shiny new day
Last night I stood over the sink washing dishes – again.
We have a schedule where the kids help with meal clean up, but there are still many nights that dinner dishes get piled up.
I didn’t have a very good attitude about it. It was a long day and I really just wanted to sit down.
As I washed dishes, my mind wandered back to being a new mom. I remember feeling so overwhelmed. The dishes piled up then and it was only three of us. It felt just as hard then to get it all done as it does now. It was just as hard. As a new mom I remember a friend telling me about a website that recommended always cleaning your sink until it shined before you go to bed. The idea was that even if everything else was in disarray, the sink shined and welcomed you in the morning. It made so much sense to me then. Burp clothes and other baby stuff piled up, but I usually went to bed with a shiny sink. It felt like such a huge accomplishment and it was.
A shiny sink at night has stuck with me 5 kids later. Very rarely do we go to bed with dishes in the sink. It still feels like such a huge accomplishment and it really is so nice to wake up to.
I imagine one day having a shiny sink at night won’t feel like such a big deal. My wee ones won’t be so wee….and won’t need any help or assistance knocking out dinner dishes! Then there will be a season were there simply are not as many dishes piled in my sink each night.
Today will be full. Dishes will pile up. I’ll stand over my sink again tonight, washing and dreaming of sitting down. I’ll try to have a good attitude about it, but I’ll probably be tired and just wish I had a magic dish-washing fairy. But before the day ends, I’ll empty that sink. And then I’ll start it all over tomorrow.
There is a lot for me to learn at the kitchen sink. The gifts that all those dirty dishes represent – people, time, food, resources, conversations – are gifts that make life so sweet. And then there is the reminder with every clean sink in the evening, I get a fresh start…a shiny new day in the morning.
