Mommy Lessons

There are many new things I learned today.

1- Crayons are to be put away and only pulled out when Autumn is being supervised.

2- Don't cry over a $10 bag.

3- Correct my thinking whenever the thought comes to my mind that, "Autumn always ruins things when I try and do something nice for her." (and sadly, I have said this aloud many times too)

4- Toothpaste doesn't only get crayons off of walls, it also gets it out of fabric.

5- Dawn liquid dish detergent truely is the greatest at getting out grease.

6- Kids will be kids and I can't expect things to stay nice while mine are still young.

With that said, this is what happened.

I have constantly switched out "Sunday Bags" trying to find one that fits all my stuff in it and makes things easy to access. For me, the point in a "Sunday Bag" is to save me time before church. So instead of scrambling to put books, toys, snacks, stickers, and coloring books together in a bag ten minutes before we need to walk out the door I have a designated bag that always keep the same stuff in it. So on Sun. morning all I have to do is put snacks in it, and the kids like what's in the bag because it's not stuff they see everyday, they only get to play with it once a week. So I bought a new one, I usually wouldn't spend $10 a bag thats just going to get crumbs in the bottom of it and sit on the church floor but when I saw it I knew how much Autumn would love it, and I loved the simpleness to it. Many other bags I have rotated through had big lettering or bright colors. Once I saw this bag I realized how distracting those other bags can be. So I got it in the mail yesterday and after Autumns nap I showed it to her and she loved it and threw the straps over her shoulders and carried it around. When she went to bed last night I set it next to our other sunday bag to switch everything over. (This bag is similar in texture and size to a reusable grocery bag, which I am sure is what others would use it for. This bag is made with organic cotton and recycled stuff which helped convince my purchase.)

This morning I am playing with Weston in the den (because since getting back from vacation he wants to be in my lap at all time...he really missed me) and I left Autumn in the living room watching PBS cartoons. She is usually safe to leave alone in a room and I thought how nice it was that she was being so quiet and not demanding my attention like Weston was. That should have been a BIG red flag. I come out to the kitchen and she is saying over and over again, "Thank you mom. Thank you mom." And I see the bag and a lonely blue crayon sitting on it. Surprisingly I didn't get mad at her. I instantly took a pic on my phone and sent it in a text to a couple of trusted, experienced mommy friends asking how to get crayon out of cloth. It wasn't until I called my mom asking for her suggestions that I cried about it. It was brand new! It hadn't even been in my possession for 24 hours and said, "Whenever I do something nice for Autumn she ruins it."

All of the advice was good, but I decided to follow my moms advice and some advice off an email my friend sent me. I figured using 2 known solutions could be better than one. And viola! It worked and my bag looks brand new again.

Here is the bag:

Here is Autumn's wonderful artwork:

Here is toothpaste that was rubbed in (paste not gel- and white paste) and sat for 20 minutes. Then dish detergent was rubbed in w/a hot wet sponge and sat for 10 minutes:

Here it is after rinsing out the toothpaste and detergent:

You may still see a little blue tint, this pic was taken after the first rinse when I was shocked how it all came out. I scrubbed it under hot water for another minute and now it looks like it did when I got it yesterday.