Blessings From Home

Nesting Mission-Day 1-Kitchen-Updated

This is my second attempt at the same post today. I had it all typed out earlier today and then poof it was gone. So yes, my ticker says 19 days left, but for some reason, this baby being my 4th, my body has been especially in tune with the moon's cycles. And on last Thursday, you would have thought that this baby was coming any moment. I was in what I thought was real labor from 7pm Thursday night until 4am Friday morning. We readied ourselves for the trip to the hospital awaiting that moment that told us this was indeed it, but it never came. The contractions, although steady, painful and quite regular, never got any stronger or closer together. So, with that said, I am still very much pregnant, and awaiting the next new moon, for which my midwife has said I will most likely have this baby. The next new moon happens to be Thanksgiving night, so I guess we'll see.

Lots of things have been going on around the home. Lots of preperations made, craft projects being completed, and teeth being knocked out. If you're wondering about that last part, I'm speaking of my middle daughter. She and my son got a little rough playing in the house, after many reminders from me to settle down, when my son raised his head and hit her smack in the mouth, knocking her two front teeth loose. Thankfully, the teeth that were knocked loose were next in line to come out any ways, but probably not at the same time, and probably not with so much pain being inflicted.

Later on I will post on the many projects I have been working at completeing, but for today and the next several days, (or at least until this little one makes his arrival,) I am on a nesting mission. Although I work steadily on getting things done, I regret to say that I am mercilessly behind on getting my home in order for this baby. So, starting today, I am going to be posting a list of my daily goals, which will include one room a day to tackle, and whatever other projects I intend to work on. I will also post a picture of the before picture (in all it's ugliness), and will update the same post later in the day with the after. So for today...

~Clean the kitchen from top to bottom

~Basic Homeschool with the kids

~Regular routines

~Projects- Today I would like to prepare the fabric and pattern for the two dresses that I am making my girls for Christmas. I would also like to prepare the tea towel (#3 in a set I am giving as a gift) to be embroidered.

~For dinner, we are having roast chicken, baked potatoes, and salad. Dessert is pumpkin muffins.

So if you can bare to look, here is the before picture of my kitchen, dishes piled up and all....

My kitchen is inevitably small, but it works well for me. Basically what you see, is what you get. It actually has a lot of storage space and room to work. I usually have 1 kitchen helper and myself working in there and it works out quite well. On the other side of the stove is another small cabinet, and then the door to our bedroom. On the left side of the sink is a hole where my dishwasher may eventually go, but for now they are done by hand. Beside me is the pantry cabinet, which is also quite small, and bare right now. I'm standing in the door that leads to the dining room, and to my right, beside the icebox is the door that leads into the family room. After it's clean, I'll post some more detailed pictures of the whole room and all it's components.

As I said, this is my second attempt at this post, so many of the things are already done. The kitchen is on it's way to clean, the chicken is roasting in the crockpot, the pumpkin muffins are done and cooling, school is an ongoing process at the moment, and the fabric for the dresses has been washed and is awaiting pressing. I will work on the pattern after the kids are in bed, because I want it to be a surprise for the girls for Christmas. So if you're keeping up with me here. Later on today or first thing in the morning, I will post the completed photos of my kitchen and update on what I got done. The title will say "Nesting Mission-Day 1-Kitchen-Updated". For now, I'm off to finish what needs doing! Have a blessed day!

***Daily Update***

So here is the updated pictures of my kitchen, which will give you a better idea of the size and layout of my kitchen.

Here is the same view as above, only no dishes piled up and the stove is all clean.

Here is the view from the family room. That is our pantry area. I keep a lot of stuff in there, although right now it needs restocking. I have had to get creative with food storage because I try to keep stocked up, so we have storage in several other areas in our home.  The hanging cabinets and microwave are something we just added when we moved in here, that wall was bare before.

Here's my sink, dishrack, and hole in the wall. I still have a portable dishwasher that my eventually go in that hole, but for now, it serves no purpose, other than making me realize how much I wish I had a dishwasher there. lol.

Here is the view of my biggest cabinet area. My main work space. The little window there leads into the family room, and makes a good pass through to the kitchen table at meal time. Those are my favorite canisters that my mom gave me for Christmas last year, and my prized Bosch mixer that I found at goodwill for $15.

And the last picture, this is from standing at the sink. I have two coffee pots in view here, one electric drip, and one percolater. I'm in a controversy here over my coffee pots. You see, I love the convenience of having my coffee ready when I wake up in the morning with the drip, but after having percolated coffee, the taste is so much better. So for now, I have both. I have a feeling the percolater will win, but time with a newborn will soon tell.

It is such a blessing to have a clean kitchen. That's why I chose to tackle this room first. It makes cooking such a joyful task for me, and my husband appreciates it so much. I'm learning to do the dishes as I go, and take care of them directly after meals so that they don't sit there and get all yucky and harder to clean. I've also enlisted each of my children, even my 3 year old to help me on a daily basis in the task of drying. Right now, all they can do is dry and stack them on the cabinet, but it makes the task of putting them away so much easier, plus it is teaching them some good habits, and hopefully before long, they can help mom out by taking turns washing the dishes as well. I've also gotten in the habit of sweeping the floor every night before I go to bed. So now, tired as I may be, it's time to move on to day 2 of my nesting mission. Be prepared, this may get ugly! lol.

sara

Untitled Comment

{ 05:23, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 } { Posted by OklahomaJamie }

Ouch about the teeth!!
Hope the baby arrives soon, but I also hope you get to have a nice thanksgiving dinner first if it arrives on thankgiving.

Missing teeth

{ 09:31, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 } { Posted by DEANMAMA5 }

Hi Sara,

I know about missing teeth! My six year old has had one front tooth missing since he was one. He was playing with older brother, and older brother grabbed him from behind at the waist causing his head to jolt forward and hit the entertainment center. Yikes! When all was said and done we had to go to the dentist and have him remove the tooth. He just recently lost his two bottom teeth the right way. He was so excited.
I had mine(baby teeth) knocked out by my brother in a wrestling match years ago. Yeah, it hurts!
I will pray for a safe and healthy delivery. Hopefully you'll be holding your little one real soon.

God Bless,
Angela