Family – Imperfection in a Pinterest World

Gosh I have heard that phrase my whole life.

“You’ve got too many irons in the fire! You better choose one thing you like and stick with it or you’ll burn out!” My parents started telling me these words when I was younger. I wanted to be a cheerleader, play in the band, take honors classes, ride horses, be in the Spanish club, be the President of Future Teachers of America, work for the Girl Scout Camp, be in EVERYTHING!!!! There were so many things to choose I could never make up my mind.

Circa…2000…A group of band kids including myself in the green shirt on a trip to Washington DC in high school.

So I did it all. I don’t know that I always did everything at 100% and maybe that was the biggest downfall of choosing so many things is not being able to perfect any one thing and instead I was a “dabbler”. A little of this and a little of that, but I liked it that way. I always had new things to try, new people to meet, and I learned a little bit about a lot of things.

Then I went to college, worked two jobs at a time most of the time, and one year I had 12 W-2s to turn in on my taxes. Hey let’s just call it being an overachiever?? K?

I really just couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. So I tried to do it all! You know what though I had a good time doing it. Then after college when I had a career, I still took evening classes for a few semesters until I got my masters degree and then about 6 years into teaching I picked up a second job waiting tables at night, and a third working an MLM. I loved it. It was extra cash and it was something I was good at. It kept me busy and filled the empty spaces in my time. Sure I would read in my free time or shop but being around others and making some extra money sure beat out all of that.

Maybe doing all the things was filling my time in the quiet parts of my single life days. Maybe it was a way for me to find myself and what I was looking for in a partner who knows? I think it’s just always been a part of me to want to do it all.

Heck even now, I have a job, a side business, I tutor kids one night a week, obviously writing here and always working on the next “big thing” in my mind. It doesn’t end. My mind is always busy and trying to do too much. Could it be a coping mechanism? I have no idea. What I do know, I am happy. I am happy with all of my irons. I enjoy staying busy and being with people.

Maybe one day my irons will fall apart but for now I just keep stoking the fire! So to all of you “dabblers” keep going. Do all the things. Find the things you are passionate about and do them all. You may never be the “best” at any one of them, but learning a little about a lot makes you an interesting person and usually someone fun to talk to at a gathering.

If you’ll excuse me I have to go do some work with my side business and prepare a lesson for tonight’s tutoring session.

It’s not exactly what you think…..well maybe it is….

Yep…you read that right. I am 35 years old and my mother still comes over and does my laundry.

Go ahead scoff…but my laundry is clean and folded…is yours???

Okay maybe yours is done. Maybe yours isn’t piled on the “laundry couch”, you know the one piece of furniture that gathers all the clean laundry, just waiting for someone to fold it and put it away. Maybe you fold each load as it comes out and put it away immediately. If that is you, then I applaud you. Well done! Seriously, I am jealous.

The “Cycle”

See what I did there??

Laundry is one of those things that ranks somewhere below scrubbing toilets and slightly above cleaning the hair out of old bathtub drains. Excuse me while I gag a minute. Honestly, I don’t know why I despise laundry so much, it’s not like I don’t know how to do it. I suppose because it’s a task that is never done. I can’t check it off the list because as soon as I’m done, someone throws dirty underwear in the hamper or beside the hamper…for heaven sakes put it IN the hamper and the cycle starts all over again. It’s infuriating to me. I like to check things off a list. It makes me feel like I am accomplishing something and I can NEVER check it off the list.

I try really I do. Every weekend I tell myself I am going to get it done and I sort and throw in the first load on the way out the door or before bed. My preferred method of washing is throw in a load at night and switch it in the morning. Most of the time I can get through all of it over the weekend. However, it usually ends with an entire couch full of clean clothes that need folded and its late Sunday night and I am exhausted and don’t have the energy to get it done. We end up digging through the pile for what we need for a day or two before I finally get annoyed and get it folded just so it sits in a laundry basket on the floor so we can keep digging through it the rest of the week. Meanwhile, the laundry from this week keeps piling up around the hamper because no one can seem to make a basket around here.

My Cleaning Solution

So where does my mom come into the picture? Did I mention the “cycle” only happens maybe once a month at my house?? Yep. I am a laundry failure, but I have the world’s most amazing mom. My mom retired several years ago. Since then she spends her time visiting her friends at the YMCA three days a week, improving her Candy Crush skills, and taking fussing over me, her baby. A.K.A. “The Favorite” as frequently referred to by wonderful older brothers….enter sarcasm here…

As long as I have lived within 30 miles of her she has been coming over almost weekly to do my laundry. It usually starts with an SOS text or call that things are getting out of hand. She stays all day and finishes the laundry and while she waits, she busies herself by picking up other things. The dishes are usually clean and beds are always made. She is amazing, truly!

When I tell people what she does for me I get all sorts of responses. Things like: “You’re spoiled”, “Must be nice”, “Kind of lazy aren’t you”, “My mom would never do that” are a few that I have heard. I am sure there are others I haven’t heard. Some are good and some are bad. I just let it roll off my shoulders. Why do I let my mom do my laundry? First let me clear up the fact that I CAN do laundry, but with our schedule during the week, it’s hard to keep up.

The answer is simple…BECAUSE SHE CAN!!!!!!

Yep that’s why. That’s it.

She can still do it and I am so grateful for that. She is healthy and gets around better than most women her age. (I would throw the number out there but I still want my laundry done so I better keep quiet on that one…wink wink…) Knowing that she will spend a day at my home doing something that keeps her active gives me peace that she is healthy and isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Why do I let my mom do my laundry…because one day she won’t be here to do it anymore. And I can’t even imagine that world.

Let me repeat….she does it because she still can.

The Fluff

I’m not here to brag about my mom doing my laundry…okay well maybe just a little…I just want to express how lucky I am to have her. I am completely aware that not every daughter has a great mother or even a mother at all. Some have had great mother’s that were taken too soon. I get it and I am so sorry you have to worry about that.

If you need a good mama that will help you out and make you a good sweet treat once in a while. I will share mine! Isn’t she beautiful!!! She’s pretty darn special and I’m so lucky to have her. I pray every day I will be even half the mother she has been. I promise this isn’t the last mama appreciation post you’re going to get!

So do me a favor, if you have a good mama, tell her how much you love and appreciate her. Take her to dinner and give her a hug. Call her on your way home from work to see how her day was. We tend to take people for granted and often times our parents get pushed to the side in our busy lives. One day they wont be there to ask you 1,000 questions about the new job you just got or to remind you that its your Aunts birthday next week AND YOU ARE GOING TO MISS HER!