i am my mother's daughter.

Saturday, January 29, 2011, 7:06pm

As we sit around the dinner table I am content. With good company over for dinner and delicious curry on my plate, there is not much more I could want.

Sunday, January 30, 2011, 12:37pm

As I walk through the front doors after church I take a deep breathe before walking into the kitchen...just as i had suspected. It is a disaster. Although we had a lovely time last night, the kitchen looks as if a tornado had flown through it. Almost every dish in our kitchen is dirty and sprawled across the counter. John, Leslie, and I spend about two hours cleaning up the huge mess. I breath a sigh of relief as I look around the "clean" kitchen, all the while knowing it won't last long.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 9:00am

I roll out of bed. It is 9:00am. In anticipation of the blizzard coming today, my office has been closed, and I got the joy of staying in bed until 9am. But I know what awaits me downstairs. I put it off all morning, but by about 1 pm I can't stand it anymore. There are no longer any clean forks to eat with, no clean plates to eat on. everything is dirty, and lying in the sink or strewn about the counter. Somehow, even though I had the kitchen spotless less than 48 hours ago, we are back at the same state - ALL the dishes are dirty. and sitting on the counter. and no one else is going to wash them.....

So, I dig in. As I watch the snow swirling around outside, coming down at about 3 inches an hour amidst 30 mph winds, I put on my apron and draw some water. I will have drawn water 3 times before all the dishes are clean. Luckily, I have my ipod and some good music to keep me company, because this is not a unique situation. On the contrary, it happens way too often for my liking. But alas, I clean. Although our dishwasher doesn't function, I am constantly grateful to have it - without there would be no place to put all the clean dishes to dry. As it is, even with the glorified drying rack we call a broken dishwasher, there isn't enough room to let the dishes dry.

An hour and a half later, as I put the last clean, dry dish in it's place in the cupboard, I survey the scene and make a mental note of the "before and after" shots of the scene:

before after

I know I'm crazy. I readily admit to my housemates that I have a kitchen cleaning problem. But on the other hand, they aren't always super eager to help with that problem either. So in the meantime, I'll enjoy my clean kitchen while I can. Chances are in less than a day it will be back to the same state of affairs: no clean forks. no bowl to eat my cereal out of. no clean glass for a drink of water. ba.humbug.

*disclaimer* - i'm nuts. i know. i just love, and relish, a clean kitchen. it helps me sleep at night....

ah, the beauty of it...