Confession Time: This is the first Blogger Friend School Assignment I have completed, although I signed up about 3 weeks ago. (Ain't procrastination loverly. y'all?) However, I do intend to go back and do the rest of the assignments as I can. I just figured that jumping in where we are currently would at least keep me current with the group! I need to start claiming the FlyLady promise: "You are not behind! Just jump in where you are!"
So, without really intending to, I suppose I have already shared some dirty laundry. (I am an overachiever LOL!)
Now, on to the real assignment:
Part A - Share about your family’s laundry. Where is it kept? Who does it? How does your family sort it? Do you wash by hand? Hang clothes on the clothesline? Make your own laundry soap? How often do you do laundry? How many loads each day/week? Indoor laundry room, in the garage, or laundry mat? Even more fun…share a picture!
My laundry is kept... well, I suppose there is no use hiding it since this is, after all, dirty laundry day.... so here goes:
My laundry is currently ALL OVER THE HOUSE.
By "all over the house," what I mean is: ALL... OVER... THE... HOUSE. Baskets, drawers, closets, floors, bags, buckets, sinks, piles, and in the washer and the dryer. I guess that would about cover it!
I had a good system going, but it fell apart, so now I don't have a good system going... or, in fact, any system at all.
So, how's that for honesty? All I can say is, I'm getting to it. Slowly, but surely, I am getting to it.
Now for the happier part: I secretly love doing laundry. No, not the part where I lug the heavy, stinky baskets downstairs to the dungeon. (I do not exaggerate, and I will not be posting a picture LOL! It is the dark corner of my unfinished part of the basement.) Nor do I love the part where I transfer the loads. My love of laundry does not involve the special feeling in my rapidly aging back while folding endless loads or ironing, either. And last but not least, I do not enjoy trying to shove all of the newly folded clothes into tiny drawers that seemingly have shrunk while I was doing the laundry.
So, if not those things, what do I love about laundry?
The SMELL. (deep inhale through the nose here... and exhale...)
I love the smell of clean laundry, of detergent and fabric softener... which is why one of my guiltiest pleasures while trying to live frugally is Tide laundry detergent. I sound like a commercial now, but it is true.. i love the smell of Tide, especially Clean Breeze Tide.
And now another confession of my dirty laundry that may bar me from HSB forever: in our house, my husband does the laundry more than I do. (GASP!)
Part B - Do you have an area in your life that you know that the Lord is tugging at some heart strings that needs to be cleaned up? Have a testimony of your past struggle(s) that might help another homeschooling mom? Share a piece of your heart (dirty laundry) that you are seeking a good washing or how it got cleaned up. Sharing with one another is a great way to have your post feel human and real.
If it isn't a little obvious from Part A of The Airing of the Dirty Laundry, or from the rest of my slightly OCD blog, I am Orderliness Challenged. (the politically correct way to say that I have let my home and schedule go to the point of complete chaos!) So, yes, that is what I am focusing on and trying to yield myself to the Lord to let Him clean me up, literally.
In addition, probably due to all the chaos, I have been struggling with a bad attitude towards my husband and children and with just not wanting to fulfill God's calling for me in my home because I am tired and frustrated by the end of the day most days.
Part C -
One verse that really convicts and challenges me with all this is:
Proverbs 14:1 The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.
I hope I have not appeared too glib about the whole thing, that is not my intention at all. I am taking the need to clean up my heart and order my home and day very seriously. It is just that I tend to be very perfectionistic and hard on myself, and trying to explain it in a more lighthearted way helps me to remember that it is not the end of the world that I have not yet achieved perfection, and that there is Grace for me.... Praise the Lord for that!!!!
Thank Him with me that...
EDITED: OK, I am going to be REALLY honest and show you my mess!!!! Hopefully it will either a.) Be a "Before" glimpse that will at some point have a blissfully perfect "AFTER" slideshow to impress you all ;), or b.) at least encourage you that you are not really that bad after all! :)
So, here goes!
