Before Eva was born, laundry was a weekend family affair. The kids have brought their hampers and sorted the laundry into piles for years. I treat stains, start and switch the loads, and try to retrieve (I usually say rescue) each load promptly and flatten if not fold each article of clothing after it has finished going through the dryer cycle twice. Except when I'm hugely pregnant, I carry most of the baskets up and down the stairs. I don't mean to be a martyr; I just seem to have to play this role because I'm the only one that remembers. Also, I like things to be clean so we have choices.

And here is where I guess I should admit that coordinating outfits has as much to do with making laundry easy as with looking like we go together. ("We're a team!" Jackie taught the kids to say when they were small, high-fiving each other.)

David is a camel about laundry--it seems he'd never run out of clothes, underwear or socks. Also, I kick myself when I let him do the switching or starting because he doesn't pay attention to stains. This is part of me being, as Carmen explained it, "The Boss of the Clothes". I used to at least get help with folding and putting away the laundry (usually while watching tv or a movie after the kids are asleep--how romantic, I know). But since Eva was born, I've done almost all of it myself, I guess because I've been at home.

So there I was, in the big middle of doing a ton of laundry, when I noticed that the dryer wasn't working. Well it was working, but there was no heat emanating from the dryer at all and nothing was getting dry. So now I hadtwo loads of wet laundry to get out of the way.

First I tried to call David to discuss this development, but he didn't answer. I knew Mom & Dad were going to the Colonial, but I caught them on the phone in the car to describe the problem. Before even asking Dad, Mom said it might be the heating element. Dad said to check the breakers because there are two separate ones for the heater, but otherwise confirmed this diagnosis and I set out to research it. None of the breakers were tripped.

Sure enough, our favorite little Mom & Pop appliance shop had the part we needed (if that was the problem) so I called them and went to get the part. When I got a hold of David I asked him if it would be a good day to take off early--he had worked part of MANY weekends since Eva was born so I didn't mind suggesting it.
Ah, the joys of home ownership. We're constantly repairing or replacing appliances these days, I guess since our house is over 20 and we've been in it 10, that's to be expected. I am thankful that David was able to fix it!