Over 10 years ago, my blogging was a way to update our family and friends on the status of our family sprinkled with some ah-ha life lessons and a ton of family pictures. Our blogging journey began unexpectedly and suddenly with the birth of our son Peter. The first week of his life he was in the NICU at our local hospital. On day 7 of our stay, the nurse came in and said, “Peter took a turn for the worse last night, we don’t know if he will make it through the day.” We had a flight-for-life ride to Denver and began many weeks in the hospital. Family and friends around the country and the world were anxious for Peter updates, and I just couldn’t keep up. The hospital recommended families communicate using blogs and helped us set one up. Blogging was such a blessing because it provided updates and gave me an opportunity to process the day while putting things in perspective.
For years I continued to give family updates, shared funny stories, and documented those life lessons that fade with time but that we really hope we will remember forever. Life got busy, and the frequency of the updates dwindled. When I told my husband, John, that I really missed writing and I wanted to blog again, his first words were, “You have to share about your dream kitchen again!” Always a reader of my posts, this was hands down his favorite one. So I share it here just as it was written all those years back.
My Dream Kitchen? (December 23, 2008)
Ask me how I would describe my dream kitchen – and likely I would tell you all about the design. Almost the opposite of what we have now! I dream of a big kitchen, center island, country sink, double oven, etc. You know – the kitchens we see on TV or in magazines. But, the reality is I have a small galley style kitchen that requires creative packing to get everything into it…. especially since I have somewhat of an addiction to small appliances – I will unfortunately never have enough!
This is what my kitchen looks like right now…. and yes that is a glass of well-deserved wine after a long day!
So, this is not how it looked all day. And that is where the true dream kitchen comes in. While my kitchen is not my fantasy kitchen design, today it was my dream kitchen. All my kids piled into our little kitchen – each with their well-used and somewhat stained apron on. Each with their own little project. But, each project perfectly intertwined with everyone else’s project. The perfect timing of baking. And, through it all, there was laughter, teasing, a lot of fingers “taste testing” and a smidgen of drama. I would hate to imply we are a perfect TV family because Lord knows we are not! (You will see the evidence of taste testing below)
But, at the end of a long day, and a kitchen that took over two hours to get free of a couple of loads of dishes dropped M&M’s, finger smudges and stuff I don’t even recognize – we have a recipe for family togetherness and a lot to show for it! So here is a bit of the magic everyone brought to the kitchen –
Alexandra made peanut butter and swirled kisses cookies:
Michael whipped up a double batch of brownies using the same recipe I learned in summer school at his age:
Jack made is very own double batch of M&M cookies. He also helped mash the bananas for our banana bread:
Tommy carefully made a batch of vanilla ice cream and lent his expert “taste testing” to everyone’s special projects:
Peter was in and out of the kitchen sprinkling us all with love and giggles. And I made up another batch of blackberry jam (yes – the berries were still on sale!).
We tied all our projects together and have goodies for our neighbors that we plan on dropping off tomorrow.
So, back to the dream kitchen – today I had my dream kitchen! I had the kitchen I close my eyes and dream of when I am at work missing my kids like crazy. Today we spent the time together creating with our hands – and at the end of the day (even if super late) can put our feet up and smile.
God bless you all as we continue to prepare for Christmas…. and let our recipe for life this week remind us the real reason for the season. As my kids say – Happy Birthday Jesus!
As I dug out this post from the archives, I found myself staring at each picture. My first thought was, “They were so little back then!” Followed by, “The kitchen looks exactly the same 10 years later!”….glass of wine and all! Those who know me well know that I would love, love, love a Joanna Gaines farmhouse kitchen with a giant table where my big family can gather, and share, and laugh, and cry, and play, and so much more. Reading this post reminded me again that the real gift of a kitchen is not its beauty, or even the meals cooked, but instead in the memories that are made in it.
I hope this “In the Kitchen” corner of our blog will inspire you to squeeze into your kitchen, live the perfect recipe for your season in life, and make beautiful memories with your loved ones.
xoxo
Catherine