Little things

On a daily basis, it's the little things that'll do me in.

Our situation - the Senior Sauna - is challenging. It's challenging for my parents, it's challenging for me, my Hubby and our daughter. It's also challenging for my sister and brother who try to stay connected as best they can.

When I face challenging situations, I try to control them in some little way. Here in my home, that way is to clean and put things away. I have no control over the aging bodies that are under my care, but I can keep washing dishes...and boy are there a LOT of dishes.

This is where the little things come in.

I've been trying to make Mom and Dad feel completely at home here. One way to do that is to help Mom navigate in the kitchen and feel like she knows where things are...and where to put them away...including the dishes. For the first couple of weeks, she kept saying: "I want to put things away, like the dirty dishes, but I'm never sure whether the dishes in the dishwasher are clean or dirty." I completely understood and made a giant pink note that said: DISHES IN DISHWASHER ARE CLEAN. The idea being - she shouldn't put dirty dishes in there when the note is out. I reviewed it several times. SEVERAL.

Every day, dirty dishes are put on the counter next to the sink. Sigh.

Dad is up and down in terms of helping pick up after himself. Most of the time, he pushes himself away from the table and leaves his dishes sitting there for Mom or me to pick up. I'm actually OK with that because he's not very stable and I'm afraid he'll drop or spill something. But when he does bring his dishes to the sink, I've told him time and time and time again that the right side of the sink is for clean dishes. Every freaking day he puts dirty dishes in the right side of the sink. EVERY. DAY. And sometimes it's not dishes. Sometimes it's garbage. Sigh.

And then there are the days when he pours himself a cup of coffee to carry back to the library. I specifically bought him a cup with a cover to prevent spills. He doesn't like that cup. He likes a different cup. So one day, I watched him carry a full cup of coffee. Then I followed him with paper towels and wiped up the trail of spilled coffee. I now understand why my parents' living room carpet was always filthy.

But I have to keep it all in perspective. I truly believe that as long as people are happy, then I'm happy. It won't kill me to clean up after these two people.

Heck, at least I'm burning calories, right?