Kitchens, Plastic and Real

This weekend we hit one of our favorite subdivision yard sale extravaganzas. If we had any particular goal in mind, it was to buy Lizzie a kitchen play set. And a baby monitor, since our video monitor took a dive off a bookshelf and didn't survive. No luck on the monitor.

However, we had success, and found a large kitchen set in great condition, with a ton of dishes, for $25!

Now a colorful plastic "Country Kitchen" is in the dining room, in view of the real kitchen.

Liz is in love. She pretends to microwave a cup, pushing the buttons, closing the door, pushing the buttons again, removing the cup, then pretending to drink out of it. Then she giggles. And we giggle. Watching her pretend play is amazing. Her imitations are exaggerated, and almost exact. That girl wants to be just like me.

Humbling thought.

At least both kitchens are clean. I know they're clean, because I used Clorox wipes on them. The real one and the plastic one. Now I have two kitchens to pick up before bed every night. Or at least more dishes to put where they belong. I may have to implement a chore for Lizzie after dinner.

Recently I did a complete ceiling-to-floor cleaning of the kitchen. The last time I did that was during my 2nd trimester, and I have a 16-month-old child. The Clorox wipes are as close as it has gotten to thoroughly clean in a long time. If I had absolutely no pride, I would have taken "before" and "after" photos, but I only took one "after" photo of what I'm the most pleased with.

You know how those odd cooking staples like oil, vinegar, and all the things that get too close to the stove somehow have a film of grease, then the countertop gets all gunky, and so does anything that touches the gunky countertop?

And you know that one huge platter you have that you only use for Thanksgiving? The one that takes up half a cupboard?

Well, I repurposed the platter, and gave all the bottles a place to live. Isn't it pretty? It makes me happy.


Back to this weekend. To make room for the new kitchen set, I cleared the dining room table and took out a leaf. This means we have a clean dining room, too. It means we can eat without pushing papers and crayons and contact lens cases and batteries and scissors and power tools to the far end in order to find a place to set our plates.

The office is taking shape. There are no more papers on the floor. We vacuumed it. Yes, that's a big deal around here. Why, yes, we don't have company over very often. Why do you ask?

L's closet has only clothes in it that she can grow into. All her smaller clothes are in the attic. Next I will go through her toys. Slowly but surely I am making my way through the house. One day it will be clean; maybe even free of excess clutter.

Not free of clutter. Free of excess clutter. And I can live with that.

What project are you working on, what result are you happy with, or what do you hope to accomplish this month?

I'm linking up with the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom's blog today. I love the concept, and could stand to do this more than only on Tuesdays!