“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.” ― Thoreau
So why not just laugh now? – G
“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown
Recently I posted a picture of myself in my kitchen, and I immediately started receiving generous messages from people wanting to help me “update” it. Along with their messages came pictures of how my kitchen could look, if I’d just put some effort and money into it.
I’ve always loved my kitchen, but after seeing those pictures I found myself looking at it through new, critical eyes. Maybe it was all wrong. Maybe the 80’s counters, laminate cabinets, mismatched appliances and clutter really were mistakes I should try to fix. I stood and stared and suddenly my kitchen looked shabby and lazy to me. I wondered if that meant I was shabby and lazy, too. Because our kitchens are nothing if not reflections of us, right? I decided I’d talk to Craig and make some calls about updates.
But as I lay down to sleep, I remembered this passage from Thoreau’s Walden: “I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes and not a new wearer of the clothes.” Walden reminds me that when I feel lacking- I don’t need new things, I need new eyes with which to see the things I already have. So when I woke up this morning, I walked into my kitchen wearing fresh perspectacles. Here’s what I saw.
You guys. I have a REFRIGERATOR.
This thing MAGICALLY MAKES FOOD COLD. I’m pretty sure in the olden days, frontierswomen had to drink warm Diet Coke. Sweet Jesus. Thank you, precious kitchen.
Inside my refrigerator is FOOD. Healthy food that so many parents would give anything to be able to feed their children. Not me. When this food runs out, I’ll just jump in my car to get more. It’s ludicrous, really. It’s like my family hits the lottery every freaking morning.
THIS CRAZY THING IS A WATER FAUCET. I pull this lever and CLEAN WATER POURS OUT EVERY TIME, DAY OR NIGHT. Mamas everywhere spend their entire day walking miles to and from wells just for a single bucket of this- and I have it right here at my fingertips. I’m almost embarrassed to say that we also have one of these in each of our two bathrooms, and one in the front yard with which to WASH OUR FEET. We use clean drinking water to WASH OUR FEET. Holy bounty.
This is the magical box in which I put uncooked stuff, push some buttons, and then a minute later- pull out cooked stuff. It is like the JETSONS up in here.
This is my medicine cabinet. Since my Lyme is in remission and each of my babies is healthy- there is nothing in here but vitamins and supplements and tea. Thank you, God. This medicine cabinet is a miracle to me. Every time I open it I feel like I should kneel down and kiss the ground. I have an inbox full of letters from mothers whose medicine cabinets look very different.
Speaking of ground- this is our kitchen floor. It’s not fancy, but it’s perfect for our most important kitchen activity: DANCING. When Chase was three a librarian asked a roomful of kids, “what do we do in the kitchen?” Everyone else called out “cook” or “eat!” But Chase yelled “DANCE!”
I can’t even talk about this thing. Actually, let’s take a moment of reverent silence because this machine is the reason all my people are still alive. IT TURNS MAGICAL BEANS INTO A LIFE-SAVING NECTAR OF GODS. EVERY MORNING. ON A TIMER.
And look you guys: LOOK. This is the kitchen corner where I keep all my kids’ school stuff. My kids go to a FREE school with brilliant teachers and a loving administration and they’re SAFE there. The school sends flyers home about PROGRAMS and CLASSES and CLUBS to make my kids’ hearts bigger and softer and their brains sharper and their bodies healthier. This corner reminds me everyday that my kids have at their fingertips what so many around the world are giving their lives for: quality education. When I wear my perspectacles I can’t look at this corner without a heart explosion.
My perspectacled kitchen tour taught me two things this morning: I’m insanely lucky and I’m finally FREE.
In terms of parenting, marriage, home, clothes – I will not be a slave to the Tyranny of Trend any longer. I am almost 40 years old and no catalog is the Boss of Me anymore. I am free. I am not bound to spend my precious days on Earth trying to keep up with the Joneses- because the Joneses are really just a bunch of folks in conference rooms changing “trends” rapidly to create fake monthly emergencies for us. OH NO! NOW IT’S A SUBWAY TILE BACKSPLASH WE NEED! No, thank you. Life offers plenty of REAL emergencies to handle, thank you very much.
I’m a grown up now. I know what looks good on me, and that doesn’t change every three months. I know how I like my house. I like it cute and cozy and a little funky and I like it to feel lived in and worn and I like the things inside of it to work. That’s all. And for me – it’s fine that my house’s interior suggests that I might not spend every waking moment thinking about how it looks.
Sometimes it seems that our entire economy is based on distracting women from their blessings. Producers of STUFF NEED to find 10,000 ways to make women feel less than about our clothes, kitchens, selves so that we will keep buying more. So maybe freeing ourselves just a little from the Tyranny of Trend is a women’s issue – because we certainly aren’t going to get much world changing done if we spend all of our time and money on wardrobe and kitchen changing.
BUT. Listen. I’m nothing if not a tangled, colorful ball of contradictions. I like a good make-over as much as anybody else. So . . . HERE WE HAVE IT. HERE IS THE MELTON KITCHEN MAKEOVER FOR YA! READY FOR THE BIG REVEAL?
Before:
After:
Ba- BAM! Extreme home makeover! My kitchen IS beautiful because it is full of beauty. SO IS YOURS.
Today I shall keep my perspectacles super-glued to my face and feel insanely GRATEFUL instead of LACKING and I will look at my home and my people and my body and say: THANK YOU. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. THIS IS ALL MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH, ALL OF IT. Now. Let us turn our focus onward and outward. There is WORK TO BE DONE and JOY TO BE HAD.
Love,
G
Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller LOVE WARRIOR — ORDER HERE
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2,233 Comments
Wonderful post! I agree. However, if you want to want to send along all those offers of kitchen renovations, along with the money to do it, I’d be quite appreciative. I’m a single mom of triplets, and I rent to another woman who eats with us at our 29″ x 46″ table. The kitchen is vintage 1961, except for the vinyl floor which is 1985, and the appliances which are mostly 1990s or early 2000s. I had to replace my 40″ 1961 canary yellow GE stove with the funky fluorescent lights on it (looked like a spaceship). A friend made me a small cabinet to put in the blank area (the wood was never stained or finished, but it serves its purpose. The old wood cabinets are stained, cracked, and small. Consequently the counters are covered with junk. There’s an unused stairwell in the kitchen we affectionately call “the hole.” There’s a cabinet and shelves in the hole to make up for our lack of a pantry of any kind. Yes, I love my family, and they make the kitchen bearable. I can tape the kids’ schedules to the cabinets and not worry about damaging them. But it’s time for a new kitchen. Time to knock the wall down between the kitchen and the dining room (which is now used as a computer room) to make a space we can all cook in, live in, work in, and enjoy each others’ company in without running into each other. I’m so ready. But, alas, I have no money.
This was a great reminder. Thank you for sharing the most beautiful kitchen! My children and I all had lyme and went through treatment for that this year. I am glad you are in remission from it.
I couldn’t read past “It’s like the Jetson’s up in here” because I couldn’t stop laughing. lmao
Thank you a million times over for this- it is so true. I am blessed to have a husband and two young boys and am trying to focus on the wonderful things I have instead of wanting more. We are taught all to often to focus on what we don’t have instead of what we DO have. Thanks for the reminder to be grateful for what we have and to focus on what is really important.
KUDOS TO YOU! Rock on! You are blessed!
Found your blog post via a fb share from one of my friends. I love everything about this post and I love the new term I learned: “perspectacles”. I must say I am way more inspired by this blog post than I ever would have been by a kitchen remodel!
I loved hearing about your kitchen dancing! I didn’t know anyone else who did that. I’ve had friends and family suggest that I need a kitchen island…one even offered to build it himself, a lovely offer. When I explain that I simply can’t get one because it would get in the way of all the dancing that my 7-year-old son and I do, I get very strange looks…and I know that I am the lucky one.
Your kitchen looks absolutely perfect to me!! I wouldn’t change a thing!! I love how you put this together.
Witty and charming – thank you!
You’re awesome and so is your kitchen – AND your family!
(also, anyone who keeps Old Bay seasoning in the medicine cabinet is doing something right!)
Thank you so much for this! Your perspectacles have really opened my eyes!!
Thank you! This was an awesome post, I didn’t think your kitchen looked bad at all but beyond that you make such great points! Thanks for taking the time to blog about it.
I can completely relate. We recently purchased a newer home with new appliances and upgrades blah,blah blah. I refused to get rid of the old dining table that all my children and now granddaughters learn to color on,write on, learn there manners at and we still use for family time. It is stained,has nail polish,sharpy marks etc. Still the best part of my home. When people comment they have to listen to my stories and memories created at that table.
Thank you. Thank you more than I can express.
My kitchen is empty. It makes it better when you can fill it with loved ones.
Thank you, thank you for this perspective!!! I am addicted to Pinterest and pinning all sorts of things I need for my body/house/life to be better. It’s lunacy through perspectacles. I have enough-more than enough. Thank you!!!
AMEN. my fridge needs more cute stuff on it though. I think I will ask my sister to have my nephew draw some cute things for me. And maybe I’ll dig out my art supplies too. I have CRAYONS.
My hall closet and dresser looks a bit like your cabinet…but sadly a lot more meds. I am SO happy your Lyme disease is in remission!!!
My kitchen is from the early 70s, but it works. It’s cluttered, but we are blessed….even with the hole in the roof. I jokingly call it our indoor water feature.
Love your kitchen love your clutter! We dance in our kitchen too! The Walden quote is the perfect thing to put it in perspective. Thank you so much for writing this!
GLENNON!
I cannot tell you how much joy your writing brings to me!!! God is surely moving hearts and mountains through you!! THANK YOU THANK YOU for messages like this!
This totally made me cry. We are about to renovate our house, but this will teach me not to find fault with it. Thank you.
Love this!
I have one thing I really want to change about my kitchen, but I don’t feel bad about it.
I want to redo the caulking around the sink, because it needs it to stay watertight, and I like the kitchen enough that I don’t want an emergency re-do caused by water damage of even part of it. 😛
Thank you for making me feel better about my lack of desire to remake my kitchen or, in fact, much of any part of my entire house. 🙂
One of the best things you have on your refrigerator is changeable decor…i.e. the monkey and other fun items that your children proudly presented you with. That’s better than sterile subway tile! You are correct, we need to live less in an environment of “perfection” and more in one of “family.” So glad that you took the time to reflect and share what is really important.
Well said Mama!
I can relate on many levels. Dancing in our crazy, messy, aromatic kitchen has always been the norm here. As our four children have grown, it’s been a fun way to “break in” boyfriend/girlfriends to gage whether than can handle this whole lovely mess that is US 🙂
Thank you for sharing your healthy perspective!
Thank you for this story of your kitchen. My kitchen sooo needs a remodel…by the worlds standards….but I too just see blessings! You are such a smart young lady. I do so much admire you and enjoy your work!!!
This was awesome to read. Kept a smile on my face the whole time! Thank you!
This is just what I needed to read tonight. Thank you for your grateful attitude and candor.
I was in the middle of cleaning my kitchen when I got bored & walked away. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be reading these words of wisdom from G, who gets it.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this post, it’s very timely for me. I hate the look and “decor” or my rental unit, but this post has reminded me to be thankful for what I currently have and that I don’t need to over extend myself trying to get whatever is newest and most convenient.
Your “After” photo is thee best. A house filled with family and love never gets outdated!
This is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. Thank you!
One of my favorite quotes from Shonda Rimes–“What if we all decided that we have enough? That we are enough?”
This is why I come here to Momastery, everyday…. to get filled up and remember what is important, to be reminded that others are doing the same, and to feel the kindness and bravery and love of Glennon and the Monkees.
I kind of love you right now. You are so right. My kids’ school is so fantastic and I have been thinking how grateful I am for their teachers, the school building, the library. I am so grateful our taxpayers, our home owners, pay those taxes to educate my kids and all the kids that live in my city, my county, my state. Yes, there is so much to be grateful for.
And actually, I thought your kitchen looked great.
Oh how I love you! THANK YOU for this blog!
Thank you- I needed that!
I am a kitchen designer. They do not teach “make a space for dancing” in CEU classes, but as a Monkee I feel compelled to forevermore do that. There is space in mine to dance, love, relish time with almost grown babies, love others and share our days. G, I’ll never stop learning from you.
P.s. I never judge other’s kitchens-or otherwise. I only look hard when someone asks me (and pays me) to do so. Happy is happy.
P.P.S. Also, coffee with a timer is from GOD Himself on high.
Thank you, Glennon. I find that even my rose-tinted perspectacles need a jolt like this every again & again. And again.
Love, Cookie
I know this wasn’t the point of your post today, but what I loved about the kitchen pics you posted is that they look like anybody’s kitchen, like my kitchen, like my neighbour’s kitchen – not some celebrity’s kitchen. You guys are just normal people like the rest of us after all, at home – even if all the book-tour-travelling and television appearances make you look all fancy-pants much of the time 🙂 That is nice to see!
I ALSO loved your actual main point – my house is relatively new to my family, but not to the world – and it’s getting a bit worn and dated. When family & friends visit I often tell them what I would like to do to change it, if I ever have the money. Using your “perspectacles” (love that word!) will hopefully help me stop that silly habit, so we can talk about REAL stuff instead!
Just re-reading my comment (as I often do, neurotic much?) and want to make sure you don’t take offence – “all fancy-pants” sounded endearing in my head, but I see it can maybe sound otherwise in the heads of others. Apologies!
Wow! It’s beautiful! It’s especially beautiful to know that Lyme disease is in remission (and is it okay to say your husband is hot!?)
We just love you and your hugely important, perfectly simple, world changing thoughts! Thanks so much for writing! You helped a little small group of girls in a big way today! Thumbs up to you!!
I love, love, love this! Such great perspective. When we bought our house, I insisted the kitchen needed to be remodeled just as soon as possible. But, I was 9 months pregnant, so I knew it would be at least a few years. Instead, I’m printing a copy of this post to hang on my outdated oak cabinets, right above my outdated laminate countertop, next to my flawlessly performing (yet super duper old) oven. And I’m vowing to be thankful every day for what I DO have.
All that matter is that your family is healthy and happy. You have a wonderful kitchen! Be happy!
I so love your kitchen, but i even more love what you have written. Good on you for not going into debt “just because” you are so right. thank you for sharing this.
An entertaining read for my husband and I as we sit in the kitchen clearing all the rotten food from our fridge after 3 days with no power. Despite the annoyances and frustrations of living with no power for three days (in a country where we normally expect to have power), we are grateful for what we do have and appreciated your words as they are very relevant in our lives right now!
PERSPECTACLES!! \oo/
OK, I’ll use that term for the rest of my life; Thank You! I travel to India and have had plenty of meals cooked on the floor, have taken plenty of cold bucket baths, and do often sing the praises of hot water. Or running water.
Or water! Thank you for how you see! Love to you.
AMEN and AMEN
Thanks so much for this blog post. I am so tired of all the white rooms I see on blogs. How do they ever keep them clean? I am 63 and have always kept my rooms and furniture in what I call “dirt” colors…..the real dirt from kids and dogs did not show at all! I still had to vacuum, dust, scrub and wash neutral slipcovers. I can’t imagine how often they wash those white slipcovers and wipe those white cabinets. It’s almost like they just look at the rooms and don’t live in them!
Love your refrigerator! It looks like mine covered in magnets holding all kinds of “important” stuff.
You got this one right…be who you are….be happy with what you are blessed with, make due with what you have. Happiness & contentment are choices, and in America especially, most of us are blessed with blessings beyond measure!
I’m content with my orange& yellow shag carpet in my bedroom, burnt orange kitchen countertops, psychodelic orange red patterned basement carpet & dark panelling. Who cares really…and honestly….who can see most of that anyways with the bounty of “stuff” scattered or piled around! People are more important than things.
God bless you!
Keep on dancing family!
AMEN, sista!
I love your points, but I do have to state that your kitchen has all kinds of modern looking stuff. Seriously. You have the French door refrigerator? I looked at those when I needed a new one. Expensive. All I see is stainless steel and black appliances. You should take a look at someone’s kitchen who really needs a make-over before something like this.
You are missing the whole point Jill. Do you have a refrigerator? Enough said.
I thought the same thing when I saw the fridge, Jill. And I agree the kitchen is modern. But people actually wrote to G and told her she needed a redo or reno. I think it makes it even more important for G to write this. Like you, I loved it.
Jill, maybe you should stop judging a woman who is posting with vulnerability about an attitude struggle she has overcome in a really inspiring way. Maybe her kitchen is ‘nicer’ than some people’s (mine included!) in terms of modern appliances, but her point is that there will ALWAYS be people out there with nicer stuff than you, and that perpetually comparing yourself with others will rob you of your joy, contentment and ability to find beauty in what you DO have.
SHE never said her kitchen needed a makeover…..She said she received emails telling her it did and that made her doubt it was good enough. Then she realized it is perfect because it is full of love and beauty……..HOW in the world could you miss that point??
Okay I LOVE your kitchen (especially since the makeover!). I live in a 90-year-old house. Your kitchen looks fab compared to mine! (Isn’t there some truism in the saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy”???) If I did an “extreme makeover” photo, it would make my kitchen look a lot like yours. Happy to live in a kitchen that is… well, happy!
Thank you so much for writing this.
So much love! We just moved into a rental home, but it’s a full house. I can’t dramatically change anything so it has removed that option from my realm of possibility. We are forced to either grudgingly accept or enthusiastically enjoy every mis-placed closet, every not-quite-new appliance, and every last piece of paneling in this home that allows me to run a business, stay home, and wander out into a big and fenced yard anytime.
I keep feeling this tug between clearing the clutter and trying to enjoy my kids for a few more days before summer ends and the rhythm of the school year begins. I loved this post, is is exactly what I need to read. Another mom blogger said once, “I want people to leave my house feeling better about themselves.” (Shauna Neiquest) I figure if my house has crumbs on the floor, dishes in the sink, is a disaster of toys & clutter, maybe people will both feel comfortable in my home and leave thinking their house isn’t as bad as mine! Thanks for the reminding us just how blessed we really are.
Of course, this was A.MA.ZING. Howver, after reading it for the third time, what I really want to know is – is Chase giving a large baby doll a zerbert?
NO he is giving our DOG a zerbert!
🙂
G
i just want to say thank you. thank you for putting into words what i need to hear. its ok, to not want everything. its ok to be satisfied with what i HAVE.
this couldn’t be more truth.
you’re adorable.
This was honestly one of the best blog posts Ive read in a long time!
KK @ Preppy Pink Crocodile
Thank you for this post. I needed it!
I love, love, love this post! It is seriously the best post I have read for a long while!
We are so lucky and don’t even realise it (most of the time), thank you for this beautiful reminder 🙂
What a fantastic blog post – absolutely love it!!!
I knew I liked you! Thanks for the reminder. ♡
You’re my new hero! Awesome!!
I am 65 years old and rec’d. this from a dear friend who is mid 20’s. The thing that so impresses me is that a young person just starting out in marriage already has this ideal for her life. It took me awhile to stop wishing for stuff that wasn’t really important. In my kitchen I love the way it becomes a gathering place where everyone hangs out and lot’s of good conversation takes place. For me having a warm, inviting place to create food for my family and friends if where it is all out. Once again …thank you.
Love. This. Post. Wow!!
Amazing. . . and beautiful. I will see my kitchen very differently tonight when I go home. Thanks. . . . .
You are a very smart woman!
My mother had a similar experience many years ago. She had visited a friend who had just purchased a new dining room set. Our large oak table had belonged to my grandmother. My Mom was a touch wistful about her friend’s new table until she remembered all of the happy meals, cookies cooled, schoolwork done and memories made around that old table. Mom is 90 years old now and I am so thankful that we are still gathering around that table.
You have a wonderful kitchen, everything a person and a family could need, a beautiful family and a brain that is smart and fabulous. Love and luck to you!
Some of your stuff looks downright faaaanceee compared to mine! It’s better organized, that’s for sure. 😉
Earlier today I was thinking about how our car is 10 years old and our minivan is 20. I can’t imagine trading them in just to have something new and dealing with monthly payments again. Someday we may have no choice when the vehicles get too old to keep running and that’s just how it is, but it’s nice not to have to deal with it now.
Good points to ponder. Thanks!
Thank you so much for posting this article. I now feel 100% better about my current kitchen. I think the only thing I now feel the need to complete is a paint job. It is just not my color and I feel that since I have only been here 6 years and feel the need to stay for 20 more, color will be good.
I love this post. it is so easy to look at certain blogs and compare. I have several friends who have 4 or more children and their candid shots still contain an immaculate home. Yet, when you get to know the person you find that the mama gets up hours before her new born to spend time with God (great but mama’s should rest too) then they start the day cooking and cleaning all before the baby is awake and they spend every waking moment being busy right inside their homes, which is fine if thats how they like it but it just seems so sad to me to look at pictures that contain no painful leggo strewn about, no papers all over of proud artwork lovingly done by a child, etc. Thank you for reminding me that my MESS is because I dont spend every waking moment dedicated to a calendar. I am not afraid to live and let the dishes sit. I am so grateful for all that I have and I want to enjoy it too!
Love this, Marisa – fun to see you here, by the way – all except the Lego comment. 🙂 Stepped on one too many of my brothers’ Legos as a child. NO LEGOS!!! 🙂
It is also ok for your KIDS TO SHARE A ROOM! I just sent my oldest daughter off to college and she is getting her own room for the first time ever. The tears in the eyes of my girls as they said goodbye was heartwarming and heartwrenching. They have lived together for 17 years and won’t see each other til Christmas. They love each other in a way that I don’t believe could happen without the closeness of living together in the same room.
I’ve never commented on a blog before but this post was just too spot on to not acknowledge. Thank you for this!!
Yes! Thanks so much for the perspective. I had a similar moment driving home from Target last week–in a car that whisks me from place to place on smooth roads maintained by a sound government, free from bomb-holes–with a car full of school supplies–that I plucked from well-stocked shelves so my kids can go to safe, free schools. We have so much to be grateful for.
Thank you for writing this!
I’m one of those lurkers who doesn’t comment because it’s been said, better than I could. But if number of comments make a difference, if hearing a swelling chant of thank you, right on, make any difference, here’s to that. Thank you for using your talent at words and platform to reach many to make us realize that most of us living the married with children middle class life in the US live in unbelievable wealth and prosperity in the realm of today’s world and human history.
Amazing, amazing gratitude journal. So uplifting I can hardly stand it. Hooray for you and your family!!!
I’m one of those lurkers who don’t comment because I feel it’ll just get lost in all the others and it’s been said by others, you don’t need to hear it from yet another. But if number of comments make a difference, if hearing a swelling chant of thank you, right on, thanks for using your talent at words to make us realize that most of us living the married with children middle class life in the US live in unbelievable wealth and prosperity in the realm of today’s world and human history.
Tawn, your comment was not lost. Thank you for the thank you.
Love,
Glennon
I love your kitchen. (It looks like mine :-), although I did just get new countertops and a dishwasher, my old ones were 25 years on the job. I don’t think I need to replace old things that are still in good working shape. I sleep better at night knowing I have money in the bank.
Thought provoking blog, “loved” in kitchen, beautiful family and a great lesson. Thank you!
Thank you for reminding us all to be be grateful and rethink our first world problems, like a supposedly outdated kitchen. I too, am grateful to come home to a family that I can hug. That is the real wealth.
Absolutely love this! It is 100% true on all levels!
Yes, oh my goodness – my heart is good to split open after reading your wisdom Glennon. A fridge! A tap! An oven! In my kitchen this morning (which is small and kinda crowded, like my house), there was my 6 year old daughter reading me her home reader, my 10 year old son cutting up and juicing fresh oranges and passionfruit, and later on it had me in it brewing up a pot of that magical nectar that you speak of. OMG could we be any more fortunate?
Love this. Just visit some of the poorer countries and a small modest home in the USA is a mansion there. Afraid we all take too much for granted EX. Electricity. Just be without it for a couple of days and you realize what a blessing it is or not have water. Let’s be thankful for whatever we have. Even for a strorm that makes us appreciate what we take for granted
I LOVE your kitchen!! And your perspectacles!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this article, but my absolute favorite part is the coffee pot…seriously, so many people have no idea how this has saved their lives! ; )
Best kitchen makeover ever.
Amen sister! Absolutely love your post – and that word perspectacles – fantastic!
This is the best blog post I have read in ages! Thank you for sharing your fabulous perspectacles!!
Yes!! Good gracious-if your kitchen needs updated then I suppose mine needs bulldozed! haha. But you’re right. For me it’s about function, safety. My cabinets aren’t falling off the walls, our appliances work. My floor isn’t even made from dirt, unlike the rooms that millions of women around the world cook in and somehow manage to make do just fine. And despite my kitchen not looking like martha stewart’s, i’m quite thankful for and satisfied with what we have.
Also, I think we tend to see more photos of people’s kitchens when they ARE something more glamorous…and forget that even most average North Americans have non-updated, and often crowded kitchens!
I just LOVE the after picture — and enjoyed your explanation of a healthy outlook on decorating !! I had my grandson read this ( he’s 15 ) and he said you are soo right too ! Thanks — it
was uplifting.
I very rarely comment after reading blogs, but I absolutely had to on this subject. We have become so focused on what we don’t have and don’t appreciate what wet do! Such a good post!
I love your kitchen!
One of the bets blog post out there! What a great perspective in the culture where we always want more. Thank you for this reminder that we already have more than most people and should be grateful for what we do have!
Thanks a million for the perspectacles.
As I was reading your post my 6 year old son comes down and the first thing he sees is your “before” kitchen pic and he immediately says, “Wow that’s a nice kitchen!” 🙂 I enjoyed reading your post today. I have to remind myself of this often. Thank you!
Your posting brought me to tears. As a Grandmother I am proud to tell you I have a daughter just like you. My grandchildren couldn’t be more blessed. Thanks.
I love your kitchen! I don’t think you need to change a thing but then again I don’t often look at other people’s homes with intent to share suggestions. Thank you for sharing your gratitude.
Very awesome post! You have your perspective totally in focus! Thank you for sharing.
Now there’s a woman with a positively perfect perspective!! Beautiful family, too!
This is THE best blog post I’ve read in a very long time! Spot on! I am grateful to live here in the US and I feel embarrassed at our bounty and overabundance many times. I want to learn to appreciate it more and not compare to others. Thank you for this post.