House Tour 1: The Kitchen

Well, after two and half months, I am ready to invite you into my home, internet.  It took that long for us to put it (mostly) together, and it is only right that we begin with the kitchen.

I would estimate I spent about 1090% of my waking time in the kitchen.  If you ever want to find me, I suggest you look in a kitchen.

Here it is, in all it’s glory.  It looks sort of strange without me standing in it.

The boys eat their lunch here at our little table (which we got at Target).  The pot rack was a hard find.  We originally bought a circular one, but it was very lopsided.  So, I finally settled on this one and am liking it.  I wish it didn’t cover so much of the curtains, which I made, like with my bare hands, but there is really no where else to hang it.  I have a nice view from the window of the neighbors garden and my own vegetables which are very tall, but yield no fruit, erm, vegetables.  Yet.  I hopefully asked Craig if he thought it’d just be a late harvest, to which he insensitively replied, I think we’ll have a bumper crop around December.  I like to use this table as a work space too and do most of paperwork here, instead of at my desk.

The wall right when you enter the kitchen is really the only one with space enough for decorations.  And decorate, I did.  The fish is old.  My parents had it at their house as I was growing up and I inherited it.  The wine bottle and mirror were gifts, and the picture of the peppers is one of the only decorations I’ve ever bought myself, rather than received as a gift.  The kitchen witch is my favorite.  It was a housewarming gift from my grandma when we moved into our condo.  She considered it bad luck to cook in a kitchen without a kitchen witch.  She is, by far, my most prized possession.

Let’s get a closer look at her sweet little wrinkled face.

If that doesn’t inspire you to bake one hell of a cobbler (which I do), then nothing will.

No self-respecting mother of a five and two year would leave her refrigerator unadorned.  Which, you can see from the first picture, I haven’t.  A couple close ups.  This is Sam’s chore chart.  He is responsible for making his bed, clearing dishes after breakfast and lunch, and cleaning all toys and garbage out of my car once a week.  If he does this, he earns $3.00.  If I have do a chore for him, I charge him.  This past week, he earned $2.85.  He is saving for a fancy light saber that costs $40.  I told him it would be months til he could afford it.  He has requested I pay him in quarters rather than bills because then it’s more things to put in his piggy bank.

He’s also working on becoming a less picky eater.  He has to have five bites of a new food, and when he does, he gets to put a sticker on this chart.  A star means he tried it but didn’t like it.  A smiley face means he tried it and did like it.  When he gets to fifteen new foods, he gets to pick out a new book.  I’m thinking Henry should get a chart for trying five bites of ANY food at any time during the day.  Boy does not eat.

Other than my cobbler, the best smelling thing in my kitchen is this soap.  I get it at Marshalls. Craig, who suffered from citrus-induced cold sores as a child, proclaims that it “smells of cold sores.”  I will not be deterred.

And finally, my favorite magnet.  I’ll just let it speak for itself.