Appliance Spoiled

We built our home here in St. George a little less than 2 years ago. Because we plan to stay here for a long time, I spent a little extra money and put top of the line GE appliances in my kitchen. The other morning I went to unload the dishwasher and found a mess. The heating element had malfunctioned and melted all my plastic items. The base to my blender was ruined.

Some of my kitchen knives have rubber grip handles. They were melted off, and stuck together. My silver ware was covered in the plastic mess.

I found out it would take several days for the appliance repairman to make a house call. In the meantime the dirty dishes started stacking up in the sink and all over the counters. I like to cook, and with cooking comes lots and lots of dirty dishes. I keep a busy schedule and I like the idea of throwing all my dishes in the dishwasher, pushing a button, and getting on with my life. Now that was not possible. At first I think I was in denial, thinking somehow the dirty dishes would magically disappear. Instead, the pile increased.
One night my son was up late doing homework, and I decided it would be a good time to hang out with him in the kitchen and tackle the ever increasing mess.
I filled the sink with lots of hot soapy water, and began the process of hand washing my dishes. With in minutes childhood memories started flooding my mind. I didn't grow up with a dishwasher in my home. My sister and I were in charge of the nightly dinner dishes. We sang songs and talked as we did our chores. I'm sure there was a little arguing along the way, but I don't remember much of that. While placing my hands in the warm water and hearing the clink, clink, clink of the dishes, I remembered a simpler time when life was not so rushed. Times when we snapped each other with wet dish towels and chased each other around the kitchen.
I also remembered my mother teaching me how to wash dishes. She had a partially blind Amish woman teach her how to "feel" the plates to make sure they were clean. I did that again the other night. I "felt" the plates to make sure they were smooth and clean.

How did we get so appliance spoiled?

When ever there is a challenge there is always a blessing that comes with that challenge. There is a skill in finding the blessing that I have been working on developing.

Today I am grateful that I only have dishes for 3. For many years I have had stacks of dishes for my family of 5 children and all of their friends who used to eat at our house continually.

I'm grateful for the availability of hot water and soap.

I'm grateful for happy memories.

The appliance man found the dishwasher to be unrepairable. Because of the blob of melted plastic at the bottom of the unit, and the potential for the heating unit to cause a fire, I was encouraged to get a new dishwasher. Of course, we are just past the one year warranty. Lovely.