still pinning

Sometimes hanging up the laundry to dry feels like one more chore to add to my busy day. I wonder why I can't bring myself to use the dryer sitting in my back entry like "normal" people. My fingers freeze as October takes hold. I know that inside chaos reigns, schoolwork forgotten the moment that storm door clicked shut. There's rain in the forecast, so I also know this particular load will probably receive a second rinse before I can make it out to the line again. If a certain little boy would finish potty training most of this load wouldn't have needed washing...and on and on I could go.

 Other days I feel deeply appreciative that my father sunk posts for my "new" laundry lines on one of his very first visits to this house. It is a birthday gift that I have used week in and week out in the past year. I have doubtless saved hundreds on my utility bills. It feels good to be outside, all alone with my thoughts for just a few minutes. Schoolchildren need regular breaks; it helps their little brains coalesce information. The leaves are at peak and I would never have noticed the neighbors tree were I not pinning socks just now.  We are blessed with enough clothing that I could go days between loads and still potty train a two year old. There is no smell in the world like clothes fresh off the line and no sound like the snap of a towel in the brisk fall breeze.  I daydream about countless mothers before me doing this very task.  I hang contentedly.