Coveting Thy Neighbors Front-Loader

When our dryer went up in smoke last week I was thankful my home hadn't burned down.

Today I have an issue...

When things in my life have ever broken down (or spontaneously combusted, as it may be) my gut-reaction is to replace it. Out with the scorched. In with the new!


I'm slowly learning when things go awry in life (or the laundry room) there is often more than one solution. The best part? In the process of the final solution, you may pick up a skill or two.

Or at least your husband will.

For instance, The Mister could write volumes on how to repair a washing machine when it goes out. Or how to replace a sink. Or fix stucco when your wife backs her car into the side of the house.

He might call it : Fixing the Mess She's Got Herself Into.


I'd call it: Helping him see his Mr. Fix-It potential.

He's handy around the house... especially when I give him the time to figure things out; when I give thought to what might be another (less expensive) solution.

When my dryer set itself on the path of a slow burning inferno I put this lesson practice. I wasn't going to rush to the department store, I was going to let my man handle it! Wasn't that amazing?

Well, no, actually it wasn't.

Enter the front-loader.

This morning, after a laundry-lapse of 84 hours it was time to call on the kindness of our neighbor.

Mrs. E is a wonderful lady who I've written about before. She loves on my kids, is kind to my man, and has generously treated us as family. She gives treats to my dog, cuts fresh flowers from her garden for others to enjoy, and she has the most beautiful front-loading washer and dryer I have ever seen.

This morning I walked across the woods, arms straining to carry a basket full of laundry, with school-girl giddiness. I had been there a couple years back when the delivery truck pulled up Mrs E's driveway and unloaded the precious metal machine duo. I've been eying them ever since.

I'm just gonna spill my guts to you this morning and admit I made a wish right then and there, that my machine would die... so I could get a match-set too.

Before you judge, just remember, that was before I was using my powers of messing-things-up for good.

Honestly, this pearly white, energy-efficient, super-capacity, intelligent-timing, moisture sensing, with 9-cycles and 6- temperature settings might as well be my neighbors ox or donkey.

Have I mentioned how quiet it is? How it practically folds the clothes for you? How I have done four days worth of laundry in less than four hours because of its amazing ability to dry a load of laundry in less than hour?

I want  am enjoying that machine.

The Mister ordered the new parts he's replacing for our old dryer. They should arrive in the mail today or tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure its going to fix our issue.

The question is: Will it fix mine?

Happy Monday!

Unplugging my Toaster... and Counting My Blessings

Six months ago I pulled a load of towels out of the dryer and it smelled like smoke. I checked every thing out and it looked all right.

And then I forgot about it.

Growing up my dad had three household "rules" that he was fairly serious about:

1. no flame candles in the bedrooms,

2. don't leave the dryer running when you aren't at home,

3. unplug the toaster when you are done, and certainly before you leave the house.

As a kid, I followed along and did my best to remember (if not with a secret eye roll or huff here and there.)

Now I know how very important those rules are...

Yesterday, I threw in a load of laundry into the dryer and ran upstairs to grab some shoes and brush my teeth before taking my son to the doctor. The kids were downstairs finishing up their work and getting ready to go.

Within five minutes I could smell acrid smoke that burned my nose. I ran downstairs to find my dryer was on fire.

When I opened the door a puff of smoke came out and continued to rise from the lint screen.

We unplugged it and took the clothes out, and waited to see if the smoke would stop. It did.

Then we prayed that it wouldn't re-ignite, cuz we had to leave, we couldn't miss the appointment at the orthopedic office.

When The Mister got home he pulled everything apart and this is what he found...

We're pretty sure that this has been a slow-burn, a six-month tinder... a tragedy in the making.

Honestly, I try not to run the dryer while I am out of the house, but occasionally it happens. LIke two weeks ago when I ran the kids to the pool. I left the dryer running because I was only going to be gone for 20 minutes. Never again.

We escaped and I am grateful.

So for now, this is our dryer:

And this...

I know that, "faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see"...but I do believe that every once in awhile we get the opportunity to really see.

Maybe more often than we choose.

Today I don't have to choose. Those wet clothes hanging all over the house are my memory stones.

I've been given the chance to see, and I am grateful.

The LORD is good to all; 

He has compassion on all he has made.

Psalm 145:9

Sleepy

I have the biggest case of sleepiness this afternoon. 

If I knew that a nap wouldn't ruin my night time sleep,  I would sneak up stairs and slip under the covers of my happy fluffy, newly decorated bed, and take a nice afternoon siesta.

I haven't been sleeping great recently.  However, last night and the night before I slept gloriously all through the night. It was awesome!

One of the things I do when overcoming insomnia is to significantly cut back on caffeine intake. Which means that oh-so-warm-and-delicious cup of afternoon coffee is off limits. :(

I should try to fold some laundry to keep my eyelids from shutting. Even typing while typing this post, my eyelids are heavy, heavy, heavvvvvyyyy....

OK, I was going to type this post and catch up on blog reading, but I think I better do something active, lest I heed the call of my comfy, heat-blanketed bed.

(Yawn!)

Random Poll: October - Laundry List

I am trying very hard not to complain.

I am trying to remember that there are people on this planet that still wash their clothes by hand.

But my problem is not the washing. Nor is it the drying. It's the folding and putting away that's unbearable.

I told myself not to blog until It was was complete.

"It" being the clean pile of clothes that has grown exponentially for the last 8 days..On my couch.

It shameful really. Started out 10 days ago. Washed two loads and put them on the couch. I was going to get to it, really. But I had good excuses that week. Really good excuses! My 21 month old nephew had had surgery so I helped my brother and sister in law out just a little bit. The next day, I locked myself out of the house (which, when avoiding laundry isn't so bad now that I think about it). Then the days after that are a bit of a blur, but i know that I was very...busy. You know, washing more laundry and piling it on the couch.

Eventually we would need some space on the couch to sit. This started a sad dance that lasted six days, or so. It went like this: Take the laundry off the couch, pile it into two laundry baskets until they were are over-flowing (the capacity on those babies are amazing!). The next morning, with the intention of folding those clean clothes I would empty the baskets back onto the couch, but then some really incredible and important thing would happen! The phone would ring, the blogs would call, the kids needed to be fed and watered, important.

And so it would go, stuffing the clothes in baskets at night and tossing them on the couch in the morn. The amazing thing is that we don't often go more than a couple of days without someone stopping by or coming in. Last week not one person (except my younger brother, and I can tell you that he probably never even noticed the laundry!) just stopped in...That is a laundry miracle if I ever heard one.

Yesterday I managed to tackle the laundry, sort of...

When I tell you I had laundry to fold, I mean LAUNDRY. Not just two or three, but seven or eight loads. OK, maybe 9. And the load that is clanking int he dryer as we speak.

So i got about two-thirds of the way through and they were all stacked in piles all over my bed (i had moved the massive pile to my room). This was great! Except then a neighbor came over (hence the move) and we chatted, and I got distracted. Until bedtime.

AUAUUGHHHGHGH!!!!!!!

So, today I was supposed to finish before getting on to blog, but I needed a break. My arms are tired.

I know that, if you are reading this blog, chances are if you are a woman with laundry woes of your own, and that you don't feel sorry for me. Not. One. Bit.

But I thought I would try...

Which brings me to the random poll for October:

Tell me what chore have you been avoiding this week (or if your anything, at all, like me, the last week and a half!)?