No dishes

by Emily Freeman

Summer has overwhelmed me.

Usually I run at a pretty fast pace and can keep up with everything.

Not this year.

Perhaps you remember that our house is pretty full right now.  Everyone moved home for the summer.  Currently this house is bursting with 9 people whose hearts all reside here.  Of course me and Greg are here.  Then there are seven others ranging from the age of 15 to 22.  You do the math.  It’s a circus. I love circuses.

And my world revolves around those people.  From seven in the morning until one or two in the morning.  Yes.  That’s an eighteen hour day. It was the laundry that got behind first.  Then the straightening up of the house.   And the kitchen sink…oh boy.  In just a moment I will tell you about the kitchen sink…because you deserve a good laugh. You’ve probably noticed I have been missing.  Don’t worry….I will be back soon.  See, everyone leaves in August…except for Grace.  Some on missions.  The others to college.  The week of August 20 everyone will move back out and back on with their lives. And it will become quiet around here again.

A while ago I was mourning the fact that I had lost control of my life.  (wink wink)  Actually, it was serious enough that I got down on my knees to figure out how to hold all of the pieces together.  The answer came back clear.  You have this short window to celebrate every single person you love the most.  Soak it in.  Embrace it.  Let everything else go.  You won’t have this opportunity again.  When August comes the world will return to the way it used to be, but right now your priority is eight hearts.

I trust that prompting.  So I am soaking this up.  I shop at Costco and make meals all day long.  I do projects, and help with work ideas.  I sit on the couch and talk about love, and friends, and future plans.  When they call at eleven to say people are coming over and can I make treats…I can.   And when they ask if they can pull their scriptures out and ask questions…we do.  Help me chose an outfit for work?  Come with me to the temple?   Will you make me an egg?  In every moment I remember Marjorie Hinckley, “Let your first response be yes, rather than no.”

It has been a summer full of yeses. I am exhausted.  But fulfilled.

In fact, there really has only been one no. It has to do with the kitchen sink.

Seriously…things got out of hand.  Dishes stacked to the ceiling 24/7.  I could have a full time job.

So one day, after I had cleaned the kitchen for the upteenth time I put sticky notes all over the counter and both sides of the sink.  “NO DISHES HERE!”  “NO DISHES”  “NO DISHES”

I was serious.

And in the sink that was most often used I put packing tape over the sticky note to make sure no one forgot.

It took one week and they were trained.  Hallelujah!

So I took the sticky notes off the counter.  And pulled the one out of the sink.  And when I did, this happened…

Yep!  Permanent.  The sharpie marker bled right through.  Had I known that was going to happen I probably would have used my best writing. So, now there’s that reminder of this summer.

Oh well.

Sometimes life happens.  And remember, I am soaking it in.  All of it.  Even the sharpie marker on the kitchen sink.

At least they won’t forget.  About the sink, I mean.  But hopefully they won’t forget this summer either.  The summer I dropped everything and let my world revolve around theirs.