Laundry Day

Oh the joys of laundry day, without your own washer and dryer.

Typically most R.V. parks have a laundry facility, which are a real blessing, but mobile home communities usually do not have this luxury. Thus, we are back to visiting our local laundry mat. Which is quite a change from how spoiled I was in Waco with my own full size washer and dryer out in the shed.

But back to today…

While the kiddos eat breakfast, I combine the laundry from the kid’s room with the laundry from our room. Then I sort these clothes into three small mountains all over the living/dining room. Then I shove all of that stinky, but now sorted, laundry back into the baskets from which they came.
Next I pack up the lap top, help Cora select two movies, find my bag of quarters, pack drinks and snacks, and gather a bag toys for Caleb. Toys that do not talk too loudly and will not break when throw across the room.

By this time the kids are finished with breakfast and playing in their room. I put Caleb in his bed with enough toys to keep him from screaming too loudly, then I begin to haul everything out of the trailer and down to the van. After, removing two of the three strollers that I store in my van, I am able to make enough room for our laundry necessities.

Now it’s back to the trailer to collect my keys, sunglasses, and ,oh yeah…children.

Finally, we make it to the laundry mat.
Leaving the kids in the car, I begin making my multiple trips back and forth from the van to the laundry mat until finally everything we need is inside. Then I set up the travel bed (small pack-n-play) fill it with the previous mentioned bag of toys, and head back to the van to collect my little angles.

Now this is where all you good parents gasp in horror at the thought of my leaving my precious children unattended in a car. But honestly, what choice do I have? Besides they are better off strapped into their car seats then running around wild alone in the laundry mat. Oh yeah, and there are so many windows that I can be in full view of the van at all times.

I then spend the next two hours running to fill washers, set up movies, console a crying baby, getting snacks, retrieving thrown toys and sippy cups, filling dryers, getting more quarters, getting more snacks, changing stinky diapers, checking the dryers, adding more quarters, playing peek-a-boo, fixing the movie, getting more a drinks, folding clothes, and repacking the laundry baskets.

Just as Caleb has given up and decided to take a nap, and Cora has reached her maximum tolerance and begins her whining, the task is finally complete and we can head home.

Now the kids are put back into the van, while I repeat those last trips loading up the van, knowing that in just a few short minutes I will then have to unload it all again, haul it up the hill, and back into the trailer. Where it will all sit in our living room until nap time when I will then be able to find time to put away all that beautiful clean laundry.

Phew…

And do I say all this to gain your sympathy?
….. well, yes. Duh.

Here’s to hoping you all enjoy your own busy day as much as I do.
No seriously, it’s exhausting, but truly worth it.