Out With the Old, In With the New

Dishwasher, that is. The dishwasher in our house has never worked well. Shortly after moving in, it even stopped working poorly. Being a big girl, I never complained (well, I might have mumbled a little). I don't mind doing dishes with someone in order to have some chatting time. I mean, nothing clears the kitchen for a private chat like, "who wants to help me with the dishes?", right??

I was out scouring the countryside between here and Mary Jo's Cloth World all morning. We go through a lot of vittles, so I not only shopped at the discount grocery store where I drove my daughter for work, but also shopped as Sam's and Walmart. While at Walmart, my husband calls. Here's a rendition of our conversation.

WH: "If someone were going to give us a dishwasher, what color would you want?"

Me: "Ha ha...call back when someone is going to give us a dishwasher."

WH: "That would be now."

Long silence. He said an "anonymous donor" was buying us a new dishwasher. I have dishpan hands up to my elbows with all my big helpers working most of the time. I mean, it was getting serious. I hadn't sewn in DAYS. Not just hours, but DAYS.

So I gave him what I wanted in features, and he BROUGHT HOME A NEW DISHWASHER. It's now installed and has done 2 loads.

Here's the useless beast.

Leaving (we did use it to store our table top grill!)...Now, that's more like it. Quiet, big, and NEW! Humming away...It is our practice to leave the children's cups out on the counter after they are washed. Even when we just had a few children (we have 8 at home now) we always had a different colored cup for each child. Isaac (8) couldn't find his cup tonight. Emily (16) suggested he look in the dishwasher. Lo, and behold--there it was. Isaac had never had that experience before. I don't think he even had a dishwasher in his frame of reference. He exclaimed, "Oh--that is sooooo cool!" He has had his horizons broadened.

Many thanks to my parents for this unexpected gift.

~Joan