laundry duty

I am addicted to period set novels, movies and t.v. shows.  Netflix has been feeding this addiction for me every nap time while I do laundry, mop floors, write blog posts and prepare meals. I'm not sure what it is that draws me to these drama filled silly movies. The drama? The romance? The fancy clothes? The sub plots of the underclass fighting against social norms to gain ground and equality? Or maybe the fact is.. I love these stories because they play on a fantasy of being a fine lady living in a house with a name and a full staff waiting on my every need. Who among us hasn't dreamed of having their own Anna from Downton Abby or Kate from The Grand?  I'm not saying this is a holy fantasy nor one I should dwell on. Which I don't. I joyfully accept that I am both lady and servant of my household. Though I can not claim to serve with a joyful heart all the time the chores of day to day life are usually balanced by the blessings of a happy home. There do come times though when it gets hard and overwhelming. Three little boys make lots of messes, and having been babysitting extra little boys only adds to that mess.
 Laundry is by far my most time consuming, labor intensive job. It also is the work that is most likely to turn me into crazy psycho screaming mommy. We bought our laundry set shortly after we made our first big career move. We bought the cheapest set available at best buy. It has served us well, but lately has been acting suspicious. The tub gets off balance often in the washer and although the dryer works- I have been having to run loads two or three times sometimes to get them completely dry. The laundry piles up and takes forever to get finished. the loads are small so I tend to let them pile up waiting on the next one instead of getting them put away.. which ends up leaving me with socks all over the house and re-dirtied clothes.  So last week when the washer died, as in DEAD and I found out it would cost nearly as much to repair it as to replace it with the same model. It was time... time to hire some help.  

Meet the new girls. Bessie, and Bertha.

Bessie uses less water per load than our previous help. She has multiple talents such as the ability to balance herself and sanitize laundry that needs a little more clean than others. Bertha can steam my husbands work shirts wrinkle free and get my towels finished in the time it takes me to feed the boys lunch and put them down for nap. Apparently their union forbids them from going over and above their duties though. They simply refuse to actually fold the laundry they have cleaned. I forgive them that minor weakness though because they kindly sing me a song to let me know their work is finished. No loud baby waking buzzers around here. And although their salary was a bit of a sacrifice, word is they came from a situation that allowed me to hire them at half price. They even have their own management team that will come once a year to make sure they are providing satisfactory work. The girls take up less space, and do more work per load in less time. Bertha is so sweet. She literally lights up inside when I open her up. She is so helpful in the early mornings when I need to find that specific shirt but want to keep the lights off so the babies stay asleep. They even multitask, entertaining the babies while I prepare lunch and they gently swish away the muddied outfits that came in with my children from the backyard.  Ahh. ::Sigh of contentment::  This my friends, is the good life.