We had great plans to renovate the kitchen when we moved to this house. For a few reasons - one of which is that renovations make my brain itch - it hasn't been done yet. It is the ugliest kitchen in the world. I know this, because I've performed exhaustive research. YOU type "ugliest kitchen" into Google and see if I'm wrong.
And against all common sense, and while I'm still wholly against white-veined black linoleum as a flooring choice for any room, I've grown to love this ugly, weird kitchen. Mostly because I love food, and that's where the food lives.
But there are other reasons, one of which I can illustrate with this picture:
This is from a much-loved book that lives in Miss' bedroom...because we read it every night. Every. Night. We don't read all of it, and the part we read changes periodically. Right now we're in a five month stretch of singing "Mulberry Bush" before bed, complete with key changes every verse. Last night, for the first time and oh-so-seriously, Miss sang along with the whole song, and when we got to this page she stopped and said "just like Mommy does".
This is where we get back to the Ugly Kitchen...I love that poor, unfortunate room so much because of what happens there, and what my kids will remember feeling about it. Recently it's been all about bread and cookies and special things like jam and apple butter, but usually it's just about regular-eating food (my favourite kind).
And while it's taken me a long time to stop throwing away integral parts of Mr's dinner preparations (Mr: "Where did that reserved stock go?" Mrs: "I rinsed out the bowl already" Mr: "I needed that"), we make a pretty good team in the cooking department. More of the tag-team variety recently, what with Jr's skill at picking the exact moment when something needs to be constantly stirred or taken out of the oven to wake up from his nap and demand nursing, but it works.
And for your viewing pleasure, I'll leave you with my favourite result from "ugliest kitchen" on google:
