Ode to the Dishwasher

As said before, simple living means different things to different people. One thing I have been trying to do, in my simple life, is cook the majority of my food from scratch. Of course, there are times when we eat out, or the kids beg for Kraft Dinner, but on the whole I am trying to do my best to cook food with real ingredients.

One thing I have discovered in my quest in home cooking is that it uses a lot of dishes. To make a homemade cake you need a bowl for wet ingredients, a bowl for dry ingredients, measuring cups of various sizes and types, measuring spoons, a spatula, a wooden spoon, a whisk or perhaps even an electric mixer. That is for just one cake! If you want to make your main meal, depending on what it is, you may need a large pot, a medium pot,  mixing bowls to use and then a casserole dish. By this point, forget about using serving dishes, the pot or pan the food is cooked in works just as well, thank you.

The thought of having to wash all those dishes, plus the dishes we use to eat the food with, and doing that for every meal... eek! It is not a pretty picture. In comes the dishwasher. Oh that sweet thing of beauty. Knowing that I have a dishwasher that will help make the cleanup happen makes me excited to want to cook and explore what culinary masterpiece I can create. Make a cake and a three course meal? Sure, no problem! I have a dishwasher.

There are some people I know that like washing dishes by hand. It gives them a chance to be alone and reflect upon their day and catch up with themselves. I think that is great. If washing dishes by hand gives you much needed self-reflection time, go for it. I used to like doing them by hand before I had kids. I could wash them and feel I had accomplished a great thing for my household of two. Now that I have kids, washing dishes by hand is the worst thing, at least for me. I swear, I collect and organize the dishes, make sure the kids are doing something fun, make sure they are well fed, run the water, add the soap, wash the first dish and... "MOM!!! I'm hungry. Mom, she touched me. Mom, can you help me with this? Mom, when are you going to be done? Mom, can you help me with this snap?" Seriously. The worst part is that this usually happens after dinner when my husband is home. And I'm like, "Ask your dad!!!!" Seriously. So for me, dish washing is not a zen experience.

When we bought this house, almost two years ago, I was excited because it would be the first place we would have lived in our married life that had a dishwasher. And it was great for the first month, then it went kaput. I think it was an original fixture with the house to be honest. I was crushed. Then this past Christmas we got paid out a small sum for some unused holiday time. That same week my favourite brand of dishwasher went on sale, for that amount. I think it was meant to be. I have been in heaven ever since.

I'm not trying to tell you that you have to run out to buy a dishwasher if you want to cook from scratch. I'm not saying that a dishwasher has to be part of your simple life. I just want you to know that it can be. You can be living a simple life even with a dishwasher. If you are starting on this road to simplification (heck, I feel like I am just starting to cross the start line on my own journey) a dishwasher could be your friend, especially when you have young kids. I would rather spend my time with them, then doing up their snaps with sudsy hands.

Living the simple life does not mean doing without some of the comforts that are now available. It means, not running out to get the latest model, and to acquire things of good quality and usefulness. It needs to be something that adds to your quality of life. Things are to help you live, you don't live for your things. And my dishwasher, it helps me live.

Have a Happy Easter everyone!