Sorting and Counting Piles of Laundry.

Day 5 of the Write 31 Days challenge and I fully understand why the title uses the word "challenge." Sigh. But I have determined to push myself through and if you are hanging on for the ride, I am ever so grateful!

Digging through the old emails has made me a bit melancholy today. It is hard to uncover all the emotions -- good, bad, and ugly -- of early motherhood, even when the more things change the more they stay the same:

January 17, 1999 -- "Well, I have to go clean up after the Trio Tornado. How old before they start cleaning up after themselves?"

February 16, 1999 -- "Hi dear friend! I have JUST finished laundry...ugh. I have done nine loads today and the last one is still in the dryer. It will just have to stay down there until morning! How can three such small children dirty up so many clothes? (I realize I answered my own question there...THREE!) And then there is my sweet husband who very lovingly asked if I could also wash our clothes today! Bless him, I leave us to the end....until we have absolutely no clean anything because the kids' clothes take up all my laundry energy!"

As I type I am ignoring a dryer filled with laundry ready for me to fold and put away. There is no beating the laundry dilemma. When the triplets were nine I took them to the local appliance store and told them they should strip naked and we would see which washer could hold all their clothes. They looked at me with wide eyes until I told them I was kidding -- but I did want to make sure we purchased the largest washer I could afford! Which is a huge improvement over young mama who wrote those emails -- back then I was doing laundry in the basement of our apartment building taking turns waiting for washers and dryers!

And while laundry will never be my friend, I have to tell you that I would give anything to sit in the middle of a million preschool toys with my trio climbing all over me. Instead I find college brochures scattered around the house; I see SAT study books on every table; and cleaning up all the chargers and cords for the myriad of electronics in this house is a full-time job.

I know I was counting loads of laundry, I pray I was also counting moments of joy with those three amazing little ones God entrusted to me.

Because the bottom line, my laundry is going to decrease significantly way too soon; the toys (even electronic ones) will diminish as well, I want to seize the time I have with my crew, I want to savor the moments, and I want to sit and be where they are. Because that, my friends, is what really counts!