Just rub some dirt on it

Baseball season is here.  This year is going to be so easy compared to years past.  I only have 2 playing instead of all 4.  It was a little crazy when they all played, but Hop has chosen lacrosse, and he can drive himself & Elizabeth is dancing, so that eases things up a bit.

With a new season here, that means for almost every family, the trying on of cleats, pants, belts etc.  I am excited to say that the only thing we needed was new pants for Harry, the picky one.  How we managed this feat I will never know, but so far, so good.  Poor Henry will never get anything new because of 2 older brothers.  It's life...

So, earlier this week Hop needed to go to Academy sports for some lacrosse balls.  'Fine,' I said.  I didn't have to drive him so it's a little hard for me to complain when he wants to do something for himself.  Harry had been bugging me about his pants, so I told him to go with Hop to the store to get some.  (I had forgotten that Harry likes to get the most expensive things on any rack.  Needless to say I was hoping he would use good judgement & not buy the $50 pair of baseball pants.)  I am happy to note that he did come home with an appropriate pair of baseball pants.  (big sigh of relief here!)  But, there's always a but isn't there?  But, this morning he came down with said pants and said:  "Um, mom, last night at practice I slid and I slid so hard I had a 1/2 inch of dirt caught up under my belt.  Don't worry I vacuumed it off the floor, but could you wash my pants?"

I looked at the pants & FTL (for the love) it looked like he a wallowed around in the mud.  Really, I'm not kidding.  The entire side of one of the legs, the fanny, and the entire front was red.  And not the surface kind of red, but the ground in kind.  Brand new white pants were not white any more.  Why are baseball pants white?  I mean, shouldn't we get some that don't show dirt? I told him to put them in the laundry room because I was going to have to do some serious work to get the stains out. 

We've been playing baseball 11 years.  Never once in those 11 years have I been able to bleach, oxyclean, or detergent the stains completely away.  It's frustrating.  I would like to have fresh looking pants for the 1st game, but have never been able to pull it off.  Until today...

...I remembered a book I have somewhere in this house titled 'How to clean almost anything', so I start hunting it down.  I couldn't find it, but then I remembered I have a wonderful thing called the world wide web!  How our parents survived without it, I'll never know.  Anyway, I went to Google & typed in what I needed to know & you know what I found out?  Murphy's Oil Soap.  Yep, MOS.  I'm thinking there is no way that it's going to get out the stains, but at this point, I had nothing to lose, so while the pants were dry I coated the spots with the stuff.  I let is sit for 15 minutes & then started rinsing it out with hot water.  The mud was coming off!  OH MY GOODNESS, I couldn't believe my eyes, it was great!  So, I decided to repeat the process, and even more came out.  I'm now on my 3 time & for this step I started scrubbing the spots before I left them to sit.  The stains were disappearing before my eyes.  I'll have to let you know later if the stains come completely out, but so far so good.

I just wanted to pass this onto everyone since it's time for America's game to commence.  As Aunt Bethany says in Christmas Vacation:  "Play Ball!"

Y'all be blessed beyond measure,
~ashley