Thankful for the Laundry

Being a stay at home Mom on most days is very monotonous.  Wake up, feed kids, clean kitchen floor, get coffee, do laundry, wash dishes, check facebook, learning time with kids, lunch time, clean kitchen floor again, nap time, insert possible (notice the key word possible) free time here, cook supper, yard work, time for baths, bedtime story, bedtime snack, clean up kitchen floor again, and finally bedtime.  Very repetitive and feels somewhat never ending. Never a sense of accomplishment. So many days are spent counting down the hours until bedtime or dreaming of a land of silence :).

Moms, we all have those days. The days of settling arguments, cleaning up poop, telling your kids not to say poop and did they really just spill their cup of milk again?!! The days of so many scrapes and scratches, I mean really...how many times can kids get hurt in a day?? The days where we replace batteries, put away clothes, burn bread, don't brush our teeth until after lunch and pretend to not see the dust bunnies in the corner.

There are the other days too though. The days where we decide as a mother that we aren't going to let the day get the best of us. The days where we drink in our kids smiles and get some sort of Mommy high when we can make them laugh at something we didn't even realize was funny.  The days when you push bedtime a little later just because you don't want it to end, because lets face it, tomorrow could be very different. The days when...I can't even believe I am about to say this...the days when you are thankful for the laundry. This afternoon I was folding clothes and I just stopped to look at the piles of clothes. At that moment I felt so thankful that I was the Momma chosen to carefully sort out the clothes, load them in the washer with the right temperature and detergent, transfer them to the dryer or hang them up to dry, unload the dryer and fold them neatly into baskets...aaaannd that's where it stops on most days at my house :)  Instead of ending up in the drawers, we dig through our baskets, but that's ok. I continue to fold a tutu dress that Emma loves to twirl in and a spiderman shirt that Rickie wants to wear everyday. I notice a grass stain that won't come out now and a sock that is missing its match. I think about how the kids are supposed to be helping me right now, but they are playing so good in the next room and I love the sound of it.  I basically have a basket of Frozen clothes and a basket of Spiderman clothes because instead of buying cute clothes that I would like for them to wear...I find myself buying clothes that they will want to wear...clothes that bring a smile to their face. I wonder if it will be the last time I fold this shirt and it makes me sad because I love it, but they are growing. 

Laundry...such a mundane task most of the time for most people.  Mothers though, sometimes grab a shirt out of the dryer and they hold it up and a smile comes to her face because she sees more than a shirt.  She sees the faces of her children.  She sees memories.  Life goes by fast...that shirt will be replaced next year with a bigger size shirt that will also sit neatly folded in the laundry basket.  There will be so many days when you curse the never empty basket of dirty clothes and I will be right there with you, but there will be other days when something as simple as a shirt will cause you to stop, smile and be thankful.  God has entrusted you with being a Mom. One of the most important jobs in the whole world and it really just consists of a massive amount of tiny little jobs that feel as if they go unnoticed. On the days when it feels like your job doesn't matter, remind yourself that God watches you pour your heart and soul into the smallest things and He recognizes that you are faithful...even if on some days it is just with the laundry. 

"Employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree." -John Wesley