Wait, I Spoke Too Soon!

 My life is not boring! I am up and about taking care of chores and such. I am creative and thrifty.

I love Pinterest. That being said, Pinterest is like patterns and recipes. A mere suggestion, not to be mindlessly followed, but an idea to plant in my brain, then ponder until I make it my way.

In my altered state of late, sometimes my ideas do not meet my expectations. I have a tiny crock pot that a normal person would use to keep dips warm. I use it to melt those delicious smelling cubes of wax that are cheap at Walmart. I don't care for the cloying sweet smells of cookies baking or an peach cobbler. If I want to smell that I will do the real thing and bake up some goodies.

I like the clean smelling one's, like "fresh linen", or "ocean breezes". Right now I am enjoying "October Woods". But, as we all know, the scent doesn't last forever. I decided to save this used up wax in a mason jar long before I found a use for it. One day, trolling Pinterest, I saw a use for dryer lint and toilet paper tubes. Someone discovered that stuffing the tube with the dryer lint and then pouring melted paraffin on them would create a good fire starter.

I had used the old wax before with sawdust and newspaper. I mixed the sawdust into the melted wax, then spooned up a glob on the newspaper and rolled it up and stuck it in the freezer. This was a messy affair, but the result was a slow burning fire starter. My supply of saw dust is gone, but I have a steady supply of dryer lint in cold weather. I use a clothes line and take advantage of wind and solar power to dry my laundry when weather permits.

My wax had lost it's pleasant scent today, so I decided to gather all my dryer lint that I save in a small basket next to the dryer, then retrieve the saved toilet paper rollers that have been cleverly hidden in the Kleenex receptacle in the bathroom.

Every day I tried to accomplish at least one task when I was feeling so very awful. Some days it was nothing more than emptying and refilling the ice trays. This was really important, since I would appear to be the only one capable of doing this in this house. I am much better now and able to perform all the necessary tasks related to housekeeping. So much so, that now my goal is to accomplish at least one task that is not absolutely necessary.

Today I set out to make some fire starters. The wax was nice and hot. I had a good sized handful of  dryer lint and 6 cardboard toilet paper holders. It is a simple task. It should be a simple task, I should say.

The little crockpot sits atop the wood stove, which is about counter height. I fill the melted wax right there where it sits. I started by trying to stuff the rolls with lint. A child could do it, but today the  very first tube bent into itself and I dropped my wad of lint on the floor. Toni Louise and Martha, the boy cat, decided that I must be tempting them with something to eat or a fun game to play and they pounced on my lint and divided it among themselves.

Toni Louise was trying to spit out the lint that had stuck to the inside of her mouth as I caught her and took a big wad away. I left her coughing like she had a hairball and caught the cat as he was rolling the wad of lint in front of him. His version of chasing a ball, I suppose. Now I had enough lint for only 4 of the 6 rolls.

I was annoyed with my fur children and just wanted to be done so that I could put another piece of scented wax in the crockpot to cover the smell of wood smoke that invades every pore of my house. I had forgotten to grab some pot holders and tapped the crockpot with my fingers to see how hot it was. Remember, I am under the influence of drugs. I decided that it wasn't that hot and I picked it up and started pouring ....

I have one of those porcelain contraptions that comes with those rings that you burn to keep mosquitos away. It is perfect for setting the roll in the center to fill it with wax. The crockpot got hotter as I attempted to pour and I must have bumped the roll as I tried to pour quickly. The roll fell over and I poured wax on the top of the wood stove.

You would think I would just give up on this project and wait until later, wouldn't you? You would be wrong. With hot wax drying on my hands I procured those pot holders and went on to the next roll, then the next. On the last one as I tried to tip the pot completely upside down, in order to get as much wax as I could, I dropped the crockpot.

Yes, I did. Crockpots bounce, just so you know. It bounce on top of the wood stove, and as I attempted to catch it with my pot holder hands, it slipped out of my grasp and hit the floor with a  big clump sound. I closed my eyes as it bounced again before coming to rest at my feet.

It did not break! It will never look the same and it still works, but the crockery part sits at an odd angle inside it's housing. Maybe I should grab a little nap now.

I spoke too soon in my last post, life is not boring.