One Not-so-fun Day

Cold & Flu Season.

Yuck.

Yesterday was, well, was not fun. At all. Luke and Libby got hit hard with the virus that Abby had last week. Coughing and sneezing, green gunk flying, clear gunk flying, fevers running high, the kids spent most of the day in front of the TV. They didn't want to eat anything, just sit there. And I was 100 percent fine with that because there wasn't any whining involved. I don't know what happens as we get older but kids (or at least mine) don't have the "oh, poor me" attitude that I know that I have when I get sick. So I'll look to that encouragement as I'm starting to feel a little tickle in the back of my throat. I suppose it is bound to happen, I've been around this stuff 24/7 for about 6 days now. How long can one's immune system hold out?

So I was able to sort and do the laundry. I was so excited because it looked like I was going to get it all done. Record time. I threw in the last, smallest load. It was a load of whites. Diligently, I went through and did the pre-treating; setting the stained clothing on the top of the washer. Swoop - I threw it all into the washer, put in the soap and set it for the Kid's Care setting - a super hot, long wash cycle meant to get the toughest stains out (we got a new awesome washer and dryer thanks to Mike's bonus). Finally, after the 1 1/2 hour cycle - I went to put the wash in the dryer.

Oh, horror!!!!!!

Everything looked HORRIBLY dingy. Like it had a brown tint. Like our new washer just bled rust into the whole wash. I felt sick. I came down to show Mike one of his shirts.

"Umm, is it just me or does this not look right?" Sincerely, hoping it was just me.

"No, it's not just you. It looks horrible. Like you washed something new and brown with it."

Thinking there was no way that that could have happened I went up the stairs to the laundry room. I start pulling out item by item. Could that have done it? There's a bit of orange on this white t-shirt. How about this? There's red elastic on these Spiderman underwear (Luke's of course). Then I pulled IT out.

A pair of almost new brown tights, from an earlier load. These were not supposed to go in the dryer, so in my haste I put them on top of the washer instead of hanging them up. Right where I threw my pre-treated clothes that I swooped into the washer. Honestly, I said, "Wow, this day can't get any better, can it?"

I'm probably living in an illusion but I plan on getting some Rit Dye Remover and hopefully, it will work on all the pure white items. The rest I'll just have to live with or turn into rags or maybe cover up tender young plants in the spring with. But, I've learned my lesson. Don't try to do too much when your kids are sick, you're not thinking straight and you are too much in a hurry.

*sigh*