If the Washing Machine Eats the Socks, What Eats the Silverware?
We all know the adage that the washing machine eats socks, which is why they never come out in pairs. I long ago gave up trying to match them, just buying plain black socks for the boys and hoping they kind of match. Marie gets to feel in fashion because all of her socks are multi-colored with frogs, kisses, stripes and cats. If she can get one stripe from one sock to match the color on the cat, then she has found a match!
My concern is our silverware. When we first had kids, we started out with a full Faber ware set. As we saw pieces disappear one by one, we had to replace the set several times. (We now have 72 knives and six spoons left.) We do not know where the silverware goes. As far as we are concerned, we eat with it, put it in the sink, in the dishwasher to be washed and then back in the silverware drawer. It is not rocket science. It IS, however, way too complicated of a system to work in our house. For some reason, our silverware disappears! One would assume that the washing machine/sock theory would work for the dishwasher and disappearing silverware, but, alas, that is not the answer.
Theory #1 is that ours is the “HOUSE OF THE DISAPPEARING SILVERWARE”, oooooooooh! We sometimes stay awake at night imagining the silverware whisking away into thin air with a whoooosh here and a whooosh there, kind of like witchcraft. In the morning, half of the spoons are gone!
Of course, another explanation is that, somehow, the children are involved. Maybe they take a paper plate of left over supper to their bedrooms and the silverware gets thrown away with the disposable dish. I shudder to think of this dirty, tragic end to our fine and selfless silverware. They die in the line of duty.
Whatever the reason, and whatever the consequences we have put upon our children for not taking care of the silverware, it continues to vanish for no reason. (Thus the plausibility of theory #1.) We have given up our concept that the ideal home has good silverware and we have replaced it with spoons and forks from WalMart. Ours is still an ideal home in my eyes, we just use cheap silverware. You wouldn’t imagine the amount of stress it relieves!
PS. I have this fantasy that one day when I die, all of the lost forks and spoons will find their way into my casket, making up for their lifetime of disappearances. Unfortunately, they will also drag with them the bits and pieces of food, which have now petrified onto them. Of course, no one else in my family will ever know, because by then my casket will have been closed and sealed…
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Link to my book
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-apple-tree/id538572206?mt=11
The Apple Tree: Raising 5 Kids With Disabilities and Remaining Sane
Link to the Readers Digest review of my book: http://www.rd.com/recommends/what-to-read-after-a-hurricane/