Laundry & Dancing

Laundry.

The never-ending, monotonous, lackluster task that plagues us all.

With four children, a husband and a farm some days it will tower on my bed and holds the potential to completely ruin my day.  But there is another side to laundry too.  A side that is…dare I say, pleasing? So much of our work as parents is tedious, veiled and slow to reveal results.  Laundry provides instant gratification!  I know, it’s just laundry but here me out!  How are you talking to yourself about the laundry?  Or any household task for that matter?  You see, I believe these types of tasks are ones that we can really master and help us feel like we are making a difference in our family’s daily lives.  It might even release some endorphins and give a little boost to our day but it completely depends on our attitudes toward the work.

Take football pads for instance.  I love washing up the football gear but I used to hate it. The only things that have changed are the fact that I’ve mastered my process and changed how I talk to myself about the grimy gear.  I have several steps and it is very time consuming but now I use this time to my advantage.  The way I see it is my boys love football and I love watching them do what they love so I enter this time with gratitude.  Mud on the knees represents playing time for my child, grass stains mean he played really hard with a healthy body.  I’m grateful and I use the time to pray over them.  I pray for their protection, their character and sometimes their teammates.  At the end of the process, which started filthy and stinking, I pull out a clean white jersey from the machine-super satisfying!

What is that task that threatens to derail your day?  Is it the kitchen sink?  Keeping up with the bathroom?  The laundry?  My encouragement to you would be to master it.  Work at it until you find a system that makes you feel like you’re doing it well.  Own it…refuse to let it own you.  It will likely take some intention but most good things do.  Once you’ve mastered that thing go dance around your kitchen with all those extra endorphins running around in your system.  Make the kids dance too.

Dancing with you!  ~The Mrs.

Disclaimer: I have to say, (because my dad tells me I paint too rosy of a picture on my blog) that laundry is also a point of contention in our house because I’m also attempting to train up young men.  They do not love laundry.  In fact, one of them would rather live with his laundry strewn about his living space than ever DO his laundry, but I am only in control of my own attitude toward laundry.  I’m also in control of my attitude toward said child when discussing laundry and I struggle with that a bit more.  I can control my attitude best when my mouth is quiet but at some point, the laundry has to be discussed so…