Confession

Hi, my name is Sarah, and I have a problem. I hate doing dishes--hand-wash dishes are the worst. I'd rather fold laundry for 3 days straight than do dishes. The only thing lower on the chore totem pole is cleaning the toilet -  blech.
Dirty dishes are all food-covered and slimy, they smell bad, it makes my hands dry out, and it gets complicated with a toddler. I have to load and unload the dishwasher while he is either sleeping or in his high chair or he will play with the wheels on the drawers, push the drawers in and out while I'm trying to put dishes in/out, take silverware out and carry it all over the house (disgusting when they're dirty, and annoying when they're clean because now they're dirty again, dangerous when it's a knife), close the soap area, close the dishwasher, and try to climb into the dishwasher. If you have a toddler you've probably experienced all of those and probably more.
Dishes also have a snowball effect. At our house we don't put the dirty dishes into the sink, because then the sink isn't usable, and they would get even slimier and stinkier. So in theory we put them into the empty dishwasher because of course we empty it as soon as it's done washing, but that never happens (see toddler excuse) so they stack up on the counter next to the sink, which shrinks the counter space in the kitchen, which in turn makes it harder to cook. They stack and stack up until I can't even go into the kitchen without being overwhelmed by the disgusting mess. The result is many meals of cereal.
Finally I kick my butt into gear and just do all the dishes and clean the kitchen in one fell swoop. I did this today, even while Joshua was AWAKE and NOT in his high chair!
I absolutely love the kitchen when it is all cleaned up and sanitary again. And it never takes as long as I imagine it will. I sometimes just stand in the clean kitchen and admire the clean counters. This results in more home-cooked food items in our house: Freshly baked bread, treats, meals, etc. Unfortunately, when I cook more, it also means more dirty dishes, especially hand-wash dishes. And thus the cycle repeats. Arg, dishes.
Just as a side story, on Saturday, our downstairs neighbors moved out. This morning the utility company came and turned off their electricity so they wouldn't get billed for it anymore and it wouldn't be in their name anymore. This afternoon the new tenants showed up and started moving in. I let them know that the electricity had been turned off this morning and that they will need to call and get it turned back on and in their name. This was during my kitchen cleaning tornado so I then went and finished loading the dishwasher and went to start it. No Go. The dishwasher is apparently on downstairs' power. Oh the joys of living in an ancient house. So today, my kitchen looks clean, but secretly it's still hiding a mass of dirty dishes. Ps: Christin, if you're reading this, it all works out because either the washer or dryer is on the downstairs power, and let's face it, I don't do dishes very often (see above).