AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE

This post was inspired by my little sis.  She just built a kitchen table of her dreams, a long, sturdy table, ready to hold up 6 sets of little elbows.  It made me stop to think of how important the kitchen table is.  It stands ready and waiting for after school snack crumbs to be scattered across it's surface,  it's legs kicked by muddy shoes, and forks stabbed into it's grainy top.
Meals shared with family, friends, neighbors, and the occasional lost wanderer.

                                          We have had several kitchen tables over the years.

 Our first table, Grandma Bower's little metal table, sat in the kitchen of an old, old, home we rented when my husband first taught school.  It now resides beside the milk stanchion.

  Our next table and chairs Glen made out of pine boards.  We used an old, second-hand metal outdoor dinning set, we repainted it and replaced the top of the table and the back and bottom of the chairs with pine boards to match the kitchen counters and cupboards he custom built for the kitchen ......... that he had to replace when he came home from work and discovered I had torn them all out and put in a heap on the front lawn.........well, they were ugly fiberboard, old second hand trailer house cupboard that had been put in a house we had just purchased.  It took several years for him to get the cupboards built, but they were beautiful when he got them finished............wish I had a picture of them.

 

 

 

 

Here's an old barn door we used for a coffee table for many years.

It sat on 12 inch cedar logs we brought in from the wood pile.

Jeramie, my oldest, had lot's of tea parties at this table

 Sassy, the cat, always enjoyed them

and the stroller rides after tea

honestly, this cat would sit in the stroller for hours

 

 

 

 

here is our table we had in Nevada

an old, old antique

wide- wood, hand- hewn, planked

that I painted bright blue

I let the kids pick out their favorite colors to paint their chairs

red, yellow, blue, green

cute little Meadow is now married

and mentioned to me the other day that isn't is funny that

the style now-days is old, painted, distressed, furniture

and back then is was just necessity for us to

make old second-hand items look great

with a new coat of paint.......

well, I did remind her I also fed her home-made goat cheese

and people thought we were NUTS

and now you find it in all the fancy restaurants

 

 

 

 

 

The blue table was replaced with this table that had a bench so it could be slid up to the wall.

We had just bought the single wide mobile home and moved it on the farm.   There wasn't much room, but it sure beat living the prior 6 months in a tent with 5 kids, the youngest being 3 weeks old.

 

The kids drew with markers all over the bottom underneath, I was saddened when we moved yet again and sold this table with the priceless art work underneath.  I have decided that over the holidays we are going to be drawing with markers under the kitchen table in the little red house at the farm......just  because that's what we do at our house.  Oh, we still have the blue table.

 

 

This is my favorite table

Glen built this over 40 years ago

we eat all our meals during the summer

outside under the trees

around this table

we reminisce of years gone buy

joys and sorrows

we laugh until our sides hurt

 

 

As Thanksgiving is just around the corner, let's all gather around the table, weather it be large or small, fancy and ornate, or held together with baling wire,  and enjoy the good food, the company, and express our gratitude for the blessing of family and a table to gather around.