A Little Orange Crayon Goes a Long Way

We are back in the U.S. visiting family!  Pictures and related updates to come!  I had to share a laundry episode now.

Once a year I buy a bunch of shirts (and a few pairs of shorts and pants) at a Good Will near my parents-in-law and at a consignment shop near my parents to make it through the next year.  Drying clothes in the tropical sun toasts them and stretches them, and by May I have a limited amounts of shirts that fit and still look acceptable.  I stock up every summer.  The other day I bought my load of clothes for the upcoming year and put them in the washer to pre-wash them.

As I was unaware of my son's new philosophy that one should always have a bit of something to write with in one's pocket in case one has an important insight, I threw his sweatshirt in with my new clothes and created a disaster.  Crayons and dryers can create a mess some of you may be able to relate with.

Every item I had just purchased and put in that load was covered with orange crayon.

I am not proud of my initial response.  Not my best moment.

Looking online, I found a post that gave me hope that all was maybe not lost.  This mom recommended mixing laundry detergent, dish soap, and vinegar and washing in hot water.  The only problem is, only some of her comments said that people had been successful with that method.  I had a feeling rubbing the dish soap in in advance could help, and what I found was that Dawn completely took the stains out by itself!  It took some elbow grease, but I had everything looking almost perfect before I even threw it in the laundry, and then it came out great after it went through the laundry.

Just a great trick to know for next time a crayon works its way into the wash!

Happy Summer!

A fitting end to a great day--we had the first real free day today since school ended (yesterday doesn't count because Abigail was sick and I had to finish handwriting my grades into the Dominican Department of Education approved gradebook).  We had "Mommy Camp" today--some soccer this morning with some friends (because our school's soccer camp was cancelled due to lack of interest), clean the garage (service project), game, cookies, etc.  We moved the craft to tomorrow morning.  It's fun; the kids actually think of Mommy Camp as a real part of the summer.  I keep waiting for them to say, "Mommy camp is stupid," but every year they get excited.  We don't do it all summer, just designated days.