I absolutely love how artistic my son is. He loves his crayons and his color books and tries so hard to color on each object of a page. I love how he draws pictures and tries to copy what Corey and I have drawn for him. I love how he lays on his tummy when he colors and kicks his feet in the air. I love that he knows where the crayons go and where to put his color books away at. I even think it's kinda cute when he comes to get me to show me the windowsill that he has just decorated and expects me to cheer him on when he points out that it's "pretty colors, mommy, pretty colors!" I can handle that. But, what I don't like, is when I open up the dryer full of white clothes to find each and every article of clothing saturated with smeared and globbed RED crayon that I apparently missed in one of Cooper's shorts with ten thousand pockets in it. I'll tell you, that's not a good way for me to end the day.
So, yeah, I didn't see that stupid crayon. The first thing I pulled out I thought, "What the heck?" But, I figured it was pen marks or something. And, as I continued to empty out that dryer, I found that socks, underwear, shorts, bra's, and many of the babies new dresses and outfits were suddenly riddled with various sized red spots that didn't have a smell to it, and couldn't be rubbed off. I yelled and screamed, not at anyone in particular, but to whoever could hear me, so that everyone knew how mad I was and maybe everyone could help to try to prevent it from happening again. I'm pretty sure I growled a time or two as well. After I had pulled out all the clothes from the dryer and shed a tear or two at their loss, I looked IN the dryer and about keeled over at what I saw: Red streaks on every side of the drum and deeper red marks on the seals where the little bumps in the dryer stick out. Holy cow! It was 9pm.....Why was this happening to me now? Of course at 9pm all children are in the process of going to bed and breaking that process could open an opportunity for a breakdown. So, we went about our business changing babies, singing our peanut-butter-jammie time song and putting our children to bed. It was after 10pm before all children were asleep and as Corey and I sat on the couch exhausted from our day, we both began to drift.........And then I remembered: The dryer! I had to do something because there was a load of laundry in the washer needing to be dried before morning. I head online to search for the ways to clean a dryer drum with red crayon. Some say WD-40 is the miracle worker. We had none. Other's say comet........Well crud! None of that either. Finally, one said toothpaste. I had that.
I followed the directions to a T - I ran the dryer for 15 minutes to heat it up and loosen the crayon residue for easier cleaning. First I took a damp cloth across a streak but NOTHING happened. Oh, man. I put some toothpaste on that cloth and attempted to scrub that spot out. Well, I had scrubbed with that cloth for 15 minutes or so before I cramped up and had to stop for a moment. (Hey, trying to get in the dryer to clean it with boobs as big as mine are is NO easy task!) I then decided that I needed something "scrubbier." I grabbed a dish sponge with a scrubber on it, loaded it with toothpaste and went to work. Hey, it works! And, it works much faster than the wet cloth. I still had to scrub for a good half an hour, but was able to remove just about everything. Yay! The last step was to wash down the drum with a wet cloth, then put a damp white towel in and run the dryer for 20 minutes to make sure there is no more crayon being distributed. I turned on the dryer and knew I needed to keep busy for 20 minutes. The clock read 12:10AM by this time, and I was on the verge of narcolepsy. I kept myself occupied for that 20 minutes and went to check on the dryer. Mission: Red Crayon in the Dryer Catastrophe - Accomplished!!! No more red....except on the ill fated clothes that still sit in my hallway awaiting my decision as to what to do with them.
I've had chapstick melt in the dryer. I've seen a $20 bill shredded and I've even survived a lighter full of butane going through. Now I add red crayon to the list, unhappily. Nearly all the girls socks were lost that load and some of their most beautiful dresses are now going to be wash rags...Ugh....I might just throw em' out so I don't have to look at them as I scrub my car with it!
I really shouldn't be too sensitive about it, but I just was!
I had Katie pick up every crayon in the house, and at the moment of discovery, I was in such a fireball that I was at the garbage can with the bag of crayons in hand ready to discard every single one we had in this house. I thought better of that choice. I knew that Cooper would be so disappointed when he didn't have crayons to color with, and I'd truly miss all the artistic displays he has donned our entire house with. So, I just put them away. That's what a good mother would do, and I wanted to be a good mom at that moment. Since that incident I have checked every pocket, every hole, every hiding spot and even curled hems to make sure there isn't a crayon hiding there. If there's one thing I'd like to keep color crayon free in this house, it's the laundry! Oh, these joys of motherhood are just...........joys.
No comments:
Post a Comment