Bowls...so many bowls

Any kitchen which is going to be functional needs bowls. Generally, lots of bowls of varying sizes. But you know this already, don't you?
For our wedding, we received no less than eight bowls. Two very pretty salad bowls, and two sets of mixing bowls. Considering that we already had several bowls of our own, it seemed like bowl overload. (The last time we chatted, my best friend noted that she hadn't yet sent us a wedding present. After the usual back-and-forth of 'don't be silly, you don't need to send a present' and 'don't you be silly, of course I do', I gave in with the caveat no more bowls.) Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful. But this seemed like an excessive amount of bowls. Particularly since we're very short on (usable) kitchen storage space and I wasn't sure where I was going to fit all these bowls. (The obvious answer would seem to be, inside other bowls. Trust me. We've done that. In our kitchen, everything which can be stacked is.) Perhaps I should be grateful that one of my Pyrex bowls shattered so spectacularly in the autumn? Anyway, I admit to feeling a twinge of dismay when, sometime around Christmas, my brother-in-law gave us our second set of mixing bowls as a late wedding present. (Mind you, we only had the one set of mixing bowls on our registry, and neither of the salad bowls. I figured with that one mixing set we'd be set for the rest of our lives. Our family had a different opinion, I guess.) But the bowls he gave us aren't just ordinary bowls. Not only are they mixing bowls, but they have lids.
I have a very sorry history of lids. I always see things with lids (like Pyrex pans) and think, "Why would you need a lid for that?" (In the case of Pyrex, the answer is, "Ah. So that you don't have to waste aluminum foil for your leftovers." I don't have lids for my pans, darn it.) Well, it turns out that these lids are way, way more useful than I thought. When I made cookies for Valentine's Day, I made the frosting in the smallest of these bowls. That way we could just spread some frosting on before eating the cookies. It worked well. The frosting stayed smooth and soft, rather than dried out and crunchy. Just as good, no wasted aluminum foil for a top.
But the fun doesn't end there. I forgot to mention in my post the other day about the no-knead bread what to do to keep the bread moist while it's sitting out for a day. She of Northwest Edible Life said originally to spread it with some plastic wrap. Later on she mentioned that she'd stopped buying plastic wrap and had experimented with several alternatives. A tea towel didn't do well enough, but a plate was apparently perfect. Well, for me it was the largest size of my lidded mixing bowls that came to the rescue. It was the perfect tool for this job. Are you seeing where my shortsightedness with lids comes in? I would never have bought a mixing bowl with a lid for myself, but it has proven its worth. Never again (hopefully) will I discount or dismiss the humble lid. I'm even looking forward to finding new ways to prove myself wrong now.
On top of all this, as it turns out we've had almost all of these bowls in use at one point or another. It seems excessive, and ridiculous, even to me. But it's true. I did mention that big things don't get washed as frequently, right? It turns out my family might just know what I need better than I do.