Mama's Got the Magic!

A lot of people have asked about the white pillow case that was sent to camp with Caleb (his choice, not mine!). Remember this post? Well, I took a few pictures of him holding the pillow after he got back home, but for some reason, the dirt didn't show-up. The pillowcase actually looked clean! Here's a picture I took with a little hankie I tucked inside his sleeping bag as a surprise. Even though he had an extra pillowcase to use, he chose not to. I guess that's what happens when you sleep in a tipi filled with Indians!



Because I'm one of those mothers, I spritzed my perfume on this little hankie (you know, to remind him of home), put it in a baggie with a love note, then hid it in the bottom of his sleeping bag. I know. I know. Probably a bad idea...I don't think he'll ever forget it though. He said he kept thinking there was a tag inside the sleeping bag that kept sticking to his leg. It annoyed him so much he finally reached down inside and found the baggie with my note and the hankie. It must have been OK for him to find my little surprise. He tucked the hankie inside his pillowcase where it stayed the entire time he was at camp. Unlike the coffee container, I don't think he shared this with his friends.



These are Rachel's favorite PJ bottoms. She wore these when the girls slept on the beach one night. They had to go around the island looking for firewood. The color of the soil is quite lovely. Rich black dirt. Not such a good thing to get ground into the hems of baby pink polyester fluff.

But NEVER FEAR...



Mama's got the magic!



And this is the collection of filthy socks. No, they weren't walking around outside without shoes on (mostly). Remember, Caleb's tipi had a dirt floor. He said he tried to balance himself while putting his shoes on so his clean socks wouldn't touch the ground, but it didn't always work out that way. Then the inside of his shoes got dirty which just ground the dirt in the bottom of the socks all the more. Even though Rachel was inside a cabin with wooden floors, the girls would bring dirt in on the bottoms of their shoes and, of course, the dirt found its way onto the bottom of their socks too. Rachel was known as Cinderella. It was her job to sweep the floor of the cabin every day.

But NEVER FEAR...



Mama's got the magic!

Somehow I didn't take a picture of the pristine white pillowcase after it had been laundered, but trust me, it turned out sparkling white.

Recipe for Mama's Got the Magic

What you will need:

Washing machine filled with very hot water and:

1 cap full of Liquid Cheer
1 scoop of Biz
1 cup of Clorox Bleach

For extra dirty white clothes (like the socks above), I reset the agitator on the washing machine to run through three times. The water was brown just before it went to the rinse cycle. As you can see, even the dirtiest socks came out clean. I have washed grass green socks this way and even they come out clean.

For Rachel's PJ bottoms, I sprayed them with Shout! then sprinkled Biz directly on the hems. I then sprinkled the Biz with a little bit of water, then let the PJs sit in the sink for an hour or so. I scrubbed them by hand and then rinsed them out. Then I just washed them with Liquid Cheer and Biz (no Clorox) with similar clothes. Even I was surprised by how clean they came out. And Rachel was very, very happy!

And just for the record, no, I don't usually take pictures of our dirty laundry. I knew this would make for a great blog post and a valuable recipe for someone out there stuck with dirty white socks!

Yours Truly,