Wednesday, January 29, 2014

mystery orange crayon

You know it.  Yup, YOU mama.  That moment when you pull all of your nicely laundered sweet smelling clothing from your dryer and you realize


ORANGE CRAYON!!!!  Melted.  All over your clothes.  And oddly enough, that mystery orange crayon came from a load of mostly adult clothing and while you are crying on the inside, you are wondering, "How in the world did that get in our clothes?"

Frustration.  Because it'd been one of those weeks.  One of those weeks.  A puking kid, a semi-broken dryer (that has to be replaced...urg), an exploded pipe in your basement that flooded the walls and ceiling and floor, dealing with home owner's insurance, another puking kid, the coldest temps in years.  Come on!  Can we catch a break?

Yet, on the same hand, I am grateful.  We have insurance, we are warm, dry, and well fed.  We have a home (one of my best friend's home burned on Christmas Eve) and we have a vehicle (another friend had her's stolen this past week out of the drive).  And God gave me extra grace and extra energy, and an EXTRA, EXTRA amazing husband.  He helped clean puke covered floors, picked up pizza when I couldn't make dinner, helped around the house, and loved (loves) on all of us.

My brain kept singing this song (and yes, I know this is about an orange crayon...I'll get there):  Matt Maher's "Lord I Need You".  While I rocked in a chair with a baby girl several nights in a row for long periods of time, while I "slept" on the floor next to another little girl while she puked every 15 minutes, God gave me these words through this song.  "Oh I need you, Lord I need you.  Every hour I need you.  My one defense, my righteousness.  Oh God, how I need you." 

Oh, I need Him.  To fill up the darkness in me.  To overflow the top of my cup and fill in all the cracks.  I need Him to infuse me with Him, so at some point there will be no telling where I end and He begins.  And in that night, when the hours seem long but the "babies" need Mama,  I need Him.  And the best thing? 

He never fails to show up.  Never. 

Because when I need Him, and even when I don't think I do, He's there.  Ahhh.Maze.Ing.

====================
(So because there's no sweet transition that I can think of, that's my transition...a line of equal signs.) 

So things got better.  Kiddos healed, restoration company is helping us with drying out the basement, dryer is functional, it's still cold (but hey, I can't get everything).  So now I get to move on to more trivial things.  Like trying to figure out how to remove orange crayon from an entire load of our clothes.
And I happened upon a little site after a "Google" search that promised the miracle working of a little bottle of cleaner found at the Dollar Tree.  L.A.'s Awesome Laundry wash.   As you can imagine, I was skeptical.  Until I read the mass amount of comments that all praised the stuff and the simple method of a bottle of cleaner that cost a dollar.
 

What did I have to lose?  I grabbed a bottle, followed the recommendations on the site and laundered.  IT WORKED!  How?  No idea.  But it worked.  I sprayed a bit all on as a pre-wash to the crayon-ey spots, worked it in with a little scrubbing and a toothbrush, sprayed it with Spray & Wash and then threw it in the washer.  I then emptied half the bottle into the wash, put detergent in and washed it on the hottest setting possible.

56 minutes later I gingerly pulled each item out and they were clean!  2 of the items required a bit more scrubbing and another wash, but it worked.  Apparently you can use the general cleaner too, but I chose this one.  I had to share.  I know that I'm not the only one who gets crayons in their dryer (albeit, a wonky dryer).  Best wishes and best washing now that you don't have to cry when you pull out a load with crayon.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

18 things for 18 months

A full year and a half have passed since your beautiful smile giving, joy bringing self entered this crazy, chaos of a Smith family. 18 months with you has flown by, and we don't want to forget all the little things we love about you right now. At this very minute.

I'm a little bummed because we have some super super shots of you at this age, but they are on Mama's good camera and we can't get the cord because the basement is flooded - that's another story. You're so cute though that the phone camera loves you too. 

1.  You love your "nacks". You are an expert pantry opener, and not many lids can fool you!

2.  You had tubes put in your ears at 16.5 months. You had bi-lateral conductive hearing loss from all of the fluid in your ears and infections. Your speech has taken off since then!  Everyday brings a new word, a new discovery, a new sound. It is SO EXCITING! 

3. You love food. And if someone has something you want, a little birdie appears. 

4. My favorite words, "Mama up. Rock. Book."

5. You adore your sister and brother. When we drop Anna of at school you say , " Nana? Nana?"

6.  You unfortunately are in an "I don't like my car seat" phase. You love books and love to read in the car, but when you tire of them, you scream. A high pitched ear splitting headache inducing scream.   

7. You are an expert cuddle giver and saying good-byer!
 
8. You love your bug-bug. (Your butterfly buggie lovey). 

9. You are very polite and say please. 

10. You are a music lover. When Daddy or Hudson play piano, you run to join in. When mommy and Anna sing, you clap your hands and dance. 

11.  The bathtub is one of your favorite activities and you've begin sticking your face and ears in the water. 

12. You love to color and play with play dough. 

13.  When you really want my attention you say "Mama Mommy! Mama mommy!"

14.  You love playing and we can see the beginnings of an amazing imagination!

15.  You also love playing soccer and rolling balls. As well as you have a fascination with fire trucks!

16.  Your favorite animal sounds to make are a bear, lion, monkey and elephant. (Pretty exotic! Maybe you'll be a travel bug!)

17.  You giggle at yourself and it makes us giggle too.

18.  You may possibly be the world's largest cuddle bug.

We love you Hadleigh bug!!!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Lost it!

Persitence. Keep at it. Never lose focus. Unless you are losing teeth. Then you can lose it.  And she did! Anna's second tooth finally came out and she is so excited for the tooth fairy to visit. She had to wait 6 long months between the first and second tooth - that's a veritable eternity to a kindergartner!!!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Share the love

We have a tradition. We spread the love of Christmas far into the deep dark winters of the North. I'm pretty sure it started after we moved here, becomes in AZ it was bright and light and warm and we didn't (I didn't) feel like I needed some extra lights to make it bearable. 
Thus the love tree was born. The Christmas decor is mostly down, minus a few snowmen here and there, because we will get snow through April. But this little beauty brings some light warmth when it seems like the sun goes to bed so early!
The love note mailboxes have been hung with care and St. Anna has been filling them with care.  

There's just something so right about seemlessly moving from the season of light and the greatest gift of love to the season of commercialized love. (Hear my sarcasm?)  The chintzy foil hearts and rows of sappy cards. Whatever, I will take advantage of it and make it into something for our kids to look forward to.   Because sharing love is a year round act of love, but it's ok to have a little fun with it and brighten a dreary winter month with some kitsch.