In case anyone thinks I “do it all” and do it perfectly this is what my kitchen table looked like yesterday afternoon – at one of the neater points in the day:
It’s covered in dirty cloth napkins, bits of gaskets for the wood stove door, gasket glue, books, newspaper, cups, water bottles, mail and more. At one point it there were screwdrivers, hammers, and knives piled on, too. Jeff had started to clean up (hence the missing tools) when this blog post came to my mind and I snapped the photo.
There’s just so much to do and as important as the kitchen table and shared meals around the table is to me, sometimes life gets really busy and the table gets overloaded. I think it important to remember that often we go about talking about all the good bits on blogs that it appears as if there are no bad bits. I just wanted to make sure it was apparent that there are bad and messy bits from time to time too.
I think its important to remember that while many of us live our dream lives, it doesn’t mean that our lives are dream-like all the time. That’s most certainly true for me – I can’t imagine living a different life than I have now, I am living my personal dream, however; my life isn’t that perfect dream-like state of perfection that we imagine will happen when we plan our dream lifestyle.
Care to keep it real with me? Do tell, what’s not dream-like in your current dream life?
Oh, where to begin on all that’s ‘not dream like’? Let’s just say that my wife of thirty years refers to our place in the country as ‘the land of unfinished projects’…..
Hey, we could produce a coffee table book (or online version) called ” A Day in the Life of the Kitchen Table” and at a prearranged time on the selected date everyone involved could take a digital photo of whatever their particular table looked like at that moment. No cleaning, clearing of artful arranging allowed. Just as is. Could be revealing
Oh dear, if your table is supposed to be messy, I hate to think what anyone would think of mine. The ‘day in the life’ book could be TOO revealing. Although here it’s more the kitchen counter that gets dumped upon.
As for the not dreamlike parts of life. Where to start! The unfinished basement, the inadequately insulated house, the newly discovered leak in the roof (although I’m glad we discovered it before we insulated the attic!)…the list could go on and on with our ‘fixer-upper dream house’ in the country.
I’m curious. What is the name of the cookbook that is touching the blue cup in your picture? I’m always curious about books people actually use. Thanks, Liz
Liz – It’s a book I recently found at a library book sale called “Grandmother’s Country Cookbook.” It was written in the 1960s but many of the recipes and antcedotes are from the 1800s. Mostly its interesting but at this point, I don’t see it becoming a “go too” cookbook for me.
You call that messy? It just says “productive” to me.
~Tara
Right now there are Sunday papers, all 4 additions, on the family room floor, family room chair and kitchen counter. Also there are a few cooking sheets and pans in the sink from last nite’s dinner. I thought it would be more fun to play with my grandson then worry about picking up the mess
My kitchen table has a vase of flowers on it that have needed to be composted for over a week. Every time we eat, I just put it on top of the fridge, and then return it after the meal. Life with two 6 year old boys as a part-time single parent (hubby works afternoon shifts mostly, so I’m alone most evenings until after bedtime) is just too hectic to be as clean as I’d like.
Living my dream life of a stay at home on the farm homeschooling mom…hmmm let’s see.
The laundry table is so stacked with laundry you can’t see out of the window.
Baby Boy keeps peeing all over the floor (LOVE potty training…)
The camel has broken the fence again..
The tomatoes need to be harvested and roasted but I have no counter space in my kitchen or in my sink to process them…and no volunteers to clean the kitchen
And the dog has started chasing cars…
Besides that my life is perfect! Kim
Great post.
My dream version of my dream life includes enough space to file all the wondrous pieces of paper that one accrues in life as a professional writer and enough time to do so. My kitchen/DR table isn’t too bad, but my desk? Ouch.
Then there’s the flower garden, AKA weed central.
And the disgusting worms that are eating the kale that was supposed to stay alive and feed us until deep winter. Uh, not so much, I think. Half’s already ripped up and what I could salvage is soaking in salt water to kill those nasty buggers.
And let’s not talk about the state of the kitchen floor, which I really should do something about before the Cat-Herder gets home. OK, he’ll tramp mud over it, since he’s been camping in the rain, but mud will look much better if it’s not on top of beef blood (oops–I didn’t know that freezer bag had a leak in it!) and stray apple bits from yesterday’s mad canning.
Of course my dream dream life includes working from home full time instead of having the outside job–I’d still be a “homemaker who works,” but it’s much easier to get housework done in odd moments when you’re actually IN the house.
Oh, Kathie – I put a few photos up on my blog in response to this – but only the ones suitable for ‘public’ viewing. This time of year, the whole place is a mess – harvested vegetables, plants being brought in, summer things to be stored away, canning supplies… Yikes! I need more room!!
oh kathy i just loved this post:) i have to stop and remind myself of the big picture sometimes when like today i decide to use the wild pears i harvested earlier to make jam. well, after peeling a few and trying to de-pit them i had a huge pile of discarding and very little plum so just threw they all in a pot skins and all and boiled them a bit and turned to jelly making instead:) in the meantime, was running up and down the basement stairs throwing around laudry, and a couple of the grandkids arrived. so… countertops full of dirty dishes etc. the bag of hickory nuts i got yesterday, some green tomatoes i needed to put in a box with one orange one to tuck away to ripen, plus a front room full of toys etc etc etc!lol we can’t be perfect and we certainly can’t keep things perfectly organized and clean while herding husbands, kids and pets and the daily grind, but we can all draw strength from each other and know we are all doing our best to have fun, to learn and to share:) this was a super cool post and timely for me also!! big herbal and honey hugs to you:)
I have 2 bags of compost outside on the porch, waiting to be put in the compost bin. I have a dishwasher full of clean dishes waiting to be put away, and a half-counter of cups and mugs waiting to be put in, not to mention the drain bin full of clean dishes to be put away, too. I have a bushel of apples on the kitchen floor, waiting to be made into something. I have beans to pick and can, and the rest of the beds to put to sleep for fall…..
….so of course, yesterday we went to the beach instead.