The Heart of Our Home

I like our home. It's just the right size for our family and provides each of us our own space. We've lived in our home for almost five years and completed finishing the basement two years ago. Since that was quite a laborious endeavor, we laid low in regards to home improvements for a couple of years. However, lately we've become motivated once again to make some changes to our home that hopefully are an expression of who we are. We painted the master bedroom over Christmas break, and I'm in the process of painting my office downstairs. After just finishing the first week of Spring Semester, I have a feeling this paint job is going to take a while.

I must say my favorite room in our home is the kitchen. Our kitchen is spacious and bright, and it's what sold me when we first looked at buying this house. As must as I love the aesthetics of our kitchen, I really love it for the function is serves as the heart of our home. Our kitchen is our family's gathering place. I don't think this is unusual for a lot of families. The entire family can be found here at any given time doing homework, surfing the net, reading, cooking, baking, etc., almost always with some music playing in the background. As a family, we've had some very profound and significant conversations, cried many tears and shared many laughs in our kitchen.

One of the things that feeds my soul the very most is something that is actually quite common and ordinary and takes place in our kitchen. On any given night, (at the current time in our lives it's usually on the weekends), I will be in the kitchen cooking, surrounded by my family. Sometimes we're totally engaged in one another and sometimes each of us is totally engaged in our own "thing." Sometimes I sip a glass of wine as I cook, Chip joins me, and the kids have their beverage of choice. Sometimes we listen to NPR podcasts and sometimes to music. Sometimes there's a dog at someone's feet, a cat on someone's lap, or a dog and chasing each other through the kitchen. While all those dynamics may change, the constants are the wonderful smell of a meal cooking, the end of a day being near, and the fact we're all in the same room together.

I've come to realize this is sacred time. This is the time we spend to regroup from being "out there" all day and all week. This is when we refuel our bodies with food and our minds, souls and spirits with the knowledge that we're loved and accepted as we are and for who we are. Bruised egos are rubbed, hurt feelings are patted, successes are celebrated and dreams are shared. So much LIFE takes place during this time, and it all happens in the heart of our home...our kitchen.