My favorite scripture

Today in church, a snowstorm caused a last-minute change in the speaking line-up.  And by that I mean, there were no speakers lined up.  Our bishop cajoled his daughter and a visiting member of the stake presidency into talking briefly, but also invited members of the congregation to come up and share their favorite scripture verses.  I was contemplating sharing mine (Ps 46:10: "Be still and know that I am God" - when is that verse not the right answer?) when S leaned over and asked if she could go up and share hers.

Surprised that she even had a favorite, I whispered, "So what is your favorite scripture?"
"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's congestion," she answered.

If you're LDS, you're laughing.  If you're not, you're certain we're even weirder than you thought.

S's favorite "scripture" is our second Article of Faith:  "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression."

So for the record, we don't buy into original sin, nor do we take responsibility for other people's sinuses.

Birthday redux

At the insistence of certain children that L1's uneaten birthday cake of last Sunday would get "moldy" if we didn't partake, birthday candles and singing or not, we finally caved and ate it with the promise that she would get another (the third, if you're keeping track) today after church.

Singing ensued this time, however camera batteries were uncooperative and an iPod was called for back-up.

Progress...

So this week our kitchen got new can lights, was wired for our sound system (read: Apple TV connected to an amp, speakers and TV, which will allow us to stream music from all of our various iPods, iPads and computers), had all the new electrical wiring run, a new door to the garage installed, and one wall sheathed in OSB.

I ordered our toe kick hydronic heaters (fancy talk for little hot water radiators that fit in the toe kick space in your cabinetry), over-sink light fixture, under cabinet lighting, push-button switches and switch plates.  We also found the brackets and corbels that will go on our island, vent hood and one bank of upper cabinets.

Last night, Hubby, T and I emptied the remaining kitchen cabinets and put together our temporary kitchen in the pantry.  It made me think of our beloved (not) "Barbie kitchen" in the our basement apartment in our early marriage.

Piti, piti, wazo fe nich le.
Little by little, the bird builds its nest.

Buh-bye, window-on-the-garage

My many faces

During a heated discussion, I put my fist through the wall.

Then I realized I was being photographed.

Totally kidding.  Our contractor did that with his hiney.  True.  :oD

Validation

Today we pulled off some of the hideous masonite board that covered the plaster walls above the counter on our window wall.  Underneath we found some anaglypta-type wallpaper (which must be original since it is stuck directly to unpainted plaster) with an embossed Greek key and subway tile design.  When I saw the size of the "tile," I ran to our giant pile 'o kitchen fixin's and found one of our backsplash tiles.  2x6.  An exact match to the original stuff.  Cool.

That's one of our tiles ^ 

The prevalence of pantry posts, or, pantrimony

My marble and my pantry cabinet are now united.  It looks just as beautiful as I imagined it would.  I like it so much that I have given my husband strict instructions to have my headstone created from this stone.

Here lies Tana.  

She loved God, 

she loved her family,

and she loved her kitchen

(in roughly that order).

The little backsplash strip needs paint

Bon anivèsè, L1!

L1 is 12.  It's hard to believe, but since she looks at least 16, it's not so shocking to me as it will be when L2 turns 12 later this year.

The day was wonderful, but L1 spent much of the evening acting very 16 and not so much 12.  Daytime included a tasty Haitian lunch, followed by presents.  Cake was intended to follow, but the two-layer cake I baked literally fell apart and could not be salvaged with any amount of frosting, drywall mud, or epoxy, so T and Betty Crocker came to the rescue with a second cake.  Unfortunately, by the time it was ready, L1's bad mood (unrelated to the cake) had intensified, and she decided she was done with the celebration of her birth.

That's my girl  :o) 

A sign of things to come... 

S's best Uncle Rico pose

General craziness 

L2 makes plans to abscond with the new purse

More pantry prettiness

It's looking bee-oo-tiful!!  The blue is the perfect grey-blue (Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue) and it looks amazing with the marble.  Amazing.  I'm hoping cabinet and marble will finally be joined in holy pantri-mony in the morning.  I might throw rice.  I'm that happy.

A sneak peek of the Brazilian black honed slate.  Loveliness.  

The perfect pantry

One of the things I insisted my kitchen must have is a pantry.  For one, they're cool-looking, for another, our house used to have two of them, and for yet another, I feed a small army who unfortunately like to graze.  To be perfectly honest, I need a place where I can literally lock up most of the foods my family consumes - especially anything containing more than a molecule of sugar.

I gave my future pantry a lot of thought.  Other than having to lock, I require beadboard, some sort of cutesy trim details, white paint, and use of the original ceiling fixture.  It must hold a minimum of 50 boxes of cereal (those who know me know that I am so not kidding).  It must be functional.  It must be purty.  And it must lock.  Did I say that already?

Right side

Right side - awaiting
its carrara marble top

Left side

Looking straight ahead
toward the window

And now for something completely different

I blogged faithfully for years.  I'm glad I did, and I'm grateful to have that record of my life.  Unfortunately, though, I got bogged in the blogmire.  As therapeutic as it was to write about all aspects of my life, I started to feel icky about it - like I was sharing information that was too personal (especially about my children), and often, frankly, too darn depressing.  I've spent many months mulling over how, and if, I could return to blogging.  I couldn't bring myself to resurrect the old one, so I finally decided upon starting from scratch and developing a different focus.

Since I quit writing last May, much has changed, and much has stayed the same.  The coming posts will probably sort out what's what, but if you have questions about the missing months, just send me an email.  I'm happy to talk about all of it, just not in a public blog.

And now on to some of my favorite subjects:  my emerging dream kitchen, cooking, my family, and major grocery frugality.  Byenvini nan kwizin mwen!  Manje!