Gratitude for the Machine

I don't mean to be flip in my post today, but to be honest, I would be ungrateful if I didn't mention the modern marvel of the washing machine in my month of gratitude.  Have you ever lived without one?  Or a trip to the laundromat?  I have, so I speak from experience when I say I'm grateful for it.

While living in Uruguay, I spent time with the benefits of a washing machine for a few months, but the majority of my time I spent standing over a cement 'pileta' scrubbing my clothing clean in cold water.  I remember the first time time I needed to wash my "delicates".  I wasn't sure what to do.  I'd never had to wash my entire wardrobe by hand.  Oh, of course I had done the odd sweater here and there, but that wasn't quite the same thing.

My washing machine went out just before I had Nigel.  I was so nervous at the thought of running to the laundromat daily, or hand washing all of my families clothes.  I had done that once before, just for myself, and wasn't about to try it times 4.  I was glad when we found a second hand one to get us by until we could get a new one.

I'm doing laundry as I type this.  Now, my ancestors certainly didn't have this luxury.  I'm glad that I can do other things while my clothes was, glad that it doesn't take all day to scrub and hang to dry the contents of my closet.  Lovely, lovely machine.  Certainly something I'm grateful for today!

What modern marvels are you grateful for?


*Thanks Google for the picture*