Monday, January 26, 2015

Monday Memories: Family Life Continues

Hey, y'all! Monday which brings us one of my favorite memes and it's all about sharing memories! Y'all know how much I appreciate memories so you can imagine how excited I was to hear of a meme all about writing our memories! 

Want to join in? Just click the button and link up to Memory Monday at Retired, Not Tired!


Retired Not Tired Memory Monday




This week's prompt is: Family Life Continues


For 25 years, give or take, I stayed home and raised the kids. Actually, staying home is something one rarely does while raising children. I spent that quarter of a century volunteering, chauffeuring, managing, doctoring, nurturing, encouraging, making priceless memories, laughing until it hurt, praying, creating family traditions--a good deal of which took place outside the home at school, gymnastics, piano lessons, soccer games/practices, cello, band, dance team, competition dance, chorus, softball, rehearsals, performances, and so on. 

To say the least, our family life was active. Busy. Never dull.

But, when I think of our family life when the lovelies were growing up, I think of our dining/kitchen area…

The kitchen has always been a gathering place for my family for as long as I can remember.  The women in our family have probably spent over half of their lives in their kitchens and I am no different.  I spent countless hours conversing with my grandmother as she prepared meal after meal- three meals/day seven days/week and while she baked cakes and breads from scratch.  I also enjoyed listening to her sing while she worked in the kitchen.  Our family ate all of our meals at the kitchen table and, if someone had football practice or a meeting, we waited for them to get home and we ate together.

People are always pushing togetherness during meals at the family table--like this is something new or perhaps they believe families have strayed from this particular type of family quality time. Meals at the table with everyone around are the only kind I have ever known (and not just during the holidays) so it is no surprise that I would continue this tradition with my own kids.  Certainly our kitchen table saw thousands of meals over the years.  Sometimes we were even a bit creative with our meals- candlelight dinners; no manners night; dessert first night; etc.  However, saying our table only satisfied family time during meals would diminish the importance and quality of the times our family shared while sitting there together.  
   
Our kitchen table provided space for creating school projects; ginger bread houses; Christmas cookies; Easter eggs; colorful art work. The lovelies also studied and read books there. Many a game of telephone has been played at the table as well as hundreds of hours of playing board games, card games and putting together jigsaw puzzles. The laughter still resounds if you listen carefully. This table has seen more than anyone’s fair share of Girl Talk, both serious and silly- the sharing of the deepest secrets and fears that young girls harbor as well as the silly thoughts and stories of a day in the life.  Our kitchen table has witnessed the tears and anger brought on by disagreements as well as the tears, hugs, understanding, and smiles the resolutions brought.  It heard the intense discussions of the injustices of the world and the ways to make changes.  It heard us telling our girls that they could be anything in the world they wanted to be.  The table has been the meeting place for friends both young and old as each of their friends sat and discussed their lives with me as well. How amazing it was to know their friends almost as well as I knew my own girls. They all knew that there was no judge or jury at the table, only listening and an attempt to understand.  

While I was growing up, the kitchen table was the center of our family life.  It was the same while I raised the lovelies.  The kitchen table is still a meeting place for the living-at-home-lovelies and myself and it remains our center when everyone comes home as it stirs past memories, and encourages the sharing of present goals and  future dreams. And those games and all that laughter? Yep, it still takes place right at the kitchen table. 

7 comments:

  1. Pam, our kitchen and the kitchen table were also the center of our lives, growing up. I have very early memories of my mom singing while working in the kitchen. We lived in four different houses while I was growing up, and though the kitchens changed, that table came with us and the activities were the same. Our table has chrome legs and that boomerang design laminate. The chairs matched. We always had dinner as a family. Always. It is so sad that many today are too busy to have those traditions. Great post!!

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  2. The kitchen is always where folks end up. When you listed all of the "mom jobs", it made me tired just to read the list! I feel more important. Wendell is standing out in the cold rain, with his head in the middle of a giant hay bale. I bet he'd get inside if he could. Picture a hay bale with a tail! I digress. You were talking about memories and I was just talking... Hug Tucker for me!

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  3. I loved this post, as it reminded me of all of the things experienced around mine and Ed's kitchen table, as well! My stories would be very similar to yours :) These days, we feel lost sitting at that big ole' table by ourselves, but things come to life whenever the family comes to visit!

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  4. The great thing about any home is the kitchen table ..... the centre of a great home always.

    All the best Jan

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  5. The kitchen table and a pot of coffee was always my center. I started drinking coffee at about 9 years old and learned about the kitchen table. It is a shame that so many families do not even come close to understanding what we know. Great post. XX

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  6. My childhood home had a huge kitchen and I have some wonderful memories there however my own home was too small to really have everyone around that table. It was our living room and basement that became our hangout.

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  7. My mom, even though she worked full time, always had dinner for the 7 kids ready to role She was a master concoctor of the fast dinner prep. But our best times were always together in the kitchen.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! It makes me feel connected to everyone even though we may live far apart! Have a wonderful day!

 
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