Day 11: Laundry day
Something that we are going to get to is doing our laundry at a laundromat. This can be a wonderful adventure, depending on how you look at it. It takes up most the day, since we try to get other errands done as well while we are out and about. Today it took 2 hours to wash out clothes. It is quite an operation. We had two bins of clothes, a big book bag full of things to do (books to read, school workbooks, toys, coloring stuff, snacks) and 5 kids. The laundromat we found was clean and bright, and had a few college students and an elderly lady who really got a kick out of our kids. After about an hour and 15 minutes, they were getting bored and started using the laundry carts as go carts and bumper cars. For boys, everything can become something to climb on, ride in or turn over become something else. I was exhausted at the end from reigning them in and teaching the boys how to respect other people’s propety, keeping Joy happy and occupied and stopping Zach from drying himself in the big industrial size dryers. But we got our laundry done and the kids had fun. By the end though, the kids were tired and hungry and grumpy. As we were leaving we got a sympathetic grin from the old lady.
We are seriously thinking about buying a portable washing machine that would fit in our bathtub. It’s convenient, but adds weight and takes up valuable space. Laundromats can become a fun family outing, but take up time and cost a lot of money.
