Ink on the couch - Respond vs React

I hadn't planned on doing a post about cleaning. To me, the blog is supposed to be about encouraging mothers. But I thought about the title "Joys and Messes of Motherhood" and the blog address "sticky fingers and laundry piles". I started the blog because I had a prompting from the Lord to do so. Again, I'm still figuring out how it's supposed to look, but today I think this mess of motherhood may resonate with some of you.

My adorable almost 2 year old gave me the opportunity to share with you how to get blue ink pen out of a micro-suede couch.

Today a rare occurrence happened in my house - I got an urge to clean! I was working on scrubbing down the kitchen table and chairs (because they were in desperate need of some TLC). So my almost 4 year old and almost 2 year old were busy playing "train conductor/train exploration" with the chairs as they were lined up on the carpet of the living room and I was scrubbing them down while having conversation about where we were traveling too, what we were going to see, everything was going great. They decided the needed a snack on my nice new clean table and chairs when we were done playing so I set them up with something and began to work on sweeping the floors. The boys finished their snack and moved back to the living room area to play. All of a sudden I heard my middle, Brekan, say "mommy, Leyton is coloring on the couch". 

I rushed over and sure enough, he had somehow found a blue ink pen and began to create a masterpiece on our green couch. Sigh. I said "Oh, Leyton" in a louder but not yelling voice (more shocked as I don't think I even knew what to think at that point). He replied so sweetly to me "no, no"

So I then took the pen, and took off the cover of that cushion (so thankful it came off) and so many thoughts went through my head. (How will this come off? We don't have the budget to get a new couch! Yikes! I can't believe we've made it this long (our 3rd kid) without a major coloring catastrophe) I then went to the glorious Pinterest site and searched "pen on micro-suede couch" and thankfully TONS of cleaning options came up. I also texted two of my friends to see if they had ever had a similar situation and could help. The cleaning solution that kept popping up was rubbing alcohol to remove the ink. I texted my husband and asked him to pick up some and bring it home at lunch. One of my friends sent me a link to a cleaning bar that she had heard about....it looked similar to a LAVA soap bar. Thankfully I had one in my laundry room because I use it to get out various stains from my husbands work clothes. Thus began my attempted removal process:

The pen

The masterpiece

The Adorable Artist. What a blessing he is

I got the LAVA bar wet and began scrubbing the pen. Lots of water, lots of scrubbing, wiping with a wet cloth in between

Scrubbing!

After scrubbing and wet with water. Then I put it in the wash on COLD with a little laundry soap (scent free dye free is what we use in our home). And I let it air dry!

AFTER! NO STAIN! I was so excited that the veiny marks you see are because it was still a bit damp.

Before and After! Yippee!

How exciting is this? Now, in case this happens to you (and I hope it doesn't) at least you'll know how to get it out right? And the good news? The LAVA bars are cheap!

I was writing in my journal about my day tonight and knew that I wanted to write about this awesome cleaning discovery I made today with you all. However, some other things happened during my day and as I was writing the Lord just brought a huge revelation to me that goes way beyond a clean sofa at the end of my day.

Today I had a good day. Today I felt the Lord's presence with me. This has been something that I have been struggling with the past few days (well the week really). I felt like today I got a breakthrough. Amidst the chaos of having my child color on the couch....I could have reacted by yelling and getting upset with him (something I hate to admit that I do, but I do sometimes), but today my reaction was just surprise and a big "Oh Leyton". Throughout texting with one of my friends she mentioned how she tries to Respond vs. React. Woah! Huge light bulb - what a beautiful way to think about it. I told her I'm going to write that in big letters and put it on my refrigerator as a reminder to myself. 

So while writing all of this down, the Lord showed me how truly wonderful He is and got me thinking. How many times do we make mistakes, yell at our kids, react poorly to our husbands, mess up a recipe, fail at an art project, feel like we don't have it together.....I don't know about you but for me, it happens...lots. And does our Heavenly Father yell at us and react poorly to us? NO! He gently holds us, comforts us, loves us, in the midst of our mistakes and messes and questions. He RESPONDS, He doesn't React.

He showed me today that no matter how many times I make a mistake when I come to Him and ask Him for help, when I lay all of my burdens at His feet, He will wipe away my tears, my sins, my pain, and make it clean (just like I got out that stain in the couch!)! He loves us THAT much! As I was writing I just felt Him lead me to tell you not only how I figured out how to clean ink pen out of my couch, but to share with you how much He loves you, yes YOU! That no matter where you are at, He is there, He wants to know about your day, where you are at, and have you tell Him what you need. Because He is that good.

So mamas, I hope you'll find comfort in that today. Blessings!

Rainy/Snowy/Too Hot Day inside Ideas

We just had our first snowday of the year in MI. I'm all about snowdays, my kiddos get to stay home an extra day with me...however, sometimes it's hard to keep them busy for the whole day. Thanks to pinterest, I've been creating a board over the past few years with indoor game ideas to do on those too rainy weeks, too cold/snowy days, and too hot days when you can't get outside and play. The weather was too cold/bitter for the kids to play outside yesterday so they had to be stuck inside and I was excited to try out my little "bucket of tricks".  Before I share with you just SOME of the things we tried (I had to not do all of them as to save some for the next time), I would suggest creating your own "idea box" and put it together so you have it ready when the time comes. 

I used a big 18 gallon tote. After I had a bunch of ideas on my Pinterest board, I sorted through the ideas and made a shopping list. After I had my list of items needed (many of them I already had on hand, so those things just went right into my tub), I knew I couldn't by everything in 1 shopping trip. Since we are pretty strict on our budget (Dave Ramsey crazies over here), I decided to put 1-2 things on my weekly grocery list and spread it out over a period of time. I've been compiling my box of things for a while now. Once I had all the items for a certain project, I printed the directions and placed it in my bucket. Now to sit and wait until the snowy/rainy/too hot to go outside day.

This is a pretty weak "snowday" for us in MI....but the wind and the windchill is what kept us from having school that day

If you have already printed the directions for each idea and have them in your box, then you know what projects you can do. As you finish getting items for your ideas, put the directions in the box.

my box - a work in progress

Here is just a glimpse of some of the fun from yesterday's snow day.

The weekend before the snow day we tried the paper airplane target (this was fun!)

bought a piece of poster board at the dollar store for .69cents and cut holes of different sizes. I had to use ribbon to hand mine lower for my little guys. But you could hand it from the top of the doorway if your kids are older.

I let the boys color their piece of paper first, then daddy helped assemble the airplanes. We put painters tape down on the floor at different spots to try and fly their planes through the targets.

Another fun science/art project is to fill a muffin tin with vinegar and food coloring (you don't need a lot in each one!), fill baking dishes with a small layer of baking soda. The boys used pipettes I purchased on amazon (eye droppers would work too) and had a blast making the colors fizz and mix. EASY clean up too! Just dump out, rinse, and put in the dishwasher!

We set rules before beginning. I show them how to get the vinegar in the pippette, we practice. They know that the liquid is to only go in the pan and we aren't to squirt it out like crazy! If we don't follow the rules, we don't do the activity.

The "paint" shirts we use are old shirts from my husband, I cut them in half and then put them on the boys and clip with a chip clip at the neck area.

I purchased this child tent at a garage sale this summer for $3! I usually only set it up on days when we are stuck inside. The boys love to play games, read, and just relax in the tent and pretend to "camp".

Another fun pinterest idea! Water "table". I took an under the bed storage bin and filled it with two pails of water (like a larger sand pail from the beach) I wanted enough water for them to explore, but not too much where they'd make a huge mess. I laid down a plastic tablecloth (you can buy the seasonal ones at the end of each season on clearance for around $2 or less) Before the water was even put in, we established the rules:

* Water says IN the tub, if it gets poured out on purpose - you're done

* No splashing

* Keep toys over the bin to play

* Have Fun!

I bought all the cups, spoons, etc. from the dollar store. The bingo chips I purchased on amazon. The boys had fun making "soup" and we talked about the colors and sorted them too. My youngest is 21 months and obviously needed supervision with this activity not only for the bingo chip safety of not putting them in his mouth, but just with the water in general. I'm pleased to say he did quite well and was the only one who needed to get new pants at the end!

This activity is really fun too! Glade Press and Seal (sticky side out), painters tape around to secure on the window/door and cut tissue paper into small squares and make a beautiful sun catcher/mosaic on the window! Depending on the creativity and age of your child, there can be some pretty fun designs.

My 3 year old was done at this point, but my 5 year old worked hard to fill in each clear space with his squares. This was a great activity for them to do while I got lunch ready.

When all else fails, I bust out the play-doh. Play-doh is not something we do on a regular basis at our house...so when I got it out on this day they played for at least 45 minutes (glorious!) and had a great time! I have large trays that they keep the playdoh on which helps with clean up too.

Keep following for another post on more fun snowy/rainy/too hot for outside play ideas! I'd love to hear some of your favorite go-to activities for indoor days at your house!