Monday, July 11, 2005

I Stopped Using My Dishwasher

For many years I did not have a dishwasher but during a phase of my life when I provided daycare out of our home I decided that I needed one. I was spending way to much time at the kitchen sink. For a long time after we purchased it I had a love affair with the dishwasher. It was so time efficient. The love affair eventually wore off and it became a habit to throw the dishes in and walk away.

After eight years my dishwasher stopped working as it once had. It was leaving residue on my dishes and not cleaning well. I scheduled the repair man to come look at it and since that was going to be a couple weeks I bought a sink drying rack and went back to hand washing. I was amazed to realize how much I was enjoying the process of hand washing those dishes. For ten seconds to a half an hour depending on the number of dishes I found myself standing in front of the sink with I was able to enjoy the view of our yard from the window over the sink.

I have fond memories of my children standing on stools helping me do this very thing when they were little. I thought to myself, well they don't need stools anymore but they can still help. I began to engage my children in this activity with me. There have been a couple water fights over the dishes and lots of good conversation that continues naturally as an extension from our meals. There has also been lots of complaining and general whining about having to help and several very creative excuses about why they can't. I cancelled the repairman. I am sure that the dishwasher will eventually get fixed but right now I am to busy enjoying the view out of my window and the conversations with my family.