A Dish Lesson

A Dish Lesson

About a week ago my Mom came to me and wanted to rearrange our kitchen.

My parents have been living me the past three years due to the housing market and medical issues. We have done some changes around the house most of which were good.

But when she suggested changing cabinets and moving my dishes out of the cabinet I admit I was frustrated.

Things in the kitchen I thought had been working well, we were finally in a place that had nice constancy to it.

She knows I want a new dish set, but haven’t settled on what I want yet. So she comes to me with this idea about replacing my dish set and getting 2 sets of wheat straw dish sets. And I’m like what?!

We had gotten a wheat straw dish set for the dogs and they have one in their camper. Wheat straw is kind of like a like plastic only made out of wheat straw so more eco friendly. She knew I was thinking of getting a set after they move out as a handy to have kind of way. But never was I thinking of replacing my dishes with them.

She was telling me how much room the current dishes take up and how much space these ones would save.

Now, granted we have been using a lot of paper plates these last few years. There is something to be said for how much bandwidth my Dad and I have.

But I really couldn’t see her logic on this one.

Even so still I went down this rabbit hole with her to see where it would it go, and frankly sometimes it’s about choosing my battles. She kept talking about how much valuable space was being lost on two lower shelves in the cabinets. And how much better the “flow” of the kitchen would be if we changed it.

I finally agreed to have her order the wheat straw dishes, but I didn’t agree with her placement of things.

I love organizing so I just couldn’t get behind her option.

While we waited for the plates to come, I mentally kept trying out different configurations of the cabinets. When they arrived I had a pretty good idea where they were going to go and what I had to move.

As I started to rearrange the cabinets, still a bit grumpy about having to accommodate these new dishes I had a huge aha- moment.

She was worried about pulling glass bowls and plates down.

I knew my mom had been having trouble reaching the top shelf and that she was having some troubling reaching to the back of the 2nd shelf as well where all the glass bowls were. But I hadn’t realized how hard it had gotten for her. Even pulling the plates from the bottom shelf was getting more problematic.

Until I went to move all the glass bowls and realized how heavy they were.

Normal heavy for a healthy person, but seeing she has lost so much strength they were harder for her to manage from that height.

Between having trouble reaching and the heaviness of the glass bowls and plates she was struggling more in the kitchen than I realized.

She loves to cook and bake, so I try to encourage that as much as possible, I know keeping independence is a big deal.

I haven’t said anything to her about my new understanding.

I have however noticed how much more she is already using the new dishes over my set.

Do I love them, no.

Are they making it easier for my Mom, yes.

And right now that’s what matters.

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