I started last night cleaning out and packing up my first kitchen cabinet for the remodel project. I must remind you that I married the first time 32 years ago; I have been in this house for 30 years; and I am a pack rat. Can you imagine what treasures I found?
I started with a corner base cabinet. This cabinet is where I stored my glass platters, large bowls, and cake stands on one shelf. This was a nice trip down memory lane. I have a mixture of my dishes and mothers. These were all keepers. Then I came to the jewels – a popcorn popper, a waffle iron, and a pan that poaches eggs. The popcorn popper went in the trash pile, the waffle iron went to the Goodwill pile, and the egg poacher is the only thing I kept of these three. The poacher was from Mother’s kitchen. I had many poached eggs as a child out of this pan. I am sure you kids have no idea what this is – considering I did not cook too many eggs since I stopped eating eggs as a teenager. I also had a crock jar full of old utensils that made the trash pile.
The next items were the appliances that go to my Nutone Food center. All the pieces went to the trash pile. Many good things have been prepared with these items – the mixer, the food processor, and the blender. However, it was time to retire these things.
As I was packing things away, I could not help but think back to 30 years ago when this kitchen was built. Carl was 25; and I was 22. I am amazed that God gave us the wisdom and resources to build this house. The other thing that kept going through my mind was what a great job Carl did on the house, and he was so young. The quality of work is unbelievable. As I start this major project, I can certainly tell that it is going to be hard to let go of so many things (including the yellow counter tops, Chad).
I'm still in the process of letting go of a lot of my Mother's things from 60+ years of marriage. The emotions are earth shattering some days. The only way I can part with things is by telling myself "this is only STUFF, it is NOT my mother" and "if my mother let go of it, so can I". Even with that, I hang on to a lot. Hang in there, it's a long process, but you can do it!
ReplyDeleteEgg Poacher Mom!!?? I lived in that house for 18 yrs of my life and never found that jewel
ReplyDeleteMy only regret, sis, was that I was not there to see it all! We could have had some great conversation, laughs, and just maybe shed a tear or two, right?
ReplyDeleteI thought we agreed to keep the yellow counter tops!!! and just to let you know, im starting an inter-family petition to bring back those sweet yellow blinds for the windows... if i get 6 of the 8 to sign, you have to bring them back
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