Thursday, January 21, 2010

Reconnecting With My Kitchen

Those of you who know me, know that I love to cook. It's a love that I developed way back in high school. At one point in my life I actually thought I wanted to be a chef, although in the past year or so I've realized that cooking is a passion that I wouldn't want combined with my professional life. Anyways - I love cooking.

When Chris first died - I cooked a lot. I was struggling to hold onto my identity (since my identity as Chris' girlfriend was no longer there) - and cooking was one of those things that is intrensically me. So for a period of a couple of months - I was a cooking foo. Then when the deep depression kicked it - it stopped. More or less everything stopped - but that was one of the noticeable things.

My kitchen is kinda like a garden in that it is constantly getting new things and there is an order to it all. Sometimes that order has to be shaken up. But while I was really depressed - I kinda let it all go - like an abandoned garden. I hated even going in there. And right now I am currently reclaiming it from all the wild weeds.

And its been rejuvinating. The key to it has really been the whole shiny sink from FLYlady. It's just a lot easier to cook something if you know that everything you'll need is washed and ready to go - and you can actually use your counter for prep because it isn't covered in dirty dishes or items that just haven't made it to the pantry. I don't have a dishwasher - so washing the dishes is a real chore - but I'm now finding that its taking me a lot less longer to do it all.

But the truth is - I let my dishes back up. You guys are probably saying, "Gross - TMI", but its the truth - and I don't hide from the truth here. While I'm sure I could have finished washing all the backed up dishes in a day - it would have been long and tedious and I probably would have given up half way through. Instead - I've been setting my timer for 15-20 minutes, making the dishes I dirtied the priority, and any time I have left I use to tackle my backup.

Well, last night I did it. I finished cleaning the backed up dishes. It felt great to dry and put away that last dish. And one of the best parts about it - I was able to say to myself that by keeping up with my routine of doing my dishes every night - I will never have a nasty dish backup like that again.

1 comment:

Kate/Susan said...

Way to go, Em! :-) So proud of you and glad you learned of the FLYLady :-) My house is an absolute miracle, mainly for the same reason--all the dishes are done every night now, instead of letting them spill over. And letting them spill over gave me an excuse for dirty counters, and since I couldn't put anything there, it all went on the dining room table, and when it didn't fit there any more, into the living room and so on... Now everything is in its place and I'm a happy woman. I am loving reading about your progress!!! Keep it up!