“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
Thank you for keeping it real!
This is the best thing I have read in a LONG time! Thank you.
Your kitchen would be pretty trendy over here right now! I actually do need to update my kitchen and am saving up for that right now as I’ve ‘put up’ with a kitchen that doesn’t really function well for me for 15 years. Drawers don’t open properly, I can’t reach things (it was put in for the previous owners who were all at least a foot taller than me!). But I hold with all you’ve said there. If it works, don’t fix it!
You have got it! Wish I had learned about gratitude when I was 40, took me to about 51, glad I finally learned about it, and am learning more daily! Share that amazing vision wiht your kids and they will be such happy adults!
Love the gratitude and perspective!!! Thank you
Perspectacles…dancing in the kitchen…love!!
I fail to see the problem with your kitchen. But then again, I happily wear thrift store clothing, live in a house filled with a combination of new, used, and gifted items that somehow fit the needs of my family. I may not spend a ton of money on “things” but I feel I am quite rich.
Love, love, love your message. Thank you for sharing, and keep enjoying the beauty.
Everything about this post is honest and right, including that awesome title.
Thank you for your wonderful, insightful article! We all need a “grateful” check, too easy to say “I want” bigger house, newer house, new kitchen, always something. I moved from the US to Greece, from a 3 bdrm home to a 1 bedroom condo, my kitchen was tiny, but it made me realize … I didn’t need as many pots & pans, or dishware, plastic ware, etc., I gave away my sets of everyday dishes and now use my fine China, yep, no more waiting for holidays. If we break a dish-oh well, as we say in Greece, OPA! I’ve learned to cut down, because I didn’t have a choice, but since then I’ve moved to a 3 bdrm condo and I’ve purged even more. Oh and it didn’t stop at the kitchen! 🙂
Luurve yr post from here Down Under – gr8 job, well done, am adopting Anons quote as my professional maxim.
Wow loved your post and so so true, I often feel down that my home isn’t up to the standard of my friends home big renovation we are doing and its taking us time as we don’t want to spend money we don’t have. I really hated one room in our house and was slightly embarrassed by it old wall paper etc but my friend walked in and said wow it’s just amazing, I love this room, keep it as it is as its perfect,since then it’s taught me a massive lesson, memories with my children are so much more important and I now value so much more what we do have!
I have been reading your blog for about a year. This post spoke to me very much. Every time I log into Facebook I see a new “share” or comment. You have started yet another facet of you positive life movement. Thank you for the inspiration and laughter.
Thank you for explaining so much more eloquently what I call “practicing deferred gratification” when it comes to home remodelling! Amazing how well my 30 year old formica counters work for food prep!
You have enlightened me. Thank you for this wonderful article.
Wow! This is incredibly awesome! A woman after my own heart. “Sufficient for our needs” is my mantra and even “sufficient” for us is FAR MORE THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD. How truly blessed we are!
Thank you for being reminded of the many blessings we all have! Brought tears to my eyes. Love the idea that the kitchen is for DANCING!
Thank you.
All the best,
Nannette Eaton
“My kids go to a FREE school”… that’s paid for by your and your neighbors’ taxes. Nothing is FREE, except you! But please, remember that public services are paid for by the public, and the public is made up of you and your community and businesses. It’s not free, it is paid for.
I think you may have missed the point a little here … there are so many places out there where an education is not only not a right you can be jailed or killed for trying to have one. We may pay for it in our taxes, but the simple fact of it existing is something to be grateful for, and that’s what this post is about – gratitude and beauty.
Thank you to Glennon for posting this and reminding me and all of us that we have so many blessings in our lives and so few of them have to do with *things* <3
Great piece! Did you coin that word – perspectacles? I love it! I will use it with the middle school kids I teach. It is exactly the right word to express your feeling. Nobody can say it is not a word. It communicated your message precisely and effectively. Thanks for the message and the inspiration.
Apparently I am blind because I don’t see a single thing wrong with your kitchen. I guess I just don’t play the “keeping up with the Joneses” thing or caring what trends are as long as things work for me and my family.
I have read this post over and over again in the past couple of days and seen it reposted numerous times. I don’t think anyone could have said it better. How shallow of us to think we need everything just because others have it. Most of us have more than we will ever need now. Thank you so much for this post. I will remember it often.
Thank you for this perspective. It goes against the grain. I love it. How do we get sucked into caring about things that dont matter when we could/should be so grateful.
My kitchen is at least 10 years older than yours, so I must be an even bigger slob, lol. My stove, oven, and linoleum are highly fashionable “Harvest Gold,” and the solid surface counters date to the 70s. But I just won second place in home canning at the county fair so that kitchen has still got it where it counts. 😉
This is the best article ever!!!!! I lived with my family (mother/brother) until last May but before that for seven years. My beau and I have rent a small modest ranch…with a beat up kitchen…but you know what…it is ALL MINE!!! I don’t have to share it with anyone (besides my family…but you know we like them there) and I love it!!! And I have all those amazing amenities too….a refrigerator stove, toaster oven, food, a kitchen table, even a floor…and a beautiful fam to share it with. BTW…if you ask what my family does in our kitchen, we too dance. Spontaneous Kitchen Dance Parties rock!!!! They are a mandated event 😉
I hope you won’t be offended, but I am glomming on to your word “perspectacles.” Thank you!
My refrigerator looks so much worse than yours, I don’t even think yours looks bad.
Lovelovelove your “perspectacles!” I’m with ya on being grateful–countless showers have been started with “Thank you, God, for hot and cold running water!” And the parental pride you felt when your son yelled, “Dance!”? Similar parental pride here when my second-grader was asked (@ 1995), “Who is your favorite movie star?” and he answered, “Gene Kelly!” Ya gotta raise ’em right! 😉
I love it. Just love it!!! Thanks for the dose of gratitude!
Thank you for your beautiful contentment!
You have more than enough comments to read so ..just..love it.
Get your bread out of the fridge. Counter or freezer, fridge just makes it stale quicker.
Donna–in the South, at least, we really CAN’T keep our bread on the counter (and who can eat frozen bread?). The humidity is so high even inside our houses (true story) that the bread will mold in roughly 48 hours if left sitting out. Not an exaggeration. I’ve had lots of friends visit from other parts of the country, as well as from other continents, to whom refrigerated bread was totally bizarre, but depending on your climate, it’s just a fact of existence. Sadly–because I like soft, fresh bread, too. Let’s all be thankful we don’t have to grow the grain, grind the grain, knead the bread, bake the bread and THEN eat it! 🙂
I do not grow, or grind, however, I do make my bread from scratch (sans bread maker also), and I can tell you, I cut into slices and freeze it individually (our humidity is high also), and then I can either pop it into the toaster just like others do with frozen breakfast foods, or use the auto defrost on the micro wave. Fresh, home made bread every day without the mold.
We can only leave our bread out of the fridge in the winter. The summer is just too warm and humid and we like our bread without mold. So into the fridge it must go in the warmer months. 🙂
Here in southern Manitoba, Canada (just a few miles north of North Dakota, for all Americans who get lost when they cross into Canada), we also have bread go mouldy in 2-3 days. Ours is in the fridge or freezer.
Very cool. A great pointer to absolute freedom of the present moment and acceptance. Thank you.
Thank you! Thank you! I am so glad that I took the time to read this! Thank you for clearly showing us how greatly blessed we are! I was lamenting my 1960s kitchen just hours ago (and for the two years we have lived here.) Now I see how wonderful it is! My time is better spent with my children than it would be spending weeks repainting, re-doing to achieve something different we cannot afford — and something different we so clearly do not need. Thank you!
I love your kitchen makeover AND your attitude of gratefulness.
Hi I live in in England with my family. We have a modest home but have all the necessary “stuff” We have started to remind our teenager that some of her “problems” are in her dad’s words ” First World Problems” that is her bedroom being the wrong shape for the dressing table she wants is not a catastrophe . I will show her your lovely photo
and hope she thinks about how luck we all are to live in a rich and free country!
Awesome! Just awesome!
This is compelling. However, I believe the point shouldn’t be about being grateful by living simply, but by being grateful. Period. Whether one chooses to live simply or elaborately. We’re meant to live in abundance. However one defines abundance is subjective, but gratitude only looks one way.
I think you missed the point, that is exactly what it was about. I am not sure how you missed that.
Where in this post does she recognize that others who choose to follow “the trend”, live “en vogue”, or live by one’s own definition of abundance are also grateful? What comes across to me is: “I’m living a simple, happy, grateful life… And that’s all that matters”. Bravo to that! I didn’t see the comments she received about her kitchen, but who’s to say those people aren’t as grateful about their lives and were simply giving her their opinion? Seems like they really touched a soft/vulnerable spot here because if one is confident about what they have or don’t have, and are truly grateful about it- would simply say: “thank you for your feedback” and not feel compelled to prove their gratitude. With that, I leave you with: thank you for reading my opinion and your response.
I think she is saying this is what matters to her.
Aw…and I thought I was an overanalyzer. This was just her simple, albeit humerous and touching way of sharing why she decided to not pour money into a kitchen that others thought could use some sprucing up. Hence the title, “Give ME gratitude or give ME debt”. I say to each their own. Why should she cover all of the points of view of…well…everyone, when they can write their own (especially those who are fortunate enough to have a computer embedded in their fridges)? Good, down-to-earth thoughts and a new cool word I can use every day. That’s what I gained from reading her thoughts on something dear to her. Adorable family!
SO funny! I love your comment about the coffee pot especially. Personally, I think your counters, floor, and cabinets look great. Though I think you could use a bigger bulletin board…..
Thank you for a great laugh and reminder.
You are a favorite in all the land. If I met you, I would probably kiss you on the cheek. And I’m not even a kisser.
We should make your perspectacles into contacts do we never have to take them off!!! Thank you for your wonderful point of view, we are all so much luckier than we could ever imagine 🙂
I live in Alaska in what we call up here “a dry cabin”
I have no running water, no refrigerator, I cook on a wood stove,
No electricity for 3 years.. We do now have a generator. If there is
No wood in the stove,burning, we have no hot water in our 5 gal hot
Water pot or heat. We live in 300 sq ft. With a loft that is 3.5 ft at the peak.
We brood chickens and turkeys and quail under our kitchen table.
I am about to “remodel” one corner with some better shelving so we have more space AND put linoleum on the wood floor so it’s easier to clean. We haul our water from the most awesome artisian spring. It’s a mile or better away but still flows in -42. What a blessing! We do have a shower and honey bucket in out little bathroom. We use a bucket with water poured over our heads to bathe. This life is not for everyone.. Oh I might add.. I have a PharmD. My husband is a cop.. We have 8 kids.. 2 left at home. We own 2 other homes. We CHOOSE to live like this so we and our kids and grand kids have that perspective you are tAlking about!!! Should everyone do this… It probably would do more food than harm to our society.. But it took me LONG ago away from the Tyranny you speak of. I once had a huge house, in ground pool, was the Jones to keep up with.. Then my son was born and developed Autism. We live like this for him. Nothing chemical, microwaveable, plastic. Touches him. Or my grandsons when they come here. Goat milk, veggies, meat, grains all from our place. We also try to feed others. NO meds.. But what comes from the land here. It’s not easy.. But it is freeing. We get our clothes from our communities free box closet. We buy some too.. But generally.. May more folks be woken up by your article. You can sell out and leave our culture of “Buy me.. Buy More”.
your comment is inspiring–first I must say ‘ you are brave’ because I know first hand so many are unaccepting of this kind of life style, we are tipping our feet compared to you but so many want to ‘save us from ourselves’ it isn’t even funny.
I won’t say we came to this life style by choice, it was out of necessity when my husband was making less than $20,000 a year to support our family of 3 after I got sick, but, I will say now that we are here even though he makes more instead of taking out a new mortgage and car payments for new cars we are hoping to bless others through adoption (which also seems to upset people–seriously, one lady going on about how selfish we are trying to give homes to foster kids who are considered ‘unwanted’)
keep up the good work, you definitely are an inspiration
Out of curiosity (sorry if I missed it)
where do you get your internet and computer hookup? 🙂
Your kitchen is wonderful !
It is far bigger than mine, has much nicer counters, cabinets, floor and appliances. I cannot believe that people were telling you that you need to change it. I would *love* to have a kitchen as nice as yours.
A wonderful post and OH! so true! I love my 12 year old demo kitchen (the kitchen and bath place was moving!!!) because of more counter space and the fact that I could stand at the kitchen sink without bending over and putting a kink in my back. The kitchen worked beautifully for the first two owners: one woman was 4’11 and Mother was 5’1 1/2″ (and don’t forget the half!) I am over 5’8… Except for the height, I would have kept the 1950s kitchen forever because of the wonderful memories it held. Everything still worked just fine. As a matter of fact, that original refrigerator I grew up with finally died at about age 50. (Unlike certain appliances I can name today.) We replaced a roof, we are putting in a new septic. We will have to move our one bathroom and replace the damaged wood. The only thing fancy about the bathroom-to-come will be the grab bars and the wider access, because we are planning to age in place for as long as possible. One thing I enjoyed about HGTV before we dumped cable was all of us (two generations) rolling our eyes at the stupidity shown by the wanna-be homeowners? You don’t like the color? Paint it! You want granite? Go visit the cemetery. (And take some real flowers.) Sorry about the rant. Gratitude and contentment and just not valued qualities today. We would be so much happier and healthier if they were.
I TOTALLY LOVE YOU!!
I absolutely LOVE this! Thank you!
Totally superficial comment in reply to your awesome post, but here goes.
You have a really good looking hubby and adorable kids. Just saying. Don’t even notice the existence of a room in that picture. Gourgeousness (Is that a word?) is distracting.
We are who we are not what we own. After visiting several third world countries it became very obvious that Americans are in general very spoiled and ungrateful. The people I came in contact with were some of the most gracious, happy and thankful people I have ever met. When two of my children went on a mission trip to Guatemala, they came home saying that all American Teens should go to a third world country to learn just how blessed they are.
The need to keep up with the newest trends or neighbors or anyone else is something I have finally pretty much put to rest. It does rear its ugly head every once in a while. I have to stop of think for a few and can let it go.
Thanks for expressing it so well. If we all could get a handle of this need to compete that results spending money you don’t have to buy things you don’t really need or want, debt will go down and contentment will go up. Life is a wonderful adventure and we are blessed to be able to experience it.
This made my day…
I’ve always loved you….but for me, this post kicked you up to a different level…..wow…..now you can change the world….making a bunch of us, all of which have access to our own a computer/phone, be thankful for having food in our fridge……and water…..amazing….you changed the world today…KNOW THIS….you changed the world today by putting perspectacles on each of your readers…..congrats…..I should send you flowers….today is a big day for you….huge
I just pinned this. On my “Old House” board. The one with all my pins on how to fix up our old dated house. But then my husband asks if I want new floors or to go on vacation. And then we book the flight 🙂
I just pinned this. on my “old house” board. the one where I keep all my pins about how to fix up our old dated house. But then my husband asks if I want new floors or to go on vacation. And then we book the flight 🙂
This absolutely made my day. I am a single mom who has been struggling to even find a job that will work with my kids schedules since two years ago. Always seems like something won’t work. So I may live in low income housing, but I am greatful for it, otherwise my children and I would be on the streets. They may be the ugliest white and brown cabinets I have ever seen, but we are safe, warm and have food to eat. and the complex even has an awesome back yard for them to play in. compared to other countries I am rich and I am so greatful every single day that God provides. It may not be what I ‘WANT’ but I have all I ‘NEED’. Amen.
Your kitchen is beautiful…..and so are the kids and that hunk that dance in it!
WOW! You really put things in perspective. I had always thought that I had to settle for what I had when actually what I had was a blessing that the Lord had given me. And is it really about stuff anyway? It’s about the people you have in your life, the Lord that saves you by grace, and the contentment in your heart that brings your life full circle.
Love love love this! I need to get myself some perspectacles.
Also, for the record I loved your kitchen before, though the makeover made it even better!
This refreshes my soul. We are missionaries in Africa and the Lord has allowed us to be content with even less. So we rejoice with you over the blessings that are your kitchen! God bless you!
Wow, talk about a post with the ring of truth! Thank you for sharing your joy. I work in a school with some of those brilliant teachers and loving administrators, and I’ll post this on our bulletin board for all to enjoy. You’re the best Glennon! I hope that you won’t mind if I go to the library to borrow your book instead of buying a copy 🙂 All the best from Hillsborough NC. Andy
I think this is hands down the best lifestyle blog I have ever read. Instant fan.
THANK YOU! I was looking at my hose the same way, trying to fit in to what society thinks is best. My mismatched counters, cabinets stove and fridge nothing matched. But I got food in my fridge, a food over my families head and clothes on our back. We got what we need, it isn’t the best but its what we need and were happy!
I too love my old kitchen. My appliances don’t match but they sure have made some amazing holiday dinners and everyday meals for almost 30 years. My home is an old farmhouse which has NOT had an awesome make-over. I have very little counter space but I make do because I always wanted my family to love every meal I made. Now they’re grown and making lives of their own. I don’t need so much counter space anymore but what I wouldn’t give to have little ones surrounding me again, asking “what’s for dinner?”
This is like the most refreshing breath of fresh air. I admire and appreciate tat you step out and showed us what LIVING really is. Thank you!!! While all we all admire those picture perfect pictures of kitchens in magazines and internet and we all strive for one just that our lives are never going to be like that. THANK YOU for sharing your family they are gorgeous!!
I too struggle with everyone else’s idea of what a house should look like, mostly when company is coming over.We have an old 1940’s farmhouse that is not “charming”, just functioning, but it’s paid for! We use a wood heater in the winter with wood my husband cuts, for free. While we don’t earn enough money to save anything, living from paycheck to paycheck, we have saved ourselves countless hour of worry about losing our home and being homeless and cold. We raise food in the summer and in the winter he hunts and we eat venison year round. So for this freedom from worry, I’ll take my $18,000 fixer upper and you can keep your $100,000 beautiful bondage. I love your word perspectacles!
yes, peace of mind is priceless. and I will never forget reading that the word mortgage is derived from mort, which means death. I’d love to own a home, and it’s great that many people I know have paid theirs off, but I have always rented, and I’m currently in a wonderful very affordable place on 8 acres with free wood provided by my also wonderful landlord from his tree service.
I love you, G!
Great article. Thank you. Less is difficult to do but well worth the try. We are two in a 4/3, 2000+ sq ft. home and would like to drastically downsize. I’m sorting one drawer, box, cabinet, etc. at a time, room by room. The goal is to be liberated from excess stuff. Your article was
a pep talk:)
GREAT perspective and reminder, of that old adage…. ‘but for the grace of GOD go I!!! I have been lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to see those women walking miles with and for their water. Some by choice, and others by circumstance. It is sad to spend part of your day hauling something many of us take for granted… every single minute of every singe day.
AAAAAAA-MEN!
Well, I thought your kitchen was lovely! I certainly wouldn’t tell you that you needed to update! Mine isn’t as big…or nice…but I have one. I also have all I need to make great meals for my family even with the limitations of dystonia because of things like a stand mixer, bread machine, etc. I feel totally blessed in my kitchen! It’s to cook beautiful meals for the people I love! Great post!
You got it right! I’m so glad a friend posted this so I could find your article. To me a motivation for an update should be a practical need. When I married my husband and combined our families my small 3 bedroom house needed an “update” to accommodate a family of 8. I love my house mostly because my husband build half of it. Now the kids are all married and moved on, but we have plenty of room when they come to visit with their kids. I really enjoyed your post. Thanks!
Thank you. After readying this, I will keep praying that someone can fix my dishwasher so I don’t keep looking at new ones.
Bless you!!! I have been talking to my husband about redoing some in our kitchen. (Stove only has one burner working and not enough table space for the 7 of us) But in reading this it makes me thankful that I have what I have. People forget so easily what is most important in life, to me it’s my five beautiful kids and husband and food in our bellies 🙂
We are getting a stove and a bigger table lol but we def. don’t need all the fancy keeping up with the Jones’s stuff 🙂
I love your response to helpful suggestions on how to “update”. If your kitchen works for you, then no need to renovate! I often think, too, of all the junk that accumulates in our kitchens . . . all the appliances we are told we absolutely must have . . . when really, so very little is required to cook for a family. I love having the same cooking utensils I bought/inherited when I went to university. They were built to last, and they still work great 25 years later. They don’t match each other, but who cares? I’m not running a home cooking show – nobody is watching this on TV. It just . . . doesn’t . . . matter.
BTW – your kitchen looks pretty modern – I can’t even see where the updating would start. (Obviously I’m not in the loop).
This is great. I LOVE perspectacles. Would you mind if I shared a link to this on my blog? I think it perfectly illustrates my blogs theme of appreciation and joy. Thanks for this!
THANK YOU! I sometimes need this reminder, and you said it wonderfully!
From a professional kitchen designer–you DO have a nice kitchen. Looks good to me, like a lovely place to drink coffee and talk. Some designers might ruin it. Good interiors reflect people’s hearts. Thanks for a wonderful article.
This is a keeper — like your kitchen. Thank you!
My husband works in law enforcement. He’s been to houses that are 5x the size of ours with brand new cars in the driveway, the immaculate house with the kitchen that is the most modern with furniture that probably cost the same as purchasing a small country….But inside, its dark, unhappy, violent, and depressing. My point is the PEOPLE who live inside a house make it a home. Embrace it….I love my 1300 sq ft because it has the most beautiful wonderful people in it…my husband and my two great children.
YOU ARE AWESOME!!!! Love the kitchen!!!
Thank you, thank you and THANK YOU!
How refreshing!! I used to be a consumer hound and I was very sad all the time and in debt like most Americans….and then one day I decided I was going to shut off any outside marketing influences so I could be debt free and happy. I stopped watching TV with commercials, stopped buying magazines, and unsubscribed to some of the product promoting bloggers I used to follow. All they do is promote products to women who are looking to fill a void – they do it on their blog, YouTube channel, Twitter, and now Instagram. You can’t get away from these product whores…It’s crazy! It’s enough to drive someone insane if you let it. This quote from above says it all.
“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.”
This is the best article ever…we all need your ‘perspectacles!’
I love this so much, will be sharing to all I know. Thanks for your amazing perspectacles. I needed that!
Everything about this is beautiful…and you have allowed us to share your happiness….thanks a bunch!
Thanks you for this. It’s lovely — and, btw, so is your kitchen, both with and without your family in the picture.
I am a former editor for a magazine that caters to high net-worth individuals. At 22 years old, when I started working there, I was in awe of what an amazing opportunity I’d been blessed with to work there. And I was! But after three years there, I realized that in addition to all of the good that was there every day (the kind and intelligent people), I also realized that something else was there waiting for me: pressure. The way that I dressed and feeling like a portion of every paycheck should go toward another investment piece that I could tote around to meetings and press previews as if I had to convince people that I belonged in their club and was worthy of their stories.
I have to admit that I am a huge sucker for great design — both in the home and in my closet — but after quitting my job there and backpacking through India and Southeast Asia, I came face-to-face with a lot of the things that you mention here: people for whom it is harder to get clean water than it is for us to get DIRTY water; people who make a living by building a community (harvesting food, building homes). And watching them ogle my brightly-colored clothing and my (actual quite old and un-sexy) digital camera with lust seriously disturbed me. What kind of a message is our consumer-driven culture propelling not only to our country but to the rest of the world that are breaking their backs for knock-off Northface backpack? It’s sick, it’s hollow, and it’s no wonder so many of us are constantly dissatisfied with our lives.
Thank you so much for this message. We need to wake up!
(Check out my frugal travel tips that resulted from my trip at adventuresinfrugal.com).
Thank you for your beautifully inspiring words. You’re so right about all of this! I think I’ll reread this post every week!
Hello wake up call, I’m glad to hear from you. Thank you so much for this.
HELL YEAH! This is awesome! So much truth. Who are those Joneses anyway?
Thank you. Somewhere along the way I lost mine, thanks for letting me borrow your perspectacles.
You’ve just saved yourself a ton of stress and money. Keep those perspectacles cleaned up. Thanks for a great piece and a reminder that we have much to be grateful for.
I love you I love you I love. All my heart felt sentiments from the days I spent at home with my babies! Their grown now, have gone to college debt free and beginning their own little dwellings of paradise. I still have my original 1970’s kitchen and bathrooms and I love them. Woo hoo say I when I see that permanent marker on my kitchen table. I had a budding artist eating lunch with me every day. Legos and drums, guitars and pianos still decorate my home -no fancy new vases here cuz when the musicians come around they need a musical playground free of obstacles that may curb their creativity. No new kitchen for me, college is paid for without loans and it’s onto retirement savings so I can eat lunch at that old scruffy table with my handsome balding hubby and perhaps some scrappy grandkids with markers and playdoh, paint and some Legos. We will dance and we will sing, have a water fight and of course count our blessings. If I had a penny for every giggle that has squealed in my house I would be a trillionaire but I would never trade a single giggle for any amount of money or home makeover!
Funny people will think your kitchen was bad: it looks better than mine and I don’t complain about mine ( except it’s too small but we live in a small house ! LOL )
Exactly what I was thinking, how in the world is this kitchen old or bad at all? The world in which that kitchen needed updating is indeed a very superficial world. Next to my yellow oven and no dishwasher, this is a dream kitchen. I do love the attitude of appreciate what you have to help not cave to that kind of consumerism. Gratitude is the key to happiness in all aspects of life.
Thank you SO much! I do look at your kitchen and think, “that is NOT a bad kitchen”. We’ve spent the summer “updating” and just this past weekend my 12 year old daughter asked, “Can I have these jars when I move out?” And I said, of course, but my husband gasped and said, “We’ve had those 22 years, you can’t take them!” Hilarious. Nice that she loves them, and that we still cherish them. I hope she does not plan to move out soon! Grateful to be reminded that – even though I cannot afford the counters I want – at least I have counters and they are FINE! Thank you!
Read this before bed last night and woke up with this on my heart again this morning. My house is beautiful to me. Healthy beautiful kids, strong marriage, lots of love. My bathroom sink is cracked, the kitchen is cramped and small, and we are constantly being told it’s our “starer home”. I have bought into it..looking at ways to change it, no more. I refuse to do anything other than enjoy life in my beautiful home.
There is just so much to love about this. Thank YOU from the bottom of my heart. I didn’t know how much I needed to know this, to feel this. xo xo xo
THANK YOU! I often forget to look at the beauty of what I have instead of wanting what I don’t need. I needed this today. I often look around my 1970’s inspired kitchen (carpeting on the wall people) and feel bummed that I don’t have one of those AMAZING kitchens I see on TV….we don’t have a dishwasher, our kitchen is carpeted (again thank you to the 1970’s lol), and I don’t have the counter space I *wish* I had….but not after reading this I can look in that room and throughout my home and realize how truly blessed my family and I am. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Glennon – You must also google/youtube CK Louis’ (comedian) “Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy”…super funny, but makes a very serious point about being grateful. Appropriate for the whole family!
yes! It reminded me of him too.
Thank you for sharing your real kitchen! It’s perfect as is and gets the job done as well as being a room for making family memories. After reading your post I believe I can be happier in my old pine, mismatched kitchen that still has the conveniences you have but are just older. Everything works, and really, it’s more important that my thoughts are spent on building myself and family up than feeling bad that I don’t have the latest and greatest things.
This is so powerful in a quirky, lovely, full-of-heart sort of way. What a beautiful perspective and exactly what most of us need to hear and recognize about our own homes! Thank you for sharing your awesome extreme home makeover!
Countless ads and blog posts about the bento box lunchbox trend have pushed me over this edge as well. I had a moment reading a sponsored post yesterday about a week of lunch ideas and at the end you could win the fancy smacy lunch box featured in the posts. When I got to part where it was a $250 value I choked, coffee nearly spewed from my lips. $250 for a kids lunch box? That did nothing about $2.50 worth of ziplocs and a paper bag wouldn’t do. Tipping Point.