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!
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