My Laundry Room

Freshly scrubbed Crocs in my sink. These are basically the only shoes
my kids wear. They are both awesome and disgusting. 

I think you can tell a lot about a person's daily life by what's in her laundry room. Swim moms have gobs of towels, soccer moms have dirt clumps from the cleats, empty-nesters always seem to have collared shirts hanging to dry (maybe the slower pace of laundry lets them give the dryer a rest). When I was single, my roommate and I let our jeans hang to dry, as to not let them shrink. But somehow that didn't work because I no longer fit into those jeans of my twenties. Hmmm.





So, here's the meat of this blog post: Do you want to see inside my laundry room? 

I actually didn't take a picture of the obvious parts. So, let me fill that in first. I have a washer. It's capacity is exactly one pair of jeans, 2 shirts and five pairs of (children-size) underwear. Maybe a pair of socks if you wanted to live dangerously.

Plants and princesses (and I think that's Manuel, our Little People contractor)!
The girls each picked a plant for the room (added perk of outdoor laundry).
The princesses (and Manuel) had been playing in the bath with a certain two-year-old
who...well, did something in the bath which meant the toys needed another
bath (with bleach this time). Ahem. 

I do not have a dryer. And, I'm gonna be honest here, I'm OK with it. We have a few balconies rigged for air drying. It's hot here, so stuff dries fast. And, there ain't no room. Joanna Gaines cannot find an inch of space (or shiplap) on my balcony. No redesign could make this work.

Coconuts! These are "tender coconuts" for drinking.
Except, one small detail: you have to open them with
a machete. I have no machete. So, when donated
coconuts come to my door (from our building's tree)
I put them in the laundry room and think wistfully about
machete-bearing people showing up to help....well,
not too wistfully. 

Oh, yes, I did say balcony. My laundry room is not so much a room (like with walls and stuff) but a balcony (with monkey bars and stuff). At first I thought this was barbaric...keeping the poor washing machine outdoors, indeed! But, then, it's never complained...except to overflow a few times (which made me glad it was outside). Why not spend a few minutes in the fresh (diesel fumes/burning trash) air to reflect as you load your washer?
















I have a sink! (No, it doesn't have hot water...let's not get crazy) This is a big deal, I know, because people pay big money to have redesigned laundry rooms with a sink...for accidentally dropping your detergent in and stuff. I have to say I don't use it much aside from Croc-washing.

Now you can rest easy. You have seen my laundry room. You probably know me a little better now. Until you read my next blog-post...about my box of mushrooms I'm growing out there now. I'm just trying to keep you on your toes.

Travel Bingo

We recently received this awesome care package. If you have ever wondered what's in an awesome care package, here are a few gems of awesomeness: books on cd, books not on cd, one of those reusable sticker princess scene things that end up with reusable stickers stuck to my foot (but I really do love them), matching t-shirts for my girls, wooden magnetic bagel tongs...yes, and travel bingo cards. 

Travel bingo cards. They give you things to spot as you drive. "Dump truck! Stop light!" Thought we'd give 'em a go on our way to church. 

Things I didn't account for in our travel bingo expedition: 

1) Living in a congested city of 10 billion. 

2) The immediately obvious cultural differences.

3) Incredibly observant kids.

Overlooking these three things meant the bingo game didn't last much past a few city blocks and most of our car-time was travel-cultural-diversity conversation. From the backseat we heard a happy chorus of "Car! Motorcycle! Another Motorcycle! Cow! Baby Cow! Street Dog! Bingo! Another Bingo! No, I got a bingo too!" and then "What's this sign with the deer on it?" "Do we have stop signs here?" "Oh! There's a church on mine! I'll wait till we get to our church and then I'll have a bingo!"

We had to make some amendments to our cards. I'm wondering if I can publish this for all those children just itching to get 5 in a row. 

Here's my cultural/city adaptation:

Car = car with at least 7 people in it.

Cow = cow...easy one!

Horse = horse-drawn cart

Traffic Cone = tree branch sticking out of a pot hole (it's a warning people!...or maybe a branch just is in a hole?)

Tree = tree with no trash around it

Dump Truck = dump truck full of people

Deer Crossing Sign = actual herd of goats crossing road (although I did see a jaguar crossing sign once)

Stop sign = jay walker

Bus = bus that has working brake lights

Dog (peering happily out a car window) = street dog sleeping

Fire Hydrant = fire...also, fairly easy one

Motorcycle = motorcycle with family of 5 or 3 men (bonus points for carrying something odd like a car hood or 10 foot sugar cane)

and my favorite...albeit another easy one

Port-a-potty = guy peeing in public

BINGO!