How I Survive Ironing Day: Tips and Tricks

Back in the day when all clothing had to be ironed, my great-grandmother would take ironing in to make money.  She would sprinkle the clothes with water and put them in a bag together overnight to get them all uniformly damp, so the wrinkles would iron out.  Now we use a steam iron.  My grandmother used to get together once a week with her sister to iron, toting all the kids.  They took turns buying and bringing a pineapple, and would eat pineapple, talk, laugh, and iron their way through the day.  My grandma fondly remembers how her mouth would get sour-sore after a eating half a pineapple. I love the thought of her on ironing day as a young mother and wife.

My own mother likes to iron.  She does it all at once and loves the sight of all the shirts and pants neatly pressed and hanging in a row.  When I was about 10, my mom went to her brother's wedding in Thailand and was gone for two weeks.  Before she left she taught me how to iron my dad's shirts.  Can you believe it? What a responsible girl I was!  The thought of turning my girls loose on the work shirts makes me more than a little nervous, I'll admit.  But I'm sure with the right training they would do a fantastic job.  I just need to work out how to leave for two weeks and make it a necessity...

 I've abhorred the thought of ironing since I got married.  As the homemaker and laundress I feel like it falls under my stewardship.  It makes sense, in a really dreary and terrible way.  For years I ironed Mr's shirts and pants every morning, procrastination-style.  It only takes about 7 minutes, but once the kids entered school it became a really precious 7 minutes.  I have struggled for years to get myself to do it all in one go, and the times I did it was very freeing to have it all done.  So much so that I found myself avoiding wearing my ironed shirts because I couldn't face having to iron them again.

About 3 years ago I decided to get this monkey off my back and do ironing right.  None of this last minute ironing, discovering a stain, and starting over on a new shirt, all while the girls clamor for lunches and help getting hair done.

The first thing I did was invest in a good iron.  I looked at many, some that cost as much as $200, and settled on a $70 iron at Smith's Marketplace.  The Rowenta DW4060.

I have a few requirements, and this iron met them all:

The iron must be heavy.  Another word for iron is "press" and you can't press worth a darn with a light-weight iron.

The surface of the iron has to be smooth metal, not teflon, not rough, but shiny metal.  This helps the iron glide easily.

The iron must have a large surface area, smoothing more fabric with every pass.

It must have a strong steam function.  Not a squirt/spray function, but steam.  I use starch on every shirt, and steam is vital to starch use.  It is also necessary for ironing khakis, chinos, and everything else that doesn't get starched.  I also keep a spray bottle of water on hand, to moisten those really stubborn wrinkles.

I use Faultless Professional starch.  I've used homemade before, and it was a fun novelty, but I switched back to purchasing it after I realized I had to mix it every time I wanted to iron.  It started to stink if I saved it from week to week.  And it flaked.

It needs to have a variety of heat settings.  This helps press synthetic fabrics without melting them, and makes it great for crafts as well.  Yes, I use the same iron for clothes and crafts.

The next thing I did was start purchasing and using distilled water.  For a long time I used tap water because I'm the ultimate cheap skate, but at 98 cents per gallon, I can have non-mineralized water that keeps my iron clean and functioning properly.  No more steaming through a cup of vinegar to clear out mineral deposits.  Horray!  And a gallon lasts me about a month.

I have a general problem of dropping my irons.  On my cement laundry room floor (see this post).  I sometimes can catch it by the cord, but not always.  This one has been dropped 2-3 times hard, and the plastic is cracked in a couple places, and the steam isn't as smooth as it was in the beginning.  It spits a lot.  Sometimes in an effort to save money we use something when it is truly no longer useful and suffer through it.  But when we look at the economy of  use, the amount of time spent using an item justifies its replacement on a regular basis when it no longer performs properly.  I have suffered a bit longer with this one because I didn't wear it out, I dropped it.  But I'm ready for a replacement and will most likely repurchase this iron.

I also learned to replace my ironing board cover more frequently.  I like a really padded cover, and have been known to put two on at a time if one isn't sufficiently dense enough.  I had been using the same beat-up, stained, yellowing one for 10 years.  I washed it once every six months but it was really an eye sore.  I was at Home Goods and discovered, much to my amazement, that there are many cute and stylish covers for under $15.  Again, economy of use says I should replace this every two years or so to keep my ironing board functional, have a proper pressing platform, and keep me enjoying this task that is part of my everyday life.

I use a full-sized adjustable height ironing board.  It's only my second one in 20 years, and I got it about 8 years ago, for Mother's Day.  We aren't going to talk about that here, but needless to say it turned out I was grateful for it in the end.  It is sturdy, long, collapsible, and height adjustable.

The last discovery I made was that ironing is soooooo much more pleasant when I watch something on TV.  I am not a TV watcher.  I love to watch movies on the weekend, but the TV is never on during the day.  Until now.  I decided that it would be my reward, my carrot, my incentive to get the ironing done and the laundry folded in a timely manner.  This was a tip from my mom, who loves ironing.  And now I do, too.

None of these things is new, novel, inspiring, or amazing, but it took me a good 15 years to figure them out on my own.  I know, it's really so sad.  So hopefully this will save at least one women the trouble.  The rest of you can just use this to get your laugh in for the day.  Go ahead.  I don't feel judged.

So I now find myself looking forward to ironing day, and to folding laundry.  Some days the girls will chide me about how much TV I've been watching, because I'm always telling them to quit watching it.  But my response is always, "come fold laundry and watch all the TV you want".  And they just grump and walk away.  Their loss.

I started watching "Lost" and that lasted a while.  Then I moved to "White Collar" which has become my all-time favorite series.  Such fantastic characters and story line, and it is pretty squeaky clean, approved for my 15-year-old save for a handful of episodes that I tell her to skip due to adult topics.  It really makes me want to live in New York.  The wealthy, privileged, criminal, cool New York.

I then moved on to "Leverage" which is in the same genre.  It took me a while to love it, but as the characters and story line developed I became more of a fan.  Again, it is atypically clean, complex enough, with lots of humor, and lovable main characters.  I'm two episodes away from finishing the series.  Now what?  Any suggestions?

It is unfortunate that I can't read and iron at the same time.  I could listen to a book on tape...CD...mp3...or whatever, and I may try that soon.  But for now I love whiling away my ironing hour watching an entertaining show.  It turns drudgery into a guilty pleasure, without any guilt whatsoever.  Housework hacked.

The Elephant in the Room: Un-diagnosed Medical Conditions and Families

So I've been gone a while.  The previous post about my Garmin watch...it was scheduled for July 22, but never published, so you get a two-fer today.  Yay!

I have many ideas swirling in my head about this blog.  I have tried several of them.  And I still feel at a loss, wandering the the miasma of the homemaking blogging world.  I am not a super-crafter.  I am not a photographer.  I am a woman, living a life with her family, making a home that is focused on God and family and struggling vainly to keep all the loose ends tied down.

I like to call it organic.  I think that means "lifestyle blog".  Am I right?  I don't know.  All I know is that my life involves many aspects, just like most women I know.  And over the summer things just got complicated, overwhelming, frazzled, and filled with fun with my kids.  I know I promised posts about free activities, parties, and food, but then life happened.  It has an annoying habit of doing that.

I've been dealing with an elephant in the room for the past 18 months.  It is big.  I want it to go away.  It is annoying and disruptive, and I like to ignore it. It has changed many things about our family life, the way we do things.  Some of them have been good changes, and some have been bad.  I can't share them all with you now, but I will start today with a little introduction to our big elephant.

My husband, Lance, has an un-diagnosed medical condition, sickness, ailment, whatever you want to call it.  We can't call it anything because no one knows what it is.  And it is deeply frustrating.

In February 2014 he had something that felt like a heart attack, which it wasn't, and for the next month we went to the ER probably 3 times for similar pain, as well as pain in the upper left quadrant of his abdomen.  He was scanned, ultrasounded, tested, CT'd, and every time came out 100%.

The only test he partially failed, as in 2% below allowable threshold, was a gall bladder ejection fracture, so it was decided to take that out.  It didn't help.

He went on a feeding tube for 18 days in March 2014, lost 30 lbs, started feeling better, went to the University of Utah Gastroenterology department, and was scoped through every inch of his digestive tract.  100%.  No answers.

He was having neck pain in August 2013 related to a bulging disc.  Finally found a doctor who admitted it was a problem and was willing to fix it.  Lance had Mobi-C disc replacement surgery between C6-C7 February of 2015.  It was a success, but still not a resolution to the overarching problem.

So while we feel blessed that he's not riddled with tumors, and that he keeps passing tests, we are beyond frustrated and tired of hearing that there is nothing anyone can do to help him.  We would love to have something to treat, to fight, to fix.

His energy is really low.  Simple things exhaust him.  He still has major headaches, pain in his abdomen, and now severe acid reflux, after the removal of his gall bladder.  And it all seems to be getting worse, rather than better.

We are so blessed that he is still able to work and provide for our family.  Having income, insurance, savings, and the other intangibles that being employed brings, makes us feel as if we can continue to search and fight for answers.

It has put our life on hold, however.  We have 15-, 13, & 11-year-old daughters, and it has been a real challenge to keep life going for them while our life is in limbo. They are the sweetest girls, taking care of him, and me, and helping us have joy in our family and home.  I know they are learning a lot.  Hopefully mostly good things...

I have completely lost faith in the healing power of the medical industry.  Nowhere can we find a doctor who is willing and able to start with the history, look at his global problem, think outside the box, keep in contact, and keep on trying to help my husband heal.

Throughout the past 18 months we have been surrounded by angels; family and friends who reach out in sympathy, empathy, and just listen.  I am forever grateful for them, and still rely on them heavily.

The end is not near, we have no answers, there is no plan, we are on our own.  I have a stack 3 feet high of books on healing your gut through food.  I won't lie, it's a daunting task.  I struggle to get dinner on the table without having to worry about dietary restrictions.  It frightens me.  And we still aren't sure if it is his gut at all.

But we have to keep trying.  We haven't been given trials so we can give up.  God has made us strong enough to make it through the kaleidoscope of challenges this experience presents.  We will conquer, we are just unsure of when that will be and how it will happen.

So in between crafts, recipes, fitness, nails, and fashion, tips, and other ways I try to hold on to my sanity, I'll be sharing a little bit more about the big elephant in our life, and how it affects our family.  This is the thing that will refine my family and make us fit for eternity, but it sure feels a lot like it's strangling the life out of me at the same time.

I look forward to sharing our journey with you in the hopes that I'll be able to make connections with women in the same boat, because I know there are a lot of you out there.  And it wouldn't hurt if we found the answer to his health crisis in the process.  And kept me sane.  That would be awesome.

Lots of love!