I hate cleaning the kitchen. You’d never guess it, though, cause it seems that’s what I’m doing much of my days. In this busy family of 7 we just all seem to be in and out of the kitchen all day as if it had revolving doors. Even when we have company, my company chooses to gather in the kitchen to chat regardless of the much more comfortable sitting and living areas in my house. My dishwasher is probably loaded and ran at least twice a day which means it needs to be unloaded at least twice a day. In between times I hand-wash what dishes don’t fit and try to sweep up sticky messes and crumbs in an attempt to stay on top of what can quickly become a hazard worthy of reporting to the health department. Oh, I do try to remove myself from kitchen duty as often as I can by doling it out to a teenager, but this only ensures that I’ll have to put a search party out for my lost or misplaced cooking containers and tools. Hey, I even labeled all my cabinets inside as to what belongs on what shelf or space. That lasted about a millisecond!

Even when the kitchen is clean and organized I find myself hovering around because my family often lines up on the opposite side of the bar from me and makes orders as if I were "mom the waitress" taking their orders. I haven’t yet decided if they do this because I am in there so much, so this is where they must go to talk to me or if they prefer me to be there and somehow "lure" me in. I don’t really mind this as long as I’m not in the middle of trying to cook supper. I have a strict "get of my kitchen" policy during such busy high stress times. I do, however enjoy cooking dinner (alone with my i-pod tuned into my favorite music). I just really hate the cleanup. Because, once again, there I will be, in the darn kitchen: scraping, tossing, loading, wiping, putting away and sweeping up.

When I find myself feeling prisoner to the kitchen area, I can’t help but feel resentful of how much time it steals from what I’d rather be doing. I really am not so boring that I’d rather be a kitchen slave; I do have many other much more tantalizing endeavors to pursue. If I were rich (just dreaming) I would hire someone to live in my home and be in charge of all kitchen duties including the shopping for groceries. Just thinking of all the doors of opportunity this would open up for me is wonderful, unrealistic, yet still so worthy of day-dreams. Wow, if only this were an option, I could be so much more to everyone in my life including myself.

Back to reality…I’m gonna limit my contact with the dishes, nasty counter-tops and stove for today and maybe this week. Maybe. The other thing I hate even more than being trapped with kitchen duties is a filthy kitchen. There are so many other things calling my name right now (besides laundry and other housework drudgery). I have an Adobe CS4 course and projects to finish.  My creative side is reminding me that I used to write poetry, take many more pictures than I do now and sew. I miss these things. I need to create beauty that lasts longer than a clean kitchen. Which, incidentally, lasts about 5 minutes in this house. Maybe that’s why housework is so mundane, its not lasting. I can’t say anyone really dreams of only doing activities that will be undone within a days time. I suppose we all need to make our mark in this world in ways that live on.