Clothes Line

As one could imagine being a single parent of 4 children means........a LOT of clothing to wash, never mind the bedding, towels, and well STUFF that gets washed in a normal time span. And while my children do see their father from time to time, it has become quite normal for them to start taking clothing back and forth so that they have something that fits there. Meaning, I have laundry 7 days a week for 5 of us, regardless of where the kids are.

Recently my dryer broke (again). If you recall an earlier post my dryer had stopped working about a month ago. A small fuse that one might think couldn't cost much (my guess would have been 5 bucks) ended up costing me almost $250 to have it repaired. OK no Im not that much of a sucker I didn't pay that much for a PART but I was talked into a service contract. Good thing. A week or so ago the dryer started smelling of smoke and thumping (kind of that off balance washing machine thump...I had just never heard it in a dryer before. Now do keep in mind I just REPLACED the washer and dryer about 2 years ago after the 2nd flood the kids and I experienced (this time from the washing machine hose bursting and completely flooding downstairs). So I called out Sears last week and they were good came right out again. I am pleasantly surprised on the repairmen so far, they are curteous (although Ill admit I don't like being called ma'm) and they arrive when they say and can come out almost immediately. Good deal. However, this time I needed parts he didn't seem to have. So 80 dollars worth of parts were ordered and a new time scheduled for repair....MAY 23rd! Arrrrgh! So with a pending 200 dollars worth of repair almost 100 dollars worth of parts I was worried and asked, how much will this cost me...........Nothing! Absoluetely NOTHING....well but patience. We all know how patient I can be! Im completely confident that God wants me to learn this lesson and that is why I keep being given lessons to learn it with. OK, so I accept and I practice patience as I hang laundry all over the house so that it can dry. Easy you think.......NOT so, especially with silly comments from my children.

Apparently they have been hurt in their lives from me not ever drying laundry on a clothes line. That freshly washed smell that clothing has after dancing in the breeze my children do not understand. They complain that the clothing smells funny....like vomit according to Andrew and feels funny. Granted towels are much nicer after dried in the dryer, however........there is something freshly reminicent of my childhood having that fresh detergent smell vs the fabric softener smell from the dryer sheets. And so my lesson in patience continues for.... 9 more days and well I won't start counting the hours YET!