Our Family Motto: What's That Smell?

The most frequently asked question in our home is, "What's that smell?"

The other day, there was such a smell coming from the laundry room that I actually closed the door between the laundry room and the kitchen, and opened the other side of the laundry room to the garage to air it out a bit. You know it's bad when the garage smells better than the laundry room!

Having avoided doing laundry for a few days, I decided to brave the stink, for the sake of clean underwear. I started to run a load of clothes, and as the water filled the basin, the smell was putrid. Worse than dirty diapers. More like rotting roadkill.

Not wanting to make a grisly discovery myself, I asked my husband to take a look inside the machine. I was sure there would be something dead at the bottom of the barrel. Dutifully, he removed the wet stuff from the full washer one article at a time. When he got down to the bottom, he found the offending article. "Honey, what's this?" I peeked around the corner and saw him holding up dripping wet a Blue's Clues beach towel with big, brown splotches.

My mind was jogged back to a major chocolate milk spill earlier in the week. "I think it's chocolate milk," I said. (See, it's not as bad as you thought it would be.) But it sure did stink! I had grabbed the big towel to help mop things up. When I finished, I tossed the towel into the washer and forgot about it. Oooh-whee!

In case you're wondering how to remove the smell of spoiled chocolate milk from a towel, I used Tide and chlorine bleach. That almost worked. A subsequent wash with Tide and Borax did the trick.

More fun than ecards: custom Snowball Fight!

This speaks for itself. Another fun web application that lets you upload your own photos and put your face into a silly video. This one's from JibJab, and I think it's even better than ElfYourself. There are a couple of free "Sendables" you can customize (like the snowball fight here), as well as some you have to pay for. I love these things! Enjoy!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Are you a Slasher? Hint: most moms are!

You may have heard of a new trend in career designations recently. The "Slash Career" is gaining acceptance among mainstream workers. The Slash (/) is no longer reserved for the starving creative types, as in Actor/Busboy, Artist/Barista, Singer/Waitress, etc.

Nowadays, the Slash is popping up between more white collar and upper-middle class professional titles, such as Lawyer/Event Planner, and Executive/Life Coach. People who successfully manage dual careers seem to thrive on the variety in their lives. You know, like pretzels dipped in chocolate. I like pretzels, and I love chocolate. But when you put them in the same bite, they're both even better!

Even though today's hip, modern Slash Careers are getting more press, we all know that mothers are the original Slashers. I'm a mom, and I never know what to put down for "Occupation," when I fill out a form. At first, when I was a new mom, I continued to use my former occupation. My "real" job.

It's been a while since then, and I've gotten over it. The older I get, the less I care about what other people think of me. I'm completely consumed, fulfilled, and exhausted by my current profession as a mom working from home. So what do I write on the form? It's hard to sum up what I do in just one word. But when I start listing the things I do for a living, it seems kind of arrogant to try to write them all down. I mean, who do I think I am? Wonder Woman? I just do what every other mom does... A little bit of everything!

So I usually just choose the occupational titles that mean the most to me personally: Wife and Mother. The other stuff is important, too, and the variety of activities is stimulating and delicious. But in the big picture, all the housework, blogging, entrepreneurial endeavors, and even charitable activities, pale in comparison to the significance of the work I do with my family. Yep, Wife/Mother. That's me.

My own turkey tale: misadventures in roasting

I know it's not even Halloween yet, but with the kids' school "fall" parties (they don't call it "Halloween" anymore, apparently) finished up and Christmas merchandise already showing up at Target, I can't help but think ahead a bit.

I've been putting together a page on Thanksgiving recipes over at Squidoo. It's been a lot of fun researching the various ways of preparing turkey, carving turkey, mashing potatoes, etc. It has me reminiscing about my first Thanksgiving with my husband, and that always makes me laugh. So in the interest of sharing a smile today, here is my personal, embarrassing turkey misadventure story. Enjoy!

We'd been married about six months by our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple. We lived in an apartment with a small electric oven. I was so excited! You know... "Look at me! I'm such the little wife cooking for my new hubby..."

I roasted a turkey, fixed up the trimmings, complete with cranberries from a can and Stove Top stuffing. When it was finished, he carved up the bird, my manly husband, and discovered something strange inside the breast. What the heck?! Did we get a defective turkey?!

We examined the pale, wrinkled, alien membrane, and figured out that I had forgotten to remove the bag of neck and giblets before I cooked the turkey. Yes, the bag of turkey guts was still inside, like an unexpected prize inside a cereal box. But instead of a super secret spy decoder ring, it was a baked bag of neck, gizzard, liver, and heart. Now, I'm sure that lots of people love to eat those parts, but we are not those people. I was quite embarrassed, especially when he told his mother about it. Fortunately, I have an excellent sense of humor. ;-) We still laugh about it!

And in case you're wondering, the rest of the turkey was fine. We still ate it, we're still married, and we're still laughing about it, twelve years later!

lots of kids, lots of shoes

Lots of kids, lots of shoes