The five year cycle

I've had to replace face washers, bath mats and towels recently. And the sheets for our bed are almost see-through in spots so they'll be next on the agenda. It can't possibly be five years since all the linen was replaced but if we've been married almost 20 years then the fourth round of the five year cycle is almost over so they are due.

The five year cycle was described to me by my sister-in-law just after we were married. She told me that every five years tea towels, bed linen, face washers, towels etc would need to be replaced because they just wear out. I scoffed at the time but five years later as I was cutting bath towels into hand towels I remembered what she had said. It’s true, I can't get any linen or manchester to last more than five years before it needs to be recycled into something else.

This week 15 face washers have been turned into dusters and laundry rags and 15 nice new face washers have replaced them in the bathrooms. This means of course that for the last four nights crochet has been the TV watching task of choice. A crocheted edge around the face washers looks pretty. It also extends the life of the flannel by preventing the edges from fraying and getting scraggy. A ball of crochet cotton costs around $3.50 and I can usually stretch it out to 6 or 7 flannels if I don't get too fancy and do lacy edges. I buy packs of 10 face washers for $5 on sale so they end up costing about 85 cents each and take about an hour each to do. They make good gifts for fetes and stalls too if you need an easy idea. And we have started our fifth five year cycle! Where does time go?

Wayne cooked the leg of lamb on the bbq tonight and it was superb. He's getting quite adventurous with his cooking. With this leg he cut slits into it and then pushed in slivers of garlic, rubbed it over with olive oil and lemon juice and then rubbed in rosemary. Then he basted it with lemon juice while it was cooking. The backyard smelled incredible while it was cooking and it tasted even better with the vegetables. It was a huge joint, over 2 kilos, so there is plenty left for lunches. The boys are off to a train exhibition at Sandown racecourse tomorrow and they requested lamb sandwiches for lunch so I've just put a loaf of bread in the bread maker for them. Fresh bread and cold roast lamb - costs almost nothing, compared to $8 for a hamburger from the kiosk. I kid you not, a hamburger is really $8 at this exhibition! Thankfully my Cheapskate family are more than happy to pack an esky with sandwiches, fruit and drinks from home and keep their hard earned money for more worthwhile purchases.