The halfway mark (155 lbs.) is finally in sight! Just close enough that - barring disaster - I can glimpse it at a few weeks' distance. I weighed in at 161 this morning, with a loss of 4 lbs. this past week. I was pretty nervous during those first few days when I'd worked my abs too hard and couldn't do most of my limbering and stretching exercises, but I was super stringent about my eating to try and compensate - and it paid off handsomely. (My abdomen is feeling back to normal again, thank goodness.) Here's to cracking into the 150s when I step on that scale next Saturday morning!
One of the areas in my kitchen that isn't really addressed in The Manual's daily or weekly housekeeping routines is the breakfast table.
Here at Casa Jitterbug, mine is also a lunch and dinner table. I don't have a separate dining room, so my only table sits at one end of my kitchen. It's a round wooden table that seats four --- though the leaves that make it round can be dropped when not in use, making it more of a rectangle. Most of the time I leave a vintage tablecloth on top. It adds such a punch of color to my kitchen! I'd like to purchase a few more of these cloths so that I can rotate them seasonally and give the kitchen a different look from time to time. Since there's usually only one person seated at my table, I have it positioned against one wall with a 1950 Zenith radio opposite my chair. A small blue footed stand holds whatever fruit I've got in the house which doesn't need refrigeration. These days, I leave my vitamins and blood pressure medication sitting right there at the middle of the table. It isn't ideal. I'd love to keep them in the cupboard or something, but it keeps me from forgetting to take 'em if they're right there in front of me when I sit down to eat my breakfast.
It's a lovely spot. A cozy, cheery place for a meal I've worked hard to prepare. But my current kitchen cleaning routines don't include any kind of maintenance for this part of the kitchen. I've been sweeping the floor underneath the table on a weekly basis and washing it on a monthly basis, but what about the table and chairs? What about the tablecloth? How about the items I leave on my table? Every breakfast nook needs a little attention... I took a look at The Manual's routines for care of the dining room, but they were so focused on care of upholstery, furnishings, carpets, and "buffet appointments" that they didn't seem to apply very well to this particular situation.
So let's break it down. My kitchen table, first and foremost, is not just a dining table. It's a work surface. Tuesday evenings find me folding the cloth back so that I can set up my tabletop ironing board and work my way through a basket of clothes. (That table's the perfect height for ironing!) On Fridays or Saturdays, I fold the cloth back while I'm cleaning the kitchen so that I can store small items there while I'm cleaning the range and counter tops. If I have any baking to do that involves kneading or rolling or cutting, my tablecloth is whisked away to a safe place while I use the table as my breadboard.
Well, I guess this answers one of my questions. One of my weekly duties in the kitchen has long been to "Wipe... all work surfaces in need of cleaning." If my kitchen table is just as important a work surface as my counters and range top, it too needs a weekly washing. Here are some instructions on the care of wooden furniture which might be of help:
Make a light lather, using mild soap and lukewarm water. Wring a soft cloth out of this lather and go over a small area. Rinse with a cloth wrung out of clear water. Dry with a soft cloth.
The Manual goes on with instructions on polishing wooden furniture, but I'm not going to use any polish which might damage the tablecloth. The table has a good sturdy finish, so a weekly washing should suffice. I think that'll do for now. I'm headed into the kitchen in a few minutes to begin my work in there for the week. Next week, I'll add another step in the care of my breakfast nook to my housekeeping routine.
9 comments:
Congratulations on the weight loss!
The kitchen table *is* a work surface. It is for doing homework, preparing foods for eating and storage, paying bills, writing letters, keeping little ones corralled and entertained, setting up the sewing machine, sitting down with a best friend to have a cup of tea, etc. Be happy with it. :)
I've been swamped with company, activities, etc., so I haven't kept up with many blogs. Just yours and 50s Gal, mostly! They get my day started!
Congratulations on your weight loss. FANTASTIC!
I'm doing a giveaway and wanted to let you know, in case you're interested in the topic of the book: Easy Bake Ovens!
http://havenofhome.blogspot.com/2009/09/contest-guess-colorand-win.html
Congrats on making it halfway!
Thank you, Amanda! I'm going to have to plan some serious celebrating when I finally hit 155. Just to be able to see it makes me feel that much more driven to get there.
Packrat, agreed. And I think it's going to need just as frequent care as the rest of the work surfaces in my kitchen. Now if I can just master where to put everything I keep on top of it while I'm waiting for it to dry!
Roxanne, you're such a sweetheart! Thank you for the congrats - and for the heads up on your giveaway. I coveted an Easy Bake when I was little.
Love the alcove, love the stove even more!
Jitterbug--the Easy Bake Oven I had was my sister's. She is ten years older. I never baked anything in it, though. I just took it outside and made mudpies. It kind of rusted and stuff.
The ones they have now just aren't as cool as the ones back then, though...
Shay, it's a very unusual kitchen --- but a neat set-up.
Roxanne, your sister must've been long finished with it if you got to use it for mudpies!
I'd like to have a kitchen large enough for a breakfast table like in the picture.
Yeah, you definitely need some room to spread out at a breakfast table. Room for the newspaper, room for all your little pots of jam or syrup, the butter plate, etc. And I absolutely need a good-sized table. My older sister has one of those teeny tiny high tables with stools and I can't ever feel quite comfortable eating there.
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