Normal

Isn't "normal" an odd word when you think about it? I was loading the dishwasher the other day when, once again, the Dratted Kitchen Fairy failed to report for duty. I noticed that our "normal wash" button on the dishwasher had deteriorated to the point where the little disc within it has shifted out of its spot. All the other cycles like "light wash", "heavy wash", and "pots and pans" are just fine. Normal, even.

It got me thinking, what IS a "normal wash"? Normal for our family means the top rack is full of sippy cups and Ikea plasticware and Mason jars. The bottom rack is full of coffee and hot cocoa mugs, silverware (mostly spoons), ceramic cereal and ice cream bowls, and medium sized plates as well as the kids' Ikea plastic plates.

But what would be normal for someone who REALLY likes to cook? Lots of those cute little ramekin/measuring bowls that their ingredients had been pre-measured into before they attempt their recipe? Casserole dishes because their families don't mind and *gasp!* even enjoy food that touches other kinds of food? Wine glasses? Water glasses? Dishes coated in salad dressing, au jus, and Alfredo sauce instead of only peanut butter and jelly blobs and red spaghetti sauce and leftover cereal milk?

What would Martha Stewart's "normal wash" be like? Or Rachael Ray's? And how about those guys with the grilling shows? Would any of their stuff even FIT into a dishwasher?

What about you? What's your "normal wash" like?

And does "normal wash" carry over into laundry? We probably do two loads of kid clothes a week which somehow ends up being huge piles of jammies, colorful skivvies, lots of Care Bear's plain white kneesocks, many shirts of varying sleeve lengths and fewer pants. For our guys, that's normal. I imagine if we had anyone remotely girly in our family that I'd be trying to figure out how to wash sequins and lace, and can tutus go through the wash on delicate or do I stick to Woolite in the sink?

Sheets get washed on Mondays and bath towels, sad to say, get washed whenever I remember. I figure, you're clean when you get out of the tub so how dirty can you towel get, right? Kitchen and bathroom hand towels are a different story. My mother is thanking her lucky stars for that sentence.

The big people laundry gets done when Dada gets home from whatever trip he's on, because there's no point in me washing whatever's in the hamper and then him arriving to dump out his suitcase and have it wait until I have enough to wash again.

Anyway, that's what "normal" looks like around here. I won't get into descriptions of the actual house occupants, because "normal" goes totally out the window in that case. While we might not qualify as "normal", we are probably pretty average. Or perhaps not! Case in point, my parents mailed a box to the kids which contained valentines, stickers, a dollar bill each, a new and colorful washcloth each and a colorful, sparkly comb each. The kids' reaction? "YAY! COMBS!" The combs were the favorite things in the box.

Combs.

Does that count as normal?