One of those, "Doh! Why didn't I think of this years ago?!" ideas

I've said it before - I like to do laundry.  It is my favorite chore.  In the summer I love hanging all of my clothes on the clothesline.  Living in the driest climate ever and we generally have a breeze (gale force winds more likely) my clothes dry super fast.  In fact, in the summer I can get my weeks worth of laundry done in a couple of hours. 

In cooler months I still like to do laundry in as little time as possible.  It takes longer because I have less drying space and clothes take longer to dry not in the warm sunshine & wind.  I have always used a drying rack.  It could be 3x the size it is for what I hang dry.  Until I figured something out....

A few months ago I bought the kids all new hangers.  Their clothes were getting too big for the kid-size hangers and falling off constantly. It was an annoying battle every laundry day when I took their baskets of clean clothes to their rooms and attempted to neatly hang their shirts.  When I got them new hangers I got them different colors because they were with  me and wanted it that way.  Fine, whatever.

THEN I realized a short while after this purchase that I was using various random hangers in the laundry room to hang up some clothes (because the drying rack simply wasn't big enough!).  Then I would take the dry clothes off those hangers, put them in a basket and re-hang them in the kids closets.  Here is my Ah-ha (you idiot!) moment!  Why am I transferring hangers?! 

Now each week when I empty their laundry hampers I also take all their empty hangers to the laundry room.  As I take their clothes from the dryer to hang dry after their initial "fluff", I simply hang up each child's clothes on their own respective hanger color.  Then when I take the dry clothes upstairs to fold & put away (or leave for them to put away), their shirts/dresses are already on the hangers, ready to be put directly into the closet. 

This simply system has cut down on laundry time or at least on my least favorite part which is putting the clothes away. 

Add that to the weekly hanging shelves for daily outfits and my time spent with children's clothes is about 1/3 of what is used to be. 

Kid-you-not every week when I do laundry I ask myself why the hell it took me so long to figure this simple thing out. 

We survived the week of FG's cooking

Actually, he did well.  The French Dip Sandwiches didn't come until a few days later and I ended up making those.  I convinced him that it was a better idea to eat the London Broil just as it was and then use the rest later for French Dip sandwiches.  He agreed and was happy to not have to go grocery shopping for any more ingredients.  All in all, the week went pretty well.  I did end up in the kitchen quite a bit, guiding and teaching, but he did it all and he learned.  I'm kinda sorta hoping this happens more.  I think I'll talk him into being in charge of dinner at least once a week - from start to finish.  But I'll still do the dishes. Do any guys you know suffer from Male Dish Blindness?  It's similar to Male Refrigerator Blindness but applies to dishes.  When FG does the dishes, without fail, he leaves at least one dish out.  No, it's not left on the other side of the kitchen or on the island, it's left immediately next to the sink.  When I've asked him about it, he is genuinely shocked that there was a dish left and he honestly does NOT see it. Weird. 


Oh how I adore Anne Taintor!



My Sweets Party went well. I woke up with a helluva migraine that day.  It would not go away for anything either.  By the time the party rolled around, I was running  behind and so doped up it wasn't funny.  I made a lot of new things this year too.  After 16 years, it was time to shake things up a bit.  FG mixed some yummy drinks too.  My favorites had to be the Homemade Snickers Bars.  Ohhhhhhh myyyyy gooooodddneeeesssssss.  Heaven in 9 x 13 pan.  Homemade Snickers Bars.  They were not hard, just time consuming.  And I hate to unwrap caramels.  Damn I really hate doing that!  I just took my time with the bars themselves and made sure I did them step by step without rushing to the next.  They were really so delicious!  And my kids hate peanuts!  Whoohooo!!! More for me!

I've been busy at work and really wondering why people just can't be competent.  Is it really that difficult?  I'm also about to be elected our PTA President for next term.  Uh, yeah, I went there.  I wasn't planning on it but it came about and I thought for days on it.  I had to do it.  Now I'm scared to death.  I do know that I must be involved in my children's school.  I've directly seen the payoff between having a good relationship with the staff and teachers and my kids getting what they need.  I've seen the opposite too :\  PITA parents who think their kid does no wrong, deserves everything blah blah blah and are just not pleasant does not generally go over well or bode well for anyone involved.  Nope, do my volunteering, be reasonable and understanding that my kid is one of many who all have the same rights and be kind and my kids have reaped the benefits. 

So I guess I will continue to have 4 jobs for awhile.  Those are ON TOP of wife, mother, daughter, friend.