The dishwasher and I

I’m not one of those people who say they like to clean their houses. Truth be told, I don’t even believe people when they say they like to clean their houses. But I am someone who likes to rearrange the clutter, and stick the piles of papers and toys and stuff that accumulates in our household into a spot. We have a lot of baskets around our house, and I fill drawers with bits and pieces of our lives (which drives D crackers, but it works for me). I like the act of putting things into a place, sometimes it is even the place where they are supposed to be.
It turns out, the one household chore I like is unloading the dishwasher. I was thinking about it today as I yet again took the clean dishes out and out them in their places. It is the one time, for a brief moment, when everything is where it belongs. The clean plates and cups and utensils return to their homes for a few hours until they are needed once again, and the dirty dishes that lived on the counter, with the bits of food stuck to them, get nicely tucked away into the machine to be cleaned. It is a process I repeat far too many times in a week, since with a family of five there is a constant rotation of clean and dirty. Good thing it gives me some pleasure to step back after closing all the cupboard doors and shutting the dishwasher.
I feel the same way some nights, waking up after everyone is tucked into their beds, especially the nights Liam is with us and not at his dad’s. I sigh a deep sigh of contentment knowing everyone is where they are ‘supposed’ to be, snuggled in their rooms, all under the same roof. It doesn’t happen nearly as often, now that our kids are growing, that we find ourselves all in the same place. Tonight I’ll have Kate with me at Finn’s basketball and D will go to Liam’s late game. Not until close to ten will we all be in the same house. And once we are all home, and the doors are locked and the lights are turned out, I will breathe a sigh of pure joy. It won’t happen for much longer, that we five will share a home. The kids will grow up, and likely (hopefully?) eventually move into their own homes. So I enjoy that feeling now…and know if nothing else, I can always replicate that sensation when I unload the dishwasher!