Showing posts with label Kitchens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kitchens. Show all posts

Friday, June 1, 2012

Pack Your Parachute

Skydiving is well beyond the scope of this blog and blog writer.  A good figure of speech, however, must not be left unturned, so pack your parachute--since you'll be coming down soon, plan in advance for a soft and safe landing.

Not magazine-photo perfect,
but certainly ready for service.
All this mumbo-jumbo about being prepared came to me this morning after breakfast.  I didn't really want to clean up the kitchen, so I had a little chat with myself to take my mind off my "troubles" while I watched my hands tidy up and began wondering whether or not it made any difference for me in my day--this having the kitchen straightened up and wiped clean. Was I just OCD? That's when the parachute came floating down.

Here's what I saw:  busy day, lots of projects, needing a rest, wanting to eat something to restore my body. And it hit me.  Having a clean kitchen when my body was really tired and hungry meant that it would be so much easier to prepare some food for myself.  While I watched my hands wipe off the stove, another picture came forward:  tired body at the end of the day wanting an eagerly inviting place to rest for the night.  Having my bed made so that it beckoned me with love and comfort seemed so much better than tossing the mess of laundry off the foot of the bed and falling into the jumble of sheets and covers.

So there you have it.  Handy Andy's take on preparedness for the body.  I'll do it first thing before I launch into all the Things I get to do today and my body gets too weary to focus.  I'll pack my parachute when I'm clear and rested, because I know I'll be grateful as I'm coming down for a soft and safe landing.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

My Mama Didn't Raise No Fool


My mother wasn’t perfect.  She was human.  She didn’t teach me everything I needed to know in life.  In her wisdom, she left a good portion of the learning for me to figure out for myself.  But this she did teach me:  If something needs to be done, you just do it. (Nike did not exist in those ancient days.)  And you never entertain the idea that it can’t be done.  “Can’t” is a very dirty word.

If a project presents itself and a knowing “authority” says it can’t be done, I highly recommend they step aside.  Don’t want to run them over, and I certainly don’t have time to listen to nay-sayers.

Top on my list of Things I get to do today is “shelves for Lynn.”  She’s my sister.  In her kitchen is a cupboard that is two feet deep.  My arm may be long enough to grope the deep recesses of those shelves, but I can’t see what I’ve got a hold of until it reaches the light of day.

Well, the flash does illuminate the back a bit.

Lynn and I went to my favorite store where they have kitchen drawers that run so smoothly my knees get weak and I start to drool when I slide them out and in.  The employee in that part of the store assured me that the drawers would fit only in cabinets manufactured by them.  The measurements from Lynn’s kitchen were not even close.  We retreated.  For a time.

But the idea continued to heat, itch and fester.  The solution was in that store, and I would find it.  I was on a mission.  The Good Book says “Seek and ye shall find.”  And, boy oh howdy, did I.

So this afternoon while gray, cold rain made being indoors a brilliant idea, I set out to retrofit the deep, dark, groper cabinet into light, easy and accessible space.  Needed to drill four small additional holes and hack saw 1 inch off of four column supports to turn “won’t fit” into “fit perfectly.”

  
Shelves installed and begging for food.
Cool thing is that the shelf can be accessed from  both sides.
    
I couldn’t contain myself. Whooooo Yaaaaaa!  YES!  YES!  YES!  I danced my victory around the kitchen.

Hallelujah! and Thank you, Mama!