I love baking soda

A week or so ago, Randall was playing with a pen that has the Cars character, Mater, on the top. It's one of those pens where you click the top to get the pen out. He was "drawing" circles on the couch with the pen. He thought the pen was still in, but he wasn't paying attention, because sometimes he would hold Mater while he "drew" and he ended up drawing in pen on my couches!!

When I noticed, I screamed. Not an "AAAAAAAAH!" kinda scream, but a "Randall, what are you doing?! You were writing on the couch! You don't write on the couch!" kinda scream. That might even be word for word what I screamed. I was furious. It had already been a frustrating morning with Russ whining and complaining about having to wear a button up (polo) shirt and his socks were bothering his feet and life, in general, just didn't suit him and such. I walked away from dealing with that to see ink circles on my couch and I just started crying.

Slade came in and just held me while I mumbled and vented into his shoulder. Randall was also crying, so I picked him up and cried with him. It was really pretty pitiful.

After I calmed down, I reminded Randall that he was not supposed to be playing with pens. (After our coloring on Mommy's brand new Bible episode, he was banned from using pens until college.) But, I made sure to also remind him that although I was very upset about the ink on our couch, I still loved Randall more than I cared about the couch. I told him that people are more important than things (I almost had to grit my teeth to get that out with the frustration I was feeling) and that he can never do anything that will cause me to stop loving him.

He stopped crying and I took a deep breath and did what any good mom would do... I googled "ink stain couch".

There are many remedies for removing ink from different fabrics and materials, but I was a little nervous to use many of them. Alcohol? Hand sanitizer? Yikes!

But, I figured the mix of baking soda and water sounded harmless enough. So, I got an old toothbrush and mixed about 1 t of baking soda with about 1 to 2 T of water. I just used the wet, runny mixture and gently scrubbed it on the ink stain. It worked! If I had been in a normal state of mind, I would have taken before and after pictures, but I was a little... irritated... and taking pictures was not exactly high on my list.

But, it worked and completely removed the ink! I couldn't believe it. I was thinking I would need this complex mixture of weird ingredients, but it was just baking soda and water.

Whew. So, now you know why I love baking soda.