Wash On

Yesterday my new dishwasher arrived!  Arnie spent all evening (ok- until midnight) hooking it up.  Aside from starting it for a few minutes to make sure the hook-ups didn’t leak, I didn’t run it yesterday.

At first not having a dishwasher didn’t seem like a huge inconvenience.  After all, people washed dishes by hand for thousands of years.  And I’ve read on so many blogs and in so many books how meditative and relaxing it can be to have your hands in a sink full of hot soapy water, rhythmically washing and rinsing.  Um… no.  Not for me at least.

I found that I spent so much more time cleaning the kitchen that I had less time to do other chores around the house, it made me want to cook less and the evenings that we usually try to squeeze some family time into were completely taken up by soap suds and wash cloths. 

Arnie would be spending time with the boys.  Trying to appease Mason, who’s getting cranky and tired; and trying to reign in Hayden, who wants to get some quality wrestle time in with Daddy.  And there I’d be watching from my position at the sink.  I didn’t like it at all.

Today I spent the day loading my dishwasher after each meal, making my typical clean up simpler than it has been in a long while.  Later, (in an attempt to get back on track with cooking all homemade meals) I defrosted some homemade spaghetti sauce, browned the meat and added a side salad.  After dinner while Arnie was wrangling with both boys, I started in on the dishes and then Hayden asked if he could play his preschool lotto game.  (Its this one from Eboo.  He absolutely loves it and asks to play it multiple times a week.)  I was so happy that I could say, “Just let Mommy wipe down the counter tops and we’ll have time to play before bedtime snack.” 

I pressed start on the dishwasher and off to the coffee table we went to play his board game.  It was so wonderful.  Hayden, Daddy and I played while Mason kept pulling himself up on the coffee table giggling with delight whenever he almost got one of the cards.  It seemed so silly to blog about a dishwasher, so much so that I almost didn’t post this, but anything that helps me to create cherished moments with my family is worth blogging about.  And today, we had just that.

So I completely forgot to take pictures of us playing his lotto game.  (Ooops!)  But here's one of my new dishwasher!  :-)

To Pause

It’s the time of year when you wish for your pace to slow.  To pause.  To enjoy the brief days before they become shorter still.  Yet this is the time of year when, alternatively, things get busier.  Our family has seven birthdays just between October 21^st and November 17^th.  On top of that the calendar fills with social events, service projects and very soon, Christmas shopping. (For me anyway- I know many thrifty mamas are already well on their way.  Maybe next year I can manage that.  Maybe.) 

But today the chill in the air and the falling, crunching leaves make me just want to curl up with a good book.  Never mind that I did exactly that yesterday.  Or I could just sit and stare at the tree filling our front window with all its brilliant red glory.  Then again I’d love to simply knit and watch the boys play (that is- if they’d let me.)  Or perhaps I could peruse the internet reading my favorite blogs and searching for Christmas gifts ideas for my little ones, who actually need absolutely nothing but Mommy- ahem, I mean Santa, wants to spoil anyways. 

Instead, I will do more cleaning, organizing and start packing for our quick weekend trip to Michigan for my father-in-law’s 50^th birthday, which my mother-in-law so sweetly offered to us.  We’re right in the thick of everything, with a food drive the week we get back and then preparation for my parents visit to us for Thanksgiving.  After that… well I’ll write about it later. 

Sometimes the busyness can feel overwhelming.   That'swhen I have to remind myself to enjoy the pauses when they come and to otherwise embrace the busy, sometimes chaotic but usually celebratory time of family, friends and love.

Today's Pause...