Family Home Destroyed by Avalanche! Children to Blame!

I almost didn't let you know how this all started.  My wonderful big sister decided to post a video to my timeline on Facebook of these two boys that had destroyed their house with paint.  Yes, I have had paint messes before but that is not the point.  Paint you can normally just wipe up or use magic erasers on.  You can use Hydrogen Peroxide.  There are many fixes for that look it up on Pinterest or Google.  The video is hilarious though.  If you want to check that one out you can here:  https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152590563160267&fref=nf

No, my home was not destroyed by an avalanche today!  I just thought this was a funny name for a video that was on YouTube.  You have to check it out to see what I am talking about.  After you watch it then you will understand how I have felt WAY TOO MANY TIMES.

Oh, my goodness!  I am cracking up, almost peeing my pants this is so funny!  Seriously, I can only laugh now because I can feel this woman's pain.  I know that I have said all the words that came out of her mouth except one line she said at the end:  "Oh, my [gosh]!  It's like a snowman puked all over my living room!"  Yes, yes it is!  I never would have thought of that phrase, but it is!

Okay, well here goes my story.  My boys were the same age the first time this happened to me.  One was actually 1 1/2 and the other was 3.  I had just had another baby and I am guessing I must have been putting him to bed or something like that (please remember this was 15 years ago so my recollection could be a little fuzzy). 

At this time in my life I made a lot of things from scratch.  You know that thing mothers do to save money.  Ha ha!  I made bread and other things so I had a 25 pound bag in a large white bucket in my kitchen.  I had just been using it and had not secured the top on the bucket as of yet because those things are REALLY difficult to open once closed.  The lid was on top so I didn't think they would figure out that they could open it.  Okay, I will fess up.  I really didn't think at all because who would imagine something like this could happen.  Come on.  Really?  No, it does not even comprehend in your brain that this could happen to you.  Well, it can obviously.

At this time we lived in a house that was 1700 square feet and a lot of it was wasted space due to a very large front room that was not used much except for toys.  I walked downstairs to my whole downstairs covered in white.  I was not sure what had happened.  Everywhere I turned things were covered in this white "snow".  Yes, but it smelled like flour.  If you are a baker you know what I mean.  As I walked into the family room in the back I saw my two little innocent boys covered in the white "snow".  They were having so much fun.  I have to say that I do not remember if I yelled or just laughed this time.  Like I said, it has happened too many times to count.  I wish I could find a picture but I doubt I have one.  Just looking at the video brings back too many memories for me.

Okay, now you have to know that I feel for this woman because she has a lot of vacuuming to do.  At least she has nice wooden floors.  I had carpet.  It was embedded in my carpet for a long time.  The only thing that will really clean it is a professional cleaner.   Oh, and don't sweep flour it makes it move around the house more.  Once you start sweeping, the flour goes into all the little crevasses that the boys did not hit.  It also goes into your lungs like you are breathing in flour dust.  Not good!  DO NOT SWEEP FLOUR!  Please!  A vacuum is your friend in this time of need.  Especially those photo frames and the walls.  Yes, flour actually will accumulate on walls.  It looks like you have decided to make your house look like a powdered doughnut (but not as delicious).  The flour will just lay there on your beautiful textured walls.  So if anyone ever does go through this.  Here is my advice:   Start at the highest point and work down (with a vacuum only).  Do not think that you can clean with rags (wet or dry), microfiber cloths, dusting tools or anything else.  It will save you many, many tears.

Now one more thing that you might not even be thinking is, "What about the boys?"  Well, you may not be thinking this because it didn't hurt them.  I didn't hurt them!  But guess what does, water and flour.  What do you get when you mix water and flour?  That is correct.  You get glue!  The first time this happened I wasn't thinking and I threw them into the bath trying to get it all off.  Think about gravity.  Where would the most concentrated amount be?  That is correct, the head.  Like I said, I wasn't really thinking straight.  I started to try to clean off the flour on the head and it didn't want to come off.  It stuck like what?  GLUE!  Yes, glue.  I scrubbed and scrubbed.  My boys had so much glue on their heads even with all the scrubbing.  So I figured I would let it dry out and work with it that way.  Luckily, I had experience with cradles cap and had my trusty little baby comb somewhere.  That helped a lot.  You treat it like cradles cap.  It works wonders.  It does take a few times to get it out, actually quite a few times, but it will eventually come out.  Also, if you have it around and you trust yourself not to get it into your kids eyes, Tea Tree shampoo does wonders.  Just saying, it can be a miraculous time saver in these types of situations.

So, my other piece of advice is to take your child outside as soon as this happens.  Have them bend over and brush as much flour out of their hair before giving them a bath.  Make sure at this time you take off their diaper (or underwear) too and throw it outside because it will be filled to the top with flour.  Do not ask how this happens but it does.  It saves a lot of time and tears also.  Once you have done this, a bath or shower should be easy peasy. 

Now that you have heard one of my most traumatic experiences (not really), imagine going through this numerous times in a lifetime.  Yes, I have 7 boys.  Every single one of them has used some type of baking product to do this with at least once (some of them numerous times, hey why not practice until you get it perfect, right?).  I have seen flour, baking soda (large bag),  cornstarch and even baby formula.  Cornstarch is a bit heavier so it doesn't fly as high but it is just as difficult to clean up.  Baby formula, you just cry because that was a week supply that ended up all over your floor.

Does anyone else have one of these wonderful "Avalanche Stories" to share or reminisce about?   Good luck to all you new mothers out there.  Keep an eye on your powdered goods.