Dishwasher Drama

I like my kitchen to be sparkling when my head hits the pillow at night. If I wake up to dirty dishes, chaos and a big mess, I feel like my day will follow suite. So when there are days that the dishwasher does not get turned on before bedtime, I immediately start my day in a panic. That is what happened last Wednesday. Yes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the biggest cooking and meal prep day of the year for my family. The day I am in my kitchen the longest, and I had to begin with a dishwasher full of dirty dishes to start. I am not here to point fingers or cast blame, but I knew I was in for some unfortunate mishaps in the kitchen with this blunder. I tried to pray, calm myself and take deep breathes before starting my list of tasks in the kitchen, but the humming of the dishwasher just ruined my calm and turned my thankful heart into a grumbling mess.

Do you have those days where you immediately know it might be a tough one? Maybe you overslept, spill your coffee, can't find your keys, burn your toast, have a dead car battery....the list of misfortunes that can ruin any start of any day is endless. It's how we react to those mishaps that define the day, not the actual bump in the road. Unfortunately I usually choose to act abruptly and crumble before I yield, pray and be humbled.

After the dishwasher drama I was not all in a grateful mindset, but I tried. I still got started on my to do lists that included pie baking, cheesecake making, butter shaking, cranberry sauce boiling, and a turkey fruit platter. Yes we do Thanksgiving big! It is the only day of year my kids fill little jars with whipping cream and a marble and shake and laugh and dance to make the best homemade butter. We also make homemade cranberry sauce and a homemade cheesecake that could win a ribbon! I can share the butter and cranberry sauce recipes, but the cheesecake one is a secret from a friend, so I cannot divulge.

There were some hiccups in the day...just ask the pizza that landed cheese side down on the floor at dinner time, but there were still some memories and laughter and thankfully a perfect cheesecake. The dishwasher wasn't going to ruin this Thanksgiving. I put up the clean dishes with the help of my daughter and reloaded it again to run that night. I didn't let the drama of unclean dishes totally ruin my day, although it tried. I found the thankfulness in the fact I have a big sink that can hold a lot of dirty dishes while they are waiting their turn, and I had another frozen pizza I could bake in the freezer to replace the pizza on the floor.

Find the good. Be thankful in all things. Show Joy when you feel like you might be running on empty. Sing praises when the tears try to drip down from our eyes. No it is not easy, but life is not easy. Ever. But it is a gift! So choose on those hard days to be thankful and work through the woes.

As we look to the celebration of the birth of our Savior in these coming weeks. It will not be perfect! Every recipe and decoration will not be identical to a Pinterest page But the One we are celebrating is perfect! He wants our praise and grateful heart, even when there's dishwashing drama to start our day

James 1:2 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations"