The Case of the Missing Cutlery!

I can relate to that lol. In my house it's towels. I find them out in the shop with grease on them, or being used to dry the car, etc. Old towels I could understand and not get upset about, but not the new ones for cripes sake!! I now keep a marked box in the garage and got some shop towels from the dollar store, and stick in any old towels that are too stained to use too. Problem solved (well, at least they're not found outside anymore, on the floor in the bathroom or kitchen, yes, but not the garage) How about for your gram getting one of those lightweight plastic handled carry baskets? Put her name on it and add the tools there. One thing I'd do is stick in a steak knife and a butter knife, and a spoon, and spray paint the handles in day-glo orange so they'd show up outside. I've found butter knives out in the shop too, most likely looking like they were used for a screwdriver. (Not like there aren't a zillion screwdrivers out there already hahaha)

I have the same sort of problem with my daughter. She loves to take spoons out side and use them to dig. So once a week I have to go out and do the tour of the yard to find all my spoons. At first when it happened I had no idea I thought they were getting broke or chewed in the garbage disposal and thrown away as my husband hates to use a spoon after that happens to it. Then my husband was out getting ready to mow the yard and he brought me like 9 spoons from the yard. He then asked me if I was getting rid of the dishes so that I didn't have to wash them. About that time here comes my daughter all upset cause there are no spoons for her to use in the drawer and she wants to know why. That's when I hand her the 9 spoons and tell her its cause she keeps leaving them in the yard. I then asked her what she did with them and she told me that she uses them to dig up dirt to make mud pies. How can I be upset when she is doing what I think every kid should be able to do at least once in there life. I have been thinking about buying her a set of spoons she can use to did with that are hers only.

I've not had the missing cutlery problem nor the kitchen utensils being used for non culinary tasks. But if you want a missing item household related story here is one. Usually its the washer and its tag-team partner the dryer that give me trouble on occasion (no, I completely refuse to admit it might be my forgetfulness... really). Well, in recent years the missing sock issue has been pretty much resolved, but from time to time something happens.

My mother would constantly berate me for using a knife on surfaces, although she refused to get a cutting board. However, when it came to cleaning countertops, which rarely happened, only when she was trying to make a point at what a terrible housekeep I was, but when she did she would use a knife to scrape at things on the counters and table tops. She had this thing where she only used place setting cloths to impress company. And she would become very angry if they were used in any other situation. So of course there were always spills on the table. She became very combative about any issue involving the kitchen. If she left a scratch on a surface she would wait until she saw me and then blame me, either for making the mark, or not being there to clean up after her, or not doing a good enough job of cleaning up after myself. Now I understand that it isn't good to use knives on tables and counter tops with out a barrier. But if that is the case wouldn't it make sense to have a cutting board? It became a very frustrating situation because I was expected to have something cooked in the evening. But if she saw me even handle a knife it was an imediate tirade about using it. So instead of having dinner, we would have an argument. Then there would be nothing cooked and that would be another argument. After a while I just said to hell with it. Then she started doing things like burying knives in the gound outside, taking all the dirty dishes out side or throwing them away. I did my fair share of dishes but unless I was a slave doing ALL of the dishes, even if they weren't mine then I was a horrible daughter who didn't deserve to be treated like a human being. If I didn't wash the dishes IMEDIATELY then I was in for at least getting cussed out if not hit. So I just said to hell with that too and stopped all kitchen activity when she was presenet. When I moved out and she saw that my kitchen was spotless and there were no knife marks on my counters she acted very strangely.