Kitchen

A kitchen has so much significance in a home. It's more than just a functional room with food-making equipment in it. It usually contains the heart and soul of the family living in the home. Now, of course, that can be positive or negative depending on your family dynamics. But for our family and our extended families, the kitchen has the power to draw us together, comfort us, feed us, love us, and inspire us to live and love in a better way. Sounds rather grandiose, don't you think? But if you think about it, the kitchen has all the ingredients needed for some high-powered nurturing and I think that a lot of the issues that tear us apart can be appeased or even resolved by sitting around with milk & cookies or even a perfectly peeled peach or a cold meatloaf sandwich. The kitchen in our new home is designed in such a way that even the best cook would be challenged to come up with a decent meal. Galley-style. One electrical circuit. That means if the refrigerator is sucking up electricity (which it always is) then no other big power appliances can run simultaneously. This means NO microwave. NO toaster. NO blender. While this has proved frustrating for me personally in my over-paced lifestyle, it has also forced me to slow down a bit. I've had to plan out not only meals but snacks. I've had to get creative with griddles and skillets and I've emptied my freezer of all those pesky microwavable items that take up so much room. I'm discovering a deep well of nurturing that needs to be activated in order to feed the physical needs of my boys and in doing so, I feel that my creativity is being challenged which is actually a welcome exercise. As I plan and scheme in my limited space, I'm feeling nurtured myself by the level of creativity necessary to pull off even the simplest of meals. Now, as I'm planning to expand and upgrade the kitchen, I might even be a little bit sad when all the appliances of convenience are restored to their rightful place in my kitchen arsenal. Hopefully I will remember to take time to plan and create and simplify and nurture from a grateful heart.