Do NOT Wash Your Hands at My House

It seems there is always someone sick with something in our family. I suppose that's to be expected with four young kids. After several weeks of passing colds around and a fresh restoration to health, I scheduled a playdate for my kids.

The morning of the visit, I frantically rushed around to tidy up the house after breakfast. It was just about time for the friends to arrive as I passed the guest bathroom. I noticed something smeared on the bar of soap. This is a common occurrence in our home. Usually it's paint, food, or toothpaste. I know this isn't great but I let it go for the time being to attend to more pressing matters. As often occurs, I got side-tracked and forgot to replace the soap before the friends arrived.

The guests came and played for the morning and all had a great visit. Just before they left, my son bursts into the room to announce he's not feeling good. I sent him to the bathroom because, as I've learned, kids either spew or poo when there's a belly ache. This time it was spew.

I, of course, felt terrible. I never would have opened my home to my friend and her young children if I had known we were still harboring illness. She gathered up her youngsters and headed to the restroom before they left. That cued the memory of the soap. I warned her about the soap and how it was smeared with something I assumed was peanut butter from lunch packing.

She exited the restroom and my son returned for another spew session. After the goodbyes, I rushed in to the bathroom to assist my ill child. He finished up and we moved to the sink to wash up. I finally got a better look at the soap. The smeared substance certainly wasn't peanut butter like I thought. No, this was green. There was so much green I then thought it was paint. But we hadn't done any painting in a while. No, it definitely wasn't paint. I bent over for a closer look. "What is that?" I thought.

My heart sank as I realized what it was. It was SNOT and it was everywhere! I've never seen that much snot before. It was on the soap, the faucet and in the sink of my guest bathroom. Worse, it was there when my friend and her children used the bathroom! Worse still, this was the same friend whose toilet my other son had clogged to the point her bathroom flooded. Mercy!

I'm pretty sure the number one reason God has given me kids is to teach me humility.


Lessons learned:
1. A good friend remains your friend after you expose her kids to an absurd amount of virus-ridden mucus.
2. A really, really good friend remains a friend after you expose her kids to virus and flood her bathroom.
3. A little nose CAN produce enough snot to cover a bar of soap, the faucet handle and a large portion of the sink.
4. I need to switch to liquid soap.