Under the Laundry Tree

My friend Anne recently had a blog entry about her backed-up laundry situations. Her daughter Ella yelled for the plunger when she found the laundry chute clogged (www.everydayfamily.blogspot.com). Anne just had her third amazing baby.

Laundry is one of those things I don't discuss with a woman pregnant with her third. Is it hard to have three? Will we be able to handle it? Do you ever get any sleep? These are all questions women ask me as they prepare to enter the club. I answer--and truly, it isn't that bad--but the laundry, I never bring up the laundry.

Think about this:

Underwear--weekly minimum: 35
with characters on them: 21 pair a week--minimum and assuming all three make it all day, every day in one pair of underwear.
without characters on them: 14--and, let's hope we don't have any issues making it all day in the same pair!

Socks--weekly minimum: 35
Kid socks that never seem to match again: at minimum 21 pair, but no one ever makes it all day in just one pair. They take them off while playing and then if we need to leave, they cannot find them so they get a new pair, bringing the real total up to more like 27 pair.
Grown-up socks that we spend lots of time matching: at minimum 14 pair, but add on top of that Jeff's work socks vs. nonwork socks and my tennis socks vs. nontennis socks and the real total is more like 24 pair for us.

Pants--weekly minimum: 25
Kids pants that we cannot tell whose is whose and spend a great deal of time trying to decide which drawer to put them in only to have one child snatch a pair from another's drawer: at least 21 but most weeks involve mud, paint, water, messy meals, a missed shot at the toilet (we are all boys here) and the reality is more like 25.
Grown up pants: as few as possible. Those jeans aren't dirty yet!

Shirts--weekly minimum: 25
Kid shirts that all have a particular meaning and are best worn on certain days but we don't know what days those are until we inadvertently suggest a particular shirt only to be met with screams of NOOOOOO it is not a Bob day it is an Army day: 21 at minimum but add back in the water, messy meals, mud, chewing (what is it with my kids and chewing on their shirts), pee (to avoid a half-moon of pee on the bottom of the shirt, you need to lift the shirt up a bit when you pee) buggers and more, it is upwards.
Grown up shirts: that shirt matches those jeans...it isn't dirty yet either! Unless it requires an iron, then straight to the cleaners.

We do laundry once a week, which is all day Sunday. Folding makes for good work while watching my week's worth of DVR'd shows. Most weeks, we do about 7 to 8 loads. Front-loaders have made a big difference in our lives. All in the name of love!

I would share the food consumption, but for those of you who don't know us, you would be convinced we all weigh 400+ pounds. You should see the looks I get at Wild Oats when I purchase five loaves of bread at a time. Hello...? I have three kids and it is called "small-batch bread" so the loaves are not huge. One round of lunch and a piece of toast or two and the loaf is gone.

It is coming up on 6AM, I better get to work. Until next time, my friends!