The Wright Place: February 2015

Friday, February 20, 2015

A Quick Hello and a Kitchen Promise

Tonight I cooked a pot of soup on my new stove. It was the first time I. A few weeks that I've prepared any food above ground and it was thrilling.

Cooking in the basement has been an adventure and a task that has taken some getting used to...
Boiling pasta in the microwave takes forever.

So does toasting dinner rolls for seven in a two slot toaster. When your kitchen is in the basement it is possible to make a cup of coffee, put a load of clothes to wash and reheat leftovers at the same time! My crock pots have been slowly cooking all manner of soups and meats and have become very important members of our family.

The current family MVP is of course Pappaw. He drives 90 minutes to our home each Monday and arrives at breakfast time and works until way too late every evening until Friday rolls around and then he returns to his home to spend the weekend with Mammaw.

After two weeks of this schedule the progress in the kitchen is pretty impressive for a one and a half man crew. My Man has been around a little to assist as have Kate and Cole but only on a part time basis. Pappaw is a renovatin' machine.

I, however, am not a machine and have been working on maintaining a little bit of order in a home that in normal circumstances is not very ordered. It's taken a lot more doing than I'd anticipated. I haven't read a word from a book (except for the kids school books) in nearly a week, this is the first post on the blog in almost two weeks, and I've not gone for a run since last weekend. I have been to Lowe's daily and during the Great Paint Brain Freeze I was there three times in one day. My Man has been to Lowe's twice as much as I have and soon, I think, he will snag a part time job at the paint counter since he has now memorized 87% of the paint color names.

The kids are loving having Pappaw around and laughing at his jokes and learning the correct names of tools which their parents have never had the smarts to teach them.

We've a few weeks left in the journey to our new kitchen and I'm eager to see the final product. Stay tuned for some before and after pictures very soon...I promise!!

Until early (?) next week...have a good weekend!

Monday, February 9, 2015

You Just Might be a Preacher's Kid...

When we eat at Chick-fil-a we do things a certain way. It didn't happen on purpose exactly but more over time as we have learned what works best. Usually my Man takes the lead position at the front of our queue of 6 and I bring up the rear. Standing at the end works perfectly for me because I'm an indecisive orderer and it allows the most time to come to a solid selection. The other reason my man stands at the front of the line is so that he can monitor the children's orders and prevent Molly from ordering say, an ice cream cone and an order of fries with a large soda for her lunch or to lend a word of caution to a growing teenaged boy who thinks it best to order say, two milkshakes and 4 chicken sandwiches.

Often, because there are so many of us and because I'm not standing next to my Man, another Chick-Fil-A employee will quickly arrive behind a neighboring cash register and look directly at me and say, "May I help you?"

I answer pointing, "I'm with them."

"Oh," says the red-clad employee, "then I'll help him!" and begins assisting the poor kid who is attempting to take and gather our order. Ya gotta love Chick-Fil-A initiative.

Last week we made our way to one of the few areas in the seating section which will hold us comfortably. As we began to arrange ourselves a small dust up occurred as Cole sat where Molly was planning to sit.

"Cole!!!! I was gonna sit there. You KNOW I like to sit on the PEW!!"

Rising to appease, Cole muttered, "How do you know you're a PK! (PK = Preacher's Kid)"

NOTE: Kitchen project is underway! Pappa has arrived and is working in his normal fashion 157% effort! Stay tuned.

Friday, February 6, 2015

The Kitchen Comes Apart...

Stacked on my bare kitchen floor and in our school room/dining room are many boxes of wood flooring. They arrived on Wednesday and must sit in the kitchen, or on the same level in the house as the kitchen, for a week so that they can adjust to the temperature and humidity before they can be put into place and nailed down.

Cole understood it differently ...

"These have to lay up here, why?"

"To get used to the kitchen environment."

"You mean we should spill red Kool Aid on them and drop sticky food and maybe an iron and let it make its mark?" His eyes were twinkling as he made a fine point. Life has not been easy on the kitchen floor at The Wright Place where Kool Aid and all other manner of stickiness has abounded. Well, before our kitchen flood it abounded. After our flood... things are less sticky and a bit more splintery!

Cole and I had carried up the 13 boxes of flooring while my man was at work. We wanted to give him the "gift" of having a big job already accomplished when he got home. Halfway through the job though, we began to regret our decision. I've never lifted anything so heavy before and those boxes had to be hauled up the stairs one at a time, each box seeming heavier than the last.

About four boxes in to our job Molly who was perched on the couch yelled to us, "Hey guys, can you stop bring up those boxes? All of that moaning and groaning you are doing sounds horrible!"

Though we were terribly sorry to be bothering the delicate ears and sensibilities of her Highness, we finished our job and my Man was tickled to see that the job was accomplished when he arrived at home later that evening.

The arrival of the flooring marks the first item that will be installed as the kitchen begins its make-over. We've been getting ready to be kitchen-less for the next month or so by filling our freezers with slow-cooker meals and by planning the configuration of a makeshift basement kitchen. Meg's been making some sweets and I've been bagging the meals...