"The Mystery of The Blue Spots"

I wish I had a picture to show you just how ridiculous my load of laundry looked yesterday when I went to take it out of the dryer (but of course the batteries in my camera are dead, and I just can't manage to remember that when I am at a place that sells batteries). As you might have guessed already, nearly every item of clothing was covered in blue spots.
That's curious, I thought. Surely I would have noticed this when I loaded the dryer. What could it be? I considered paint, since we had spent the afternoon finger painting, but that would have washed out (considering I use the best quality natural soap there is). :) Did someone leave a pen in their pocket? Nope. I'm pretty sure that would have come out too.
Elijah was helping sort through what had spots on it and what didn't. We got to the end of the load with only about five things not being covered in blue spots (one of them being Martin's batman sleep pants- he really is just a boy in a man's body)! Then Elijah said, "look mommy the whole dryer is blue!" When I bent down and looked into the dryer I saw the evidence... the only clue to this silly mishap... a lonely blue crayon wrapper waiting to be discovered.
Instantly it all became clear to me, as I'm sure it is coming to you now. The crayon must have melted due to the heat of the dryer, plastering everything with blue wax. I soaked and boosted, and washed two times. The spots faded, but there still there! Ughh! Most of the load was Elijah's clothes, many of his collared school shirts and khaki pants! Thank goodness for hand me downs!!!

We made a new rule: always check pockets for crayons, or whatever else might be waiting to ruin the laundry.

Laundry Day

I realized it was time to wash the whites again when I couldn’t find a clean flat sheet for my sister-in-law when she stayed over last week. This hasn’t happened in long time, mostly because we received five or six sets of sheets for our wedding. I don’t usually let the laundry pile up that much; I guess it’s been that kind of month though… the kind of month that feels like one long day. Things that used to be on the top of my list are lost and forgotten.
So I washed and dried all the sheets I could find, including the ones on both of my boys’ beds. I wanted to get this job all done at once. Tonight I had to face folding them and putting them all away… the part of laundry that I hate most of all. I still haven’t figured out how to fold those fitted sheets- with which I have a love-hate relationship. They are, of course, brilliantly practical, yet a ridiculous bulgy entanglement until they actually appear on the bed. I’ve tried and tried matching the seams up, folding down the part that’s curved, so there’s somewhat of a straight edge, but still I end up with this ugly rolled up package that looks like my three-year-old folded it, and I gave it entirely no effort which is the opposite of the truth. So, you can see why I avoid washing sheets every week.
I must also mention that the flat sheets give me trouble as well which I’m going to credit only to the massive size of the sheet. I mean really, have you ever tried folding a sheet that is the size of a small bedroom? I get it all spread out, match up the corners of one side, and then I can’t seem to make it to the other side without getting twisted up or misguided. It’s very frustrating. I’m tempted to give up, turn the entire pile of sheets into one big wad, and throw them in the linen closet- as is. Good luck everyone in finding a sheet when you need one!
However, I didn’t turn my clean basket of whites into a wad… after all, there were socks and underwear in there too! I took a deep breath, sorted it out and did my best as usual to make these large thin pieces of material appear as close to a neatly folded stack as possible. In the end, I was nearly completely dissatisfied by my efforts, but the good news is there are now clean sheets in the closet and an empty laundry basket for me to collect yet another load.