Day 23 - I'm thankful for rubber gloves.
We have been so happy in our new house! We love having the extra bedroom, the neighborhood has been great, the price is right, and the central air alone made the gigantic hassle of moving totally worth it. But as much as we are thankful for this new place, there's a missing appliance that has taken some serious getting used to.
We have no dishwasher.
We're a family of six and we have to wash all of our dishes by hand. And by "we" I mean "me" 95% of the time. I tried having Ben do it once and either he was clever enough to play me or he just really sucked at doing dishes. Either way, I haven't asked him to do it again. Maybe I'm doing him a disservice by not forcing him to keep trying and to make him pay closer attention to detail (like ketchup that hasn't been rinsed thoroughly off the plate... or the bits of melted cheese still clinging to the scrambled eggs bowl...) but I just can't stomach the idea of eating off dishes that haven't been adequately cleaned. And I don't want to re-do work that someone else has done. I'd just grumble through the whole process and if I'm going to grumble it may as well be about something that hasn't been done at all rather than something that's been done in a lazy, lousy way.
So I do almost all the dishes. I've learned the obvious - that it's easier to do one meal worth of dishes than it is to do six meals worth of dishes, so if I just take the time to wash the dishes immediately after use the chore doesn't pile up and stays manageable. I'm still working to implement it, though, and occasionally find myself with a serious back up of dirty dishes to be washed and a very real problem of having no clean spoons/knives/bowls available when I need them. It's a battle. I'm working through it.
When I first realized that our home wasn't furnished with a dishwasher I kind of wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. But I vowed to my Facebook friends that I was going to try my hardest to not complain about the dishwasher-less situations I'd found myself in. One of my friends gave me permission in advance to complain as much as I wanted to when Thanksgiving rolled around and here I am... saying how very grateful I am for rubber dishwashing gloves. If I have to do a billion Thanksgivingdishes at least I can protect my hands somewhat and not have dishwater-stinky prune fingers for hours after clean-up time.
I'm thankful for rubber gloves!
So very memorable. We went for five years without a dishwasher, but our girls were trained to work together as a team to get that job done well... aside from a few (ahem, maybe MORE than a few) soap or water or towel fights, we survived in our rugged Vermont existence. Although they sometimes had "fun", it's a job neither of them enjoy today! At the very least, they know HOW to train their family to do the necessary job efficiently. Make good use of paper plates, and "pretty" plates for special days! Have a wonderful thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteI feel for ya Ang! I would miss my dishwasher, if for no other reason than it gives me a place to 'hide' dirty dishes! =]
ReplyDeleteMy family decided a few years back that we were going to use paper plates and cups for Thanksgiving. The most important thing about Thanksgiving (besides the pie, I mean!) is being together with family. So we decided that it was worth it to spend more time with family and less time washing the fancy dishes, by hand no less! (And with 30 people, that's a LOT of dishes!) Have a wonderful holiday!
We are in the same boat girl. Our dishwasher just doesn't work. I don't mind it so much as long as they don't pile up or it's not a crazy cooking holiday like today. Jed washed the dishes once for me and when I got back from my VT interview. He looked at me and said "This is a symbol of my love. I hate this. If I had to wash the dishes everyday the dishwasher would be fixed by now." :) Yes Rubber gloves are a blessing and a miracle. Have a great holiday. I will be thinking about you today, and not just because we will both be wearing rubber gloves.
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