Clean Sweeping My Mom's Kitchen

So I woke up this morning at 8am because my parents' phone rang (P.S. to those of you who are slow--I'm staying at my parents' for a couple days. A break from boy and dog.) Then my mom came in the room and started shuffling stuff about. It was futile to resist. The Christmas CDs were blasting from the living room (one of about 200 my dad has--no, I'm not using a hyperbole here). So I got up, showered, and proceeded into the kitchen where I was about to spend the next 7 hours of my life. Mom finally submitted to the idea of Clean Sweeping her house. Well, at least the kitchen. She's having people from work come over tmr afternoon, so she thought maybe now was a good time to get rid of the 16 year old vinegar, mountains of old butter tubs, etc. Yes, this is where I get my own need to save everything. You should have seen my grandmother's house; I never had a chance.

Anyway, we decided to tackle the Tupperware drawer first. I convinced Mom that she didn't need old yogurt containers, and that if she must save the butter tubs ("They're for work!") she had to put them in a box and actually take them to work. Then we got rid of all the covers that didn't fit any containers. We were on a roll. We forewent breakfast so that we could move on to the 3 junk drawers. Now, I'm perfectly fine with one drawer where you throw all the crap that doesn't have another home, but 3 is unacceptable. So she attempted to whittle down the pencil and pen and highlighter collection, and I sorted through the pantry. I found the following disturbing items: hamburger helper from '94, vinegar from '88, grape jelly that looked more like church wine, several boxes of expired scalloped potatoes, a bottle of Hooters hot sauce, liquified potatoes, and a can of turkey SPAM.

In between all of this we cleaned out the fridge, cleared off the counter, filled the dining room table with stuff we couldn't find another place for, made caramel cookies, whipped up some sugar cookie dough, and had a much needed mother-daughter bonding day. We had a bit of religion talk and I think she's finally come to realize just why I don't like organized religions. A little sex talk from which I swiftly changed the subject. Three garbage bags later, we were two exhausted ladies. And the kitchen somehow still looks amiss. We'll have to take care of that tmr. in between rolling out cookies, frosting said cookies, cleaning the office, and finding a dumpster for all the pop cans my brother has downstairs. All in all, it was a good day. I feel productive. And sleepy.