I Love What You've Done With My Kitchen!

Three and a half years ago we bought the house of our dreams. Five bedrooms, three baths, living room, dining room, den. Hardwood throughout with brick exterior and large backyard. And a MAJOR fixer-upper.

We bought the house "as is" and got an amazing deal on it. In addition to needing cosmetic work throughout, the banister for the stairs was missing, the hot water heater near the end of its life, and our homeowner's insurance told us we had to replace the roof within the first month of occupation in order to keep our coverage.

Various parts of our home have been named for the folks who have helped us renovate over the years. It all started when we named Bonner Hall (the entryway) after the dear friend who helped us find the house. CrossWalk Way honors the two men from our Bible class who built a new banister and fixed some of the steps. The Craddock Parlor (living room) and Lawson Suites (upstairs bedrooms) were painted by great friends. All the wiring is affectionately known as Chris's Clever Electrical Fixes (much of the wiring had been poorly rigged by the former owner), and the Parker Palace is the game room created upstairs when Mark and the boys took out some walls to make room for our growing boys and their friends to hang out.

Now begins the final phase of the renovations: the kitchen. Note the faux brick linoleum (which is peeling up in a couple of places and tripping people, especially me) and sad ceiling fan. The hand-crafted solid wood cabinets look lovely, but the craftsman was past his prime when he did these and many of the doors are not square, leaving gaps between them and the cabinets causing the doors to swing open when the fan is on.

As I sit in the Craddock Parlor, workers are scraping off the 3 layers of wallpaper that, by the looks of them, date back to 1969 when the house was built. Each layer was painted a new color before the next wallpaper went up. The final layer had two coats of paint: the peachy taupe color it was when we bought it and the lovely pale yellow we slapped on over it to tide us over until we could finally redo the kitchen.

When I looked at the kitchen in the midst of the demolition work, I said to our trusty craftsmen, "I love what you've done with the kitchen," I don't think they knew how much I really meant it!

One Stubborn Chick

I am one stubborn chick. I've gotten myself in some mighty pickles over the years, but other times my refusal to give in or give up has saved me much grief. My insistence that I can do anything has pushed me to keep going when I'd really rather have spent a week in bed.

About 17 years ago I had a brief conversation with a woman whose 20 year-old daughter had just been diagnosed with a widespread pain disorder very few had heard of. As I listened to the mom tell me what the girl suffered, I thought to myself that I experienced many of those same problems. But being a missionary on furlough who was heading back to Croatia in a matter of days, I blew it off as just a bit of hypochondria. 

Nearly two decades later I find myself with the very same diagnosis: fibromyalgia.  As I look back on 17+ years of an undiagnosed pain disorder I'm pretty sure that being a stubborn chick has been a true blessing (though for others it my stubbornness may have been more of a curse!). 

Sure there have been days when I stayed in bed, but thinking that most of what I experienced was a normal experience of life motivated me to push through most of those days the way those around me seemed to be doing. (Yes, I know it's stupid to think that everyone regularly has times when everything aches and they are tired out of their minds, but I assure you that's not the stupidest thing I've ever thought!)

So now that I have discovered that I actually have a disorder for which there are well established ways to manage the pain and fatigue, I'm feeling a great deal of relief and excitement. The possibility of feeling good looms larger than life before me. 

And to those who would say, "Christine, you are one stubborn chick," I reply, "Yes, and stubbornness pays of...sometimes." 

Boy 2 and the Kanigets of the Round Table

The Parker Family loves quotable movies. Movies are most quotable when there are plenty of one-liners, said one-liners can be used in the normal flow of conversation, there is a great accent to emulate, or the movie is known by those around us just enough to get a good laugh from someone without it being cliche. 

"Joe vs. the Volcano" is one of our family favorites in this quotable movie genre. It's not unusual to hear one of us say, "I'm not arguing that with you," or, "I have no response to that," in the midst of conversation. 

Just last week we all watched "Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail." Now Boy 2 fancies himself a member of the Kanigets of the Round Table and has finely tuned his goofy medieval accent. He finds a way to say, "It's not a matter of how it grips it..." in every conversation and will happily quote some of the taunts of the French knights for you.


So if you ever see Boy 2 "galloping" around and singing, "When danger reared its ugly head, he gladly turned his tail and fled," know that you are witnessing the scene with Sir Robin's minstrels and enjoying the fruits of Boy 2's amazing ability to memorize movie lines and copy accents.


As I like to say, we all have our gifts!