Happy Friday y’all. Things are a bit tense around these parts. We learned this week that our chimney likely needs to be rebuilt at a hefty little price tag of between$ 8-10,000. Yep. Fun times I tell ya. Add into that Seth being home for a few days to work on pending projects and this is some real time DIY sta-RESSSSS.  But we press on. And we savor this space despite the sheer terror that it might all crumble around us. Ha, ha!  But ya know, it’s Fun Friday in Kindergarten and that makes this a fun Friday! And the Swiss chard is looking gorgeous!

Whew, okay. Back with the program.

On any given day if you were to show up at our house you would see the end of the dining room table draped with an oil cloth, wide open bag of markers and a slew of masterpieces. This is where so much of the boys afternoon time is spent. Jackson “writing” and illustrating books, begging for scotch tape for this or that, asking for me to spell and respell and Owen imitating all the way. Owen is begging for scissors and paints and conversation! I am savoring these afternoon “table times” as we call them.  The boys are like sponges. I am often coming back and forth from the kitchen cooking a little, spelling a little, breaking up fights…

In our last home we had an eat-in kitchen and a formal dining room. We now  have an all-in-one. Which has it’s perks and downfalls.  The perk is that I have only one space to keep up with, the downfall is that if I ever do want it to be a bit more “dressed up” I have to be mindful of keeping the kitchen under control as well. Really for our phase of life with little ones it makes perfect sense. We aren’t exactly wining and dining these days. When we have people over they either have kids themselves or they love our kids so they pretty much know what they are up against when they come. We love having friends and family over so the leaf pretty much lives in the table!  Our house wouldn’t be home for us without a space to share meals. Not only do we want our kids to learn good manners and learn to make conversation and host but we want them to know real community and that takes serving others!  That is really the purpose of this space!

Although I want the space to be comfortable for life and accommodating to our day to day activities I wanted it to be pretty as well.  When we were working on the kitchen design and moving around cabinets we had to save money on buying more we ended up with some space in some cabinets in the kitchen that wouldn’t be accessible. So, we asked if our contractor would be willing to just build a couple of shelves. These shelves are the perfect spot for cookbooks, table linens and the baskets disguise the markers, artwork and oilcloth when it’s time to close down shop.

I used treasures from our time in Switzerland and other travels to fill the dining room wall. Remember the thrift store find that my friend Leigh talked me into?…here it is.

It is The Lord’s prayer in German. It’s super old and goes perfectly with this menu from France (another thrift store find) and these plates. The bottom plate was a gift from my mom. She found it in an outdoor market in Paris. On the opposite wall I have a big clock that was given to me for my bridal shower before we got married. The skeleton keys and keyholes I found with my sister-in-law Tina at the Old Home Supply House. If you are in the Ft. Worth area you MUST go sometime!!!

So there she is. We are still lacking curtains which will add color and texture but like with the rest of the rooms they will be waiting a while!  Buckle up, tomorrow is all about savoring home with a power washer!