From Toys to Dishwashers

From toys to dishwashers, I am not sure exactly where the transition occurred.

I remember pouring through the Fleet Farm and JCPenny Holiday Toy catalogues the moment they were delivered to our house – flagging, circling and starring all of the toys that I dreamed of having and playing with. I would make detailed lists out of the American Girl catalogues that would add up to amounts in the $300 range and I would sigh and say, someday. That was the old definition of “Christmas List.”

If I were to compare those lists to the “list” that I just compiled for my family, I am pretty sure that you would not be able to tell it was for the same person. My current list still has a few “toys” on it – a new video game, a couple DVDs, and then we get into the practical gifts – snowflake dishes and a new dishwasher top the list.

Our dishwasher has not been living up to its name. It more or less swishes around dirty water in there for awhile before calling the dishes “clean.” I think our dishwasher has a very casual loose definition of clean…the majority of our drinking glasses and other assorted kitchen items are caked with gunk, of course, at the bottoms of each glass. I end up having to handwash almost everything in our kitchen – and who really wants or expects to do that when they own an appliance called a dishwasher, anyway?! So I told Derick that is what I wanted – for Christmas or otherwise – a new dishwasher. I am pretty sure I cringed after I said it, just the thought of asking for a kitchen appliance sounded “unfun.” The dishwasher is supposed to help make life easier, but just ends up making more work for me, it is time to make a change! Maybe I will even end up killing two birds with one stone and getting a newer, more efficient AND one that is a lot quieter than ours now. Currently, each time the dishwasher is run, you’d think a 747 was landing in our kitchen (and just so we’re clear, that is NOT fly like a G6…sorry, had to make that reference in there).

I seem to be all about change in my life right now. On the lookout for different things, improvements, different things to do, etc. I have already found good and bad things out about going and looking for things to change. Some things I can change and others, I cannot. I have to deal with the things that I can have an impact on to change – for the better.

As the weather remains warm, 50s and 60s still (wait, it’s still November 8^th, right?!) I am feeling like I am actually getting to experience one of my favorite seasons – Autumn – for a longer-than-normal period of time. I am really enjoying this. I am looking forward to the holiday season – Thanksgiving (my favorite) and then Christmas soon enough afterward. I actually already started shopping for Derick’s birthday and Christmas…and keeping that a secret will be pretty hard. Gifts are the hard thing to keep secret. I usually end up being so excited about them that I want the person to have them right away and share in that excitement with me! But then again, I always like to open something on Christmas Eve/morning. Last year, for example, I went Black Friday shopping and got a pretty good deal on some video games that Derick had wanted. I ended up giving him one or two of them after I got home because I didn’t want to keep them a secret for that long. Also, with that one, I have his birthday AND his Christmas gifts to keep secret! That is a lot of pressure on one person!

Oh well. I am sure that everything will turn out. I just catch myself sometimes in one of my “grownup moments” and laugh to think that I am thinking or doing things that I would have not thought about before. I must be getting older.