Now This is Just Embarrassing...
You know it's time to do dishes when your husband has to eat his pasta out of a serving bowl; You know it's time to do dishes when your sink and counters are so full of them that you have to pull a kitchen chair over to hold that stack of pots and pans with no home; You know it's time to do dishes when even your two-year-old walks into the kitchen and says "oh nasty!"
The kitchen. She and I have a love-hate relationship. I love to cook and bake, and I even love to do dishes--I find it therapeutic. But I can never seem to keep up! One night I stayed up past midnight and didn't retire until every single dish in my house had been cleaned, every counter and table wiped. I love that feeling of going to bed to the hum of the dishwasher and waking up to a clean kitchen. That's the way to start a day, to begin with a clean slate, to have the worries of yesterday literally washed away. The disappointing thing is this: it doesn't last! Cooking three meals a day, having a baby that is being introduced to table foods (and doing homemade baby food), and trying to keep up with a two-year-old all day are sure-fire ways to have your kitchen in disaster, health-code-alert condition fast!
So what's a mom to do? I keep trying to come up with new systems and schedules and plans to avoid this feeling of being eaten alive by Dirty Dishzilla but nothing has done the trick so far. Why would I stand at my sink scrubbing who-knows-what off of the baking dish from who-knows-when with my two-year-old holding a book up to me saying "Read me, Mommy? Pweeeeease?" Or how can I worry about cleaning up after breakfast when diapers need to be changed, little boys need to be dressed, three spills have already happened and needed cleaning up, the automatic turn off on the coffee pot has gone off twice and I still haven't had a cup!?
The only thing I can think of is what lots of moms have told me, and what maybe even someone famous has said along these lines: when years pass you and your family won't remember how tall the pile of laundry was, or whether or not the shelves were dusted, but they will remember playing catch with the football in the yard, the impromptu bubble fight in the kitchen, bedtime story hour, and finger painting on the window. The next time I'm feeling stressed about housework I'm going to remind myself to think about what eternally matters and let the rest figure itself out.
The kitchen. She and I have a love-hate relationship. I love to cook and bake, and I even love to do dishes--I find it therapeutic. But I can never seem to keep up! One night I stayed up past midnight and didn't retire until every single dish in my house had been cleaned, every counter and table wiped. I love that feeling of going to bed to the hum of the dishwasher and waking up to a clean kitchen. That's the way to start a day, to begin with a clean slate, to have the worries of yesterday literally washed away. The disappointing thing is this: it doesn't last! Cooking three meals a day, having a baby that is being introduced to table foods (and doing homemade baby food), and trying to keep up with a two-year-old all day are sure-fire ways to have your kitchen in disaster, health-code-alert condition fast!
So what's a mom to do? I keep trying to come up with new systems and schedules and plans to avoid this feeling of being eaten alive by Dirty Dishzilla but nothing has done the trick so far. Why would I stand at my sink scrubbing who-knows-what off of the baking dish from who-knows-when with my two-year-old holding a book up to me saying "Read me, Mommy? Pweeeeease?" Or how can I worry about cleaning up after breakfast when diapers need to be changed, little boys need to be dressed, three spills have already happened and needed cleaning up, the automatic turn off on the coffee pot has gone off twice and I still haven't had a cup!?
The only thing I can think of is what lots of moms have told me, and what maybe even someone famous has said along these lines: when years pass you and your family won't remember how tall the pile of laundry was, or whether or not the shelves were dusted, but they will remember playing catch with the football in the yard, the impromptu bubble fight in the kitchen, bedtime story hour, and finger painting on the window. The next time I'm feeling stressed about housework I'm going to remind myself to think about what eternally matters and let the rest figure itself out.
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