Jump off a 3 story building without a parachute or net
OR
get run down by a 3.5 ton elephant?

Seems like a pretty absurd dilemma!  My answer?  No thanks to either one!!!

Absurd as it may seem, you’re choosing one or the other when you decide not to wear your seat belt and get in a car accident, at just 30 mph.

Wear seat belts.  Always.  All the time.  Never go without.  Even on short drives. And in the back seat.

…and always sit in the back seat if you are not driving.  The “death seat” is the passenger seat next to the driver of an automotive vehicle. It is so called because this seat is said to be the most dangerous one when there’s an accident.

S eatbelts
A re
F or
E veryone

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among those aged 1-54 in the U.S.   –  US CDC Injury Control

With seat belts the risk of fatal injury is reduced by 45%, and the risk of moderate to critical injury is reduced by 65%.

My husband and I lost a best friend in a car accident when he was 21 years old.  He was driving on a rural back road, lost control of his car and crashed into a stone wall.  One of the paramedics first on the scene was my father-in-law.  He said that the vehicle was “barely” damaged, and had our friend been wearing his seat belt, he would have walked away with a couple of scrapes. Instead, his head hit the windshield and he snapped his neck.

Sorry to be so morbid, but it’s another of those life lessons I learned the hard way and want to save you from.  I have not gone on any car ride since the day of my buddy’s death without buckling in.

That sinking feeling you get in your gut when you see the bacon grease splash up from the pan onto your favorite pair of jeans…

or worse…

That nauseated feeling you get when you pull your beautiful shirt out of the dryer and see a set, pinkish stain that you must have missed when you put it in the washer to begin with.

Rule #1:  The minute you see the stain, you treat it.  Most likely if you do, you can get the stain right out…no matter what it is…grease, strawberry juice, grass, blood.

Rule #2:  Check your clothes before you wash them, in case you’ve missed something when it occurred. Best not to dry a stain.  This will set it and make it much more difficult to remove.

Rule #3:  Don’t panic.  This stain remover formula is truly supernatural!

My sister worked in an Assisted Living Facility/Nursing Home and the employees who helped launder bedding, towels, etc passed on their tip for removing tough stains.

Drum roll please…

Will need:
-Small, empty spray bottle
-Old toothbrush
-Dawn Original Dish Detergent
-Hydrogen Peroxide

Mix 1 part Dawn detergent with 2 parts hydrogen peroxide in the spray bottle.
(In other words, 1 cup Dawn & 2 cups
hydrogen peroxide, or 2 cups Dawn &
4 cups hydrogen peroxide, or 3 cups Dawn
& 6 cups hydrogen peroxide…am I being a bit redundant here?!)

Shake vigorously.  Shake, shake, shake!  Work those arms!

Now you can liberally spray this onto the affected area, and start scrubbing at it with the toothbrush.  You should see the stain start to fade, right before your very eyes. Yay!

     

     

Then you’ll want to take said tainted garment and place it in your washing machine, in a hot (as hot as your machine gets) water soak with one
Oxi Clean packet for 3-4 hours. Then wash as directed.

CHECK to see if the stain is gone before drying.  If not, repeat above steps.

*Disclaimer:  Notice I didn’t list nail polish as one of the villains that this über stain battling formula can remove.  Alas, although this superpower is superior to any stain fighter I’ve come across, nail polish is the one villain that it hasn’t yet defeated. “Where an irresistible force meets an immovable object.”

As a matter of fact, I don’t know of any way to remove a nail polish stain. Do you?  I could certainly use the tip… 

For weeks after buying our brand new couch, I would hiss at my husband any time he came near it with food, drink, or just his possibly dirty hands/feet/clothes.  And of course… one day I decide to apply a new coat of nail polish to my toes, “Red Hot Tamale”, lose control of the brush and send a red hot streak flying through the air onto the front of the couch.  Did I mention it was a big streak? This was years ago and my husband still points to it whenever I try to get upset with him about any mishap he may have had.  Because mine will always be much, much worse.

Yeah right, Mom… Whatever… Uh huh, sure, Mom… Ok, whatever you say… Gimme a break, Mom…  (Cue the eyes rolling into the back of the head!)

Let me reassure you all that I make no claims to be an expert at doling out advice.  I am not a rocket scientist, psychiatrist, psychologist, celebrity chef, renowned homemaker or anything remotely that exciting.

…I’m just hoping that collectively we’ll be experts!

I hold out no hopes that one day my beach rose will read this and actually follow our advice…

though she should.

This is my first tip.  Mom says, read this blog!  (Do I hear an “Oh please, Mom…”?!)

The weight behind my “words of wisdom” lay in the fact that I’ve learned through personal experience and want to help ward off unnecessary embarrassment, hand-wringing, etc that comes from learning life lessons the hard way – by living through them. Granted surviving life’s hardships is a necessity in character building, right? (At least that’s what my Mom always said!).  But maybe avoiding some of them would be a nice treat?!

Wouldn’t it be nice if you got a manual, step-by-step instructions on how to live your life with the least amount of aggravation, angst, anxiety, humiliation & failure from the day you were born? Well, I promise that this isn’t a tutorial on how to live your life. (That would definitely provoke eye rolling!) Instead, consider this a bit of insight into what I’ve found worked in my life & what would have helped to know about those things that didn’t work so well along the way.