Laundry List

Things have been hectic around our house. Between refinancing our home, beginning the school year, returning from vacation and dealing with a sick baby, the house has simply fallen apart from neglect.

While ironing in the WEE hours of the morning (2am to be precise), I was putting together a laundry list of things that I need to do in order to feel functional again. Then my sleep deprived brain got to wandering. ~ Why do we call it a laundry list? ~ Really, I know that laundry should probably always remain on top of that list, but is it bad enough to necessitate that the list be it's namesake?

So rather than do all of my many chores this morning (cuz' I'm great at procrastinating), I decided to research the term Laundry List. Here is what I found out:

It comes from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century when many sent their laundry out to be cleaned.

Columnist Ed Quillen who worked in a commercial laundry shop as a boy wrote in the Denver Post June 6, 2008, that the term refers to what must be listed when you send your laundry to a service, since 1) there were so many distinctions between different pieces of clothing for men, women, children, and various professions, and 2) the laundry service had to mark every individual piece of clothing per customer, sort into piles by color and water temperature, and ensure that all the pieces were returned to their proper owner.

A laundry list could be very personalized per customer, and might have been frequently re-used for loyal customers. Those with long laundry lists had more clothes and were probably more wealthy than others, and all their belongings would have been more difficult to track.

Through the years the term has come to mean any relatively long, detailed list of items.

source: Answers.com

Well, there it is. A laundry list is a long list.

Yup, that's what I have; a long list.

With laundry at the top of it.

Drat! Now that my research is done I need to find another way to procrastinate. Or maybe I should actually do a few things on that list. Decisions. Decisions.

Marco Island

My mind is a little mushy after traveling with little ones, so I asked my daughter to share the highlights of our trip. She happily dictated this list of "best stuff."

So according to my 7 year old, the best things about our trip to Florida are:

• Getting snacks in little packages
• Walking through the rain, thunder, and lightning and getting very wet
• Going into new bathrooms (only a child would say this - lol)
• Flying on a plane
• Going through the metal detector
• Getting a new stuffed camel
• Getting lost and taking the wrong road
• Momma being silly
• Learning how to dive and swim underwater
• Eating crabs inside their exoskeletons (honestly, where does she get this stuff?)
• Watching TV in bed
• Staying up late with Daddy
• Taking a shower with soap shaped like seashells
• Getting stickers from the airport police
• Seeing the blue lights when the police talked to Mom (nothing major, I forgot to turn on the headlights in our rental car)
• Making new friends
• Collecting seashells
• Seeing dolphins
• Going to the bathroom on a boat (Not sure what it is she has about the bathrooms)
• The big water-slide
• Being able to swim every day
• Going in the big big big big house (our friend's parents invited us over for a visit)
• Getting to carry a key tall week by myself

From her description you would think that we spent most of our vacation in the airport, bathroom, and with the authorities. Sheesh. That's what I get for asking a 7 year old to do my journaling for me.

Aaah, vacation!

Pip-squeak Photographers

I realized recently that my kids can take photos that I can't. They look at the world from a different angle (quite literally) and people just act differently when a kid points the camera at them rather than an adult.

Sometimes the results are beautiful, like this photo that my son took a few years ago. People's faces brighten when they are looking at a child. Gone is the "CHEESE-I'm-staring-at-a-camera-please-let-me-out-of-here" look. Instead you get this:

Sometimes the photos are intriguing. This one is of a tree root I have stepped over at least two thousand times. My daughter decided it was the home of a tiny imaginary family.

And sometimes they are just plain fun (okay, bizarre would work in this sentence too). Check out the hilarious perspective. :o) Big toe or head, which one is bigger?

So I'm learning. I vow to hand over the camera more often. Maybe there will even be photographic proof that I attend our family vacations and holiday events. *gasp!*

Pocketknife

Once your child receives his first pocketknife, your world will never be the same again.

Bread bags suddenly become much too hard to open by hand . . . "lets just cut it!"

---(Okay in theory, but just try closing that bag again)

Veggies need to be harvested from the garden . . . with the knife of course. Mom needs flowers too.

---(My heart melts each time I pass that glass at my kitchen sink filled with the sweetest weeds)

The grass appears much longer than usual . . . those handy-dandy itty-bitty scissors will do the trick.

---(Hey, if he wants to work on my grass, I'll take it. Maybe he will have his technique perfected by the time he is old enough to run the mower.)

Food that previously could be eaten with a fork and knife becomes much too special for everyday utensils . . . pull out the attached toothpick.

--- (Instantly any food becomes much more interesting)

I love my knife-toting boy!