Kitchen Pictures!

It's been a good and productive day around here today. I like that kind. :-)

Today was the day that I FINALLY got the dining room all cleaned up. It had become the catch-all (along with the foyer and utility room!) for all of the boxes and STUFF while we've been unpacking and moving in on the main floor. The kitchen counter had suffered horribly too, collecting all manner of odds and ends. But today I finally got it all sorted through and cleaned up and, along with Katie and Sam's help, I got all of the trash hauled out, the boxes flatted and moved out to the carport, and the things we didn't end up needing or using boxed up and taken back to the garage. Once all of that was done I was able to CLEAN the dining room and kitchen, floor and all. ~Aaaaahhhhh~ What a great feeling!!! It just looks so, so, so good! It looks like MY HOUSE. I have loved the past year+ and all of the great memories that we will always carry with us from it, but I can't tell you how good it feels to start feeling AT HOME--my very own home--again.

AND...

Today was a monumental day. Over the past few days we've enjoyed a few Totino's pizzas, a pot pie, some soup, some Ramen... but now that the kitchen is all cleaned up and put back together we were able to enjoy our VERY FIRST HOMECOOKED MEAL in our very own house, from our very own WORKING oven!!! Wa-Hooooo!!!!!

Katie had asked if SHE could please cook the first meal. :-) So today she made a tasty lasagna and a delicious homemade apple pie. It was all sooooo good! And it just felt soooooo good to be eating REAL food. From my very own kitchen. ~Aaahhh~ Life is grand! We are all so, so, sooooo thankful! The only really sad thing is that Joe wasn't here to enjoy it! Of the whole family, HE is the one who's been DYING for us to get set up with a functional kitchen and working stove so we could start having home cooked meals again... and he missed it! Poor Joe. At least we know he's eating nice home cooked meals at Grandma Vicki's house this week.

Anyway, the first home cooked meal had to be properly documented:


Notice the big blank walls in there?! Ha! I have NOTHING to go on them and they just look so bare. Someday we'll fix that. I would LOVE to go with the idea that Sister Krystal showed me a picture of a while back--an old paned window with shutters on either side of it. We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled to see what we come across.

Here is the hutch--with DISHES in it, for the first time ever! (Or at least since we bought it from the dude in Albuquerque.)

And for Mom. She's been dying for kitchen pictures, but I never can remember why. I know I've posted some pictures and I can't think of what's different since the last time, though she has told me time and again. The only thing I know of for sure is that the beautiful white double oven actually WORKS now, but it looks just the same in the picture. ;-) Anyway, here you go, Mom. --Oh, I still haven't had a chance to make more hooks yet. That's why there are only three pots hanging from the pot rack. HA! There will be lots more one of these days, I assure you. :-)

I did find a few things to hang on the other wall in the kitchen and it feels so good to have SOMETHING up there.

And my little desk nook. I love it. :-) I love to keep my oatmeal and beans and spaghetti and macaroni noodles in glass jars on a shelf where I can see them.
After our scrumptious dinner we got the kitchen all cleaned up, then split up into our respective rooms. James went to spend the evening in his office doing... I don't know--office stuff, I guess! Katie came to the utility room with me to help me iron. We put on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (I hadn't seen it in many years and Katie LOVED it--I knew she would) and got lots done, though I still can't tell that the pile has gone down much. Maybe if we do this every night this week we'll finally get caught up! Pitiful. Anyway, Sam wasn't much interested in cramming into the utility room with us to watch a girl movie (!), so we let him watch Courageous in the other room. A good night for all, I'd say.

And then I even blogged. :-)

What a great day this has been. The house is looking better all the time and feeling more and more like home. Though it's still rather lonely without a little furball growling at us like intruders every time we come home and a thousand other things that we miss about Charlie. Still, we're doing well overall. Staying busy helps us all to stay happier. We're so blessed and we know it. God is good to us. :-)