hanging wash.

many people know and love my husband's mother, whom i affectionately refer to as mumpeg.

she is probably known best for giving accidentally hilarious gifts.  such as gardening gnome t-shirts at christmas in which the gnome, much to mumpeg's horror and billy's glee, was secretly giving the finger.  and hand lotion in easter baskets one year that turned out to actually not be hand lotion at all but rather, "personal" lubricant.  i believe a horrified pre-pubescent john mousseau was the one who made this discovery.

mumpeg is many things, including one of the truly sweetest and most kind hearted people i have ever met.  most of you know this.  but most of you probably don't know that mumpeg is also an excellent laundress. 

growing up in a large family, mumpeg's childhood "job" (she tells me) was always the laundry, or as she calls it, the wash.  it was a job that she took pride in as a little girl, and that pride and diligence has stuck with her for all of these years.  skippop, billy's dad, is a shining example of her laundering abilities, as i am certain he has been covering the same handful of old t-shirts in motor oil on an almost daily basis for the last 30 years, and they are shockingly not much worse for the wear.

when billy and i were living at macleod's, i got to witness mumpeg's laundry dedication often.  she is known for letting clothes "soak" for days.  but she is also known for hanging wash outside whenever she gets the opportunity.  she once told me that hanging wash was her "therapy".   you will find a full clothesline in her backyard on a frigid but sunny afternoon in the middle of december, or a warm summer morning.  i have often seen her running out for her wash in the middle of surprise rain showers, and she has gotten into full on fist fights with tucker over pairs of boxer shorts.  (tucker loves to un-hang wash just about as much as mumpeg loves to hang it.)

i was certain that mumpeg's pride in hanging wash came mostly from being extremely earth friendly.  (she WILL go through your trash to make sure you didn't miss anything recyclable.)  hanging your laundry outside to dry obviously saves on the electric bill, and keeps your dryer from heating up your house in the summer.  so, i have always admired her for being so "green".  i have also always admired the old fashioned feel-goods that seem to come with hanging wash.  mumpeg still refuses to hang wash on sundays (a big no-no to our amish neighbors especially), and she practically gets stars in her eyes when she talks about the way clothes smells when they come in fresh off the line.  everyone knows that i'm a sucker for anything old fashioned, so for that reason, and in order to carry on mumpeg's tradition, i have always wanted to hang wash too.

the trouble with hanging wash is that it takes some time.  it's much quicker to toss everything into the dryer.  you can do it with your eyes closed and a baby on your hip.  i often wondered, almost critically, why mumpeg insisted on spending entire afternoons hanging wash on the line when her kitchen was full of unpacked suitcases and her dining room table stacked with unfinished paperwork.  it seemed almost irresponsible.  for that reason, it took me a long time to get around to hanging wash at our house.  it took me until today, in fact.  the house was somewhat in order, finn had gone down for a late nap, and the sunny afternoon was practically begging for billy's undershirts.  i figured it was as good a time as any.

i started hanging, and my oh my.  all of these years i thought mumpeg was hanging wash to save energy, and i finally realized that it is so much more than that.  hanging your clothes on the line forces you to stop.  it forces you to quit rushing from task to task, from all of those busy little odds and ends that fill up your day so quickly.  i so often hurry from chore to chore, scratching off lines on my to-do list, until the next thing i know the sun has set, and another day is lost.  this afternoon, while pulling billy's sweet smelling white v-necks from my laundry basket and clipping them to the line, i had a few minutes to slow down.  i had some time to pray.  i had time to appreciate so much that i forget to appreciate.  and i thought a lot about mumpeg, who lost her brother yesterday morning and is traveling to new york for his viewing today.  hanging the wash today made me appreciate and respect her in a whole new way.  she raised five children and managed an enormous household, yet she always always took the time to hang her wash.  i want to be that kind of mother.  i want to be that kind of woman. 

one day a few weeks ago, billy told me that one of his favorite feelings is when he opens up his top dresser drawer and sees a fresh stack of clean white v necks.  he appreciates funny little things like that, and that's one of the things i love most about him. 
he gets it from his mom.