Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Family Helpers

I've finally gotten my voice back and am feeling much better. Our 5 year old is still on antibiotics for her lymphatic system, but is also starting to feel like herself again. She's still a little run down, but is still wanting naps.

While I was ill, the children did all the cleanup and food prep in the kitchen when dh was at work. Dh cooked family favorites when he was home. The recipes that I don't make very often, like deep fried battered fish, homestyle ribs, homemade soup. All tasty meals, with lots of mess or lots of dishes. I really appreciate how willing everyone was to pitch in and cook and clean, but my helpers just weren't thorough when cleaning up. So today I decided to really deep clean. Yuck! Someone spilled melted butter and pancake batter down the side of the stove where it butts up to a counter. It took a long time to get all the hard and crusty, but still sticky mess cleaned up. There was half a bottle of molasses spilled in the pantry. Batter mix and oil was splattered on the tile splash-guard. Dried meat juices were hiding under the drawers of the refrigerator. Let's just say that I worked hard most of the day and hope to finish cleaning tomorrow.

I've decided that I don't want help in the kitchen any more. It is too time consuming to sort through all the drawers and cupboards to find spills and take care of them. Not to mention the sorting of dishes and utensils so I can find them. We own at least four spatulas, but I haven't discovered them. I'm also missing my metal mixing bowls. I know they are here, somewhere. It's just a matter of time.

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