Ryan And The Laundry

Since going back to work three years ago, Ryan has been really great about helping out around the house more. I had no idea how hard working full-time and keeping up with our house was going to be. It would be easy to keep up with it if the boys weren't so involved in all of their activities, but most nights we aren't home until 8:30 or 9:00. It makes for long days and a messy house!

There have been many household chores that Ryan has learned to do to help me out but one thing I have not let him touch is the laundry. I LOVE laundry! It's soothing to my soul. I have spent hours reading about how to improve your laundry, which detergent is best, how to get stains, grease, and grime out of clothes. I have watched my Mom (who is a perfectionist at laundry) with her laundry and have learned all sorts of tricks. It bothers me when someone else steps in and does the laundry (except for my Mom) because I have a very specific routine and step-by-step plan that I follow. For whatever reasons, Ryan has wanted to do the laundry and I have managed to keep him at arm's length from it....until last week.

Ryan took a couple of days of vacation to work on some projects and to get the house prepped for Fall/Winter. He called me at work one afternoon and said, "I started the laundry". Of course I wanted to know if there was any method to his madness and he did pretty good except for the whites. I decided I better show him how I do it so if he does decide to do it, he knows how to do it right. After showing him a few tricks and how I sort it, his response to me was, "Can you just make a cheat sheet and hang it in the laundry room?".

So on Saturday as we're running some errands around town, I was telling Ryan how much Taylor's football bag bothers me. I was saying how it smells from carrying around his sweaty stuff after the game and that it was full of turf in the bottom from his shoes and socks. I said to Ryan, "Do you think I could wash his bag?". Ryan looked at me and said, "Are you passing the torch on?". I said, "What?". He said, "Is the student now becoming the teacher?". As soon as he said that, I knew what he was getting at and I died laughing. It was so funny! Here I've been instructing him on the proper way to do the laundry and I ask him if I can wash Taylor's bag. Maybe it was one of those moments where you had to be there, but Ryan and I laughed.

I really do appreciate all the Ryan does around the house to help me and especially the way he helps to get Colby and Taylor to where they need to be. I could never get them to where they need to be by myself. The thing that gets me the most about Ryan is, he's a really great Dad. Where his boys are, so is he. He spends hours at practices, games, school events, and church events to be involved with his boys. If messing up the laundry is my biggest worry with him, then I am one lucky girl!