The stink is gone!!! Remember last week’s dryer with the rancid smell (You can click here if you missed that story), well the scrub down with vinegar, the thorough cleaning of the vent line all the way from dryer to the attic and then to the roof, with Jeff on the roof, and then the drying of a vinegar soaked cloth to send vinegar lint up into the vent area seemed to do the trick.  But the funny thing is I find I’m actually still not letting clothes sit in the dryer for extended periods anymore.  Rather I seem to be folding them as soon as the dryer stops.  And I’ve figured out a new way to ensure the clothes get put away.  I fold them at the kitchen table and put piles at everyone’s seat.  I then tell them if they want to eat dinner, they have to put their clothes away first.  (We’ll see how long this lasts though… it’s only been 5 days.)

Also, when I was upstairs in the attic cleaning out the dryer vent line, I brought down my fall decorations.  I love decorating for fall.  I usually do it right after the kids start school, so I’m actually a few weeks behind.  But anyway, I use all harvest types of decorations, rather than Halloween so I can leave it up through Thanksgiving.  But as it gets closer to Halloween, I’ll stick out a few jack-o-lanterns too.  All this rambling, leads me to my question for the day (thanks to my friend, Carrie getting me thinking about it): why do stores and neighbors seem to think it’s perfectly fun and acceptable to decorate as if it was a scene from a rated R horror movie?

When I walk into a drug store, I really don’t want to have to block my kids from a bloody, evil-looking display.  Last night at dinner, my boys were talking about how they only want to go trick or treating to the left of our house because the houses to the right are too scary.  Now I know that in my imperfection, I allow my boys at a young age (thanks to having a big brother) to watch and see way too much that other (better?) moms don’t allow their kids to watch: Star Wars, Clone Wars, Transformers, Pokemon… So I’m sure there are a lot of moms saying, “You’re not one to talk.”  But I don’t make anybody else’s kids watch those things… well I guess my boys are walking advertisements for them, and they do have lots of battles outside, and probably have introduced several friends to them… but still I don’t think anyone really has to shield their eyes when they walk past my house… and I wish I didn’t have to do that for my kids when I walk by other homes.

But I’m pretty sure my ramblings here won’t change anything, so I’ll continue to distract and shield my boys’ eyes and focus on the cute pumpkins and gourds and apples and hay bales and corn stalks and signs that say things like “Happy Fall Y’All!”  We’ll go apple picking and pumpkin picking and riding tractors full of hay and running through corn mazes and trick or treating and have a great time and we’ll try our best to ignore the other stuff.  Happy Fall Y’All!

♥Becki