Samsung Home Appliances and TwitterMoms has asked members to answer the following question. “Where is the heart of your home?”
Many can’t do without their rec room. I always could because it was a wreck throughout the day until my kids cleaned it up before bed. Some favor their formal parlors; I don’t. I reserve mine for special gatherings and times like Christmas. Instead the heart of my home, the special place where family and friends gather is my kitchen.
As a a child growing up, all of the houses I lived in had big sit-in kitchens. One of my first memories as a toddler was watching my mother bake a real apple pie from scratch. Maybe that is why I love the smell of cinnamon so. I remember the family filling my maternal grandfather and grandmother’s kitchen playing cards with Standing Room Only. I recall an early Christmas when we lived in a huge two room apartment in my paternal grandparent’s house how Santa Clause filled the kitchen w with fruit and nuts and toys–game, dart board, sled–and left a huge stocking filled with fruits and nuts.
Forty years ago I moved into this house because it had a real kitchen. When my family tries to convince me to expand it by knocking out walls, I refuse. Why? Well, it is my special place, my domain. I supervised as each of my children did his or her homework at the table without the distraction of television, telephone, or booming music as I prepared dinner. I did my crafts there back in the day that….
Sometimes in the evening we sat there playing one board game or another. That game could go for hours as we laughed, talked, and made happy times together. If an opportunity to play pinochle presented it, we remained up occasionally until the crack of dawn. Conversation and stories kept everything alive and lively.
Now I want to remodel our kitchen. After four decades it is time. I can no longer get up and down the stairs because of an accident that left me disabled. I would like to see a washer and dryer in the corner where the oven once was. (We since have replaced it and the stove top with a freestanding model.) It would be convenient since I still do almost everything there but cook.
There is a contest going on for TwitterMoms who join in this discussion on their blogs that I’d really love to win. I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave a comment on this post telling me where the heart of your home is.
on Sep 21st, 2009 at 1:41 pm
The kitchen is also the heart of the home in my house. For alot of the same reasons as you listed. This is how I grew up, Grandma’s kitchen was huge and we all congregated in it. Even growing up I can remember New Years Eve……putting a puzzle together with mom and dad at the kitchen table. I am so sure I was a lot of help being in 4th and then 5th grades in that house. lol But it is a cherished memory.
on Sep 21st, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Marj,
I still wonder how everyone was seated one holiday.
Pat.
on Sep 21st, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Now that all the children except one (and he is 25), have flown the coop, I no longer feel that the kitchen is the heart of my home. I think that now, my bedroom holds that honor. I spend most the my time there…in my recliner during the day, and in the bed at night. I have my laptop. TV, and bookcase. Just about everything that I need. The only thing that would make it any better, would be a mini fridge:-)
on Sep 21st, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Nea,
Sometimes I feel like that but I stay in the den with my computer and tv in the background.
Pat.
on Sep 26th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
The heart of my home is also the kitchen!
I’d love to remodel my kitchen also.
Good luck in the contest!
on Sep 26th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Nancy,
If only I could afford everything I would want to do with mine!
Pat/