I’m a morning person.
I get up when it’s still dark out.
Everyone is still in bed.
It’s my time.
About the only quiet I get all day.
And I treasure it.
Treasure.
Every morning, I slip on my big white robe.
Slide my feet into cozy slips.
And wander downstairs to a pot of piping hot, freshly brewed coffee.
Favorite time of the day.
And you want to know what POSITIVELY RUINS IT?
Just makes me audibly groan and tempt me to crawl back into bed?
THIS:
Last. Night’s. Dishes.
Plates still on the table. Bread that should have been tucked safely into a ziploc bag to be eaten the next day. Instead, now resembles petrified wood hunks.
Nasty, crusty highchair trays that will take me forever to scrub. Oh, and lest you forget: that would be TWO nasty, crusty highchair trays.
Both sinks towering with disgusting crusty dishes and a matching countertop overflowing with grossness.
And who KNOWS where the sponge is???
Oh right…somewhere buried under that mountain of half dried mooshy smooshy nasty.
That I now have to shovel and dig for.
NOT the best part of waking up.
Not. one. bit.
I had made Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Spaghetti that night.
{Seriously fabulous people. Fab. You must make it. Must.}
Spaghetti. Dried. Overnight.
There will be no rinsing of this stash.
UGH.
Am I lazy?
Did I not FEEL like cleaning up?
Sometimes. But rarely.
Typically I forget all about it.
I know, right?! How do I forget?
By the time dinner is over, my kids usually look like this:
So, it’s all about Shower Time.
And by the time I’m at the end of my day, dinner cooked, 3 kids showered, pajama’d, stories read, prayers prayed, and down to bed…
I’ll check my email.
Maybe plop down and start reading a book.
Take a shower myself.
Whatever.
And then I go to bed.
COMPLETELY FORGETTING THAT DOWNSTAIRS A DISASTER BECKONS.
Bah.
So now…instead of it taking me 20 minutes to clean up from dinner and spending my quiet morning with my Java…
I’m stuck scrubbing.
And scrubbing.
And scrubbing.
So in case you ever thought FOR ONE SECOND that I have it all together…
I simply do not.
Nope.
Because the worst part is….this isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Nor will it be the last I would imagine.
I’d be a really bad seeing eye dog. They’d never be able to teach me a thing.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this???
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You should see my kitchen. It looks exactly the same minus the baby high chairs. Sinks piled with dishes. Counters all messed up. And I hate it. But sometimes I just get too busy/tired/lazy at night to do the dishes, and like you I will face the consequences today. Ugh.
No, you are not. I am with you all the way. From the fove for early morning rising when everyone else is still sleeping to the disappointment that comes with a dirty kitchen. Why, oh why, can we not be more disciplined the evening before? Just 5 or 10 minutes…
Now this is something I do understand completely! Sometimes, by the end of the day I simply cannot do one more thing.
Jacquelyn´s last blog post ..Its a a a
Nope you’re not the only one. It happens a lot around here too. Come’s with the territory of little ones. Only I NEVER wake up before my kids so I have to deal with the yuckiness WITH little ones awake. Does that make you feel a little bit better. =)
Lara´s last blog post ..Its time to say good-bye
For me, the kitchen is what I do actually take care of. I cannot stand to wake up to a sink full of dirty dishes. I will stay up late or whatever it takes to get that kitchen clean. However, don’t look at my floors or my shower or the toilets. We all have the places we take care of and the stuff we let go. I do however, totally, understand the being done at the end of the night thing, so I get how you could forget about the kitchen. Sorry you woke up to that! I love cleaning kitchens and dishes so if we were neighbors, I would totally have come over (since I wake up at 5 AM) and cleaned it up for you. :)
LOL!!!! Same thing happened to me this morning. Scalloped Potaotes and Ham, dishes every where. Ahh the joys of motherhood.
I often leave the dishes til the morning because I just don’t feel like dealing with them. At least I feel accomplished in the morning once I’ve got them done. Nice to start the day off with getting something done!
Kati´s last blog post ..Party Decorations
Oh yeah, been there, done that. Sometimes you just can’t do one.more.thing. You need a dog to take care of all that while you sleep (j/k!)
Jeannett, I don’t know how you found the time to sneak over to my house to snag that picture of my sink. It’s eerie, really.
This is what it looks like if I leave the dishes to my dear hubby. I am, like Joy, very big on doing dishes the night of because I don’t want to wake up to them in the morning. I do, however, leave the toys strewn all over the floor and there are PILES of clothes that need to be refolded and put away. I just can’t bring myself to that. So yes, I understand and feel your pain, even if it is with clothes instead of dishes! :)
Katie´s last blog post ..Food Poisoning
My kitchen counter still has Chipotle bags, foil, salsa and guac cups, chips, etc. all over it. Didn’t even cook and STILL too lazy to clean. Actually, technically it was just throwing things away. Not even cleaning. So very sad. So don’t feel bad. You could be me.
Jessica Johnson´s last blog post ..TEST
oh gahhhh. i’ve done that a couple of times… and regretted it big time b/c it takes twice as much time to do… i hate that about it.
i could empathize about having lots of little ones and no energy at the end of the day… i shall spare you. or i could offer up a few solutions.
but if you weren’t looking for solutions, just skip to the bottom.
1. clean as you go. my mom was a huge stickler about this and it made sense. she had four kids… dinner time was usually pretty wild.
2. keep a baby cloth on the back of their high chairs or accessible nearby. you can do a quick hose-off and let them toddle off to chill (haha a girl can dream, right?) while you finish u.
3 audience participation is key: invite your littlest man to help you get things put up… and i guess that goes for the hubs, too, if he’s around.
4. take care of the big chunks. maybe that means just rinsing all the plates, high chairs, etc and leaving almost but not quite clean dishes in the sink. put up the leftovers and rinse out any pans, etc. hopefully if you can’t finish, it won’t be so overwhelming the next morning.
5. envision a calm morning enjoying a cup a joe with the paper or your devotional instead of being elbow deep in dawn.
Pretty soon these late hectic evenings will be replaced by shuffling kids from dance to soccer and homework. you’ll be amazed how fast. you’re a super fantastic mom who spends time with her kids over feeling pressed to keep a perfect house. i can tell you that mom, mrs. clean-as-you-go missed out on a ton with us because she had to have an immaculate house.
purejoy´s last blog post ..radical
My kitchen looks like this from time to time and let me tell you. When I wake up and go downstairs to get my cup of coffee and the kitchen looks like that I get so mad! Mostly at myself because I didn’t take care of this the night before. I too was either checking my email, reading a good book or trying to catch up on my dvr’s. Needless to say, I try very hard every night to at least get the dishes done so I don’t start my day out as a crabby patty!
Sunny´s last blog post ..trouble posting
I’m right there with all of you. By the time I work, get home, make sure everyone’s fed, struggle through homework, bathe everyone, and get them in bed, I’m done. It is more likely that I will leave my kitchen looking this way, than clean. Even on days I clean my kitchen thoroughly, it looks like this when I’m done.
It’s just not at the top of the priority list.
Eyvonne´s last blog post ..4 Reasons to Keep a Prayer Journal
You’re definately not the only one. Right now I have a sink full of dishes, a dishwasher to empty, and stuff piled very high on the desk. My daughter has been doing her homework on the coffee table since the desk is so messy.
Ha! I do it knowingly! I think it’s normal. :)
stephanie´s last blog post ..A Girl
Ohhhhhh – thanks for making the rest of us feel “normal!” I actually rarely leave the kitchen dirty from dinner, but since I’ve been, um, “sick,” I don’t even go NEAR it! Thankfully my hubs does it and I don’t even ask….he’s a little bit OCD when it comes to clutter though – works out well for us. :-) Now playrooms and bedrooms? Oy vey…..those are places where it gets hairy for us around these parts!
Lindsay´s last blog post ..How I Survived
Would it make you feel better to know that right now there are still dinner dishes on my dining table from last night? and it’s 3:30pm. ha!
This is a common occurance in my house and probably always will be.
What’s with that whole waking up when it’s dark thing? What’s THAT like? LOL
Kirsten´s last blog post ..Starting it all off right
I get up early but not because I want to. I’m working again and my kids never let me sleep in. My quiet time is when the kids go to bed. It’s joyous.
hotpants™´s last blog post ..What Im Reading Volume 2
Oh my, that could be my sink and my son’s high chair! I rarely remember to do the dishes after dinner- UNLESS I did a simple crockpot meal, in which case I am not feeling quite as lazy after dinner since I didn’t ‘slave’ over it all evening!! My crockpot has become my best friend because I honestly would rather do ALL my chores in the morning and enjoy my evening with hubby! I am more of a night person then morning, though I do try to get up before my kids so I can have some queit moments to wake up instead of waking to a fussing, screaming kid!
Crystal´s last blog post ..In Labor Lets Go Eat!
Jeannett, this is why I love you. Seriously. The pic of Lucy about KILLED me.
So… Have you heard of flylady.net? She says to always scrub your sink til it shines before you go to bed. I eagerly signed up for her daily emails, thinking it would motivate me to …well… actually clean the house. I can honestly say I feel empowered every evening as I’m checking email to DELETE her emails without ever opening them. See? I’m cleaning.
Oh, this post made me so happy! Because that was EXACTLY what happened to me this morning. As I was slogging my way through all that cleanup, I just kept wondering if I was the only one. I totally forgot–forgot to start the dishwasher, forgot to LOAD the dishwasher, forgot to clear the table, etc. Thanks for make me feel sane!!
Emily´s last blog post ..Conformity is Cool
Morning is my quiet time too! I cherish it! And I totally cherish it when I am super productive and walk in to my clean kitchen. It’s too funny when I surprise myself!!!
I so agree. I hate waking up to a dirty kitchen. Sometimes I am so tired my husband suggests not bothering but those pictures show me why I always bother. Although a good book, as you say, does make forgetting easy.
Happy Belated SITS day.
LisaDay
LisaDay´s last blog post ..Everyone Knows Obviously!
Thank you for letting me know that I am not alone in this world! I keep a pretty clean house during the day, but after a long day of running after my 4 kiddies and helping Hubby in the shop, I’m too tired to pick up after everyone. So yes, when I wake up, my house is a mess! And I am perfectly okay with that! :)
Happy Belated SITS Day! :)
Leslie Limon´s last blog post ..El Bicentenario in my City
I do it.
All the time.
And I love that I’m not the only one.
(oh, and if you soak for a few hours, then you don’t have to scrub as much. and it may give you some lazy time :)
Yah my kitchen has looked like that. But typically, if I cook, the hubster cleans. And I leave the mess until he does.
(This way I work on some OCD issues while the spouse gets some sudz time).
Caryl
this used to happen all the time. hubby used to leave the high chair crusted all the time. now, it totally pays to have it cleaned up. i even wash dishes. Fly Lady says to always have a clean sink for the morning. makes your day start off 10x better!
julia´s last blog post ..Mop up the savings
our kids do the dishes.
so….that means that MOST of the time there are dirty dishes in the sink.
like as many as yours.
so many.
so gross.
and our counters always look like that.
YUCK!
i hate it.
someday when there are no kids to dirty them up i will miss them but not the dirty countertops!
meg duerksen´s last blog post ..35 years and one week exactly
You are definitely not alone. But I do have a WONDERFUL husband, who gets up at 3:30 or 4 am to get ready for work (at 5)and will do most of the dishes that were left overnight. I feel bad…for about a second. :)
Robbin´s last blog post ..A Prayer for Someone Whos Special to Me