Hello, sunshine!!

It's sunny outside!! It's sunny outside! It might not last all day, but for the moment, it's sunny outside! I'm so happy to see the sun and the ever so slight rise in temperature that comes on a Winters day.

Don't get me wrong, I love the rain. I love the greenness it brings to anything. But it has been raining for seemingly 3 weeks on end, with only one break in between. The ground is so soggy it goes "squelch, squelch, squelch" when you walk on it, and you sink into the ground and your feet are surrounded by water. The kids can't play in the clumpy, wet sand, and the play equipment is just sodden.

My outside, undercover, washing line hasn't even been of help, with the air simply being too damp to actually dry anything. My plan of not using the dryer this winter failed miserably, despite my undercover line, and the inside of the house looking like a Chinese laundry.

Our new washing machine arrived yesterday, and playing the optimist, I put a load on last night before bed in the hope we might just get enough sun to line dry some washing. And we seem to have today!

My new routine before bed will now include - checking on the children and re-tucking them in, putting on a load of washing and saying goodnight to the washing machine, and turning on the dishwasher.

I think it will take me a little while to get used to the front loader and the cycle times, which is what everyone says. It's just a matter of being organised and putting on a load before bed and making use of the timer (and off peak - cheaper - electricity). It does have a quick wash option, for a 30 minute cycle, but only for a relatively small load. It certainly spins things drier than my old washing machine though, so I'm guessing that will reducing the drying time a little too.

The other week I had stocked up on washing powder, and Coles were kind enough to exchange my top-loader powder for the front-loader type. Thank goodness! I use Duo washing powder, as it was rated highly in Choice magazine, so I'm led to believe by some of the members at Simple Savings. I never pay more than $2 per 500g (with the new packets).

Image: Flickr