Crazy Ninja Laundry Skills and...Baptism??

I've had more people asking about the source of my Laundry Ninja Powers, so I decided to write a little blog about it. But in the course of taking some pictures for this blog, I was reminded of a story that my Pastor always tells that demonstrates the necessity of baptism. So here you go, people...a devotional along with a valuable laundry tip!

Why is baptism so important? The symbolic washing away of our sins by getting dunked in water... is it really that important to God that we go through this routine?

As Pastor relates...he has three girls, and his wife loves to dress them up in pretty dresses and get them all nice for church. He caution them to NOT go out and play in the mud puddles that were so tempting outside. The youngest, in particular, loves to play in mud puddles. Invariably, she couldn't resist the temptation and soon was coming to her parents, sobbing in dismay and fear, because her beautiful church dress was soiled.

Like this exquisite white dress that my sister bought for Olivia at a boutique in the Ozarks. It is lovely; with delicate hand-made designs on the silky over-lay. I love this dress and love to see my daughter in it. But I didn't love when she spilled a drink all over it while eating after church one day.

Ugh! What a mess! Just like our lives...when they are stained with sin.

As a loving father, he takes his daughter into the house and his wife washes the little girl off, and they give her a clean dress to wear. All clean! Just like what baptism does.

But why is this so important?

Because of two simple truths. Our Father wants to see us washed and cleansed from all of our sins because otherwise, every time He is looked at us, He would be reminded of how we were disobedient to Him. How we sinned and were stained in filth. On the contrary, He wants to see us washed, clean, and made whole; He casts our sins into the sea of forgetfulness and wants to NEVER remember them again!

Secondly, every time WE would look at OURSELVES, we'd be reminded of our disobedience. Our failures. The mistakes we'd made. The grime and slime of our choices.

But baptism not only makes us clean for our Father, it makes us clean for ourselves; we don't have to keep remembering our sin and shame.

It's all washed away. We are clean! Pure!

What a miracle!

In the case of my daughter, my miracle is this soap: Fels-Naptha!

A good friend of mine cares for elderly patients in her home as a private business. She deals with tons of stains and depends on this soap every day. It's simple; you just get the garment wet in the stained area, and rub this soap on it. Vigorously scrub by hand, sometimes repeating. You may start to see the stain disappear but not always. Then wash the garment with your other laundry and check it after the washing cycle is done. 9 and 1/2 times out of 10, it's spotless!

I am not a fan of using harsh, toxic bleach on my clothes, although it certainly gets used in other areas of my home. I've used Fels-Naptha successfully on stains of blood, mud, throw-up, deodorant stains, food of all kinds, poop, grass,

and even the red dirt stains that are Hawaii is notorious for,

with its' dirt left over from flowing lava.

My favorite story is how I was selling a vintage Coca-Cola sweater on eBay that actually had been stored with some bottles of Coke that had leaked all over the sweater for 15 years as they sat in storage. I detailed the stains in my eBay listing so the buyer would know what they were getting, and a man in Ireland bought the sweater 'as is'. However, before shipping it, I wondered what it would hurt if I tried washing it with Fels-Naptha soap? To my amazement, the stains from over a decade ago completely came out! I shipped it to the buyer in Ireland and told him what I'd done; needless to say he was very pleased to be getting a totally stain-free sweater!

I looked up this soap online and found that it's actually been around for over 100 years! Something like that has got to be a quality product. You can order it online (www.felsnaptha.com) or get it at most drug stores in the laundry soap aisle; I get mine at our local Long's drugstore.

So there you have it; two simple reasons why baptism is important and the secret to my amazingly stain-free clothes, in spite of my having two small kids!

The Toys Are Alive!

I love the Toy Story Trilogy! Well, as the mom of two small kids, I have to love it or I'd go insane since they love to watch it every day...and every toy section of every store is currently bursting with the latest TS3 characters in addition to the old favorites.

But I do actually love the movie for myself...my grown-up, supposedly mature self. I mentioned this on a Facebook status recently and it's a true confession from my heart; I also believe that toys are alive when humans are not around.

I was always a BIG lover of stuffed animals and baby dolls, including paper dolls and Barbies. These were the main source of my conviction about the alive toys belief. I would carefully line them up on my bed in the morning and when I returned from school, I could tell that they had all moved around during the day and were pretending to be put back into the exact places where I'd left them. I'd look deep into their eyes and whisper secrets and I KNEW they were listening.

So by watching Toy Story, it's like confirming my long-held beliefs. The little girl hidden away in my heart whispers; "See, I knew it!"

And as a grown-up parent, it thrills me to see my kids watching these movies because during and afterwards, they want to play with their own toys in a way that is excellent for little imaginations. I can tell that their little brains are hard at work creating exciting adventures with their trains or stuffed animals.

Here's Samuel and Olivia last night, playing "Toy Story" as Samuel calls it. You can see that some key characters are missing, but are being played by excellent stand-ins that Samuel has chosen...

If you are familiar with the third Toy Story, you'll understand the Care Bear substitute; Samuel told us that he was "the mean bear".

Woody is riding a zebra and Evil Dr. Porkchop is Samuel's piggy bank; he made absolutely sure that there are actually coins in it that he can shake out when being forced to by Mr. Potato Head.

A twist to the usual plot is that Samuel has Slinky actually 'eat' the train and all the train pieces end up inside Slinky's coils. And the Rex stand-in tried to eat Olivia's Polly Pocket dolly but I think Buzz saved her later in the evening, so all is well.

Just look at those toys! You know they love being played with. And sometimes when I get up at night and have to come in for a drink of water, I glance around the living room and see some of them scattered on the floor. I get the distinct feeling I've just interrupted something and am always quick to assure them to feel free to carry on as soon as I've returned to bed.

I know they can hear me.

9 Years Milestone

I love Norman Rockwell paintings, and this one always brings a smile to my face:

And I actually have alot in common with the sailor, if you made him a girl and instead of the tattoos being of women's names, make them places I've lived.

I was thinking about it the other day when I realized, much to my honest amazement, that I've lived in Hawaii almost 9 years! You see, 9 years is the maximum I've ever lived in a state. To briefly recap:

Born in Missouri, moved from there to Louisiana when I was 9 yrs old.

Lived in Louisiana until high school graduation, moved to California when I was 18.

Lived in Stockton CA until age 21, moved to North Carolina.

Lived in North Carolina for about 2 yrs, moved to Texas.

Lived in Texas for about 6 months, moved back to California.

Lived in California for 3 more years, moved to Hawaii.

I won't even go into how many times I moved WITHIN each state; to/from various towns or homes.

WHY all the moving, one may (legitimately) ask. No, we weren't on the run from the law or a military family (my dad got out of the Navy before he married my mom). There were always good reasons. My dad's retirement. Moving to a town with better schools and opportunities. Moving to help a family member. Moving for college. It was always something and my parents often joked that we had Gypsy blood, or that we were really hippies at heart. And the funny thing was, we liked moving so much. It's addicting to start over in a new place, although sad to say good-bye to friends. Thankfully Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with friends I made all over the country!

We are expert packers. We can pack up at house and move in 2 weeks (yes I've done that!). We know how to get settled and make new friends without constantly comparing the new place to the old place. We got used to moving to the point that one summer, I got back from youth camp and exhausted, slept in late the next day. When I woke up and stumbled into the living room, the first thing I saw was a new collection of boxes and after a big yawn, the first thing out of my mouth was; "Ooo, where are we moving to now?" My parents laughed about that reaction for awhile.

So anyway, the thing about all this moving around is that sometimes, we get restless. Very restless. The house starts to close in and smell funny....well, maybe the smell part is my imagination. But we get tired of the same old routines. The best way I can describe it is to remember this scene from the movie Chocolate, where the heroine goes out to the river and is just standing there, contemplating. Suddenly the North Wind starts to blow and you see her lift her head and take a deep breath while a strange light begins to burn in her eyes. In her soul, she answers the North Wind and knows....it's time to move on.

If you've ever felt it, you understand. If you haven't, you never can.

It's a joke in my family; we'll call someone up and in the course of the conversation, tell the other person that we feel the North Wind. They always understand and sometimes, agree. If my sister tells me she feels the North Wind, we are so connected that I feel it in my soul too.

So I said all of this to just say....nine years is a long time.

I love Hawaii and could live here for the rest of my life, but this little house is closing in on me.

It's starting to smell, and if I close my eyes and open my heart,

I feel the North Wind on my face.

The Scatterbrain-ed-ness of Pregnancy Thoughts

Our computer is in the shop...somewhere on the mainland....BOO HOO! It's hard to live without it! Thankfully I have my nifty handheld device with which I can access FB, email, online news, etc. And when my husband steps away from the house (like now), I can jump on his work laptop.

Anyway, although I can't blog as often as I originally imagined I would, I still have amazing thoughts all day, believe me. Sometimes I mentally write out huge awesome blogs that would be interesting and life-changing...ha...but I never get the chance to sit down and put those thoughts onto paper. Well, not paper, but onto Blogger.

Here's a glimpse into my thoughts yesterday, maybe something will make you laugh or inspire you!

I've discovered that I can get the housework done SUPER FAST if I wait until my husband is off work. He entertains the kids! Fills their sippy cups! Starts a movie for them! Makes them pick up toys! While they are busy with him, I can clean the bathroom, start a load of laundry, sweep and mop all the floors, vacuum, and start dinner. To do this during the day would take triple the time because of course, I have to stop a billion times to tend to the kids. PLUS it's much cooler in the evening so I'm not dripping with sweat the whole time. Nice to make this discovery.

It's the middle of the year and I feel like I'm at the top of a hill, headed down to the end of the year. And actually I'm trying to find ways to make the ride downhill go faster! It's like this when I'm pregnant. Pregnancy is just so long and after awhile it's like....are we done yet?!? Ha...so here's my mental schedule for the rest of the year:

July is our church 10th Anniversary service and I'm busy organizing a Coffee Bar for the celebrations. Then we are having a huge family BBQ at the horse ranch later this month. I promise not to ride this time; last time I WAS sore in the abdomen afterwards and a bit concerned about the pregnancy.

August is Samuel's 4th birthday and we want to plan a little party since there are a million kids at church for him to have fun with....plus his second year of preschool starts. I'm already buying school supplies...yikes!

September has nothing planned. Please, someone give me ideas...

October is Olivia's 2nd birthday and I have no idea what to do for her. My mom is coming around the end of the month and she'll help me complete my famous TO DO lists that HAVE to be done before the Baby comes.

November is BABY TIME and luckily, that throws me right into Thanksgiving. And since I'll be recently post-partum the family doesn't expect me to cook ANYTHING. Yay! I get to stuff my face and remain seated the whole time.

December is CHRISTMAS, with all the decorating, parties, and shopping. AND my mom will still be here to help me with everything! Fun!

Other random thoughts in my head....I am thankful for my family's health. A good friend recently went through a huge cancer scare and is OK but painfully recovering at home after spinal cord surgery. Seriously, nothing like THAT to make you look around and take stock in your own life and BE THANKFUL.

I wonder if the recession really does cause more marriages to break up? I have a bunch of friends going through divorce right now. My prayin' knees are NOT getting lazy, that's for sure.

Having a friend like Amy who sews tremendously and makes money doing so makes me feel like I shouldn't even bother sewing anything....ha...she'll kill me for saying this. But I remind myself that I sew for FUN and that's all that matters. She's amazing though and I totally cheer for her business.

Olivia says about 40-50 words now, including a dozen 2 or 3-word phrases. I can't believe it. Elton and I constantly shake our heads in amazement at her vocabulary. She'll hear a word and repeat it several times, working hard to say it right and memorize it. I went through Samuel's flash cards with her and she knows at least 18-20 of the words, even some I had NO idea she even knew what they were! She gets those cards down and sorts through them, quietly repeating the words she knows and trying to say new ones. I keep reminding myself though....not to get too proud....she is probably considered totally normal for a girl her age. It's Samuel who is speech delayed and we were accustomed to his delay, which makes her speech abilities seem incredible.

WHEW long blog! But fun to sift through my thoughts and get them all out there. Now to log off and get this FRIDAY started :)