Hummmmmm

A few weeks ago the sisters did a getting to know you game at the church.  We were put in two concentric circles and in pairs.  Like a roulette wheel, we moved and stopped, and then told the woman facing us what our name was and one household chore we "didn't mind doing".  At one point I stood across from a woman who flatly stated "I like doing dishes."  "Oh," I replied with a smile, "Then you should come to my house, my dish washer has been broken since October."  She raised one eyebrow and with more than a hint of disgust said, "I have never owned a dishwasher."

Well, I am not pioneer stock!  I MIND doing dishes.  Trust me when I say that the mighty pioneer women didn't like doing dishes either.  They simply had no choice!  If I weren't such a tree hugger we would eat on paper plates 6 nights a week.  I don't like being chained to the kitchen sink, knuckles dry and chapped, dropping and chipping plates constantly.  Did I mention I am not so great at going dishes by hand?  The ones that survive the process are clean, but we have lost more glassware in the last six months than in the last six years combined.

So this week when our tax return came through, I was giddy when Guy walked through the door and announced he had bought me a dishwasher.  He got a screamin' deal by combining a $50-off coupon and a 35%-off sale at the outlet store.  I got a dishwasher.  I am in heaven.

I swooned as my hubby installed the new machine.  He read the directions first, something I try to avoid until I have made a total debauchery of things.  A man with an instruction book in his hands is so sexy.  I ran my first load, and we all gathered round to listen to it hum.  Even the kids were impressed and grateful.

Then yesterday I was chatting with a friend who recently returned from a mission in Uruguay.  He talked about how every where they went they always saw women out scrubbing clothes by hand.  We live in a time and place where we have been so blessed by modern appliances.  I thought back to my own mission, and having to buy my perishable food one day at a time because we didn't have refrigeration.  Going without a dishwasher for six months was less an inconvenience and more of a little reality check.  It has reminded me to be grateful for the time saving devices that fill my life, allowing me to decide what I want to do with my days.  I can read to my children, garden, exercise with friends and create art (or even ugly Easter eggs!). 

I hope I really learned my lesson so that I don't have to suffer the loss of another one of my appliances.  It's true that dishes take a long time by hand, but laundry takes longer!