Getting Blood Stains OUT!

Is there anything worse than when you are going about your business and you realize that you are bleeding and it is all over your clothes?  Luckily there is a solution!  (For white clothes at least)  Some people have told me they use hydrogen peroxide or just bleach to get it out, but I have found that doesn't always work.  Often it makes it lighter, but just turns my clothes brown.  While I'm still working on a solution to get it out of colored clothes (maybe that color-safe bleach?) I do have a solution that works 99% of the time on my whites.

Supplies: 

A bowl for soaking,

White Distilled Vinegar

Bleach

Clean Water

Instructions:

Soak your soiled clothing in vinegar for at least 10 minutes, longer will only help not hurt. The vinegar releases the stain from the fibers. (This time I forgot what I was doing when DH turned on a movie so it soaked for 2 hours... whoops!)

Discard the dirty vinegar and rinse the clothing thoroughly (DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.  If any vinegar is left on the clothing it will be turned a weird tan color.)

Rinse out the bowl as well so you can re-use it.

Soak the clothing in diluted bleach (about 1/4 c per cup of water) for between 5 and 10 minutes.

At this point there may be a little stain left on the clothing, but not to worry!

I just dump the bowl (bleach and all) into the washer and do a quick wash in cold water and VOILA!  

WHITE!

Before                                                                                                            After

(For the purposes of this blog I used a white fabric scrap to clean up a bloody nose)

Are there any other tips you guys have for getting stains out?

How do you get everything done?

So you wake up in the morning to the sounds of toddler jabber or screaming and immediately your work begins. You give them their breakfast and try to sneak in a quick shower while they are distracted with their food. By the time you get dressed they are already begging for your attention again. You wander around the house trying to clean up a little while entertaining them as well, which is very difficult to do when one or both legs are incapacitated with little hands latching on.

A few hours later... it's nap time! Finally I can get some brunch without the baby yelling that she wants my food instead of hers... even though it's the same thing... It's beautiful outside so I hurry and get some yard work done before coming back inside to work on dishes and think about how I'm ever going to organize the spare bedroom/office/storage space.

Nap time is over! Time for a snack and a snuggle while the baby wakes up... otherwise the screaming and leg tugging ensues. Just in time for me to start dinner, daddy gets home! After dinner it's time for me to go to work while daddy plays with baby and attempts to get homework done.

Now here is the question for you ladies: How do you keep a sane and clean household while children screaming for your attention when you are at work half the day already?

Pull-ups Before Potty Training?

I don't know about you, but when I saw the ad for Huggies Little Movers Slip-on diapers I got excited. For some reason it has been difficult for me to put normal diapers on squiggly squirmy babies. I asked around to see if anybody had tried them before I bought them so I didn't waste money on diapers that didn't do their job... nobody seemed to have tried them. So I thought I'd post a little review on here so other moms out there can let someone else try it before they buy it.

Immediate Pro: SO much easier to put on a squirmy baby

Immediate Con: you have to take ALL of baby's pants and shoes etc off before you change her... then put ALL of them back on.

The number one thing I was concerned about with these diapers is obviously A) how well do they hold the poop and pee and B) how do you take them off of a poopy bum with out getting poopy hands... and poopy everything else?

Concern B was an easy fix. There are actually little tabs on the side that allow you to take off these diapers just like any other diaper... and if they come detached while trying to pull them up on your squiggly sweetheart they are easily reattached (that has only happened twice in the month we've been using them).

Now, for Concern A... When first using them they seemed to work just as well as anything else! I was excited.... then one day I guess we didn't change her diaper as often as we should have. We were sitting on the couch as a family while my daughter drank her milk before bed. All of a sudden I felt a warm trickle down my arm.... I have since noticed that the Slip-ons don't hug around the thighs quite as much as regular diapers do.

The back of the diaper is not quite as high as regular diapers. You'll see in this first picture the back of a Slip On:

And in this picture it is the back of a regular Little Movers diaper (jean edition):

There is about 2 inches extra on the regular diapers. Because of this... if your child has extra-full bowels that she needs to relieve there is no protection from your fingers if you accidentally touch her lower back. The poop tends to poke out just a little bit as the diaper ends right above that cute little bum.

Both of these problems (the low back and not-so-snug legs) led to a nasty event yesterday. My daughter's first blow-out in at least 6 months. When changing poopy diapers with Slip-ons be careful NOT to grab the diaper when pulling of your baby's pants (luckily I had already learned this one). I stood my daughter up to change her this time and saw that her pants had completely filled with yumminess... even though her diaper was not quite full. Needless to say it was all over her legs and changing table... then she had to grab it to see what it was.... Ohhhhh dear......

I'd give Slip-ons 3 stars out of 5. They are convenient and easy to use.... they just don't WORK quite as well as I'd like...

Do Stay at Home Moms Share Working Mothers Worries?

As many of you are aware, this week Hilary Rosen attacked Ann Romney for having "never worked a day in her life." She has since apologized for her wrong choice of words, but that does not change the point she was trying to get across. Rosen was trying to push that the Romneys are out of touch with normal Americans. Ann Romney had the luxury of being able to CHOOSE to stay at home with her children, and many moms today don't seem to have that choice (including myself).

Does that mean Ann doesn't know where we are coming from, struggling to survive as a family? Obviously She has had struggles herself: Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, not to mention her husband being gone on business trips a lot of the time. However, does she understand what mothers struggling to provide for their family are going through?

First I want to talk about the fact that this was Ann Romney's CHOICE, when many women do not have this choice. They say about 70% of mothers are in the workforce... the media tends to make it sound like none of those mothers have a choice. There are plenty of women out there who CHOOSE to work. Their husband makes plenty of money to support the family, but they choose to have a career. Then there are those who CHOOSE to work because they want to maintain a certain lifestyle. Then there are those who CHOOSE to work because that is the only way they can pay the bills and put food on the table. All three types of mothers work HARD to support their family. My point in this article is that there are women out there who have no choice in the matter, they have to work to provide for their families. However, a large number of women in the workforce truly CHOOSE to be there.

My mother is an example of a woman who chose to stay at home with her children, against my father's wishes. She felt that it was important for us to have someone at home for us. To support us in all of our extracurriculars and be there to help with homework and just talk whenever we need it. When she wasn't helping her children she was helping others in the community; bringing meals, visiting widows, etc. Because of this choice she is still living in the small starter home my parents bought more than 30 years ago. We never had the expensive cable plans or fancy playlets and toys, but we had our mother home and that is what means the most to my sisters and I now that we are grown. She could have worked so we could have all of those things, but she CHOSE not to.

Ann Romney also CHOSE not to, although it was probably a much easier choice. However, just because she stayed at home does not mean she doesn't know what women are going though (and it does not mean her husband is out of touch either).

When they were young, newly married and newly inducted into parenthood the Romneys lived in a cheap basement apartment while going to school. Mitt graduated first and then the couple moved to Boston so he could attend Harvard Law and Business... where Ann finally gained her Bachelors by taking night classes.

Later she was diagnosed with both MS and breast cancer while raising 5 boys. She would begin her days as a mother teaching her kids out of the scriptures and while they were at school she did charitable work as well as took care of the affairs of the household. That sounds like she knows what it's like to struggle to me.

The Romneys are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The organization of the church is similar to the government, there is a President and his cabinet (or the Quorum of the 12 Apostles), followed by state governments (or Quorums of the 70 assigned to areas around the world), then there are the county governments (or stakes, over a certain number of wards or branches), finally there is the ward or branch which is one congregation. Within each ward there are several home teachers (men) and visiting teachers (women) all assigned to a few families to visit each week. Every adult member has this assignment unless they specifically ask not to be included. Both Ann and Mitt Romney had people to visit and ensure were taken care of. These people were their friends, and not necessarily wealthy like themselves.

The kinds of problems they would have to deal with while serving in the church range from providing meals to those who need them to anonymously dropping food at homes that needed it. They would know about people who have lost their jobs and even their homes and offer help in any way they can. That is the job of a home teacher and visiting teacher. Mitt Romney also served as Bishop (the leader over one congregation) and as Stake President (leading over multiple congregations) where he would view the struggles of his friends on an even larger scale.

Ann Romney knows where working moms are coming from.

Not only does she, but I think all mothers are on the same page. All mothers have to run their household and make hard decisions. Pay-cuts may mean groceries are tight for a while. Mothers watch their neighbors struggling, seeing men losing jobs and women having to wait tables to support their families (a profession which people do not respect, might I add. Do you realize that the ONLY money most waitresses in the country get are the tips you give them? That is a story for another day). These women worry that their family could be next. When Wall-Street and the Auto Industry were in trouble do you think the wives of those men working were worried that next month they might not be able to make their house payment? Do you think these women don't worry that something terrible will happen to their husbands while they are away and it will fall upon their shoulders completely to provide for their children?

I think the Romneys understand more than a lot of people how women and families struggle and they want to help. Their plans may seem to favor the rich, but they favor those who CREATE JOBS. If companies can't afford to pay employees then they are not going to hire employees. The rich might pay less of a percentage in taxes, but they pay a MUCH higher dollar amount. Giving them a higher rate like The Buffet Rule wants to would actually only account for a small portion of the deficit. Cutting Spending will do much more than raising taxes.

If you want a look into what the REAL Romney is like from the view of a Democrat who knew him check out this article.