

 

On laundry day, the kids empty their buckets on the floor.   

 

 

Then I proceed to sort everything into laundry baskets again separating the darks into blacks/navys and jeans and the lights into grays/greens and blues.  The most frustrating thing for me is that no matter how many times I ask, the clothes never seem to be right side out. URRR! 

 

 

My washer and dryer are in the hall next to my bedroom.  

 

 

 

I usually use the store brand liquid detergent with no perfume or, if it’s on sale, I like Arm and Hammer.  We usually stay away from most of the brand named laundry soaps because of sensitive skin.  I also add Borax to the batches.

 

I love to hang the clothes out on the line for so many reasons; the money savings on the electric bill, I can finish more batches in the washer than I can when I have to wait for the dryer (I can get 4 batches on the lines we have stung between trees), and I also enjoy the simple task of hanging it out.  I feel so peaceful and domestic hanging laundry, at least when the dogs are not messing with the clothes or trying to steal the clothespins. It’s kind of reminiscent of the olden days when times seemed simpler.  Now mind you, I definitely love my dryer.  It keeps me from the dreaded iron.  Wrinkled shirt? No problem.  Toss it in the dryer with a wet face cloth and a while later, with no effort, viola, no wrinkles.  I usually hang the clothes out when the weather and time permits, except for the towels.  My husband hates stiff towels. 

 

 

Drying on the line also makes sorting and folding the clothes a quicker process.  I just pick and chose whose is whose, folding and putting them into the right basket.  When I dry in the dryer, my bed becomes a sorting and folding surface and it seems like it takes longer.  The kids put their own clothes away, most of the time.  There have been occasions that I have seen their folded clothes sitting on the dresser instead of in, or that a never worn item has made it back into the laundry the following week.  Just another one of those URRRR moments.

 

 

So now that you are almost comatose with my laundry day tale, and if you are still with me, I will share a bit of my spiritual dirty laundry.  There have been and still are so many areas of my life that the Lord has seen fit to clean.  There have been things in the past that have brought pain and heartache into my life and the lives of those that I love, but God has seen fit to wash those things away with His mercy and forgiveness.  The stains of the past have been blotted out.  I am always a work in progress in His hands.  Daily I am shown His wonders and pray that I will face them with my eyes open and my heart receptive to His plan.  If I had to pin down one thing that I think He is currently working on in my life it would be my focus.  I have an ADD personality and tend to put a whole lot of irons on the fire.  This can lead to a lot of great ideas that don’t get followed through on.  For example, there are so many things that I want to do with the kids when it comes to their education, but by the time we get done with the ‘got to do’ subjects, I have lost steam for the ‘extras’.  They get left at the wayside for another day.  My fear is that I won’t have another day to do those things.  I have felt God helping me to deal with these insecurities as of late and directing my focus so that my kids can benefit from all He has to offer.

 

A Scripture that has been a great help to me in dealing with this dirty laundry is:

 

Colossians 3:1-3

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.