{ Blog 365 #88 - The joy of a clothesline }

 

I was talking about domestic bliss yesterday, and one of the chores that I absolutely love doing, is hanging clothes out to dry. 

 

The simple action of taking the wet laundry, fresh out of the washer, and hanging them up, one by one, watching them blow in the breeze, always brings a smile to my face.

 

When I was growing up, in South Africa, we had a circular clothesline, and I often would ask my stepmother if I could go hang the clothes out.  Then I would equally find joy in bringing them all in, once they were dry.   I guess, if I think about it, that may have been the beginning of my love for family, and homemaking.

Where other girls my age, were more interested in dolls, or make up, or doing other things, my focus was always on playing pretend family. 

 

I would pretend I had a home, and would turn my room into my tiny little house.  Each corner was a room, kitchen, living area and bathroom.  My dolls were my children, and I carefully took care of them, giving them baths, feeding them, and putting them to bed.

I felt this immense pride in doing those things, and couldn't wait to grow up, get married, have children and repeat those chores, but for real this time.

 

I do believe that God gives us all a task, to live out while here on earth, and mine has always been to be the caregiver, the caretaker of the family and home.  

 

Some may look at this and think it would be far quicker and easier, to just throw the laundry in the dryer, and I guess some days that is true.  But one of the reasons I look forward to Spring and Summer, is to be able to make full use of my clothesline.

We've had a few different clotheslines, different ways, different designs, but they didn't seem to work out how I wanted, and this current one, just works best.  So for the near future, that is where it will be.

But I thought it would be fun to go back in my blog, and find my posts with clothesline pictures.  There were quite a few, surprisingly, even to me.

So, I'll you with some clothesline shots....

And then the dryer broke....

Hello friends, I'm sure you're a little surprised to see me around here.

I'm a little surprised myself, as much as I say I want to post more, something always shows up to keep me from doing it.  Goodness!!!

Anyway, I apologize first and foremost for no Happy Homemaker Monday this week, we still had the family reunion going on and then decided to head into Lawton to visit Curt's grandparents grave and also take our kids to my father in law's grave at the Fort Sill National Cemetery.

It wasn't easy for my husband and his brother to visit their father's grave, and even for me, I had to hold back the tears.  It's hard when you miss the person so much.

The last time Jasmine had been there she was 4 and Nick was still in my tummy, so it was a long time for them as well.  I'm just so incredibly glad that we are close enough to go visit his grave and put some flowers on.

I honestly didn't have a chance to be on my computer the past week, it's been that busy.

The reunion went great, we all enjoyed spending time together, laughing, eating delicious food, playing games and just visiting as much as we could.  It's always so much fun when the family can get together.

After everyone left on Monday afternoon, it was time for me to sit down and take a breather.  I love reunions but it's so much work for me, I feel like I'm kind of stuck in the kitchen making sure that food is available, that dishes are washed, that everyone has what they need.

Our cousin Cindy taught us how to make Prayer Beads and we had so much fun making them.  I ended up with 3 different ones, which I'll take a picture of later to show you.  This was one of them, it's a bracelet.

There was gathering around the fire, making s'mores and chatting.

And little Miss Presley was the best part of the reunion, she is the cutest little one and got plenty of love and cuddles.

The past 2 days I've been trying to get caught up on my housework, cleaning, picking up, putting things back where they belong and just getting back to normal after having a house full of relatives.....23 to be exact.

In the middle of all this, my dryer has decided it has had enough and given up.  I have so much laundry to get through, and unfortunately Bella has a bit of a runny tummy too so I've been having to wash all her bedding non stop.  Makes it harder when I don't have the dryer to help me, but I'm managing, truly.

So it's clothesline and chairs, and whatever else I can find to put clothes on to dry.  You know a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do right?

You know I've learned that the way we face our challenges is what determines what kind of a life we'll have and I for one don't want to be constantly complaining, whining and upset that something is not going the way I want it.

So as frustrating as some circumstances may be, I just smile through it and sometimes actually laugh out loud at the absurdity.

I'm ending this post with a few pics of my front yard and the wildflowers we planted a few months ago, they are finally blooming and it looks so pretty out there.

Oh and this little fellow, or one of a few little fellows that has made our yards it's home.  With all the rain we've been getting we have tons of them around.

As I finish this up, the skies are once again cloudy in preparation for more thunderstorms heading our way.

I better go snatch up all the clothes so they don't get wet again.