Originally published August 2015

Since we have so many people in my family (16) and 12 at home currently, well we have a lot of laundry! And of course I know that, and I always have, but this past week my family has been gone camping in Oregon. They were gone for six days but Judah and I had to stay home because we’re both taking classes this summer and were unable to miss an entire week of school, especially since it’s so close to the end of the quarter. I did miss finals week last quarter, but that was different because it was a regular quarter- Summer quarter is the same amount of material, just in way less time- eight weeks instead of twelve. Yup so it’s busy!

So anyways while the rest of the family was gone mom asked me to catch up on the laundry. So of course, I did. But wow! Running a house for a week made me realize… it’s hard work! And I really don’t appreciate my mom enough. I spent days doing the laundry(of course I was at school/babysitting/etc. but I did several loads a day until I caught up) until it was all clean (a rare event in our household! Because you’re always wearing clothes… and making more dirty laundry!) and then sat down and folded it all at once. In 45 minutes. Wow. It took a long time! Sometimes we’ll joke…. the laundry fairy came! Or actually more often it’s ‘the laundry fairy *didn’t* come’. And this past week…

I’ve realized that my mom is the laundry fairy.

Really, it’s been tedious just catching up on a normal amount of laundry from 12 people… but she is constantly doing laundry, all the time, laundry that keeps piling up day after day from 12 people… so yes, my mom is the laundry fairy!

As well as… the meal fairy. Making meals is work. I like it… but it’s work, too! And requires planning, etc.

And… the dishes fairy. Now, us kids do the dishes in the evenings (at least we’re supposed to). I don’t know if the kids do breakfast and lunch dishes or if mom does, but either way she does do dishes at some point throughout the day. And not just after meals but there’s also washing dishes from making dinner, or cleaning up the kitchen before cooking so that she has room to make a meal.

And how could we forget the boss fairy… because honestly there’s a bit of work to be done around here each day. Laundry, dishes, meals, and keeping the house clean in general. Who does all that work? Well mom does a lot of it. And us kids have chores, of course. But who gives us our chores and tells us to do them when we forget (or ‘forget’)? Mom. So she’s pretty much the laundry fairy, the meal fairy, the dishes fairy, and the fairy of everything in general. Wow!

Before this week, I didn’t really appreciate mom and all the work she does enough. So mom, thank you! Thank you for all you do, even when people (like me!) don’t really notice or appreciate it like they should. You really are the laundry, meal, and dish fairy, and a mom fairy too!