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How to Remove a Stain from Almost Anything

by Deborah Cruz 2015/08/31

As a mother with young children, I am no stranger to stains — spit up, baby food, grass stains, coffee, and knocked-over wine, but my least favorite is blood. Not just because that means someone got hurt but also because it’s hard to get it out. It means extra work and time that I don’t have, precious time that I could be spending with my girls.

Both of my daughters are ballerinas. You might not think that would be a dangerous sport but if you add to it a hot, dry studio and a child prone to nose bleeds, you have a recipe for near-constant disaster. White cotton leotards and bloodstains go together like oil and water.

A bloody nose during ballet used to mean trashing the leotards, letting go, and buying a new one, but as the girls get older and the leotards get more expensive, that’s becoming less and less of an option. What’s a mom supposed to do?

Well, the solution is finally here. OxiClean™ Laundry Detergent is an all-in-one solution for all of your laundering* needs. It helps save time since it is the the best laundry stain remover and it helps you save money that you would have wasted on replacing stained items.

Blood is a protein-based stain that OxiClean™ Laundry detergent can help remove. As with all stains, the faster you can treat the stain, the better the results will be. I rinse the bloodstained leotard immediately and let it fully soak in cold water. Then I use a little bit of OxiClean™ laundry detergent to pretreat the stain, wait 10-15 minutes and then wash with OxiClean™ laundry detergent. Then, before drying the leotard, I double check to make sure the stain is completely gone.

The OxiClean™power we’ve all come to know and love is now available in a liquid laundry detergent.

It’s powered by three color-safe OxiClean™ stain-fighters that penetrate fabrics to get them really clean while removing a wide range of tough stains. It’s available in a Fresh Scent or Perfume and Dye Free.

OxiClean™ laundry detergent helps remove those stains that all of us moms struggle with: grass, blood, fruit juices, fruits, wine, chocolate ice cream, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and barbecue sauce. It helps me to be less uptight and just let my kids play and enjoy their childhood without worrying whether or not they are going to ruin their “good clothes” every time they wear them. Clothes are made to be worn, and life is made to be lived.

When I see my daughters dancing on stage, I don’t want to worry about whether or not their leotards are blood-stained. I know all the blood, sweat, tears, and years of dedication it took to get there. I want them to look clean, fresh, and ethereal when they dance, and OxiClean™ laundry detergent has the “wow factor” that allows my ballerinas to have the confidence to shine on stage, uncompromised by the limitations of bloody noses or anything else.

*Please follow manufacturer directions for your garments. For best results, pretreat stains with laundry detergent, wait 5-10 minutes and then wash.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by OxiClean™ through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about OxiClean™ n Laundry, all opinions are my own.

2015/08/31 0 comments

The Smell of Fresh Laundry Reminds me of My Childhood

by Deborah Cruz 2015/07/09

written by Deborah Cruz

Disclosure: This is a compensated post written as a part of my Suavitel ambassadorship agreement but my love for Suavitel and the nostalgia it brings are all my own.

Don’t you love it when you walk into a house or a room and it smells like freshly laundered linens? Or jumping into bed at night in clean sheets? It’s the best feeling in the world and it is my favorite smell. This is why the smell of Suavitel always reminds me of home. It reminds me of my childhood and folding laundry with my mom or jumping into warm, clean laundry before school on cold winter mornings.

For this reason, I love new fragrance pearls in-wash scent boosters. It not only smells amazing, it keeps that fresh smell lasting longer. You simply toss it into the washer before you throw your laundry in; add your detergent and then your fabric softener. It’s simple and the results are amazing with 5X longer lasting freshness, your clothes, your entire home, will smell awesome for weeks.

New Suavitel® Fragrance Pearls™ in-wash scent boosters with micro-encapsulated technology helps families extend that feeling of comfort and those exquisite aromas synonymous with a fresh load of laundry. It’s safe for all fabrics and washer settings. They’re the perfect addition to my laundry routine.

As a household staple for many Latinos, as I know it was in my house growing up, the Suavitel® brand has become synonymous with a feeling of comfort reminds me of home, more specifically, my mom. It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in a house with my mom. I miss her often but when my home is filled with the fresh scent of Suavitel, like my mother’s house, it makes me feel closer to her. It brings us closer even when distance keeps us apart.

Suavitel® Fragrance Pearls™ in-wash scent boosters are now available at retailers nationwide in 21.5 oz., 14.7 oz. and 6oz. bottles. Available in two irresistible scents, the Fabulous Field Flowers® and Soothing Lavender® variants of Suavitel® Fragrance Pearls™ in-wash-scent boosters deliver longer lasting freshness to your family’s laundry. I love them because they make that feeling of being home, even when I’m away from home, last longer.

Remember, you can add just a little or a lot. It all depends on what you want out of your fragrance booster. I prefer a lot because I want the smell of fresh laundered linens to greet me every time I enter my house.

If not Suavitel, what smell reminds you of home?

2015/07/09 0 comments

Home Latina

Suavitel Smells Just like Home

by Deborah Cruz 2015/05/06

written by Deborah Cruz

Disclosure: This is a compensated post written as a part of my Suavitel ambassadorship agreement but my love for Suavitel and the nostalgia it brings are all genuine.

You know how certain sights, sounds and smells remind you of special times and places in our lives? We all have them. Suavitel is one of those smells for me. It reminds me of home, more specifically my mom.

My mom has used Suavitel fabric softener for as long as I can remember. The house that my mom lives in, where I grew up, still smells like Suavitel because the fragrance permeates the sheets, covers, towels and clothes. As soon as I walk in the door, I know I’m home because I’m greeted by the smell of Suavitel and a hug from my mom.

I know, I sound like a super weirdo but it’s sort of how when you open an old storage tub of your big kid’s newborn clothes and you just sniff in all of that sweet baby goodness. No? It’s just me? Of course, I even relate that new baby smell with Suavitel because its what I’ve always used.

Honestly, I tried other fabric softeners when I first went away to college because that’s what all the other kids were using but it was missing something. It smelled awesome but it just didn’t smell like home and I missed home. I really missed my family and I especially missed my mom so I started using Suavitel and never looked back. To this day, Suavitel is the only fabric softener that I use. I hope one day that my girls will crack open a bottle of Suavitel in their local Target and think of me fondly.

New Suavitel^® Fragrance Pearls^TMin lavender or field of flowers scents with micro-encapsulated technology provides 5X longer lasting fragrance vs. using detergent alone.

Toss a little or a lot into the washing machine at the beginning of the wash and let its long lasting scent system work its magic for clothes that smell fresh for weeks. It’s best if used with Suavitel fabric softener.

What smell reminds you of home and your mom?

My whole house smelling like Suavitel for weeks on end is like one long hug from my mom.

2015/05/06 1 comment

home, house, home is where the heart is, moving, selling, buying

Parenting

Home is Wherever the People you Love Are

by Deborah Cruz 2012/07/02

written by Deborah Cruz

Home is More than Where You Live

Relocating~ The past few days were spent packing up our home; the house we’ve lived in since Bella was 5 months old. She is 7 years old and 4 months old. This is the house where I truly came into my mommy skin. It is where Bella crawled underneath the Christmas tree and stared up at the lights in complete awe. This is where we all had a lot of our firsts. It is the home where the Big Guy and I finally felt ‘home’. The home that Gabi was conceived in and brought home to and greeted by kisses and squeals of joy by her big sister. It will no longer be ours. It was the first home we lived in as a family. Soon, it will be where memories are made for another family.

I’ve been so caught up in moving forward & surviving the past 3 years of upheaval that I never let myself grieve for the loss of our home. Our. Home! The home where the Big Guy and I first heard the words muttered “ Mama & Dada” uttered from tiny mouths. The home where both of our daughters celebrated their first 4 birthdays will no longer feel the electric energy of both sides of the family gathering in celebration and love of our girls or my husband pouring every ounce of Daddy love into making the girls the birthday cake of their heart’s desire. My dad will never play his guitar and sing to my girls in that house. There will be no more annual Thanksgiving Rock Band marathons after turkey in our media room in that house. There will never be another Fourth of July spent in our back yard with all of our friends and family playing corn hole and having spontaneous water fights. I will miss all of that.

As I packed the sum of our life until now, I’d come across a binky, stuffy or some other newborn toy that I know we’ll never need again & my heart sunk a little thinking of the children I raised in this house and the one that I lost, who I will never see smiling up at me from the jumper in the bedroom door jam. The baby who I will never walk around our neighborhood at dusk, as the streets were flooded with our neighbors walking off the day. Sitting on the back deck sipping coffee with the man of my dreams, listening to the morning birds in the early sun as the girls sleepily found their way into our laps. Seeing the yard where the sign stood welcoming Gabi home reminded me of how I felt that day. The happiness and joy that I felt through my exhaustion at my two beautiful, perfect daughters. The neighborhood where both girls celebrated their first Halloweens dressed as the cutest pumpkins I have ever seen. The house where my girls made their first friends had first play dates and learned the value of a good friend. The back deck where the Big Guy placed a corsage on Bella’s wrist at the tender age of three for her first Daddy and Daughter dance just so he could set the standard of respect and love that our girls would demand from all men henceforth.

Home is All the Love that Fills a House

This home was filled with the laughter of the people we love so much, tears of joy and pain as we endured hurts and embraced firsts. The home where I had a 1 year old Bella toddle over to her Daddy and hand the Big Guy a card and a small box which held inside of it one of the greatest gifts I could give him, the announcement of our second pregnancy. Our home where the Big Guy got down on one knee and proposed to me, 11 years after our wedding just because I never got the down on one knee proposal of my dreams the first time. This is why he IS the man of my dreams. In our home, this is where the Big Guy encouraged me to pursue my dreams of becoming a writer and start this blog. He gave me the support to give it my all and the love to continue on even when I felt no one else was listening. He was my first ‘fan’, he is still my biggest fan and that means something to me.

This home is where the four of us became a family and learned the meaning of the bond two people share once they have children together. It is the house where I learned that my heart could walk around freely outside of my body and I could survive. It’s where I realized that marrying your soul mate means someone to share everything with and to bring you unfathomable joy but it also means that you have more to lose than anyone else. It’s where we learned that when you have a second child, your love and attention does not split; your heart and love double, at the very least. It’s the house where I learned that unconditional love is not only possible, it is by far my greatest privilege to be able to give it to these other three people and my honor to receive it from them. I am blessed beyond measure and thankful to have them to love, every single day of my life. A place cannot contain heart bursting unconditional love, heartbreaking memories and the feeling of really belonging, these all reside in your heart and that goes with you wherever you go.

When I pull away from our home that final last time later this week, I know I will cry for all the growing we did there; all the experiences we had together; gummy smiles and realizing our family was growing, Sunday’s when daddy had to leave, teaching the girls to ride their bikes and watching as they were born, then watching them grow from newborn, to toddler, preschooler and the first day of school. The beginnings of the growing up and letting go of the most important things in my life all started here. I’d like to take it all and put it in my mind on an endless loop, like a memory hoarder but then there would never be room for new experiences. I look forward to the next chapter of our lives together. I am excited and elated knowing that we will be in a home together, just the four of us again, going to bed and waking up and everyone being in the same house. I will cry when I say goodbye to the only home the four of us have ever known but I will be thankful for living the experience. Home is where your heart is even when your belongs are long gone.

Home is Where Your Heart Is

2012/07/02 12 comments

Mommy Truisms

What Might Have Been~ Being Home

by Deborah Cruz 2012/03/18

written by Deborah Cruz

Being Home; Where the Heart Is

Being Home ~ I’m sure many of you who read this blog regularly have been wondering where the hell I have been. Life’s been incredibly busy lately. I know, you are all playing your tiny little violins and having a teenie tiny pity party for me. It’s okay. It’s been busy and chaotic but in a really wonderful way. I’m trying to get my bearings in a new reality. It’s sort of like learning to walk for the first time. I’m a bit wobbly and I’ve fallen a couple of times ( metaphorically) i.e. the missing in action status. I am here, reading your comments and missing you all desperately but it seems every time that I turn around some new and exciting situation is presenting itself .

Aside from all of the wonderful working opportunities that we have been blessed with lately, there has been a house on the market for over a year now that we desperately want to sell so that we can move out of a holding pattern and on with our lives. This past week we were informed on a Tuesday that we needed to relocate our packed boxes out of our garage and storage area in our basement and to a storage facility. Yes, we needed to move all of our stored belongings out of our $1300 a month storage unit ( the house we pay for and don’t live in) and into another storage unit (an additional $100 a month for storage, 4 days away from work, $60 for a uhaul to move the boxes and my husbands back that went out while moving the boxes). This was all done because a potential buyer couldn’t see passed the stacked boxes of our lives in the garage. This is how desperate we are to sell this house. Have I mentioned that we have been living in a bedroom at my in laws?

Being Home is like returning to the only place you truly know

While we were there, I was flooded with what might have been. This is the house we moved to when Ella was 5 months old. We uprooted our entire lives so that we could raise our girls nearer to family. This is the house where Ella said her first words, learned to walk, had her first play date and celebrated every single birthday up until this year. This is the house where Abbi was conceived, came home from the hospital to, learned to roll over and crawl, say mama and got her first booboo. This is where she came home and danced in her very first pair of ballet slippers, this is the place she became a little girl. This is the house where the Big Guy got down on his knee and re-proposed, on our 11th wedding anniversary because the first time he was too nervous and just blurted it out. This house has been our home almost since we have become a family. Within these walls, I learned the true definition of what it is to be a mothers. Being home, I realized that this house holds my heart.

Life has been difficult for the past 3 years with all the moving, job changes, commuter marriage, changing schools and now living with our in laws. The girls have missed a lot of the type of childhood that we had dreamed for them. Don’t get me wrong, they are blessed. We all are. We have our health ( knock on wood), we have love and we are together. Really, what more could you hope for in life?

I mean the little things, the simple things that we all take for granted that I was reminded of this weekend in our home. Sleeping in your own bed. Knowing that you are home. Playing with your toys without rebuke or being chastised for making a mess.Sitting down for dinner just the 4 of us, at our table and talking, laughing, being sincerely happy. Being home. Watching the girls play with all their toys, climbing on the swing, and playing with their neighborhood friends made me happy.Going to familiar places, driving down familiar streets and being someplace where you feel you belong; like falling into a comfy lounge in the warm sun. Being home.

That’s where I’ve been. I’ve missed you madly. I loved being home, even if it had no internet and it was pack and move stuff to storage. There is no option for us to return to that city. It’s hard to say goodbye to the only “home” we’ve ever known.

How do you say goodbye to people and places that are your home; the very things that make up your memories? How do you leave after being home?

Being Home is being where You are Loved

2012/03/18 8 comments

Confessions Parenting

Bringing Home Baby

by Deborah Cruz 2009/05/17

written by Deborah Cruz

I will never forget the moment the nurse came into my hospital room and said, ” OK, as soon as we can get you a wheelchair, you guys can go home.”

She shared a warm, heartfelt smile with the three of us, this new little family of ours. My heart sank, my stomach turned, and my eyes immediately welled up with tears. I was frightened and overwhelmed, excited and ecstatic but I felt like I was going to vomit.

I looked at my, obviously, just as freaked out husband and I whispered, ” Are they really going to let us go home with her?” I knew the answer.

I had been planning on this moment since the moment I knew I was pregnant. But amongst all the anticipation, I had forgotten that, in the end, this tiny, perfect newborn baby was going home with us.

I thought to myself, “My God, what will we do with her? She is so tiny”

In my head, I just knew, she was so perfect. I didn’t want to be the one responsible for messing her up. They make you take a test and get a license to drive a car but no test, no license, no qualifications for taking care of a baby. It really is insane.

At that moment, as we were staring at this tiny little piece of perfection strapped into the giant, all engulfing car seat, scared witless, the nurse came in with the wheelchair. I exhaustedly sat down in the wheel chair and embraced my new life. A baby had changed everything.

I realized that this was truly the first day of the rest of my life. Absolutely everything that I had known up to that point was completely irrelevant in my life and I didn’t care. As they placed my beautiful, little miracle into my lap, our eyes locked and her gaze held me. I fell in love, deeper then anything I have ever known to that point. In that millisecond, I became an extra in my own life and she is the star…and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

2009/05/17 7 comments