Busy, busy, busy

It was a dull rainy day. 

Mary was not impressed, she had so many plans for building tree houses and dens but couldn’t put up the basics if everything was damp.  

Right it was a day in the house, today Mary would follow mum or at least try to help mum. 

Mum was always busy.  

Mum had no time for sitting around wasting time, always busy, busy busy there was always a chore to be done, or was that granny?  Mary couldn’t remember but at least she would not be bored.

First challenge was to find all the laundry.  

That was all the trousers thrown on the floor, and t-shirts, oh and don’t forget all the socks, even the sneaky ones hidden under the bed.

Once all items had been retrieved they were placed into the laundry basket for sorting. 

Mary helped mum, or at least tried to, mum was very quick at this, she was a professional after all,  Mary thought she had helped sort a good few into their correct piles.

Now to put them into the washing machine, first for the powder that made all the stains disappear and the lovely liquid that made everything smell good.  

Mum helped Mary with the box of laundry powder, it was big and heavy but Mary managed to fill the scoop and pop it into the drawer in the machine, now to measure the lovely liquid, Mary always thought it was like a shower for the clothes, they go in messy and come out dirt free, just like new. 

Now Mary took note of all the different wash temperatures and wash length, it was a lot of different instructions.  Mary did not know what to choose but Mum had it covered. 

Sssshhhhh mmmmmm the washing machine got started and started to spin, Mary liked to watch for a bit but then got dizzy, it was time for the next chore anyway.

Hovering, lets suck up all of the dirt.  Mum got the hover out of the cupboard and Mary un-wrapped the cable so the plug could reach the socket.  Whirrrrrrr, the hover sucked up all the fluff and hair the carpets looked like new, Mary helped steer and mum directed the machine.  

The house was done in no time, Mary liked the stairs best, back and forth then step up and back and forth again till you were at the top.  The bedrooms were no bother now that all the laundry was out of the way.  

Soon enough all the rooms in the house were dust free, time to put hover back in the cupboard and move on to the next chore.

Dishes, Mum washed and Mary died, they had a wee rhythm going on in time to the radio, those were done in no time too.

Now to just hang up the washing and all the chores would be complete!  I think lunch would be a very good idea after all of this hard work,  as if it was planned, Mary’s tummy rumbled. 

“Yes I think that would be a very good idea,” laughed Mary.

©joannehepburn 30.07.2017

Laundry day

Mum was rushing round like a fly trying to get out of a closed window.

Picking up socks here and grabbing tops there.

“Mary could you help please? Could you please pick up all the dirty items you have in your room and put them into the wash basket for me please.”  Asked mum as she darted from room to room.

Mary did as she was told it was quite a fun game as she practiced how accurate her throwing skills were, sock in the corner, straight shot to the laundry basket, yes Mary jumped to celebrate her victory.

 Now to get her t-shirt from the corner of the bed, it was a bigger object less compact could it make it?  Mary threw it with a bit of a twist it made it only the sleve was hanging onto the side of the basket but it was there.

 Next mission, the pajama bottoms, these were heavier and refused to say folded for simplicity, Mary moved closed and raised both hands from behind her head to hopefully give more power, an she let go!  Well one leg made it the other collapsed over the basket but they were mostly there.

Mary picked up everything that had not made it or only half made it to the laundry basket.  

Job done, Mary went downstairs to ask mum if any other help was needed.

“That would be great Mary, could you help me separate the washing please? Could you put all the dark colours into one pile, all the colours into another and all of the darks and dads into a third pile for me please?”

Of course,” replied Mary with gusto, Mary liked this game too getting to play with colours

“All done!” yelled Mary.

“Excellent, can you pop all of the white laundry into the machine for me please?”

Mary nodded and picked up the whites a few at a time and loaded them into the drum.

“Perfect now this bit is a bit fiddly could you measure out the laundry powder and empty it into the drawer at the top of the machine? Mum helped with this one because the laundry powder tub was too big and heavy for Mary to hold and measure at the same time but they got there.

Now for the fabric softener, this was a liquid, lots of mess could be made but they were trying to tidy up everything not make more! 

Mary very carefully opened the bottle, holding it with mums help emptied some out into the lid to the level needed and popped that into a segment of the washing machine drawer too.

Now to make sure the drawer and the glass door  were both closed properly, select the magic swich and press on, slosh mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhh slosh mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The machine whirred into action washing all of the clothes.

Now all they had to do was wait till the whites were sparkling again.  

PING the washing machine had finished its job.

 Mum and Mary took all the clean clothes out of the washing machine into a basket to be hung up. 

Mary picked up a top and 2 pegs then mum picked up Mary so she could reach the washing line, this was a fun game too. 

Mary liked laundry days 

©joannehepburn 23.07.2017

Lost spade

It was a beautiful day.  

The sun was shining, there wasn’t even a cloud in the sky!

“Today is too lovely to waste, how does everyone like the sound of a day at the beach?” asked mum.

“YEY, I do,” replied everyone. 

So mum sorted out some snacks, juice and rain jackets just to be safe.  Everyone slathered on sunscreen and they were off for a day of beach fun.

It was a short walk, dad found the perfect place to view the entire beach and scope any interesting paths to wander. 

Mum arranged the towels and put up some umbrellas to cover anyone that needed some time out of the sun.

Now they had a base, each went their separate ways on their own adventures.

Mum sat and read her book while checking every now and again to make sure no-one was hurt or wandering too far away.

Dad was way off along the beach happily wandering and taking in all the other possible paths and kicking himself for not taking the fishing rods, today would’ve been perfect to try and catch a few wee fish to show Joe and Mary.

Joe and Mary were very busy, Joe digging with his green spade while Mary helped to build the castle Joe was digging the moat for.   

Once Mary thought she had helped enough and built a tall enough castle for Joe, she went off to search for different shells.  Picking up each one that caught her eye and checking to see if it had a beasty living in it, if there was, Mary always put it back.  Or if it was empty it could be taken home to go into the next art project.

Ages went by Dad returned from his wander looking for some juice.  Mary and Joe spotted him coming back and ran towards mum to beat him, they realized how hungry they all were. 

“Aww that was sneaky spotting me, I was going to eat all of your sandwiches’.” Joked dad.

“Nope we saw you,” giggled Joe and Mary.

Everyone found a place to suit, ate, drank and relaxed for a bit.  This whole beach adventure was hard work.

The weather started to turn and the tide was coming in.

“Think we better head home.” Advised dad.

“Good idea” replied mum as she quickly gather up all of the towels, bags, shoes and umbrellas’.

They left in such a hurry they forgot the spade and didn’t take any photos of the brilliant castle with the moat Joe dug.

It wasn’t until Dad went for a walk after dinner that he saw something odd poking out of the sand. 

Well it couldn’t be, but he walked closer, and it was.  It was Joe’s green spade, that had been left in the moat and buried by the castle to keep it safe.  

Dad took a photo with his phone then picked up the spade and took it home with the perfect bed time story .

©joannehepburn 16.07.2017