Out damn'd spot! Out I say!

No..not bloodstains.  Chocolate stains.

We seem to have a problem with chocolate stains.   It's the one stain I can never get out.

Many a children's clothes have been tossed due to ever persistent chocolate stains that refuse to leave.

This past week, I've been on a quest to remove the chocolate stains from a certain toddler's clothing.  Why?  I don't know. I've just had the urge to de-stain her clothing for some reason. 

I've soaked them in oxy-clean.  I've used dish detergent and milk and carpet cleaner... but still those spots persisted.  Those stubborn, set-in, gone through the dryer several times, spots remained.   

Finally I found something that worked.

Is it bad for our clothes.....no doubt.  Will it poison our skin.  Probably.  But hey..the damn'd spots are out.   And of course, don't use this yourself unless you test it on small, inconspicuous portion of clothing first.  I'm not responsible if you ruin your clothes.  But since our clothes were headed for the trash bin anyway, I wasn't worried about it. 

And since this post is about laundry, which is about clothes, it's the perfect segue to lead into what I wore Sunday. 

Which is this.

Apparently you are supposed to wear Red on Palm Sunday.  I never knew that, but all the other bloggers are doing it, so it must be true.

Pink is close enough, right?

So, not my best outfit.  I have a love-hate relationship with that skirt.  I love how comfortable it is, but I hate the way it looks on me....but I love how comfortable it is, but I hate the way it looks. And sadly, I can't really see how it looks until I take a picture, because I do not own a full-length mirror.   So, I think I may be donating that skirt.  I'm just not a fan of the way flared skirts look on me. 

Anyway...I won't tell you where I got everything, because I doubt you'd want to re-create this outfit, and even if you wanted to, you couldn't.  Because I don't even know where I got everything. So there. 

No go see FLAP for more WIWS. 

5 Things Plus 2 Time Hacks = 7QTF

Hooray for another Friday..which means it's time for another 7QTF.  So, here you have 5 Things + 2 Time Hacks for 7QTF.

 1.

I'm finally a REAL blogger.  I had my first big discussion/disagreement/argument on the debt post I wrote earlier this week.  I feel like, I've finally been initiated into the the real blogging world!.  The whole discussion thing was on Facebook though..so sorry..you can't go back in this blog and read it.  

2.

Speaking of that, I just wanted to say, that I really DO NOT mind if people disagree with me.  I mean, there is no fun if everyone agrees.   But, I do ask that commentary be respectful and not make assumptions about people or put them into boxes.  I think there is real tendency (and I'm guilty of it too) of thinking that all people who do X think/act/believe a certain way.  Our human tendency is that we want to categorize people or put them into boxes, so as soon as someone says they do X, we automatically in our mind group them into the same category as everyone else who know who does X...when really all the people who do X can be quite different and have different motivations and reasons.

On that same note, if we read someone's blog or know them on Facebook, we think we KNOW them...when we really don't.   Bloggers just put a tiny slice of their life on the internet..just a tiny, tiny slice and it's the slice they CHOOSE to make public.  We can't really assume that we know everything about them or that we fully understand where they are coming from, their unique situation or anything else about them.

3.

So, I keep seeing all these activities and classes and things posted for teens.  And, I skip right over them, because I don't have a teen, my oldest is only 11, right?   And, I go back and actually read them and see that they are for 6th grade and up.  Since when was a 6th grader (typically 11 or 12) considered a teen?  Me thinks I'm just in denial.  Although, according to Simcha, teenagers aren't all that bad.  And, while I don't have an actual teenager yet, pre-teens aren't all that bad either.

 

4.
. 

I hate these and don't really know how they got into our house, but somehow they did..and I hate them.

I mean, it's hard enough teaching a toddler not to put non-food items into their mouth and now they have to go and make non-food items smell like food. Like most kids don't love markers anyway, now they have to go and make them smell good?

5.

So....I hate to point this out...but you see that little link on the side of the page that says "Shop on Amazon."  Well...if you use that link to get to Amazon, I get a few pennies off what you buy (at no extra cost to you).   Lots of bloggers have Amazon affiliate links, so if you're shopping on Amazon anyway, help a blogger out and click their link before you shop.

Time Hacks 

Now, I promised you two time hacks...so here they are. Two ways I've recently discovered to save time.  And, if the rest of you all have been doing this for ages....well humor me and tell me I'm a genius anyway.

6.

 Hair Drying

I dry my hair while checking email/reading blogs/reading a book/paying bills and blogging. I used to hate drying my hair with a hair dryer, because it took SO LONG and was just SO BORING to stand in front of the mirror and dry my hair. But, now we live in Virginia and in the interest of saving money, we keep our house at an insanely low temperature, which means wet hair is not the best.  So, I started taking my hair dryer into the living room, plugging it in by my computer, and drying my hair while catching up on my blog reading. 

7.

Socks

Match your socks BEFORE you wash them....like as as soon as you take them off your feet.  After you take off your socks, fold one over the other (I heard this is bad for socks, but whatever..I do it anyway) and wash them just like that.  It works fine..and they get totally clean and they're already paired up. It's especially good for baby socks that tend to get get eaten by the dryer.

Go see Jen for more quick takes.