My 12 year old daughter attended an environmental camp over a month ago. She had to pack everything from t-shirts to a winter coat. Ohio weather is unpredictable. It’s not unusual to run your heat and your air conditioning in the same day.

My kid left, and came home, with So. Much. Stuff.

When she returned, her old backpack, which was used for daytime jaunts around the camp, was emptied and tossed to the bottom of the basement stairs. It wasn’t something that needed to be cleaned right away, because she rarely uses it. So, there it sat, on the floor, until I had room in the wash to throw it in. That was yesterday.

The quilt from her bed was the only companion to the backpack in the washer. I played it safe and cleaned them in hot water, given that her quilt is covered with the hair of our younger dog, who loves to snuggle…and shed…and the basement floor is covered with, who knows what.

When the timer went off, I went downstairs, lifted the washer lid and out wafted the most horrid smell my poor nose has ever come across. I pulled out the backpack and noticed that it was unzipped. Then I removed the quilt to find this sitting underneath.

People, that used to be a sandwich.

Apparently, the backpack wasn’t emptied OVER A MONTH AGO and this thing has been decomposing the entire time. All hail the generic zipper bag that kept the contents from oozing out and stinking up my house…until the washing machine got hold of it. Not until then, was the full power of stench released.

You know, all over what was supposed to be clean laundry.

Speaking of laundry…don’t forget to enter my giveaway from BlogHer and Bounce! You could win a Bounce Dryer Bar and a $50 Visa gift card!

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1. If you see that the wind has blown leaves over every square inch of your yard, it will rain before you have a chance to bag them.

2. When you go for a run and your Albuterol canister is empty, your asthma attack might seem a lot worse than normal.

3. Because it is.

4. Out of desperation, you might drink a beer to calm yourself down.

5. Well, half a beer. Then use the other half to make beer-can chicken on your grill!

6. You’re efficient like that.

7. When you’ve been on your feet, cleaning, making dinner and doing laundry for hours and you finally sit down with everything you need within reach (cell phone, home phone, laptop, steno pad, pen, glasses and books…see efficient statement, above) you might spill a cup of water on half of it.

8. When you’re 40, you will find hair growing out of places you never did before. Like your chin, and your neck and your ears.

9. You also might find that running three miles, three times a week for over a month, results in a three pound weight GAIN.

10. Which may make you want to burn the Halloween candy.

11. Right after you eat that Twix bar.

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There are two things that I really dislike; one is winter and the other is laundry. Put the two of them together and you have one grumpy mom.

Winter means more trips up and down the basement stairs. I can’t wash as many items at once because all of the clothes are heavy sweatshirts and jeans. Not to mention that I often have to run down to look for a glove, or a volleyball kneepad, or one half of a basketball uniform that has mysteriously gone missing. I once read a hint from Heloise that said to pin gloves together before you wash them. Yeah, like I have time for that!

But, by far, the thing I dislike the most about the combination of winter and laundry is the static that invades our clothing. Ohio winters are cold and dry and you can’t pull a towel out of the dryer without finding two socks stuck to it. Blankets try to fold themselves, shirts cling to your body like leeches and you can shock yourself when peeling apart two flannel pillowcases.

You know how I mentioned how things mysteriously go missing? Not long ago, I was out running errands when a baseball sock that had been missing for months started sliding out of my pant leg. There I was, in the middle of the store when I looked down to see a bright, yellow sock wrapped around my ankle. I yanked it out and stuffed it into my purse…half embarrassed, half thrilled that the thing had finally turned up.

You need a powerful fabric softener to combat static cling and when you forget to put the liquid in the washing machine or you realize the dryer sheet box is empty, it’s a real crisis. This happens to me a lot. Your only option is to slather yourself, and your children, with lotion as a buffer between your dry skin and the crackling clothes. This is not optimal. Trust me. Getting out of the door in the morning is challenging enough when everyone is wearing flip-flops, let alone socks, tied shoes, coats, hats and gloves.

Needless to say, day to day life is busy. I can’t pin gloves together, I don’t remember to add fabric softener and I can’t moisturize my children every day before they leave for school.

And, that is why I love the Bounce Dryer Bar.

The Bounce Dryer Bar is the only thing for which I have uttered “laundry” and “convenient” in the same sentence. You stick it in your dryer and it lasts for months. No liquid, no sheets, just one stick and you don’t have to think about how much static cling is in your clothing until winter turns into spring! It’s brilliant and it has made laundry days around here quite a bit easier. Clothing smells fresh, and doesn’t cling together, and I don’t have to run up and down the steps as often because I forgot the fabric softener.

Laundry isn’t something that will magically do itself and, while I will never say that I love it, I will say that the Bounce Dryer Bar makes me dislike it a whole lot less. I even liked their Facebook page!

You can win your own Bounce Dryer Bar and a $50 Visa gift card right here. Just leave me a comment or answer this question: What is your least favorite thing about laundry?

Rules: Sweepstakes ends 12/6/11. No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here.
Good Luck Everybody!

For more opportunities to win, visit the Bounce round-up page on BlogHer.com to read other bloggers’ reviews!

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She warms me.

She has been at my feet all day, occasionally lifting her head to look out the window and protect me from the ever present stream of people walking to the park. She lays still until a truck rolls onto our street and she begins to shiver with fear and I feel her trembling against my leg.

She didn’t used to be scared of anything, but age is crippling her body and mind. She shakes when we say her name, “Blue” because it may mean she needs to stand, which she can no longer do without two hands below her belly, pulling her lame back legs out from under her.

Once she stands, there is hesitation when she must move from the rug to the hardwood floor. She freezes at the edge of the carpet, setting one paw down on the solid surface with trepidation, then pulling it back to safety where there is fiber in which to lunge her claws and a soft landing for when she falls. She falls a lot these days.

Maybe if we lived someplace warm, where ice wasn’t looming like a slick, glassy artifice strategically placed between the safety of the front door and the soft snow in which she used to frolic; the simple stoop, a colossal divide. Last night, she had to be carried to the grass; even when the sky was clear and the earth was dry.

She has been here longer than the child who is about to be a teen. She is our constant. Through pain, sickness, death and tragedy she has been here at my feet.

Warming me.

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