Snapshot Saturday: Keepin’ It Real
I’m about to show you something I’ll probably regret, but here goes…let’s call it: A Roadmap To Dinner Hour. Or maybe it’s just my reality. I’m not sure.
Behold, my glorified kitchen. And let me tell you, there was no Photoshop action/tutorial in the world able to make this picture something it isn’t (read: big and clean).
We love our little house. It’s amazing-slash-scary how quickly it has come to feel like home even though I was anxious when we first moved in about the smallness. But I’m not going to lie: I wouldn’t shed buckets of tears if I had, say, another 50 square feet in my kitchen and maybe 2 more cupboards.
Let’s break it down a bit, shall we? This is a pretty typical late afternoon/evening in my world.
1. A sweet 8-month old baby who is not happy, not happy at all, when mom is working her guts out to make dinner. Sometimes there’s screaming. Sometimes there’s thrown toys and measuring cups. It gets ugly. Thankfully one of her brothers usually comes to the rescue and makes her giggle before the whining starts up again. I’ll tell you this, I am a master at hefting a 22-pound baby in one hand/arm and cooking or baking single handedly with the other. I’m putting that on my resume.
2. My favorite trash can in all the world. Our great friends gave it to us years ago for Christmas. (They are the type of friends, a.k.a. soulmates, who can give a trash can for Christmas and everyone feels warm and fuzzy because of it.) I don’t know the exact brand but basically, the trash bag stays in place no matter what is thrown in it, and I can lever the lid up and down with the foot pedal which is great for a germaphobe like me.
3. Those industrial-sized tupperware containers house my flour, sugar (found them at Sam’s Club a few years ago) and stuck behind them is a 50 pound bucket of wheat. I go through a lot of carbohydrates. And just as a sidenote, that little black cupboard to the right is home to all my spices. Can a girl ever really have too many spices? I think not.
4. Although my beloved Bosch mixer and wheat grinder seem tucked away into a corner – never fear! There is no corner too far in my kitchen and they still get used daily. To the right of them, if you care, is my novel windowsill filing system (i.e. an extra deep window sill that is a stopping place for bills and other filing necessities). You should get one. It’s awesome.
5. My mom is cringing right now because she h.a.t.e.s clutter. But when you are severely limited on cupboard space, the cookbooks and recipe binders go on top of the refrigerator. It isn’t pretty but it works. Up there also is my pizza stone and pizza paddle. The silver bowl is our “treat bucket” which largely consists of my dark chocolate fix. The good news is that this area of my kitchen is perhaps the only place in my house that you can’t see from the front door so who cares what’s on top of the refrigerator, right?
6. Bottles that need to be washed. It seems like there are always bottles that need to be washed. But I’ll take it because I hate that my baby is growing up and as long as I’m washing bottles, she’s still a baby, right? (Can a Kindergartener go to school with a bottle in her backpack?)
7. Lunch boxes that have been washed (shocker!) but haven’t been put away because after dinner, lunches will be packed and stored in the refrigerator for the chaotic morning ahead.
8. Cookies laying in wait for little hands to snitch them. Today’s cookie were these delicious whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Is it sad/bad/rad that there usually is a “cookie of the day” around here?
9. Clutter. Plain and simple. This recent clutter was from a big box of stuff a marketing company sent me and I had yet to put away. It consisted of some dark chocolate so it may never get “put away” unless it’s down my gullet.
10. Ingredients for dinner that was partly in progress: Cashew Chicken, to be exact (terrible recipe that will need to be perfected before I post it). And you’ll spy our iPad which I use almost exclusively to view recipes as I cook/bake. It’s usually hanging on my fridge because I have one of these cool Kicmount thingies (love, love, love) that keeps it magnetically in place and off the counter. I’m pretty sure today a 5-year old boy who shall remain nameless was playing Smule while I was trying to eyeball the recipe and thus it found a home on the already crowded countertop.
And there you have it. My overfilled but loveable kitchen. I’m pretty sure I’d be embarrassed to death if any of you stopped by between the hours of 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. So please call before you come.
Later, skaters!
If you’d like to check out past Snapshot Saturdays, click HERE.
73 Comments on “Snapshot Saturday: Keepin’ It Real”
I just found this blog today after my friend told me about it. I think we would be friends if we lived closer than 1200 miles away. Thanks for the recipes and the snapshots of real life. 🙂
My dad always said “there will be time to clean after the funeral”. My personal experience has been either a spotless kitchen OR a lot of fun/creativity/love going on! Your obviously happy family says you make good choices about raising them.
love this! right there with ya, sister! looks like a lot of love and happiness to me.
I *MUST* have some of those industrial sized Tupperware containers. No, really. I have a membership to Costco, but it would be worth it to me to get one to Sam’s just to get those… anyone know if they still have them?? I have a large family and we go through an insane amount of flour and sugar and using the one gallon size ones has been driving me nuts, but I haven’t found anything bigger that seems to be of any quality.
Haha! Sara, I was just thinking the same thing. Before I read the post, I thought, “Wow, that’s a nice, big kitchen for a small house.” But I have found that no matter how big my kitchen is (we have moved many, many times), it is never quite big enough.
this picture really made me smile for one big reason… we have so much in common. those are almost my identical cupboards and countertop, I have a cute (7 month old) baby, pretty sure we have the same stools (we just recently did replace them though due to my kids breaking them), of course my bosch is always in reaching distance and my kitchen is most always… everywhere! I think we’d make good friends! Thank you for your wonderful recipes!
Am I the only one who’s shocked she’s 8 months old?! So glad I’m not the only one who lugs a (now 13 month old) baby around while cooking. BTW, I’m typing this on a keyboard with five missing keys thanks to said 13 month old lol. Love the kitchen! Maybe I should post a picture of mine too lol. For the longest time I used the hole where the dishwasher was supposed to be for storage lol.
This is life. Thank you SO much for sharing and keeping it real. We are all in the same boat!
you are AMAZING! I read about 25 cooking blogs…but I take most of my recipes from yours. The fact that you are doing everything else that you do, and can still put out food that everyone likes is awesome. I’m glad that you run a real home, and not a magazine home!
I love you. We could easily be best friends…in a non-stalkerish, totally not weird kind of way! Our kids would clearly understand each other too! Thank you for beng real!
I love it! It doesn’t matter how spotless my house is at 3:00 – it will inevitably look like a tornado hit between the hours of 3:30 and 6:30. I’m glad I’m not alone!
Thank you for this! It makes me feel so much better that my kitchen looks just the same!
You’re awesome.
Pretty sure the cookie of the day is rad, not sad or bad. We could be neighbors just fine!
OMG! I love that you weren’t afraid to show this view into your kitchen! I keep thinking like EVERY weekend ” I need to find a way to de-clutter my kitchen!” Glad to know I am in good company with my clutter. 🙂
I smiled though every word of this post. When I see your kitchen I don’t see a mess, I see LOVE. You show your family, by making nutricious homemade meals (and a cookie of the day everyday!) how much you love them. Enjoy every precious, chaotic moment with your little ones, Mel! 🙂
Wait — that is a messy kitchen??
You’d cower in fear if you saw MY kitchen.
It’s half the size of yours and has twice the mess.
C’est la vie, right?
First, I’m pretty sure you photographed my kitchen. I even have the same trash can. I’m short one baby though… Also, I *NEED* the Fridge Ipad thing. Like, yesterday.
You know what I love?!? That your kitchen looks just like mine 🙂 My resolution this year is to keep crap off the top of my fridge. I’m tall and so it is the ‘mommy shelf’ where confiscated items go! But, now that I have one in the pantry and the top of the fridge looking nice, lets cross our fingers that it stays that way! Oh, and I do have one of those window-sill shelves, and YES it is awesome…and full of paper junk 🙂
Thank you. That’s really all I have to say. Just, thanks for this perfect little post. I just see drops of awesome everywhere. (I’m sure you’ve seen that blog post by now…)
i think this kitchen is impressively clean with 5 little ones living closely. i only have 4 and a few more square feet, and my kitchen pic wouldn’t be this organized. 🙂 i love the numbers and key. fun. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this. We all know that Rachel Ray and Paula Deen’s kitchen’s don’t really look like how they do on TV. It is more important to me for them to be real then to to be pretty. I can’t use the motto, never trust a skinny cook, since from your pic you are pretty skinny (BTW HOW do you do that?), I will use this truer motto. Never trust a cook with a completely clean/organized/immaculate kitchen. Looks perfect for those perfect concoctions you give us! Everything we have had has been so yummy!!!!
Love you and your blog. I see SO much space you could be using. You might as well make use of it. I’m talkin cupboards all the way to the ceiling and perhaps open shelves to the left of the sink. I have a little kitchen and would love more space. Make the most of the space you have!