A New Skill

As of this morning, I can officially add money laundering to my resume.

It would seem that Malia forgot to empty her pockets when she did laundry yesterday. 😉

Natural Wonders and Awe-Inspiring Prices

Today was another leg of our drive up the coast, this time the Washington coast. We only had about four hours of driving and we couldn’t get into our vacation home in Forks until 3 p.m., so we planned some stops to fill the time and enjoy a few more of the interesting things this lovely world has to offer us. Nature in Utah is far different from nature in Washington, so we are always fascinated by the way plenty of water changes what grows without cultivation. Today’s stops included a salmon hatchery, a record-breaking giant Sitka spruce, and a well named “Tree of Life.”

The hatchery wasn’t a high traffic tourist attraction. In fact, we were the only ones there. But it was oddly fascinating. It is early in the season, so the salmon were still only a few inches long, but there were so many of them! They are clearly accustomed to being hand fed because as soon as a shadow crosses their pools, they swarm right over in a frenzy for food. There was a bucket of food provided so visitors could feed the fish, and that created even more of a fish frenzy! We didn’t stay long, just long enough to eat our lunch at an available picnic table, visit the small educational room, and feed about a million baby salmon, but it was an interesting stop.

The Sitka spruce was well and truly gigantic. Apparently, it used to be touted as the biggest Sitka spruce in the world, but larger ones must have been discovered because it has been downgraded to record breaking. Despite that, we were appropriately in awe. What we call trees around here are really just sticks in the ground with a few leaves on them. Seriously. That tree was so tall that we had to crane our necks all the way back to be able to catch a glimpse of the top. I think the only other time I remember ogling with my head tipped that far back was my very first foray into downtown Manhattan. But rather than a manmade forest of skyscrapers, this was a marvel of nature. Truly impressive. 

The Tree of Life was another marvel of nature. Erosion has eaten away the soil at the base of the tree, but somehow it has adapted, and its roots have stretched far and wide so that it can still get the nutrients it needs to live. It is proof that nature will find a way to persevere despite less-than-ideal circumstances. If only we were so dogged and versatile. It also gave us another chance to visit the beach. It was a higher traffic beach though, and we still had some miles to go before night, so we stopped just long enough to ogle the ingenuity of nature.

Our last drive of the day took us to Forks, Washington, setting for the “Twilight” books. Forks is a tiny little town, but let me tell you, they have definitely taken advantage of the whole “Twilight” craze. It has become a big part of their approach to tourism. So of course, the topic came up and when Nathan asked what the book was about, I gave him a five second synopsis:

    Teenage girl moves from mother’s abode in sunny Arizona to father’s abode in rainy Washinton. Girl     meets hunky, hunky boy who just happens to be a vampire. Girls meets second hunky, hunky boy         who just happens to be a werewolf. Drama ensues.

And then I assured him that he definitely does not need to read this book. It is super fluffy chick lit and sometimes that is just what I’m in the mood for, but there is no actual intellectual merit to be gained and his brain would probably dribble out his ears if he attempted to read it.😂

Anyway, Forks is the only town anywhere in the near vicinity of the Hoh National Rainforest so even though it is early in the summer season, it was a pretty busy little town. And the prices are a reflection of the fact it is the only location for goods and services for quite a distance. We expected that, but we were less than happy when the untimely death of the washing machine in our vacation home (in the middle of Nathan’s second load of laundry) led to the discovery of the fact that it is $8 to run a load of laundry in the one and only laundromat in Forks. Unfortunately, Matthew also needed to run a load of laundry and because it was brand new black jeans, it really couldn’t be combined with Nathan’s load. At least the dryer was still working so we were able to haul the wet laundry back to the house and avoid the matching price of the laundromat dryers. 

Having said that, we did have some amazingly good fish and chips at probably the only sit-down restaurant in town. We were pleasantly surprised. And tomorrow we see the rainforest, so we are all still in high spirits!

No Laundry? No Problem!

One of the last things Daniel did before he left was clean out his dresser. He sorted clothes into two bags: one destined for the D.I. and one to go into storage. In order to make sure everything was nice and clean before storing it for two years, Kevin washed all the t-shirts in the “to keep” bag. We always thought Daniel just wore the same assortment of shirts all the time. After all, we saw the same ones every week. What we discovered told a different story. Daniel had 45 t-shirts in that bag, far more than we expected seeing as we saw the same small assortment every week. But he had duplicates of many of his band shirts, as many as four identical ones. So I guess he really was rotating through his shirts. And the big pile also explains why he was never overly stressed when he forgot to do his laundry. He had enough shirts to go for over six weeks between loads.😂

A Seemingly Never Ending Supply

Laundry.

So…much…laundry.

Halloween: The Holiday That Keeps On Giving

I’m still finding candy wrappers in the washer when I do the laundry. And a very warm (and thankfully still wrapped) Starburst just dropped out of the dryer. At least it makes laundry day interesting.

Note To Self

Do up the buckles on the overalls before washing them lest they get caught in just the wrong spot in the dryer and end up looking like this:

Different Day, Same Laundry

In this day and age, much of our labor is made light by technological advances. The dirty dishes are washed and dried to a sparkling finish with just the touch of a button. We can program the vacuum, telling it where and when to clean. The garden is watered while we slumber and we ride in comfort while mowing the lawn. But in spite of all this, doing the laundry is still an all day chore. Don't get me wrong. I'm exceedingly grateful that I don't have to haul my laundry down to the Jordan River and beat it on a rock to get it clean. But laundry is still one of those jobs that is never truly finished. Think about it. Even when you have washed, dried, folded and put away the last load, the clothes you (and all of your dirt covered children) are wearing are still dirty. It almost makes me want to have an annual Stay-At-Home-Nudist-Day so that at least once a year I can honestly say that all the laundry is done.

With the end goal of getting the laundry (at least most of it) done in the shortest amount of time as possible, I'm always looking for time saving techniques. I have my family sort their clothes as they put them in the laundry so that on laundry day I can do a quick scan for red socks in the whites and then just stick the entire pile in the washer. I have numerous laundry bags for washing small items so that they don't get lost in the wash. I have a special bag where the partnerless socks live so that when I find a spare I don't have to sort through twenty seven drawers to find the match. I iron by spritzing things with a water bottle and throwing them in the dryer. And this week I employed a new folding technique that makes folding the dozens of t-shirts this household owns a breeze (Thanks, Tiff!). Not only was it fast and easy, but everything looks so nice in the drawers! At least everything looks nice in my drawers. My children's idea of putting their clothes away is to chuck them in the general direction of their dressers and hope some of it lands in the drawers.

So in spite of the fact that laundry is still a never ending adventure, I've picked up one more tool in my quest to make laundry day as fast and painless as possible.

Mini Miracle

Today was laundry day and at the end of the day, every single sock had a match. It was truly a wonder to behold.

Incredulous

I cannot believe it!! The concoction worked!!

I'm totally serious. Approximately 99% of the crayon is gone. And it was dried in. All I found were two tiny and faded spots of blue on a pair of yellow shorts. Here's the magic:

1-Shoot everything with Shout.
2-Wash with 1 cup of OxyClean, 1 cup of white vinegar, and detergent (I used a bit more than usual).
3-Send it through a heavy wash cycle with hot water and an extra rinse.

Ha, ha, ha, he, he!! Laughter! Giddy laughter!!