I’m having a bad day. Parker broke my Pyrex 9×13 with a lid. I used it *every* day. I think it was a wedding gift. I just ate an entire chocolate bar, and I don’t feel better yet.
But that was Saturday – I’m only mentioning it now because my success at repressing the trauma has ended. I’m feeling the loss today much more than when I heard the ominous crash two days ago. I miss my dish. I don’t want a new one; I want the old one.
And now two days later, another precious kitchen artifact is lost, which may explain why the trauma from the earlier loss broke through my dam of repression.
Today, I can’t find the lid to my 8 quart Tupperware bowl. This isn’t just any bowl. It’s the bowl that my friend brought to me the day after Megan was born, 14 years ago. She had filled the enormous bowl with a giant batch of pasta salad and presented it to me with a laugh. We now had four children. This, she said, was our official induction into Large Family Status. Now, we needed a bowl like this.
OK, so we have 5 kids here.
At the time, I thought the bowl was hilariously oversized, but I kept it.
And I used it.
For 14 years.
I actually have 2 big bowls – but just one lid. Now I have no lid at all.
Over the last 5 or 6 years, we have used it daily. It’s the only thing big enough to hold pancake batter, biscuit dough, sausage balls, or apple pie filling for our crew. Sometimes we use it as mixing bowl, and sometimes we snap the lid on it to store food. Sometimes we use it three or four times a day. At least twice a week, I use it to make artisan bread, using half of the dough right away and storing the second half in the fridge for the following day. The entire batch won’t fit in the bowl after it rises, but half fits nicely.
But today, the lid was nowhere to be found. I don’t know how. I don’t know where. We used the bowl yesterday and twice the day before, and every day before that, but the lid is mysteriously gone. Did somebody hide it? Destroy it? Throw it away? Did the dog carry it outside and chew it into pieces the size of match heads? Will we ever know? How will I store anything over the size of a 4 quart ice cream bucket???
I ranted and raved. My head spun in circles and smoke came out my ears as we searched the house. We didn’t find it, but I regained my cool enough to realize I was making a big deal out of nothing, and I asked my kids to forgive me.
Maybe it will turn up and we’ll all laugh about how much a big blue plastic lid meant to me, but I know that if it doesn’t magically reappear in the first 3 days it’s probably gone forever.
And honestly, it’s just a lid. I still have the bowl. I could buy both if I needed to. What’s wrong with me?
Maybe losing two old pieces in two days reminded me of how time is slipping away. Before they were gone, I never thought about how long I had them, or whether I would care if I lost them. They’re just glass and plastic, and easily replaced – but once they are gone the new ones are only replacements. I can never regain what is lost.
I will never be that 20-something mom again, full of energy to face the endless days.
My kids will never be babies again. Well, the older ones won’t. Some of the little ones are babies.
Lord willing, my husband and I have many years ahead of us – but we can never regain the ones that are already past.
Lord, help me to redeem the time that remains.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Ephesians 5:15-17
Thank you so much for this post. I tend to get too wrapped up in the little things sometimes and forget the big picture, but none of us gets that time over again. This is such a great reminder. While I’m sorry for the loss of your kitchen items, I’m thankful the Lord used them to bless others with this message. Thank you.
What a wonderful reminder. Especially to those of us who have *only* littles, and are eager for them to grow up. I should be careful what I wish for!
I broke a 9×13 a few years ago, it to was a wedding gift, and it was rose tinted glass. I’d had it for 10 years, it was so sad, and I can’t replace it easily because they don’t make that color normally, I can get a new glass pan yes, but not the same color. I feel your pain….
Get thyself to Target and buyeth some large dishes, seriously dude.
I lost my 11×14 pyrex last weekend. I poured dutch baby batter into it and it cracked and broke and poured raw dutch baby all over the bottom of my oven. I am so thankful my husband was home. My 9 months pregnant self could NOT have dealt with that tragedy after having prepped breakfast. It meant figuring out something ELSE for breakfast.
I feel your pain, and your nostalgia. My oldest is not yet 12 (with #6 due this week) and sometimes I just ache for his baby self who I will never see again. I wanted so much for him to be big and now I miss him, even though I love Big-Him too, you know? And now I’m all teary. So ready to have this baby already
You have me laughing over here, and my mom is wondering why in the world?!
Especially the line: “My kids will never be babies again. Well, the older ones won’t. Some of the little ones are babies.”
You should’a been an author!
I feel the pain of your sentimentality. But, Jenny’s right. Go to wherever and get some big dishes and put some plastic wrap on the big bowl in place of the lid and move on because now you have to form some new fond momentos and memories with your little ones because the first set of babies have all grown up, for this conversation, and the second group of babies need their own sentiments with you . Just like they are going to grow up in a new house, not the old one with the chickens. And the one with the deck you built with the girls. See? And if you hadn’t had these two tragedies, you never would have posted the verses from Ephesians which are perfect to embroider on my daughter’s pillow case. I’ve been looking for something appropriate to fit my little life dramas over here in Oregon. These verses are the perfect thing! See how God has used your loss for my daughter’s gain?! Thank God, Have some more chocolate, and Go make some new memories with your babies! : j We are all here for you.
all I can say is, “Wow, Been there done that! I SO understand!” and thank you for that scripture – I’ve prayed it before, and I’ll be praying those words again, I’m sure.
I pray for comfort and peace and the letting go process!
Thank you for posting this. I can relate to those bad days, and the reminder that the days are short. Ive messed so many of them up or just taken them for granted. I too need so much help to redeem the days that are still ahead, but are slipping away oh so quickly….says the mom who has lost three loved bowls this past month.
I’m so with you, Kim! I feel your pain. I also see the precious years with my children slipping by so fast! love you
Oh Kim,
and now I pray The Lord will continue to give us more littles until our time of bearing children is over! I completely understand this!
How this issue has been weighing upon my heart! I was organizing all of our pictures and thins the children had made me. I was pouring over thank you cards and sweet mementos I’ve save for the past twelve years. All I could do was be sad. Time is going by so fast! Our eldest is going to be 13! The other day I thought to myself, when did I become the mom with slightly older children! I remember having only littles.
I think tupperware will replace lids!
All I can say is, life with little boys is way different than life with little girls… don’t ya think?
My daughter accidentally broke my 3 casserole dishes at once. I received two of them from my wedding 16 years ago. It was a bit traumatic. It was beautiful though. Two of the dishes were the cobalt blue that was popular in the 90s and they were stacked inside one another. When they hit the tile they shattered and truly the tiny blue pieces were beautiful. I miss my dishes though. And truly that was the first wedding gift that i use daily I have “lost” so I experienced all of the same feelings here you are describing at various levels. Especially the realization that time is moving fast! Thanks for the post. Many blogs I leave because I don’t have the time but I seem to stick with you because you are so real life. I see myself in many of your posts….and you are funny!
Laughter is the best medicine sometimes….especially when you are raising a house full of kids!!!
Thank you for that little reminder. I love it when you are able to incorporate God’s Word into a post. It brings more weight and meaning and gives cause for reflection which is nice since alot of what I breeze through on the internet is just shallow, casual reading.
Kim, make sure and look underneath the stove and fridge and also on the sides of any appliances (down in between next to the cabinets).
We did. Still no lid.