A New Washing Machine...

I often wonder how far back in time I could go and still live comfortably. I like to imagine that I could easily live in the 1800's. Something about that hard, simple life seems romantic. Then again, maybe not.

As I mentioned in the last post, there are seven of us. Hubby, myself, four children, and Grandma. My washing machine has been heading out the door for quite some time now. At least four months. It would dance across the floor with each spin cycle, and sounded as though it were bringing down the house. My dear husband wanted to fix it, and tore it apart one day to determine what the problem might be. Springs, base pads, motor??? It seemed to quiet down a bit after that. Grandma mentioned that perhaps it had fixed itself, and Hubby decided that he had scared it into submission. We decided that since we did not know the exact problem, we would run it until it died. I feared replacing parts only to have it quit anyway. About two weeks ago, it got eerily quiet during the spin cycle.

On Valentine's Day as I went to retrieve the clothes from the washer to put them in the dryer, I encountered a soggy mess. The clothes had washed, but had not spun at all. I tried to turn the knob to the spin cycle, and was greeted by a burning smell. Happy Valentine's Day to me. We wrung the clothes out by hand, placed them in the dryer, and waited two and one half hours for them to be dry.

In God's providence, I filed our federal income tax return the previous week. Our refund came two days after Valentine's Day. The LORD is good! Grandma, the two girls, and I headed to the store. The model that I wanted wasn't available that day, but would be in two days later.

The mountain of laundry grew over the weekend, and the washer was delivered this afternoon. The mountain is now slowly shrinking. We bought a Bosch front loading HE machine. No more dancing across the floor with the spin cycles. In fact, you can hardly hear it running. It takes less water, less electric, and has a nifty glass front door so you can *watch* the clothes get clean. We all sat in the laundry room this afternoon and watched the clothes tumble around and around.

So, 1800's or 2007? At least as far as the laundry goes, I like where I'm at.