{"id":7344,"date":"2013-11-13T14:48:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T19:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=7344"},"modified":"2013-11-13T14:48:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T19:48:26","slug":"day-13-of-thanksgiving-in-praise-of-laundry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/11\/day-13-of-thanksgiving-in-praise-of-laundry.html","title":{"rendered":"day 13 of Thanksgiving (in praise of laundry)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I HATE doing laundry. I once told a friend that I would remember my child-bearing years as piles of dirty laundry.\u00a0Really<\/em> dirty laundry: hockey socks & pads, football jerseys, cutoffs from camp, towels that ended up mildewing under the bed… YUK!<\/p>\n

Today, while I enjoy the sleepy crankiness of my grandson, I am grateful to be doing laundry. That said? It’s soooo different when doing the laundry means you’re HERE. You’re able to help a hectically busy son & daughter-in-law, and hear ‘Thank you!’ for getting to play with the baby!<\/p>\n

It also means we have things like… enough clothes to wash while wearing! As the daughter of a mother who only had 3 changes of clothes (and each of them from donations), I am grateful for the good fortune of a life with lots of clean clothes. And hot water to wash them in! And a washer & dryer!<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a>
Hotel Djemila Palace, Alger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When my husband & I moved to live in Algeria, I told him:\u00a0I will NOT wash clothes by hand. We will find somewhere — or someone — who does laundry. I am NOT that person.<\/em> And we did: we found the only laundromat in the entire country! It meant that laundry days he would walk with me to the laundromat, carrying a suitcase of our laundry. I would spend the morning there, and he would pick me up at lunch, climbing the steep alley back to the hotel where we lived.<\/p>\n

Whoever tells you that those are the best days of your life is nuts. NOW is the best time of my life: here, with my grandson, doing a huge load of baby things. In hot water. Now, with a washing machine & dryer in the basement, and heat on both floors. Able to run upstairs when he starts howling (he did NOT want to nap today).<\/p>\n

It doesn’t get much better than this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I HATE doing laundry. I once told a friend that I would remember my child-bearing years as piles of dirty laundry.\u00a0Really dirty laundry: hockey socks & pads, football jerseys, cutoffs from camp, towels that ended up mildewing under the bed… YUK! Today, while I enjoy the sleepy crankiness of my grandson, I am grateful to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[549,270,224],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,1303,1250,1336,426],"class_list":["post-7344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grandmothers","category-gratitude","category-thanksgiving","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-grandmothers","tag-gratitude","tag-laundry","tag-thanksgiving-month"],"yoast_head":"\nday 13 of Thanksgiving (in praise of laundry) - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I HATE doing laundry. 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