The Love of Our Life

Contrary to what you might think, I am not going to write about Reilly pants today. No, siree. I am writing about the new love of our life.

Our dishwasher.

Hold on, I need to say that again.

WE HAVE A DISH WASHER.

Reilly is so excited. I can't even believe it. We have been hand-washing dishes for the three years we have been married. Mainly, because there was nowhere to PUT the dishwasher. The only feasible place would take away my biggest cabinets. And hubby and I were both convinced that we could not part with those cabinets. Okay, I was convinced. He doesn't really have strong opinions on cabinet space.

Anyway, we don't have that much cabinet space as it is, and I didn't think we could part with such a big space. But then we realized, we were losing counter space as well - for the dish rack. Which is even more precious to me.

Cabinet space and counter space...these are the things that become sacred to a stay at home mama and wife. It's official - I am an adult.

So a few months ago, Hubby and I ran an experiment whilst baby-proofing the cabinets. We were moving baby-dangerous things to higher places (cleaning products, glass, etc.), and I suddenly thought - with all this rearranging going on, let me see if I can clear out this cabinet (and 2 drawers!) and find another home for the things inside. Well, I put serving utensils and silverware in vases on my counter, and moved everything that I don't use weekly to shelves in the basement. And you know what? We did it. We cleared out the whole area, and hardly noticed or missed anything!

Of course the hutch hubby made was a huge help with storage as well. So then, we had giant empty cabinets and drawers in our kitchen for months. When people would ask why they were empty, we would say, "We are getting used to not having that space for when we have a dishwasher." Then we would get really odd looks. It made so much sense to us, though.

So then, we waited as long as we could before we couldn't possibly wash one more dish without screaming or throwing it against the wall. It was 2 years and 330 days, to be exact. It is possible that we waited a tad too long. For future reference - you probably shouldn't wait until you are ready to break your own dishes, rather than wash them, before you get a dishwasher.

But I tell ya - it sure makes you appreciate things. Last night I just kept staring at it. I really did. I love the way it looks. I love the way it sounds. I loved taking way to long to load it, making sure every single thing was in the perfect place. I loved waking up this morning, and seeing the green "clean" light lit up, with my beautiful sparkling dishes just waiting there for me. I loved putting them away.

Mark my words - I will never complain about dishes again. Because I will remember the past 3 years of washing my own. And there is nothing AT ALL to complain about loading a dishwasher. I think when our kids are older, we will have a throw-back week where we have to go one whole week hand washing our dishes. Just so they know how glorious modern appliances are. Maybe I'll go crazy and make it Thanksgiving week. Good times.

Love & Beautiful Appliances,

Dirt Road Mama

p.s. Picture will follow soon - as soon as Hubby builds some pretty open shelving to finish off the whole area. This project is a fun brain-child of ours...it's going to be so fun! Shout out to my brother in law for installing it for us - thank you a millions times two!!