Baking Soda and Vinegar

Our morning so far has already been very eventful, starting with Eli... he took about 20 minutes to get dressed this morning... why? Well because he wanted to play with Zach while I took a quick shower. Why do crazy things happen when a mother is in another room? I guess when the cat is away the mice will play! So needless to say we were rushing to get him out the door to school this morning... we still made it there with time to spare! So while in the car, we prayed together as usual... One of the things I prayed for this morning was an extra ounce of patience. I want my children to be able to say that I am slow to anger, as the Lord is slow to anger... and with an ADHD child and two under the age of 2 1/2 that is a daunting task sometimes!

... So we make it home without any trouble at all. I feed my children, get myself something for breakfast and then it was time for mommy to go to the potty. I had both hallways blocked off with the gates so the kids couldn't get into anything that would be hazardous to them... I thought I was in the clear. All of 20 seconds go by, I walk back into the room and it is eerily quiet... Zach is just playing with a car, but Lilly... Oh my Lilly... she managed to get into a drawer (that does have a child safety lock on it) and get out a HOT PINK permanent marker. She took the liberty of marking up our coach, a book and her hands.

So the first thing I could think of was to use soap and water... that didn't work... then I thought that I could use the leather cleaner we have on hand... that didn't work. I am thinking what am I going to do? I am not going to be able to get this stain of the coach... man is Scott going to razz me about this one. Then my brain switched into high gear... Baking soda and Vinegar! I am sure all of you have heard of using baking soda and vinegar to clean anything and everything in your house. Not long ago I used that combo to clean out our drains and to make the sink faucets as shiny as ever. Well I thought lets see if it could take permanent marker off the coach...
It did! There was a huge HOT PINK marker stain right in the middle of that seat. Now it took me two times of scrubbing it with baking soda, vinegar and a kitchen sponge to get it off... but it worked! That is the cheapest all purpose cleaner you will ever find. Yeah I know what you may be thinking... vinegar stinks... well the smell fades within a half hour... gotta love it! Then I thought, well maybe that would clean Lilly's hands, so they won't be stained for the next couple weeks... she I poured the baking soda in the palm of her hand... and then poured the vinegar on top of it... and she thought that was the greatest thing. It made her belly laugh to see all the bubbles in her hands. I then proceeded to scrub and ... tadah... no more permanent marker. I was so excited!

And this was the face she gave me when we were all done with the marker episode!Our Snaggle toothed child!