My Children Made me This Way

Dryer Balls

 What is a dryer ball, you may be asking. They are spiky rubber balls that you put in your dryer under the premise that they will replace dryer sheets. Eco-friendly and reusable they should be a frugal environmentalist moms dream.

 Personally I think they suck. At least as a fabric softener/dryer sheet replacement. I wanted them to work, because I do like the concept. All that money saved on laundry supplies..4 kids 2 adults 2 cats a new puppy, we have a lot of laundry. I also liked that they are environmentally friendly, cutting down on the amount of waste from used dryer sheets. But my clothes came out full of static, and that is the biggest reason I use dryer sheets. To cut the static. First time I used them I zapped the bejesus out of myself first towel I took out to fold.

They do work to get all the stray hair off the clothes, and since D has hair to her hips, and I have hair to the small of my back..thats a good thing. The kids love to play with them. As do the cats and the puppy. They make a great toy. Wonderful way to distract the family while I get laundry out of the dryer and the balls go bouncing across the floor.  So in the winter and when it’s rainy and I can’t hang my laundry out to dry, it’s back to dryer sheets for us.

Five year old, Crayons, Flat Screen TVs.

Lets use those words in a pair of sentences that might be true.

My five year old is such a sweetheart, drawing me beautiful pictures with his crayons on a piece of paper while he watched cartoons on the flat screen TV.

My flat screen TV has black crayon scribbles all over the screen, no wonder my five year old was so quiet this morning.

Guess which one is true in my house?

*ding ding ding* You guessed it. I woke up to black crayon all over the front of my Flat screen TV. (Yes M, you were right..again) And I flaked. I tried window cleaner. Didn’t work. I wasn’t about to try soft scrub, it might take crayon off white walls and wood furniture, but I wasn’t chancing the TV. So I flaked out a little more. And then I Googled.

And what did I find about cleaning LCD flat screen TV? (do they even make the old kind anymore) You shouldn’t clean them with window cleaner. Apparently it will tint your screen yellow over time. (The things the internet teaches me!) Instead you are supposed to use uber expensive LCD screen cleaner kits and or sprays. Or you can mix your own with isopropyl alcohol and distilled water. (I haven’t used that since college chem.) Or for those of us who are not into the spending $30 techno-geek cleaning supplies, or mixing our own, apparently a soft cloth dampened with plain water will work fine too. And you are not supposed to press hard on the screen. (I did know that at least. Something about the way the screen sort of ripples when you press on them kind of tipped me off there.)

How To Properly Clean Your LDC Screen

How to Clean Your TV Screen (diffrent types of screens)

I tried a damp cloth. Nada. Big old scribble of black crayon still on the screen. And I flaked some more. This TV is brand new. And expensive, not the sort of thing I can just go out and replace. So I Googled some more.

And I found a miracle. People recommending Mr.Clean Magic Eraser , and singing its praises. So I went to the store. Its relatively in expensive, I think I paid $3.50 for a box of four of the original type. (They have ones with Fabreeze and one with a scrubby side as well.) I had seen the commercials for these, and being a cleaning supply skeptic I had never tried them. I get the box home, I open it. Nice sized block of sponge like material. Very soft. I read the direction, wet the sponge, squeezed out the water and went into my living room. (Yay for things that are easy to use!)

The crayon came right off. I didn’t have to push at all. I was impressed.

I tried it on the marker on the side of my fridge that has been there for a year. Took it right off. I’ve been using it like crazy ever since. Totally a Mommy must have!