The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

When I started contemplating this post, I couldn’t figure out the moral to the story. So I figured I’d forgo the memory altogether. But just as I finished cleaning off the counters and putting the leftovers in the fridge it hit me, so here it is…

…as I was cleaning up after Sunday dinner, I loaded the dishwasher and scrubbed out the sinks. When I picked up the drain stopper, I saw that there was soggy food in the drain that the stopper hadn’t caught. Yuck! And then she came to mind – a girl from my childhood/teenage years that shall remain nameless. Mainly because other than this one memory, I don’t have a lot of good things to say about her. She teased me unmercifully and though I didn’t let too much teasing get to me, the digs that she got in smarted. I often tell my girls that the reason kids tease is because they don’t feel good about themselves and they have to make you look bad in order to make themselves look better – and I do believe that was the case with this girl and I even realized it at the time. But I still remember the cutting remarks.

Then there was the day I happened to be on kitchen detail at church camp. I had brought the last clean load from the back of the dining hall and was putting them in their proper places then checking to make sure we were indeed finished. She had been washing pans at the sink up front. The pans were done and she had drained the water to find food in the drain. I remember standing there thinking, “Ewww! Gross!” and then I watched in amazement while she matter-of-factly scooped out the crud and transferred it to the trash. That one action in that fleeting moment suddenly made her my hero. I totally remember thinking, “I wished I was THAT kind of person. One who would do a task like that without gagging or worse, leave it in the sink for the next person to deal with.”

I dare say every time I clean food crud out of my sink now that I have a home of my own, that girl and that incident comes to mind and I remember feeling such awe.

And that leads me to the moral…we should ALL be able to find ONE thing that is good in EVERYONE!

My Love Language

Nothing says, "I love you" more than coming home after being Kindergarten substitute teacher four straight days, (now remember, I took a leave of absense and have been soaking up my days of freedom b/c even my youngest is in school all day, every day) knowing that we have used nearly every dish in the house and I haven't had time nor energy to even load the dishwasher and planning that I would need to do that immediately before I lost my adrenaline rush and stepping into my kitchen to find it spotless! Then finding out that Tony even sacrificed his lunch break to get it done.

P.S. No, this isn't REALLY a picture of my sink, but close :)

Love-Hate Relationship

Those things I used to hate, I now love...is that from the Bible? Whether or not it is, I don't think this is a spiritual application. It's simply the facts. Go back with me to November 1993. Newlyweds receive a package in the mail from California. The box was shipped from the store itself (can't remember the name but it sounded fancy). I open the box and lying on the top of the contents is a card signed by some distant cousin of my husband that even he does not know. I eagerly begin to pull out what I assume to be a very "in style" set of dishes...out west that is. Because the style certainly hadn't hit Michigan yet!

Now you have to understand that I am the type of person that is not good with change. I have to be exposed to something new a long time before I begin to like it. I like car styles when they are going OUT. So for me to accept these trendy dishes as cool was beyond me. I have a friend on the other hand who though they were pretty cool. Too bad I showed them to her. I could have re gifted them when she got married 9 months after me.

Well, here we are almost 14 years later and though they do not go with my decor (if I even have a decor anymore...I used to love to decorate...used to being the operative phrase...sigh!) and though I am missing a couple bread plates and though I really have no room for them in my buffet, I am having the hardest time getting rid of these dishes. See? Those things I used to hate, I have come to love.

So I think instead of giving them away or throwing them out or selling them in a garage sale, I shall retire them for a while. (Anyone have a box the perfect size for packing a set of dishes?) Who knows, maybe when I get back to decorating they will match my decor perfectly :)