Monday, March 31, 2008

Spring tiptoes in

Last night we had a terrific storm. The kind that keeps you up with lightning, thunder, wind, hail, and prayers that the tornadoes will stay away. But what a glorious morning followed today.

The sun is bright and I was amazed at how many trees are in bloom...the Bradford Pears, Oklahoma Redbuds, and Tulip Magnolias are just beautiful. I'll have to take some pictures soon. And there are daffodils and tulips bursting with color. No matter how much I love the winter, spring never fails to amaze me. And now I'm missing the dogwoods and azaleas which will be blooming in Asheville soon...

So today is a laundry day...which I guess is good since I can't really do any productive "spring cleaning". I think I'll share my laundry journey while we've been "in transition".

I discovered the best thing about doing laundry in the TLF (temporary living facility on base) while we were there. If you have a laundry room with four full-size washers and dryers, you can do all your family's clothes at once. And then it's done. So I asked Brent if we could increase the size of our laundry room to add at least another washer and dryer. He laughed at me. But I think it's a great idea. ;)

When we moved into this apartment, I was so happy to have a washer & dryer in the unit, because as much as I love getting it all done at once, it was a little difficult to transport laundry and three children to the laundry area down the breezeway of the TLF during the day. So I saved laundry for an evening or weekend when Brent was around. (But who likes spending evening/weekend time on laundry? Not me.)

So now my challenge is the opposite. I can spend all day Monday (our laundry day) doing laundry. And I mean all day long. (And I'm not even letting time lapse between loads due to being preoccupied with other stuff.) The machines here are the stacked kind and they are teensy tiny. (I think they are probably similar to the kind my college roomies and I had in our first apartment sophomore year. But I don't remember having to do tons of loads then.) I have to split Brent's clothes and my clothes into two or three loads each...and then each child's separately. Normally, I do the children's clothes together. But the dryer takes forever. Forever. Which is the reason it takes all day long.

If I had a clothesline in the back yard, I might just hang some sheets on it right now...because between the wind here and the gorgeous sunshine today, I think the outdoors might just beat this dryer.

It's a day for taking a nap outside under a flowering tree. Is spring arriving where you are yet?

6 comments:

Shawna said...

Hmmm...if you call Spring - rainy with temps in the high 40's. :)

I can relate to the laundry in the TLF. We have 4 machines downstairs and it's great to get it all done at one time, but then again - it's not in our unit. Sigh. Is there a perfect laundry situation?

We've even sent ours out to be done by someone and had them folded and delivered. That was nice but it kind of creeped me out that someone was touching my underwear. I don't know - maybe that's just me. Gotta love NY!

Wendy said...

I know about slow laundry. When we lived on the economy here (UK), the washers would only fit, for example, 2 towels and maybe 4 washclothes. Then it would take about 1 hour to wash (on quick cycle and that didn't clean really soiled clothes) and anywhere from 3 to 4 hours to dry (with the combi - which we traded in quickly) and they would be stiff as a board coming out. We had laundry hanging ALL OVER the house. Nice to have company come over and see your underwear etc everywhere. : ) Thanks goodness for American washers and dryers in the base houses. Now we don't get behind if we don't do at least one or two load of clothes a day. We can do laundry like normal.

Unknown said...

I am doing laundry right now.

Hilary said...

I'm jealous of your spring. We've had some teasers...great days to get out in the garden and toss the baseball around...but it's been cold this week. The tulip leaves are up, but I'm waiting to see some stems...the trees still look wintery...maybe soon. Glad you're enjoying your first tastes of spring!

sarah corbin said...

oh, you're going to be jealous. it's been beautiful here, raining some days and sun-shining other days. not only have the tulips been blooming for a few weeks, the azaleas in our front yard are bright pink...no, fuscia...the dogwoods are just about to bloom, the bradford pears already have. I may be speaking too soon, though, b/c last year we had a late freeze in april that killed everything. hopefully this year that won't happen.

also, a friend of mine hangs her clothes to dry all the time...she timed it and found that they actually dried faster on the clothes line (outside) than her dryer (i think it's just a regular, average dryer).

Laura said...

Hi Kimber...it is Laura (Gee) Matthews. I am so excited to find your blog. Your kids are so cute!

 

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