Mom's Free Laundry Service

We have six people in our family, so I always have tons of laundry to do. Every single day. What happens when I do not do any laundry for several days? This:

My children are ages 11, 9, nearly-7, and 5, so I believe they should be doing more to help with the laundry. When we moved into this house, I began to make them all put away their own laundry, which has been great. The problem is that they neither bring me the laundry on a regular basis nor appreciate all the work I do in order to get their cute jeans, favorite dresses, and goofy socks back into their drawers and closets. 

I have decided that it is time for some changes in our house. 

Over the past year or so, I have gotten softer on the girls and my husband about the laundry routine, and it is grinding my days off to a halt now. I work three days per week, volunteer at school on one of my off days, and have zero desire to spend my remaining day off on laundry. When the girls and my dear husband return home today, they will find a scene like this:

While this particular room is my own bedroom, I have placed these notices in each of our three bedrooms. What does it say, you ask? Let me show you the new rules for laundry in my house as of today, Tuesday, October 22, 2013:

I am quite hopeful that my days of rounding up piles of clothing from my daughters' bedroom floors, hallways, the entryway, the family room, and the bathrooms are over. There will be some growing pains, I am sure, but I also realize that I am doing a disservice to my offspring and myself by not encouraging them to be even more independent about their laundry. It is not enough to show them one time how to load the washer or fold clothes from the dryer. It is time the girls learned to follow through the entire process.

It may be several more months before I feel comfortable with the two big girls actually running the washing machine and dryer; that is a lot of responsibility. See, there I go babying them again. When each of the girls turns twelve, I will teach her how to do laundry from beginning to end. There. Now, I have to do it. 

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 27

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I am thankful for our gym. Not only does it allow me to get stronger and healthier, but it allows The Husband the chance to help Big Girl with her basketball skills while the little girls are in the Kids Space.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 26

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I am thankful that I set my own schedule. After dropping off the girls at school, I can hang with my littlest girl and snooze if I want to. 2:30 am to 7:30 am just is not enough sleep, but I got a lot accomplished last night.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 22

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I am thankful for my family. I am blessed with my husband and four amazing daughters in addition to the best parents and in-laws anyone could want, a loving and kind extended family, and the dearest, strongest, most incredible set of best friends that we call family. I love each and every one of you and wish you the happiest Thanksgiving.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 18

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I am thankful to have been raised by godly, wonderful, kind, loving, fair, supportive, firm, and responsible parents. 

I believe that people are products of nature and nurture, but nurture is definitely the largest component of personality and morality, in my opinion.  While I was not raised by my biological parents, I was blessed to be given the most incredible parents a child could want.  

My parents raised me to be respectful, responsible, faithful, determined, independent, educated, and kind.  These traits are now being passed on to my four daughters in much the same ways they were passed on to me via my dad's family.  My children can often be overheard saying, "Now I know where Mom learned how to be a Mom," when we are at my parent's home.  I love hearing those words, because they make me feel like I just might be able to live up to the example set for me by my parents and extended family.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 16

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I am thankful for understanding teachers and the confidence to stick to my guns while teaching my daughter a tough lesson. 

Hitting one's sister with a shoe means that Mom is not turning around to get something said child forgot at home. After many manic pleas and tons of tears, we arrived at school, and I felt the need to speak with her teacher to explain. Her teacher understood and fully supported me. Thank you, Lord.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 14

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I find myself extraordinarily thankful that I had four pregnancies that carried to term and brought home four healthy, incredible baby girls. Thank you Lord for these four miracles that give back to me in a multitude of ways daily. My life will forever be *millions* of times more meaningful and happy because of my children.

Today, I was moved by a post concerning the incredible organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  This is an excerpt from their website concerning what NILMDTS does:

NILMDTS extends our sincerest sympathy to families who are in need of our services. Offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of NILMDTS. We hope the gift we provide will bring some peace and comfort during this very difficult time.

I have been blessed to never have to experience the kind of loss these parents have, and words simply cannot express my gratitude for this blessing.  God has truly kept me and my girls firmly in His grasp and saved us from this sort of heartbreak.  When I found out that a childhood friend recently experienced such a loss, it broke my heart all over again.

Please pray for these parents, babies, medical professionals, and the caring photographers that volunteer to document their last moments with their children.  As a photographer and a mother, I do not know that I could handle taking these sorts of images, because my heart would be breaking and tears streaming down my face the entire time.  As it is, my cheeks are wet just writing this post.

Please consider donating to the March of Dimes or NILMDTS.  Please help spread awareness for prenatal care, genetic testing, and follow-up care.  Pray for those affected by illness, accident, and stillbirth.  For those of us that have our children at home with us, we should hug them that much tighter today.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 10

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I am thankful for God's presence in my life and His pushes to be in the right places at the right times.

My journey toward appreciating what I already have is blessing me in a multitude of ways.  I mentioned in a previous post that I have been struggling with the direction in which I would like to take my life.  I have been playing my clarinet (followed by my flute and borrowed saxophones) since I was sixteen, and I have been a paid private instructor since I was nineteen.  That is a lot of time dedicated to my passions, and I do not intend to give up on them anytime soon.  The Lord blessed me with these talents, and I do not intend to minimize them.

I serve on the Howard County Fine Arts Advisory Council, as well as serve as the technology liaison, and this affiliation has lead to many wonderful opportunities for me on a business and personal level.  I have been added to the Howard County Parents for School Music committee as a representative for my daughters' school, the county listing of private instructors, participated on the music panel for our annual Fine Arts College Information Night, and I have been able to network with an abundance of incredibly kind and talented members and supporters of the arts community in Howard County.

One of these incredibly talents supporter of the arts community serves on the HCFAAC and works for the county parks and recreation program.  When she put together a Teen Opportunities Fair, I was so honored that she asked me to represent Music in Howard County.  Having served on the music panel for our College Information Night in 2011 and 2012 helped me on my way to gathering the necessary information for parents and students, but I still had to dig through the information on the county website for even more opportunities that I knew existed.  My extensive experience with teaching advanced high school students in Minnesota for eleven years allowed me to locate the links and information for the Maryland equivalent events, thankfully.

Today was the Teen Opportunities Fair, and I cannot even speak now after standing and conversing with parents and students for over three hours.   I decided to educate parents not only on the opportunities for advancement through and outside of school but also on the process of choosing the appropriate private music instructor.  I brought my teaching curriculum, copies of my résumé, and business cards with me to use as an indicator for a quality private instructor.  What I did not expect to happen was the volume of my business cards that were taken and an impromptu deeper conversation on my teaching ideals and processes with a band director from one of the best music programs in the state.  God put me in the right place at the right time, discussing what I love to do with all my heart.

**11/27: As an update, this trend continued on Monday, November 12th, when the manager of a local music store asked for my card to discuss having me teach there, too.  I have messaged the high school teacher, and I have yet to hear from the store manager, but I am optimistic that these opportunities will come to fruition in due time.  It's all in the Lord's hands and His timing.  If you feel so inclined, I would love prayers of support and encouragement for these potential opportunities to get my clarinet studio back to what it was in Minnesota.  Thank you from every part of my heart.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 9

As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.

Today, I am thankful for the smiles of my children.  Their sweet faces light up my day. 

My four daughters have given my life meaning that I never knew it could have.  Seeing those gorgeous faces light up in happiness just fills my heart with so much joy that I can hardly stand it.  Thank you, God, for blessing me with their smiles every day.  Thank you for allowing me the honor of being their mother.