The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

     I have many good things in my life:  my husband, my kids, my teaching career!  At times, there are bad things too: lack of sleep, not enough time in the day, adult acne!  But, there is one area of my life that is just down-right ugly:  LAUNDRY!  I have to believe that I am not alone.  Surely, other folks out there feel the same way.  You see, when David and I first got married, we made the deal that he would do the dishes if I would do the laundry.  It seemed like a fair deal at the moment...but that was before two busy little boys.  Even at my very best, when I am keeping up with all of my housework on a daily basis, it takes a minimum of two loads of laundry a day to keep up with my family's dirty duds.  The busy football coach husband often wears two set of clothes a day.  Oftentimes, he leaves dirty clothes in the locker room and brings home a pile all at once, easily getting me off-track with my daily wash. The busy boys have school uniforms, play clothes, and sports uniforms.  When there are multiple games and practices in the course of the week, uniforms and sports gear must be washed daily.  Even this busy mom wears one set of dress clothes to work, then comes home and changes into comfy exercise clothes for the evening rat race.  Don't forget about sheets, towels, and wash cloths!  Laundry is certainly a never-ending battle for me. 

     Well, as of last night, I had officially lost the battle.  We have hit the peak of our "busy season" -- the one point of the year where two sports overlap.  Basketball season hasn't ended, yet baseball tryouts and practices have begun!  This overlap only lasts 2-3 weeks each Spring, but it is crazy nonetheless.  We have stayed so busy during the last week and a half, that the laundry started to pile up.  At times, I managed to sneak in a load here and there, but it was wash, dry, and DUMP!  Yes, many of the clothes were clean; however, the piles quickly began to take over the living room...climaxing to the point that my living room looked like this:

    
     Now, I had a plan to deal with this mess.  My kids go to church youth group for two hours on Wednesday nights.  Normally, my husband and I have a dinner date during that time, but I asked him to take a raincheck and decided to spend the evening washing and drying the dirty clothes that remained, and folding, hanging, and putting away the clean clothes.  What happened next caused me to laugh in order not to cry!  You southern folks will understand when I say that "everybody and their mama" showed up at my house!!!  Friends, neighbors, my father-in-law, the list goes on and on...  You can only imagine my humiliation at all these people seeing my mess.  I pride myself on having a nice, clean house, especially when I know that company's coming.  But instead, I had a messy house and no idea that company was coming!  Fortunately, it turned out to be a nice evening, mess and all.  We love visiting with family and friends, and now they all know that I'm only human (as if they didn't know this before)!!! 
   This afternoon, the entire family teamed up to get the laundry finished.  There isn't a single dirty piece of clothing in the house.  So for this moment, I have won the battle of the laundry.  Maybe I've learned my lesson about laundry, maybe there won't be a next time, maybe I'll keep it up for a while...or maybe not!  Only time will tell.  For now, laundry is on the "good" list.  Who knows how long that will last??