A Good Tool Goes A Long Way

I ironed for the first time since I have been married two days ago. I actually had to ask Andy how to iron the shirt sleeves. You see folks, I've actually never ironed... with success. Growing up, my mom taught me once, but my shirts never seemed to de-wrinkle themselves and flustered, my mom offered to do it for me. I have never hesitated to let her iron for me and as such, the iron and me are not really well acquainted.

I probably never would have gotten the desire to iron or even upgrade our iron if it hadn't been for some prime examples in my life.

The first is my sister-in-law Tammy and her husband, Jeff. Whenever we visit them up north and stay with them, Sunday mornings are always the same - they are both in and out of the garage where the ironing board resides. And... they actually use the iron! At home, Andy pops his shirts into the dryer and BOOM - they are wrinkle-free! Okay, maybe not completely, but most of the time he wears a suit over his shirts. Other times, the shirt is fine, just not crisp. Meanwhile, yours truly wears wrinkle stuff without shame. A little embarrassing....

Second, when my mother-in-law, May, was staying with us, she not only helped us take care of Jordan, change his diaper in the middle of the night as I fed, cooked, folded laundry and helped with the dishes, she brought out our ironing board and ironed a ton of shirts for both Andy, Jordan and me. Immediately, I was not only grateful but a little ashamed.

Third, when Jeff and Tammy came for Jordan's baby blessing, Jeff used the iron and told us we need to get a new iron. I figured he just had a very high standard for irons being that he does iron on more occasion than myself. Or so I told myself....

Having all these examples, I was already mulling over potentially diving into the act of ironing. But I still hesitated.

Then, one morning while May was still staying with us... before Church, I woke up early to shower and went to iron Jordan's outfit that we had planned earlier for his Sunday best. I slothfully dragged out the iron and thought about taking out the ironing board. Instead, I decided to lay a towel on the floor and iron his outfit there instead. I then went to get ready. As I was feeding Jordan, May was getting ready to dress Jordan. She went to get out the ironing board and began ironing his outfit....the one I had already ironed. At this point I was mortified. She had no clue that I had ironed it already, and by the looks of the outfit, no one else would have either. That is how I knew I was definitely a bad ironer. I secretly told myself I needed to 1) get a new iron and 2) learn how to iron.

So we finally got a new iron and I not only learned how to use it by reading the instructions, filling the water and asking Andy how to operate the steam function (hey, the instructions weren't that easy to follow!) and then....I used it! And I must say, a good tool goes a long way. If I had a good iron to use when I was growing up, I might never have given up and defaulted to my mom ironing for me.

I'm thankful for the examples who slowly - not immediately - got me to change my ironing ways. They planted the seed... and now we will have non-wrinkly shirts - all thanks to them!