The Devil Dog and the Miracle Cleaning Product

Take a look at this sweet face:

She looks so innocent, doesn't she? Like she couldn't hurt a fly? Well take it from someone who knows: she certainly wouldn't hurt anything (not on purpose, anyway), but she's far from innocent. I've bemoaned the trials and tribulations this crazy dog has put us through before, so I won't bore you silly with yet another laundry list of all the things she has destroyed and food she has stolen.

Instead, let me regale you with another tale of the Devil Dog's Destruction, and inform you of a new miracle cleaning product! (well, new to me, anyway).

So about a month ago Bill and I made fried okra (yumm) and stupidly left the container of used vegetable oil on the counter overnight (thinking it would be wise to let it cool down before disposing of it). Somehow or other Snowball (aka Devil Dog) discovered it while we were sleeping and decided to dispose of it herself. In her tummy, of course.

So we awoke the next day to two very large oil-throw-up stains on our carpet. I didn't realize it was oil until about 15 minutes later when I actually witnessed her puking up massive amounts of used vegetable oil myself. I won't even bother to tell you how high that registered on the "Eww Gross" Scale. Naturally, vomited oil on carpet does not look so nice:

Yes, those are as large and disgusting in real life as they look in the picture.

I have tried everything I could think of: every pet-bodily-function-stain-remover available, all the typical Resolve-type carpet cleaners (would you believe that oil actually repels that stuff...I watched it slide right off the stain and onto the carpet that wasn't stained), and even renting a steam cleaner with the accompanying chemicals. Nothing worked. We thought about getting rid of the carpet (which is actually a 12 x 14 "rug" over wood, which came with the house), but it's been there so long the wood underneath has faded. We thought about replacing it, but carpets/rugs that size are way more expensive than we want to spend right now. We tried rotating the carpet to see if the stains would be hidden under the couch, but they ended up in even more prominent space. We thought about covering them both with smaller throw rugs, but they are both in weird positions in the middle of walk space.

This has been driving me BONKERS. I could hardly stand to be in my own living room for the sight of these disgusting stains. And my resentment towards the Devil Dog was growing every time I laid eyes on them.

Until last weekend when on a last-ditch effort I once again googled "remove vegetable oil from carpet". I came across many, many suggestions---some quite outlandish! One site promotes WD-40 (you know, that oily stuff you use to get rid of squeaks in hinges) as a way to "reactivate" the oil and thus get rid of it. Um, egads.

But I did see one post from someone on a message board who tried a product called Capture, available at Home Depot. This person swore by it. As it happens we were at Home Depot on Sunday, and it was pretty inexpensive so I thought may as well try it, if it doesn't work at least I'm only out 15 bucks. 

I'm excited to report to you that this stuff WORKS!!!! It consists of a spray you mist on the stain, a powder you sprinkle over it, and a brush you use to rub the powder in deeply. Let it all dry and vacuum with your own regular vacuum cleaner, and voila! They should have named it Stains-Be-Gone.

So glad I found this stuff!!! Now I don't have to kill the dog. Until next time, of course...

Check out the after pic (with my adorable and perfectly well-behaved Cloudy making a cameo):

Lessons in Life and Death

A week ago today I blogged about standing vigil over my grandmother's deathbed. She passed peacefully at 4:30 am that Wednesday morning, with my dad and her nurse praying over her. As much as it pains us to lose her, I truly mean it when I say I am happy to know she is pain-free and finally with my Papaw in heaven.

My Mamaw taught me many lessons in life, but interestingly I find I am learning lessons from her even in her death. My mom's eulogy at the service spoke of many of the important things she taught us:

---Generosity
---Love and concern for others over yourself
---How to be a good listener
---Have a strong work ethic

Among many other things. Her one phrase that echoes in my mind a lot (especially when I am cleaning the house) is "if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing right." In other words, don't cut corners. This comes to mind pretty much every time I vacuum!

Mamaw's life lessons are important and they run deep in our family. That's no surprise to me, but it has been a surprise to find that even her death has taught me something very important. I am not articulating it as well as I would like but here goes: It seems like a cliche to say "Oh, I learned not to take loved ones for granted...", and that's not really it, exactly. It's more like I'm learning that everyone has a story, and it's important to know your loved ones' stories, to really know and understand who they are, outside of just the simple context in which you know them.

Here's what I mean: I only knew my Mamaw as an elderly lady who was crippled and always wore wigs. She was funny and kind and I loved her, but I never really saw beyond what was right in front of me. In the last few weeks it has truly been thrilling to discover she was so much more than I knew, and such an interesting character!

I feel like I knew pieces of her stories, some things about her, but I was never really able to put it all in a big-picture context to really know her, until now. And that's the lesson she has taught me in death: we are all so much more than the outward appearances of our current circumstances.

It has been a joy to hear stories of her as a young girl, to see pictures I know I have seen before but I am looking at in a whole new way now. Ruby Mae was something else! Just take a look at this little spitfire:

That's her on the far right...what a sassy little thing! What I love most about this picture is that the girls are all wearing pants, in a time when it was much more appropriate for young ladies to wear skirts. Finally, I know where I get my aversion to all things skirt-ly.

Ruby Mae was a flirt! One of her favorite things to do with her best friend Betty June was to sweep their tiny town for visiting soldiers and serve them a home-cooked meal. She must have had many beaus, and in this picture she is certainly having a ball:

And finally, my favorite picture of them all...Ruby Mae loved Jack Jackson, my Papaw:

Can't you just see the sparks flying?!

Here is the lesson, then: Mamaw was so much more than a funny and kind little old lady who wore wigs, and I'm only sorry that it took me so long to figure that out. But I can take that lesson and apply to others in my life, to show that I really did learn the things she taught me. In life Mamaw taught us good listening skills, and in her death she is teaching me how to really listen, to pay attention to all the things that make a person who they are today, not just the body that happens to be in front of me. What a fine lesson that is to learn!

Vermicomposting

Take a look at this and try to guess what it is:

If you guessed a big ole' bucket of worm poop, then you guessed right! (all the little squiggly things you see are not actually worms, but little pieces of shredded paper mixed in with the castings).

How did we come by this big bucket of worm poop, you ask? Simple: last summer we decided to experiment with worm composting, otherwise known as vermicomposting. We became interested in this due to my stepson's fascination with the worms in our square foot garden--he loves them. I had heard about composting using worms and so we decided to give it a try. It's actually really easy, fun for the kids, and great for the garden!

Our first step was to read the book Worms Eat My Garbage, which tells all about how to set up a worm composting farm and take care of the worms. Then we went to a garden show and saw how some other people had set up very simple worm farms using big Rubbermaid tubs. There are fancy worm farm set-ups available online, but they are kind of expensive--and it's much more fun to make your own! All you need is a big sturdy tub with a lid, in dark colors because worms like the dark. We drilled a bunch of airholes in the lid, filled the tub with shredded paper for the bedding, and ordered two pounds of worms on the internet! They tell us this was approximately 2000 worms.

All of this we did in October. Since then we have been giving the worms our kitchen scraps. They will eat pretty much anything, except it's not safe to give them meat or dairy products (those get smelly too fast) and if you give worms bread they will explode from the yeast. But all other fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, etc, they love! They also eat their paper bedding if they run out of food. One of the best parts about this whole thing is how easy and maintenance-free the worms are...we give them scraps every few days but there have been times we have forgotten about them for days or even weeks. They are almost totally self-sufficient as long as they are in a cool dark place and have enough bedding!

The one thing I was worried about was the smell---I have a very sensitive nose! But in all the months we've been giving them scraps not once has the bin ever smelled bad. We keep it in a closet in the playroom because they like dark, quiet places, and that closet is hardly used. I have never smelled anything in or near the closet, and every time we have opened up the bin I have only smelled a nice, earthy, garden-type smell, like good soil. That means our worms are healthy and doing their jobs right!

Recently we realized it was time to harvest the castings...otherwise known as poop. It's well known among gardeners that worm castings are extremely helpful to garden plants, they are so full of nutrients. Here is a great article about why.

Bless Bill's heart, due to my grandmother's illness he was left alone to the unlucky task of sorting through the bin and separating the worms from their castings. Not an easy or fun job, he tells me! But now we have a large tub full of worm castings. We can spread them directly on the garden just like regular compost, or we can make a tea by soaking them in water, then watering the plants with it. I'm also planning to use some of the castings for my gardening class this summer. I'm teaching 3rd-5th graders, just the perfect age to get a huge kick out of doing garden experiments with worm poop.

When Bill refilled the worm bin with new bedding and gave the worms fresh scraps, he noticed that there are suddenly a bunch of tiny baby worms. That's another sign that our worms are healthy and  happy....but in all honesty as much as I've enjoyed this project, I don't really want to give much thought to worm procreation. :)

If you have a garden, and if you have kids who like gross things like worms, this is an easy and educational project that I highly recommend! 

A Death Vigil

You might have guessed by the title of this post that it is a little on the morbid side. That warning being given, I don't believe that discussions of death need always be considered "morbid", if the discussion is treated with dignity and respect. I hope that what follows is read in the way that I mean it to be: with the utmost of respect.

My grandmother is dying.

She is 88, in acute liver failure, and has had a multitude of lifelong health problems. At this time she is barely conscious and only minimally responsive (at times). Although they tell us she is in no pain, it is clear that she is suffering from discomfort, restlessness, anxiety, and the itchiness that comes from the jaundice her liver failure has caused.

We have been keeping a 24-hour vigil by her side since last Thursday. My shifts are from 7 pm to midnight. In the long hours sitting in silence by her side, listening to the clock tick off the minutes left in her life, I have had a lot of time to think about her, her life, and our relationship.

Ruby Mae, otherwise known as Mamaw, is a most colorful character, although you wouldn't know it just to look at her. She suffered polio as a child and was permanently crippled. She has never danced a step in her life. She has always said the first thing she wants in heaven is a pair of high heels. We intend to place the tallest pair of heels we can find, red of course, in her casket.

Her husband, my Papaw, died 14 years ago. My fondest memories of them together are sitting in their living room listening to them talk over each other (and that infernally loud TV, due to Papaw's hearing loss) in two entirely different conversations, both of which you were expected to keep up with. I spent many nights with her. She would pull out the trundle under her daybed and give me caramel popcorn for dinner. She liked to listen to talk radio at night and I can remember many nights lying awake listening to it with her. She once took care of me for an extended period of time when my sister was very ill, and she bought me a Happy Meal every night. I thought I was in heaven.

More recently it has been a joy to peek through the scrapbook she put together in high school, and see the keepsakes of a beautiful and popular girl. It seems she made the keynote speech at every banquet, prom, and graduation there was in her high school years! She had many beaus and lots of friends.

Mamaw has always had an extraordinarily sly sense humor, being able to very quietly and very casually pop in humorous comments all the while pretending to be innocent. She occasionally has a potty mouth (this is where I get it from). At the same time she is most definitely the spiritual matriarch of our family, and no one who knows her has any doubt that she is headed directly to heaven.

It seems strange, these last few days, to know she is near death and will soon be gone, and yet be with her still. While I watch her sleep, I wonder if she is dreaming of her days as a young girl, of her siblings who are all long gone, of my Papaw, or of anything at all.  I think about my relationship with her: the words we have said and not said to each other, and I am glad to say I have no regrets. She loved me, and I knew it fully; I loved her, and I believe she knew it fully as well.

Standing guard over the last days and hours of her life has been emotionally and physically exhausting for us all, but none of us would choose any differently. My heart breaks for my cousin Angela, who by the circumstances of geography and advanced pregnancy can't be here with us. I miss her always, but now more than ever, and I wish to God she were here, as I know she does too. When I am with Mamaw I think often of Angela, and I hope that somehow Angela's love can be channeled through me so that Mamaw can feel it. My other cousins Becky and Kathy and Jason are far-flung as well, and I know their hearts are breaking too, that they are not here to share with us the honor of being with her in the end. I hope they all know that I stand guard in their honor as well, by proxy, as it were. 

My mom asked if I would be okay, if she were to die on my shift, while I am there with her alone. I believe I would be. My Papaw died suddenly, while I was hours away. I did not even get a chance to say a last goodbye to him. I feel fortunate to have this time with Mamaw, and I consider it an honor to be by her side in the last few days and hours of her life. If it so happens that I am present to witness the final breath she takes on earth, I will consider it a supreme honor, and I would only wish that I could be on the other side to witness her first breath in heaven. For I have no doubt that she will be greeted by the songs of angels, the smile of God, and the welcoming arms of Papaw and his great big guffaw. I can hear him now: "What took you so long?!"

I can't wait for Saturday...

So Bill and I (foolishly) volunteered to be in charge of the pie-throwing event at M's school festival this Friday. At the time I thought it would be fun and exciting and not a whole lot of work. Now that it's upon us I'm finding it much more stressful than I had imagined! Not that it's all that much work, per se, it's my own tendency to people-please that's getting in the way. They told us this was the most popular event last year and the biggest money-maker, so I feel enormous pressure to live up to that example, and make sure it is very successful! I've been worrying about this thing for weeks.

So far the hardest part was getting some of the teachers to be victims...um...I mean volunteers. Bill really rocked out on that task: he recruited 13! Woohoo! Next came posters to promote the event, and once again he saved the day by having the brilliant idea to place a picture of each victim in a pie tin and hang them in the cafeteria. What a hit!

Today I've been working on the shower curtain that will serve as the backdrop. The event is a Western county fair theme, so I've been going with "wanted" posters all along. I can thank my wonderful friend Stacie for helping me figure out the logistics of getting a wanted poster onto a shower curtain (let's just say it involved an old-school overhead projector, which in the days of SmartBoard technology are not that easy to come by anymore)!

It turned out much cuter than I had thought it would! I'm so pleased. Now if Friday would just get here and get over with, I'd be a happy camper....I'll be so glad when this is over!!!!

Spring Crafts

The instructions for these came out in the April edition of StepMom Magazine. They are easy and fun to make!

Fluffy Lamb Pencil Holder

Bunny Brooch

Bunny Pencil Topper

Tiny Bunny Basket