Laundry.
Today I folded the laundry. We just moved and now have this adorable window seat upstairs where I sat today and folded. Both boys were sleeping as I quietly sat in the hallway, sun drenching in, but also a cool breeze floating through the open window. It was one of those sweet quiet moments that I love. And today it brought me back to another very specific sweet, quiet, laundry moment.
When I was in college I cleaned a house once a week for a family in Chicago. Thursday. Took the EL to the south end of the loop, cut through an elementary school playground to get to their cute little house and spent the next few hours scouring 3 levels of house. I don't mind working hard, and actually love cleaning, it's a good time to think, so it was a good job to have.
One of the last chores I'd do before leaving was fold laundry. The washer and dryer were upstairs, so I'd empty the dryer into the hallway, sit on the floor and fold. I remember it being sunny in the hallway, and quiet. It was always a calm moment. Probably my little restful place in the middle of a very busy day. After folding I'd leave the house, take the train back to school, change into my food service clothes with barely enough time to throw on a hairnet and make it to my 6 hour shift in The Commons. My thinking here was one big busy day of work meant 6 less busy school and work days. It worked. Anyways, that laundry moment happened every week. I looked forward to it. The family had 3 kids and I remember sitting there, rolling together little pairs of socks and folding up teeny t-shirts thinking how fun it would be someday to be folding my own kids little clothes. To have my own family, with my own little kiddo's, and to take care of them, and their little clothes. Every week that thought would come into my head. Not in a desperate, psycho, maternal clock kind of way. Just a sweet whisper of a thought for a sweet moment.
So something about today brought me back to that thought. Must've been the combination of quiet sunny hallway and laundry. But I smiled with God about it today while I folded. The sweetness of a dream come true, a desire fulfilled, trumped the sweetness of every young anticipation I had of it. It is hands down MUCH more work than I ever realized, but still, I am so thrilled to have been given this gift being wife and mother. It is a blessing I am determined never to take for granted. But the blessing that is the greatest is that I shared my full-circle moment today with the same great and only God who sat with me folding laundry back in Chicago. I felt Him today the same as I felt Him then. What an ever-present, strong, loving, faithful, patient, good God I have the privilege of knowing and serving and loving. My heart is full and my heart is His. May laundry abound.