{"id":1325,"date":"2014-03-28T13:49:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T13:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2014-03-28T13:49:04","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T13:49:04","slug":"laundry-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=1325","title":{"rendered":"Laundry woes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two times of day, I have peaceful solitude. The first is early morning devotions, and the second is when the day is done. The house is quiet and I check in on what happened in the world. For the latter, sometimes I sneak in a conversation with one of my friends. Those small touch point chats encourage me\u00a0for bonding moments where we swap stories and giggles. So it was a few days ago while talking online with a friend. \u00a0Truth be told, she and I have only met once, introduced by mutual friends. Initially, our friendship was sparked over a common life experience \u2013 losing a child \u2013 but we have since learned that we share many other interests.<\/p>\n<p>During this chat, we shared more than a few laughs as we talked about our busy days. At some point, the tone of the repartee took a cathartic turn\u00a0bonding over things\u00a0that frustrate us\u2013 like chores that never end and lessons we are continually teaching our kids. Since we\u2019ve only met the one time briefly, she quickly relayed that she loved her kids, lest I think otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>Do not get me wrong! I realize that\u00a0our \u201cworries\u201d are first world problems and that much of the world would love to have has many dishes to wash because that would mean there is food to eat. I also realize that the beast, also\u00a0known as laundry, pales to those who don\u2019t have adequate clothing or shoes. My world is a blessed one compared to a majority of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, I completely understand her thinking. My children are the world to me. PERIOD. However, they <em>much like their mother<\/em> are not perfect, and there are days that I feel like I am instilling the same lesson over and over. It is tiring, humbling, and on more than one occasion, frustrating. I have even warned my children with drafting a letter to their future college roommates sending my apologies and explaining that I did my best.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of futuristic letter writing, I decided to put my years of training as a classroom teacher to good use. If nothing else, I got my frustrations out, and had a good chuckle while doing so. What is written below is the result of my overactive imagination.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Laundry Quiz<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Carefully read through each question and answer to the best of your ability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Section One: True or False<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Please circle the appropriate answer.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>True or False.\u00a0 <em>The appropriate time to remember that you stashed dirty clothes in your closet and under your bed is when Mom has finished all the laundry for the day. <\/em><\/li>\n<li>True or False.\u00a0 <em>Mom\u2019s van also serves as a closet for your stinky clothes following sleepovers, playdates, or sports practice. <\/em><\/li>\n<li>True or False.\u00a0 <em>The best place to store uneaten candy is in your pants pocket. <\/em><\/li>\n<li>True or False.\u00a0 <em>The best time of day to remember you need your jersey washed for tomorrow\u2019s game is at 2:00 AM. <\/em><\/li>\n<li>True or False.\u00a0 <em>Clothes that have been worn for less than an hour and are not stained should immediately land in the dirty clothes pile. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Please go back and look over your answers in Section One. Your choices might determine whether your mother chooses to reveal herself as Emperor Palpatine later at dinner tonight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Section Two: Multiple Choice. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>6. Places where your dirty clothes should <strong>not<\/strong> be found<\/p>\n<p>a. Mom\u2019s van (HINT: you might want to go back and double check your answer to #2)<\/p>\n<p>b. Your floor (especially if your room is next to the laundry room)<\/p>\n<p>c.\u00a0 The dirty clothes pile\/basket<\/p>\n<p>d.\u00a0 The bathroom floor<\/p>\n<p>e.\u00a0 Both a &amp; b<\/p>\n<p>f.\u00a0 Answers a, b, &amp; d are correct.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>7.\u00a0 When walking downstairs while carrying nothing, a good use for your hands and arms might be<\/p>\n<p>a.\u00a0 Try to find the best location for future tattoos<\/p>\n<p>b.\u00a0 Flex your muscles to see how much time you need to put in at the gym<\/p>\n<p>c.\u00a0 Pick up dirty clothes pile and take to the laundry room<\/p>\n<p>d.\u00a0 Practice stiff arm placement for Irish dance lessons<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>8. When you do not put away clothes from your own assigned basket, the message you are sending your mother is<\/p>\n<p>a.\u00a0 Oops, I forgot! (Remember your mother wrote a song about this, and she would be happy to share it on YouTube.)<\/p>\n<p>b.\u00a0 Cha-ching! Extra money for college funds! Reasoning: We don\u2019t each need a room. We would like to live hostel-style. All of our clothes can be kept in the laundry room, and we can rent out our current rooms.<\/p>\n<p>c.\u00a0 We don\u2019t really like our clothes all that much, and we hate to break our mother\u2019s heart. Feel free to donate those clothes to less fortunate children.<\/p>\n<p>d.\u00a0 Winter has been hard in Minnesota. We hear that they are in need of warm materials for bed linings at the Humane Society. Stay warm four legged friends!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>9. The thing to be done with clothes hanging on the drying rod is:<\/p>\n<p>a.\u00a0 open a rather eclectic boutique in the basement.<\/p>\n<p>b.\u00a0 fold them and place in the owner\u2019s basket.<\/p>\n<p>c.\u00a0 offer them as wardrobe for the next class play.<\/p>\n<p>d.\u00a0 hide behind them in an epic game of Hide-N-Seek.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>10.\u00a0 If you are able to read English and you are suffering from no mobility issues, you are also capable of<\/p>\n<p>a.\u00a0 Placing a load of dirty clothes in the washer and starting said washer.<\/p>\n<p>b.\u00a0 Placing a load of clean clothes in the dryer or hanging clean clothes on drying rod.<\/p>\n<p>c.\u00a0 Folding clean and dry clothes.<\/p>\n<p>d.\u00a0 Getting a job of any means to pay for having the family\u2019s laundry sent out.<\/p>\n<p>e.\u00a0 All of the above are correct answers.<\/p>\n<p>f.\u00a0 Okay, a, b, &amp; c are more realistic answers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1326\" style=\"width: 507px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/03\/laundry.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1326\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1326\" src=\"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/03\/laundry.jpg\" alt=\"Any given day of the week . . . sadly\" width=\"497\" height=\"372\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1326\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Any given day of the week . . . sadly<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile . . . back to reality.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Mothers (and fathers) of the world \u2013 JOIN ME!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Well, maybe you can . . . after you unbury yourselves from Mount St. Laundry.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Who knows, I might just start penning that letter . . . after I get the next load of laundry done.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two times of day, I have peaceful solitude. The first is early morning devotions, and the second is when the day is done. The house is quiet and I check in on what happened in the world. For the latter, sometimes I sneak in a conversation with one of my friends. Those small touch point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[927,928,304,929,930,931,932,514,610],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}