SOS Pads. Who Knew??

My sweet Mom, kept a very tidy house. I remember always being proud when walking in with friends after school-- at the clean, orderly-- and always tastefully decorated home she made for us. I always loved all of our houses.. all the decor.. all the well-kept homey-ness it always was. The crazy part is that admist all my Moms tidiness (with 5 kids, a dog, and plenty of church roadshows to write and direct, weddings to decorate for, and football pants to wash..) us kids never had so-called, "chores." Now as I got older I remember always being pretty good at keeping my own room cleaned up.. and secretly helping out around the house with little "The Good Fairy Was Here" notes left behind for my Mom... but it was all.. voluntary. Hard as I try I literally cannot remember my Mom ever telling me to do anything specific around the house. I'm sure there was occassion-- and I remember randomly helping out, vaccuuming and squirting down a bathroom here and there (in fact I do specifically remember her showing me the 'get all around the base of the toilet' technique.. and she called the pee drops from the boys on the rim,'butter stains'..)but for the most part, she did it all. She was just happy to have us being kids, doing kid things. So long as we were making good choices-- and loving eachother.. she was good. (For those who never had the joy of knowing my cute Mom.. let me take this spot to just say she was really, really, great.) SO... this brings me to my blogging point today. I consider myself a decent homemaker. I'm a mediocre cook.. excellent laundry doer, and always make my bed. I vaccuum pretty regularly, sweep a little less than is required, but honed in on my Moms skill of keeping things straight. Presentable. Uncluttered. Sink empty. My ability to never leave a room without taking something out of it that belongs somewhere else is a mastered skill straight from Mom. BUT-- there's a few things I never picked up on. While I was busy picking out Homecoming dresses and deciding which bangle bracelet to wear with my royal blue flats (well, royal blue bangle, ofcourse. It was 1989..) somewhere I seemed to miss the Mom lessons that teach you things like what kind of starch to use when ironing, or what the true process of mopping a floor looks like.. (I always end up on my hands and knees with a wet paper towel.. but I have a feeling there's other options.) Then there's my husband. HE, (although you wouldn't guess it from his own house-dwelling habits.. love ya honey!) had chores. So he will often reccommend a product or process for cleaning totally foreign to me.. which I respond to with a blank stare. So imagine my intrique when he picked up SOS pads at the store the other day. The burner trays (if that's even what you call them.. you know-- the silver things under your burners that your boiled-over pasta gets gunky in)were getting embarrassing.. and my paper towels and hot water just weren't doing the trick. Long story short (wait, actually.. this is just a very, very long story.) I tried SOS pads for the first time in 13 years of marriage. Wow. They work. And TOTALLY remove, gunk. (As well as the finger nail polish Sophie spilled on the table a week ago.) Gone. Poof. Wa-la. I thought Magic Erasers were the only thing capable of such miracles. Other than roughing up my hands a little (is THAT why people have rubber gloves?? It's all coming together.) it was a very exciting experience. So there ya have it. For the other possible TWO of you who haven't tried em.. SOS pads. Getcha some.