Laundry never takes a vacation

After 4 years of constant rushing to raise the children, cook the meals, do the laundry, clean the house, do the work, and all the other things that have to be done in a normal day, our family finally took a vacation.  We went to the beautiful Outer Banks, a very popular destination in the suburban Washington crowd, and rented a house with some friends.  All went wonderfully until the third day, when I realized something that had never been quite so clear to me before:

Laundry never takes a vacation.

So there I was, surrounded by sun and surf and sand ... and wet swimsuits, sandy shoes, and towels that I thought would never be clean again.  There was so much wet and sandy gear, I ended up doing laundry nearly every day.  And of course we had to eat every day, so that meant cooking and cleaning up too.  And then we didn't want to live in filth, so we picked up after ourselves as well. 

Hmmm.  These are all the things I do on a daily basis at home.

And then work called.  A new project, with interesting work.  Sure, I'll take it, I said.  But there was just one catch -- a substantial part of the work had to be done in the next week or two. 

So there I was.  Raising the children, cooking the meals (okay, my husband did most of this), doing the laundry, cleaning the house, and doing the work. 

Some vacation.

This is an original DC Metro Moms Blog post.  Susan also blogs at Toddler Planet, Review Planet, and Mothers With Cancer, when she's not doing work or laundry.