Laundry anyone??

Did you ever think that doing laundry could take your breath away? That was just one of several amazing discoveries I have made in the past week. It kind of went like this. Dirty laundry is created in approximately 90% of the rooms in my house, as well as 100% of the area outside of my house. I continually am walking around our vast domain with an eye for any particular item that I can deposit in my backroom, which houses my washer and dryer. Then periodically throughout the day I sort and consider which loads hold the most promise, and by this I mean, which loads will leave me with the greatest sense of accomplishment when completed, those that have the most immediate gratification. I bet you are wondering how anyone could have such a neurotic approach to laundry, but hey, you have to keep things somewhat interesting around the house, right? I then proceed to carefully examine each item as I place them in the washing machine with a heavy dose of Purex laundry detergent. In a fairly quick 20 minutes or so I again painstakingly peruse each and every piece of clothing so as to not inadvertently dry a nasty little stain permanently in place. This is probably where the most exciting part begins. With a quick toss of the wrist, I fling a fresh smelling dryer sheet in with the damp clothes and give the knob an abrupt push. There are few household sounds that I enjoy more than a quiet, steady sound of the dryer hummm. It is like a soothing rain or the steady splash of water as it hits the shore (as you can see I have a thing for water too, maybe we will touch on that in a later post :)). Now the waiting game begins. You see, sometimes my dryer likes to play games with me. It can't decide if it actually wants to dry clothes in an expiated manner or not. So after one or two false alarms, we finally have some nicely dry and warm clothes. This is the part that can go one of two ways. I excitingly grab one piece at a time and carefully fold and sort to promptly place in the proper place in the proper room, or I conveniently forget that the dryer was even running and find myself hours later with a dryer full of clothes that now require some attention due to the fact that they are all wrinkly. :)

You may wonder what this has to do with my opening line, and the truth is not much, but I thought that it would be fun to examine one of the many mundane tasks that occur around here. Well today when I was in the midst of the before mentioned routine, I was totally stopped in my tracks as I realized that I was actually washing the very last piece of Shane's clothing that I would wash for over a year. I just kind of stood there holding one of what is a dwindling supply of things that still have his personal 'shane-print' on them. You know what I mean. His smell and just the feel of him on them. Honestly I didn't cry or anything, but it was almost all I could take to throw it in the washer. There is another side to all of this as well. I not only absolutely go crazy at the faintest smell of him, but I also just love to serve his every need. It may sound weird, but I really count it a privilege to wash his clothes every day. I love the idea that I can play some small part in making his life a little bit easier. To be able to do that one thing that makes his ability to get up and get going just that much more enjoyable, that is just the ultimate for me. I hate that I am being robbed of the ability to be that kind of support to him during this time. There are so many times in the day, I just wish that I could somehow reach into his life and grab hold of even the most insignificant task and take care of it for him. Just a little Sara's touch on his life each and every day. I know that much of what I do, if not almost everything this year is actually going to be a huge support to him, but it just doesn't compare to being able to do it directly to and for him. I hope that many of you who read this are fortunate enough to care for and serve the love of their life like I get to each and every day.