orange pumkins

well it worked, I finally tidied the kitchen, threw loads out and now I have proper clear work tops like a real house with a real housewife with a real kitchen, the fact that the whole kitchen should be ripped out doesn't really matter to me tonight. I guess the kitchen itself is over 20 years old and I know that I should keep up and get nice new shiny presses and work tops, in fact that is the churches job and they even said we could...but sometimes I think about all the people in the world who don't even have a kitchen and I feel kind of like why do I need to 'keep up' just because everyone else's kitchen is so nice and new. The other problem is the dreaded CRAFTS! My kitchen doubles up as an art studio, mainly for my adorable minded children..and me...we paint, we stick, we cut out we have glue, glitter and clay..and my kitchen is perfect to make a mess in..even more so now because we have clear work tops to put things on.We even have a press to put the toaster in...but I am sure my family will not be able to work out where to put it and so tomorrow it will be back out on top until I put it back. Funny how old habits die hard. For instance about three years ago we didn't have a dish washer and so naturally we stacked dishes next to the sink and washed up from there. Now we have a dish washer the natural progression would be to put the dirty dishes in the machine..but somehow they still get stacked by the drainer..why? because the dish washer is full..clean ..yes..but some people here can't, won't or don't empty it! Every time I 'gently' mention this fact it is returned with' but I did' or ' I always do the dish washer' translation ' I did it 5 days ago' so basically that's my job..mostly..Alan is pretty OK at it because I sort of moaned and nagged for so long ( well he would say that, I say I just commented)
back to the subject of crafts, I went tonight to a children's craft session ( well not for children but for adults to learn how to do crafts!) It was a bit bizarre really because I can do crafts, I never say I can do anything, so this time I am.Crafts is what I do! Anyway I went! It was weird, it reminded me how kids feel when you stick a paint brush in their hand and tell them to do something. All we had to do at first was paint, ''paint an orange pumpkin''..paintbrush in hand I found myself looking to see what the others were doing..yes at my age too self conscious to just paint an orange pumpkin!Well that wasn't the end..what we didn't make!Instead of my kitchen the place was covered in glitter, paper and glue. Coming back home everyone was out and no one here to admire my handiwork!! The plan is you can make these wonderful things with your kiddies! I know I've already gone off orange pumpkins, maybe we'll stick to black cats to attach on the window with shiny bits to let the light through, what a life I lead..I forgot, the teacher passing behind where I was sitting said 'well done Ruth that's very good' wow, my head was as big as a pumpkin..I actually felt so proud of myself.. good learning experience to go back to your childhood, I go there often!!
Right now I have a splitting headache and a good cup of tea is called for, cleaning the kitchen and forced crafts are certainly too much for anyone!