Your kitchen looks fine to me 🙂

Yes. Yes. A thousand times YES to this post. Good for you and thank you. A wonderful contribution.

Thank you so many more need to know this, thank you.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for putting our blessings into perspective. We who have everything you posted are the LUCKIEST people in the world. As someone commented, we do need to make every effort to reach out in SOME way to our fellow men who are less fortunate. Your writing is AWESOME!

Thanks for your great article and life perspective. I have a beautiful 2 yr. old kitchen in a 50 yr. old house, and I love my kitchen. But am I happier? No, I was happy before! Our old kitchen (and bath) had some serious problems that needed fixed. Some friends asked what we would do if God directed us to move away from our “new” home. My answer was, “Oh, well. Then someone else will enjoy it!” Contentment cannot be bought with new anything!

You keep preaching it and I’ll turn the pages.

I don’t see anything to complain about either… except maybe one line I would change to: Let us turn our focus INWARD and onward…. Peace and carrots!

Thank you. This was refreshing to read bc I’ve been lately feeling quite ungrateful for the simple things we often take for granted.

Thank you!! I think I shall get my own pair of perspecticals!

I LOVED this. So true and a great reminder. And I LOVE the Carpe Kairos sign!

Your kitchen looks more like an “after” picture than one that needs updating.

I really loved reading your thoughts on this. It makes me really happy to see that you are so appreciative of your beautiful family and all of the amazing things we have access to.

In my opinion, your kitchen looks nice and well cared for. I loved the make over shot. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

I loved your article. Especially the part about dancing in the kitchen! Thanks.

A friend sent me this link because of my affinity and work on encouraging gratitude. You hit this out of the park! Thank you, thank you.

This is such an amazing post we all need a reminder of to keep us focused on what is most important. Your family fills my heart with joy when I look at that picture of them in your awesome kitchen! I will share and share this… Thanks!!
Julie

I’ve been trying to stay positive about things. I had a crying day (pregnancy plusbeing sick) where i just couldn’t snap out of it until i read this: ) thank you

Great outlook on it. I personally want to redo my kitchen because I have a vision for something else I personally want. Were I happy with it, I would keep it that way. (It’s also falling apart, missing 3 draws, a shelf and a cabinet door.)

I think your kitchen looks great!

Perfect.

You rock. This is beautiful. Thank you.

Hi, Glennon! I have heard so much about you over the years. Your Mom and I are sorority sisters. Cookie referred us to this blog, and I’m so happy she did. Your thoughts are enlightening and delivered with enough humor to keep the reader’s attention. Thank you for sharing your “lifeview.”

you are seriously awesome. well done, lady. I’ve never felt I had to “keep up with the joneses” and couldn’t care less what people thought of me and the way I live my life. as long as it’s clean and comfortable, it doesn’t matter what others think. you have an awesome looking family and a SERIOUSLY awesome attitude.

Seriously, if the guy in that picture is your husband, i wouldn’t care what the darn kitchen looked like. Who would even be looking at it? 😉

Beautiful! Loved it!

There is a great documentary called “Escape from Affluenza” with does a wonderful job detailing why not to keep up with the Joneses.

I’m about to give up reading magazines, because more and more they’re just devices to encourage you consume more. “Editor’s picks?” Please. I’m sure they’re just products from companies that paid to be in there. There’s so little content left that doesn’t recommend you buy, buy, buy.

Love the idea here. We also left the rat race to focus on our children (and to give them a hard work ethic) and to get healthier food. We moved to an old 2 bedroom farm house with only one (old!) bathroom. The wallpaper was peeling, the paint was dirty, and the porch railings were falling down, but our rent was half what our mortgage in suburbia was, and it had 15 acres attached! ( instead of a quarter acre). I daresay that the food in the fridge in the picture was not healthy food. That’s a change one can make easily though. Start a garden and get some chickens. We have a milk cow too but that might not be so easy in suburbia. Feel free to write me if you want suggestions on how to get back to real food. That’s true freedom.

I really enjoyed your article, you have a wonderfully sardonic wit without being biting or cynical.

I have operated a home remodeling company for the last several years. I tended toward upscale kitchen and bath projects, not out of some elitist attitude, but more because a commitment to using high quality materials and building durably often entails a price tag that the average homeowner is unable or unwilling to pay. I’m happy to say that I rarely worked on kitchens that weren’t 30 to 50 years old and in most cases pretty worn out.

I do think there has been a shift in consumer attitude away from durability and longevity in products over the last several decades that is accelerating.

Loved your article and your perspective! So wise at 40! Takes people a life time to have these types of epiphanies. Your kitchen is clean and beautiful, AND about 35 years newer than the one in the house we bought 3 years ago. My original 1954 kitchen, bathroom, and floors/doors throughout remind me of why generations before us were more prosperous. For instance, the family who lived in this modest, 1200-square-foot ranch until the owners were in their 80’s, brought up three children with one bathroom and did not spend their hard-earned money updating the house with each passing decade trend from 1960 – 2010. How smart they were to live within their means and pass on their cozy, well-kept home to us in original condition, which is fine with us. My husband and I always joke that we “settle” for what we have. As long as we are warm, fed, and clothed, we are content. Thank you again for sharing your views with others!

Beautiful article. And really your kitchen IS pretty too.

It’s how we look at our lives and I love yours.Your kitchen is perfect!

I love your kitchen! I love messy, lived in kitchens, places where people actually cook and live. I troll my friends Facebook pages looking for messy kitchens just to prove to myself that we are really alive and not some magazine.

I have a tiny apartment complex kitchen, I pay subsidized rent for it. I don’t “own” it, but it is MINE. Like you, I have a refridgerator that keeps fresh food cold, and a tap that I can turn to get fresh drinking water. Thank You Jesus.
What a beautiful perspective you put on the “whoa is me” attitude we sometimes get stuck in when we want more or better. Thank you.

You Rock. First time reading your blog and I have to say I think Im almost wordless! You are everything I ever dreamed to be and your family… WOW.. hot hubby and gorgeous kids.. what more could you want? I am putting on a pair of perspectacles as soon as I finish typing. Thank you for YOU. sharing will all my friends right now as well! 🙂

Thank you for your writings. I know my question is quite specific and not on the main point of your blog, but help, please. You have written a lot about your battle with Lyme Disease. Unfortunately, I find myself on the same path. What has worked for you? How did you get Lyme Disease into remission? My family and I have been hit hard.

How do I get a free school? I pay about $3500 a year in taxes just for my public free school. Not my total tax bill for property taxes; this is just the free school part.

Thank you for writing this. I remember almost 20 years ago I had just returned from a trip to Nepal and India and was walking around in a large store feeling completely overwhelmed by everything, all the things, much of which had little practical purpose. The thought occurred to me that in America the greatest poverty was that of the spirit. Poverty certainly exists here, I have been closely acquainted with it working with the homeless and with kids that live in the projects. However, entitlement has become so prevalent in our culture and robs us of the ability to enjoy the blessings that we are accustomed to simply because we were born into a nation that is prosperous and founded on principles that value freedom. I am so glad I read this blog as it is so easy to forget how amazingly blessed we are when surrounded by prosperity. I think it blinds us to our spiritual needs as well. Thank you again for writing this and having the strength of spirit to believe in what really matters in life. 🙂

his post brings out terribly conflicting emotions in me. On one hand, I wholeheartedly applaud the writer’s resistance to ceaseless consumer gratification, and respect her recognition and gratitude for the blessings she already enjoys. On the other hand, I am deeply uncomfortable with how she publicly displays her generous food supply and spacious, well-equipped kitchen while broadcasting her satisfaction with the situation, yet not explicitly mentioning hope for worldwide food access or plans to help others who do not enjoy these blessings. So many of us now ache for, or at one time have ached for this level of food stability. Damn, there were times in my life when I wished my fridge looked like that. Full of food. I am so fortunate to have what I need now. How do the impoverished neighbors among us feel if they see and read this post? This seems so clearly written by and for an audience with no personal experience with food insecurity. I want to tell the author, I know you don’t even realize it sounds like you’re bragging… but honey, didn’t your folks teach you the art of discretion? Didn’t they tell you that it is not polite to count out your wealth in public unless you are about to donate it?

Great post! Happy New Year to you and your family! I love my 1950’s ranch house with an updated 1970’s kitchen. It’s mine is all that matters and not what others think.

A comment from a guy… Great perspective, thank you for bringing it to us.

Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant but this made me tear up. There are so many things I’d like to do to me perfectly beautiful home. I feel so inadequate when I look at Pinterest. This is a great reminder to be thankful for all the beauty in what we already have. This is what I want my children to understand. Thank you so much for posting & for reminding us all how lucky we really are.

God Bless you and your family! Thank you for this post!

What an absolutely wonderful post! Thank you so much for your grounded-ness, love, humour, and perspective! I have a fully lived in kitchen too and your post has just delighted me….sharing!

From someone who is less than proud of her kitchen, posting on IG and whatnot had me in a tizzy. Im so grateful for this post. Really, does everything have to be sooo perfect? We have no debt either, and dont intend to get into it to make others wish they had what we have.

I think your kitchen is adorable and fabulous! Great post

Beautiful article, beautiful kitchen, beautiful family…but my pressing question is…what brand of delicious looking tea is that in the silver containers? 🙂

Goodness, your’s is a lot more modern than our’s is. We’ve lived in our vintage 1970 kitchen for 10 years (our old house had a lot of original stuff, including oven from 1948, so it was “more” modern). We don’t do things on credit, so we hadn’t fixed up the kitchen. We are finally at a place where we are going to do it, but we can’t go crazy. It’s amazing how much you CAN spend on a kitchen.
We are getting a new refrigerator – our’s is from when we got married, almost 20 years ago, and not very energy efficient and doesn’t fully work anymore. We’ll get a new oven b/c our old one doesn’t work efficiently. But we won’t replace all the cabinets, just the doors b/c they are fine. I don’t understand using credit to replace things b/c they are just not the newest.
I really need to work on the de-cluttering too.

Good grief, if people think you need a new kitchen, I guess I live in a hovel. 🙂

Today is January 3. It’s just 5:21 am and 50 messages already have been posted in the last two days. (Almost 2,000 since August 2014!) . . . What can I possibly add that has not already been said — except maybe that I turned 77 years old a few weeks ago and am the only member of our family still living in the house my late husband and I bought 46 years ago.

Long before that – as a child – I had learned that postponing gratification helped me avoid buying things I didn’t need or really care for that much . . . but after saving up enough money to purchase them, I enjoyed and appreciated them so much, it was hard to part with them. And anytime I was tempted, my inner voice was always there reminding me that to think twice about disposing of them because I “might need them some day.”

Today my adult kids call it “hoarding;” but to me, it’s not the items themselves, but the memories surrounding each one that still make it hard to part with them.
Yet as a former “hoarder,” I’ve also discovered a trick to ease the pains of separation:

These days, instead of using some unidentified future need as an excuse for hanging onto them, I try to look with fresh eyes at the similar old adage “Waste not, Want not.” Like real estate, the floor and shelf space those unused possessions are taking up have commercial value, too. But why move to an even larger home to make room for them, when donating them to organizations like Salvation army, Goodwill or women’s shelters will maintain their value by giving someone else a chance to enjoy and appreciate them as much as I have.

Also amazing to me is not only how much larger my home is starting to feel . . . but how decluttering is helping me separate the wheat from the chafe — like that spinet piano we bought in the 1970s. At the time, it really cost more than we could afford, but we justified the purchase by asking ourselves how we could we deny our kids the opportunity to discover their musical talents? They eventually did– but not on the piano. (Both drifted “with the wind” to brass instruments – while the piano just sat in our living room for decades — unused and untuned, gathering dust on its lid and rust on its pedals.) Far from the “antique” we had imagined it becoming, it’s now probably worth just a fraction of the price we paid for it when it was new.

Ironically, a long overdue visit to my home town almost 15 years ago taught me an even more important lesson. Driving toward the old house in which my family had lived until I was around 15 years old, I half expected to find it and a couple of neighboring houses replaced with a new apartment building or condo. After all, it was more than 60 years old when we lived in it — under the shade of a huge elm tree that took up most of the tiny front yard. As it turned out, the house was still there, but looked so different, we almost drove right past it. It was amazing how removing both the tree and the old, screened verandah, and just adding a fresh coat of paint could breathe so much new life into that old house. I remember thinking, as we drive away, “if it took so little effort to restore that old house, imagine how the same care and treatment could enhance our lives as we age.

The same is true of my current home and its contents. As I gradually remove unused items, some of the larger pieces of furniture we accumulated over the years are coming into clearer view. Except for the piano, I still love most of them — even if a couple of pieces could use a little refurbishing.

Like the quotation by that famous author (Unknown) at the top of this page – often ask myself “If I do not feel grateful for what I already have, what makes us think I’d be happy with more?”

And like Glennon, who wrote that while she appreciates the generous offers from people wanting to help her “update” her home, I, too, am finding that when “I feel lacking- I don’t need new things, I just need new eyes with which to see the things I already have.”

Thanks! What school?

Learning to not let the world lead us astray from the simple truths that we hold deep and dear in our hearts may be one of the greatest challenges and gifts we have been given during this interval of our eternal progression. Thanks for a great post.

B.R.A.V.O!!

God bless this article…Marketing and ads have led us into a world of self defeat and self worthlessness. We are so blessed to have a home, heat, water and better yet, a coffee pot! Thanks for sharing!

i too wanted a “a new kitchen” and my husband put me in perspective……will the food be any different. I can wait until we need it not want it!

Thank you so very much for posting this! At a time when my husband are figuring out what’s next and trying to make decisions based one what’s most important to us, I am so grateful that others get where we are and how we feel about home decor, finances, and such. It’s the people and being comfortable and within your budget that make a place beautiful. You and your family got it right. May you and your loved ones continue to see the abundant blessings in your life as reasons to rejoice and be glad!

So good! May I re-post on my blog, with full credits to you? I want to share this with my readers. I will also share it on fb.

I think about this often. I am 65 and remember hoping and then realizing my hope of getting a washer and dryer. I was estatic. No more schlepping to the laundrsmat with dirty diapers! Does annyone use diapers anymore? In the last 50 years we’ve been fed an advertisers dream, changing wants to needs. What do we need? Clean air, clean water, healthy food, safe neigjborhood &good schools for our children. You hit the nail on the head, thanks for keeping us from drinking more ‘koolaid’ ☺.

Fantastic! I love your post!

I really enjoyed reading this, and agree wholeheartedly. 25 yrs ago, or so, I gave a lesson on living frugally, and came across a little saying from the Great Depression when many had nothing, and it went something like: Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without! Too bad our culture has strayed so very far from that thinking, now it’s bigger and better whether you need it or not!

Thank you SO much for your terrific article — I have clung to my old clothes, old decor, old ways and have also felt shamed on occasion. No more! You have given me new motivation. Thanks!

Loved this!!! Thank you!

Thank you! This was great and as I look around my 1980’s kitchen I see many things that could use updating but then it wouldn’t be my kitchen….

Wow, that really helps change my perspective a lot on my own situation. I live in a very dated mobile home and it needs many repairs. Sinking floors, water issues, you name it we have it.There’s no way we can afford all the repairs at once, it’s one thing at a time and even that’s a struggle. Thanks for reminding me at least I have a home that has running water and electricity. Yes, we have even lived in a hotel room for awhile and compared to that this is so much better.

I love everything you said and feel the same. God bless you and your family, you have been a blessing to me and mine.

Very, very awesome article. Made me think of so many things. I just found this after a repost from Simply Canning (which I love). Now I’ll be reading your blog too. 🙂

Nice article! I could not agree more. We also are very grateful for our kitchen- though it has no running water, no electricty, a plywood floor, and tarp walls and roof, a cooler to keep a bit of food and plywood shelves and plastic bins for keeping our food, plates and utensils safe. We would like real walls, hook it to a hot water on demand tank and propane, and less access to it for the wild creatures from the jungle that surrounds us. We ARE grateful for what we have. Many have much less.

Thank you for this. My husband and I are in savings mode, and others can’t understand why we live in a small apartment with a low rent instead of buying a house. We’ve chosen to pay off our debts as quickly as we can, and we are also saving for infertility treatments. It’s so frustrating when others want to spend YOUR money on things we DON’T need. It’s a challenge to be grateful in the face of pressure, but we can do it!

Best article I’ve read in a long time. Thank you for writing it.

This is just what I needed. I recently bought a home from the 60s. I am embracing my 1960’s microwave and dishwasher because they work – I love my “vintage” entry light and wallpaper – I just needed to hear its ok – so thank you for affirming what I was thinking.

I have a full blooded Cherokee grandmother several generations back………..I would like to believe she would say” you speak the truth “………Thanks!

What did they say, “if it’s not broken don’t fix it. Our kitchen is from the 70’s and works fine . Great story.

Great article and right on! A lot of my relatives are the “keeping up with the Joneses” type. I always thought it must be quite exhausting to worry so much what others think of you and your “stuff”. What matters most are faith, family, and friends….not appearances!

I like HGTV but it has helped perpetuate the myth that without granite countertops a kitchen is an embarrassing shabby place. P.s. so glad to hear that your family dances in the kitchen too!

Wow—talk about an awesome article. I am printing this when I have my moments of how she was feeling…

A-MA-ZING! This was nothing short of perfect!

Love this so much! Gratitude is truly the key! What a great reminder.

This was awesome!! It maybe the PMS (in part) but I actually got teary eyed reading this! This is ALL so true and I feel the same way. I’m not about buying more and having more but instead learning more and being more. It was your after picture that sent a tear down my cheek….your beautiful family and handsome husband. You are SO rich in so many ways!! Thanks for the fresh injection of perspective….I’m gonna go wake my beautiful children and go kiss my handsome husband!

You are so right on! Thank you for such an uplifting article. Love it. I feel the same way.

At the beginning of your story, I imagined you kitchen must look like a scene from the TV show “Horders.” As the story progressed and each picture was revealed to me, I thought “This is a really nice kitchen. Where is the problem?.” I cannot see how people can think it needs improvements! Thanks you for your story, it provides us with excellent perspective on what is really important. Keep spreading the good word.

Thank you for the “perspectacles”….this post literally moved me to tears as I read it to my husband, who has heard me whine about our 80’s kitchen for years. So grateful for the new lens with which to view the abundance in my life.

Perspectacles. Love it…and you have a beautiful family!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS!!!!
Such a positive way to start the new year!
Thank you for sharing!

Love, love, love this article. I need to get myself a pair of those perspectacles and take a little walk around me house. Thanks for the reminder!

Thank you for sharing! I wanted to start out this new year with a grateful heart and you helped to jumpstart it.

Such a wonderful way to look at how blessed our lives are. Happy 2015. – Fawn

I think we all need a pair of perspectacles! Love this post. <3

Lovely kitchen.
Our kitchen isn’t ours. Neither was the one we were using 6 months ago when our landlord decided to sell that home. Now the kitchen I am currently using is being sold, so in 29 days my family has no kitchen. Or bedrooms. Or lounge.

*sigh*

I do however live somewhere where people are able to help us, and we WILL get through this.

Just to remind you that the grass is always greener, I see the pictures of your kitchen and think “wow, I would love those cabinets” and “wow, I would love a refrigerator that large with doors that open like that” and “WOW, I would LOVE to have all that counter space.”

All that said, I love my own kitchen and my own house. They may be a bit too small sometimes, they may be a bit ‘outdated’ – but they are ours, filled with our memories and our traditions.

No matter what we have someone else will have more. And no matter what we have someone else will have less. Thank you for reminding me to keep things in perspective as we enter this new year.

I miss my kitchen. Due to unforeseen problems with black mold and an elm tree that decided the backyard just wasn’t cutting it, and so decided to move into the house, my family and I have been in a hotel for a couple months. No kitchen. Just a mini fridge, a microwave, and the world’s worst coffee pot. Your kitchen looks a lot like mine did. It also sounds like you enjoy yours as much as my family enjoyed ours. Hopefully we are back in our house soon.

Thank you!!! Bless you!!!! Perspective is so important to have a thankful heart.

looks like my place

Just read your wonderful perspectacled experience! You made my heart swell with love a d fond respect for your enlightenment. THANK YOU for sharing this with everyone! Happy New Year and may 2015 be totally filled with precious moments that will turn into priceless memories for your family. Blessngs to you!
Reading your words make Me want to be a better person, filled with gratitude….and I also want to wear “perspectacles”! 🙂

Love , Love, Love this!

Oh my! What a wonderful kitchen makeover!! I am going on my 12th medical mission to Haiti, and I will tell you that it changes your perspecticles on every thing! Especially the clean water…and when I see babies and children who are starving, it breaks my heart…and they remain in my heart forever!! We have a feeding program, agriculture, etc., but there are still so many starving! There is no refrigeration, no electricity except for the generator that the priest revs up for us so we can see when it gets dark. Then, around 9:00pm, it is lights out…and the stars in the sky are the most beautiful I have ever seen. The cooking fires twinkle up in the hills…even beauty can be found here among all the suffering. And the spirit and sweetness of the people humble me. We are so blessed!!!

Amen, amen, amen! I couldn’t agree more! My husband and I stepped out of the “rat race” years ago to focus on our children…our family! We haven’t looked back and have absolutely no regrets.

I couldn’t agree with you more, my home is a mixture of things, mostly old and well loved [ for that read not brand new and showroom condition] . I wouldn’t have it any other way, the important thing is that family matters far more than things. blessings to you

Omg you are awesome. Thank you.

I feel the same with my house, which I took a long time to be able to afford, being a single mom of three kids for 16 years. It has a lot of well-used, re-purposed furniture and things, old school panelling in the basement etc. but I LOVE it. Everyone describes it as cozy, and I love that…there is comfort in the familiar, and if people who visit me are there to visit me and not analyze how current and expensive my things are, then they are true friends. You have a gorgeous husband, three beautiful kids and a great attitude. Anyone who just criticizes isn’t worth listening to. Love following your site. Have a fantastic New Years with your family. xo

I completely relate to this essay. I had grandmothers that carried water. I lived on a dairy farm in Wisconsin in the late fifties, early sixties that had electricity but no running water. I was a pre-schooler and I followed my grandmother to the pump and back daily, then watched her use those pails of water for cooking, cleaning and washing. We also had an outhouse. Being with her and my grandfather were the happiest years of my childhood. She was amazing and somehow, I knew it then, too. This may sound strange to most but when I clean my bathrooms (two of them!) I meditate on both of my grandmothers, because for so many years in their lives, they didn’t have the faucet that flowed or the toilet that flushed. My mother’s mother had three little girls when she had to walk to the neighbor’s farm to carry water from their well. The four year old was left in charge and her biggest job was keeping the two year old away from the baby. My grandmothers gave me so much spiritually and they taught me about love. I carry them in my heart and mind all of the time and I try to be worthy of all the energy and care they slathered on me.

Wow, Wow, Wow! Love every word!

G, you are so beautiful in oh so many ways! Thank you for the light that you bravely and blindingly shine into the world. You are inspiring so many, including me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your honesty, openness, big heart, your lived spirituality … For being you! x