Come On In... Our Dining Room and Kitchen

Welcome back! My wonderful, wonderful husband left everything really clean last night before he came upstairs (after having been at class for four hours that evening... Seriously, wonderful doesn't even begin to describe him), so this morning seemed like the perfect opportunity to take some pictures for you.

I did manage to resist the urge to clean up and put away every little thing that might be out, so here's our space just as we live in it:

As you walk into the house, these rooms are immediately to the left.

Breakfast time - and recycling truck-watching time.

The chairs used to be on each side of the table, but recently someone has been wanting to sit right next to his daddy while he eats (you know, because sitting right on top of Daddy is usually vetoed). So, instead of fighting something so silly, we decided to go with the flow and move things around to work best for us right now.

That big sign on the wall we had made by Andy, who used the words/phrases we came up with to put together a "family rules" sign of sorts. We love that it's personal and one-of-a-kind. Always a good reminder to live well!

On the opposite wall, James built a shelf to hold a few special pictures and family "treasures."

Peeking into the kitchen from the dining room.

This is probably our least favorite room, mostly because there's not much we can do to personalize this space.

Our kitchen has taught us a lot about how we'd like a kitchen in our future home to function (namely fewer cabinets, no corner sink, no dishwasher, and very open to the rest of our home), but we're trying to love it like it is. Bonus: Almost all the lower cabinets also function as play space for the boy.

Speaking of the boy, here he is, finally done with his breakfast. We hope to see you back here in a couple of days!