"Table, counter, stove!!!!"

Ahh, words heard after dinner nearly every single day while growing up. since there are four kids in my family, there were four jobs.
1. table, counter, stove
2. wash dishes
3. rinse dishes
4. dry and put away

ok, the table, counter, stove was the coveted chore because all you had to do was clear them all off and wipe them down. done in 5 minutes. if you couldn't get that, then you pipe up for dry and put away cause you could always say "i have to wait for so-and-so to wash and rinse and i'm just going to let them air dry. i'll put them away after they're done air drying". ooh, we thought we were so sly. :) tough luck on the poor souls who got stuck with washing and rinsing for half an hour (typically that was joycelyn and i). and you know what? now that i'm older and am thinking about it, i KNOW we had a dishwashing machine in our house while growing up...dude, why didn't we use it?! moving on....
so about 15 minutes ago, i asked julia to do her daily chore--put the dishes away in the dishwasher. jacob comes racing in "i want to do the plates! it's my job!". unlike my siblings and i, my kiddos actually think it's a privilege to put the dishes away. HAHAHAHAHA! oh, my wonderful naive ones. :) the jobs for putting away our dishes in the dishwasher are:
1. silverware (evelyn claims this one--mainly because i don't trust her with anything else)
2. plates (or everything on the bottom rack)
3. cups (or everything on the top rack)
jacob and julia constantly fight over who gets to do what. not who has to. i'm simply amazed at their attitudes about helping out. they don't complain about having to do it at all. i'm happy to say that i haven't emptied out the dishwasher for several months now...and don't plan on doing it again anytime soon. as for letting them put everything in...well, i'm not brave enough to let them do it yet. maybe that'll be a goal for later this year.
til then...."silverware, plates, cups!!!"