Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Random Memory

Today is laundry folding day. As I was working on my piles this morning I had a crazy memory pop into my head. I remember when I was about 6 or 7 years old playing over at Charity's house in the back bedroom (where the girls used to sleep). We made up some sort of a game that involved sliding or jumping off of the bed into some pillows. There was stacks and stacks of folded laundry on the bed but it was getting in the way of our game. So we pushed them onto the floor and into a big pile at the back of the bed (*gasp*).

After a while Aunt Carol came in to check on us and saw what we had done. I remember her being upset. Charity had a choice between a punishment or me being sent home early. She chose the punishment so I could stay and play, and I remember feeling very unworthy of her choice. I also remember knowing we shouldn't have messed up the laundry, but also thinking it wasn't really that big of a deal. I mean, couldn't she just refold the clothes? Now I look back and think that Aunt Carol handled the situation a whole lot better than I would if it happened to me today! Those stacks of clothes probably represented several hours of work that day. Isn't it funny the things that you remember?

P.S. I hope that I don't embarrass A. Carol by sharing this. I just remembered it today as a cute story and I can certainly relate now to her disappointment. I have lots of wonderful memories from playing at Charity and Elizabeth's house growing up, but I'll save those for another blog post.

6 comments:

Ada said...

How in the world do you ever keep track of which clothes belong to which boy??!! Enjoyed the story about the "play date". I hate to say this, but I can barely keep up the laundry for the two of us. Age - Ugh!!

Ann said...

I was wondering the same thing about how you keep track of all the boys and their individual clothes.

One nice thing about having the kiddos grow up - the laundry is about a third of what it used to be. It's now a once-a-week minor inconvenience instead of a never-ending nuisance.

Carol said...

I don't remember the incident, but I probably got more upset than I should have. It looks like you have a very organized system, instead of just using a bed. My laundry is a whole lot easier today, but I miss those years of having our older children at home. Suddenly---it's just over.

marym said...

You're amazing, Shelley. I'm so impressed with your system. Are any of the boys old enough to help you?

Aunt Mim said...

I wondered where you would put another basket if necessary!
Your apparent efficiency is admirable.

Shelley S said...

Thanks for the compliments, but I'm not always as organized as this picture implies. As far as knowing who's clothes are who's, I learned some great tricks from my Mom for that. Since they're all so close in size I buy different brands of underwear and socks for each boy, which makes the sorting process much easier. The older 3 all share a room, and I hang most of their clothes since there isn't a lot of space for dressers. I used to fold the clothes and then go hang them in their room, until my Mom suggested I eliminate the extra folding step and just put them straight on hangers. Not sure why I didn't think of it before but it's been a huge time-saver.