As a Mother I am judged every time I leave our house. Especially being that I have two extremely busy, inquisitive, strong-willed, extrovert children who are not in the least shy.
You've seen the look: Pursed lips, furrowed brow, sidelong glances.
My heart rate goes up and my palms sweat as I valiantly try to quickly and quietly (er, not TOO quietly) make my children appear like little angelic offspring. I care way too much what others think.
My kiddos were running around like uncontrollable banshees in our local thrift store yesterday morning. As I was struggling to corral them an older woman came up to me and said, "You are a great Mom. You are doing a GREAT job." To have that little bit of mercy shown during a particularly trying Mommy moment was a ray of sunshine through the storm clouds.
Fighting the demons in our heads that whisper "You are failing as a Mother, you aren't doing enough, you are worthless" is a monumental task. Only with Jesus.
Lord, bind those demons, shackle their powers. Have mercy on all of us today. Let all of us struggling Mama's be a light that shines for YOU through to our children.
Let the importance of what YOU think of us as Mothers take precedence in our thoughts.
Not what strangers think of us.
Not what our "friends" think of us.
Not what our neighbors think of us.
Not what our relatives think of us.
Not what our Facebook friends think of us.
Not what other parents think of us.
Not what our community thinks of us.
Nothing matters but to please YOU Lord. Help us be Godly Mothers today. Be our ray of sunshine through the stormy skies of Motherhood so we can shine Your love and grace on our children.
Amanda
Raise your hand if you own a flat iron/hair straightener.
Raise you other hand if your flat iron has so much baked on hair stylin' crud you are embarrased to call it yours.
Dont'cha just hate it when your hair straightener shreds and damages your hair? Me too. I have a good four years of hair junk built up on it. So much junk that I was shopping for the best deal on CHI flatirons. Cause they are the best...and I have LOVED my Chi. Until the baked on crud started to affect my mental state.
Girlfriends, I'm about to change your life.
I googled every possible way to safely clean your ceramic flatiron.
So far over the past few months I've tried:
* Washcloth with water and scrubbing flat iron while hot. Lots of steam but no crud-clearing.
* Washcloth with hand soap and water- nada
* Washcloth with shampoo and water-mininal help. My fingers cramped up after a 1/2 hour.
* Qtip with rubbing alcohol- nada
* Qtip with non acetone nail polish remover- nada
* Picking off junk with my fingernail - some help but I put a tiny chip in one section of the ceramic plates - Not good. Not recommended.
* Yelling - nada...but I swear that thing smirked at me.
* Smashing again the counter - once again, not recommended
I'm lying in bed trying to fall asleep and I get one of those bright shiny light bulb AHA! moments. Lay in bed, try to ignore the brilliance of the idea and fall asleep. After all, it IS after midnight and the kids will be up poking my eyeballs at 6 AM.
Doesn't work. Mind is whirling.
Finally sneak outta bed and try my idea out.
Schneikees it WORKS! My going on FOUR year old CHI looks brand-spankin NEW. No joke.
(Well, except for that little aforementioned chip I inflicted.)
Any guesses to what I did?
Two words:
MAGIC ERASER.
Thank you, Mr. Clean, for once again bringing your A game to the VintageDutchGirl household. Extremely pleased with eraser performance and will definitely be using again in the near future. Thank you for not damaging my wonderful Chi flat iron in the cleaning process.
Only problem is, it's 1 AM and no one to call and celebrate with. Ah well, that's what a BLOG is for, right?! To take one simple little thing and turn it into a full blown conversation.
Alrighty ladies, get scrubbin those flat-irons! Let me know if it worked for ya!
Off to find warm milk and maybe some soothing, sleep inducing chocolate chip cookies...
A
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*I have been in no way endorsed or compensated for this post by Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Which is too bad, because I'd make an EXCELLENT spokeswoman. I have LOTS to clean*
It's been super rainy and dreary here. No snow for us.
I can't imagine what would happen if this much rain would have been SNOW. We'd be buried. It would be AWESOME. Lots of tomato soup and hot chocolate, reading by the fireplace, losing Lil Chick in the drifts and making a 14 foot tall snowman. Or snowlady. We're an equal opportunity snowperson building household.
The kiddos have been braving the drizzle and playing outside. Of course, I strip em down to their skivies out on the porch before allowing them reentrance into the house.
Too bad I forgot about Lil Chick's pink fleece pants out there. Fast forward a few days and some cold weather and you have pink fleece pants FROZEN to the deck. SO charming.
Next I left their shoes out. Once again, drenched in rain then FROZEN to the deck. Good thing I buy el cheapo shoes.
So much for the predicted horrendously snowy and freezing winter. Meh.
As for the rest of you who are buried in snowdrifts, what do you do to stay warm? Tomato soup and hot chocolate like we do? Fess us, I KNOW some of you are wearing a snuggie right now!
Spill it...
A
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