It Comes.... It Goes...

Sorry for the delay in posting today.  I was having some security issues with my pc last night and had to use my normal posting time this morning fixing the problem.  Oh well, such is techno-life.


My he-man hubby is a pipeline controller by trade and a wood worker by passion.  Our garage is a place to put our car and an even bigger place to set up shop. Hubby has made dozens hundreds of pieces of furniture for our home and many others over the years.  But only ten years worth since moving into our current home.

I can't believe we have been here for 10 years.  It seems like we are still in the process of evicting the previous owner and making it our own,

Several months after moving in hubby made a large dining table to accommodate what we then thought was a large family.

The table measures 4 feet three inches wide by nine feet long.  We can fit fourteen people around it's perimeter and do so as often as the Wyoming or Texas crews come to visit or hubby and I entertain friends.

Some time after our robust dinning table was crafted we remodeled our kitchen, opening up a few walls, making one large dining space out of two small gathering rooms and adding a breakfast bar.  I picked up a second hand expandable table from a thrift shop that I frequent often.  The sales personel don't know me by name yet, but they recognize me when I walk through the door.

I painted the table and chairs, reupholstered the cushions and we began using the new space and the new table whenever friends or family gathered for a meal. 

I like the new configuration because when preparing a meal I am not isolated from family or guests.  And it is much easier to carry food from an adjacent kitchen than half way across the house.

"Big sigh." But now the forlorn dining table that hubby built is used to gather dust and act as my sewing table from time to time.  When the grandsons visit they claim the table as lego-building territory where it becomes hoarder of countless itty bitty parts for soldiers, knights, cars, towers, tanks or whatever else they build.

Oh bigger sigh."  Last night our large dining table found a new home.  A young family (friends of our daughter's) moved into a new home - a very large home - and they did not have a dining table.  They have six children; three natural born and three adopted from Africa less than a year ago.  They were able to move into the new home because the builder and the bank we eager to offer them a oober-fantastic deal. When daughter, Cindy, told us that they might need a dining table we quickly offered ours.  While I love the furniture that hubby builds and cherish all the scrapes and scars our dining table has gathered from family feasts over the years, it seemed silly to have a table one seldom uses when someone else is in need.  To know that another family will gather around it's border and eat and play and tell stories and make it their own makes my heart giggle.  Family, friends and food are a delicious combination.

Indentions in the carpet are all that remain of our hand crafted table.  I don't know what this empty space will transition into as of yet.  Maybe for now it will serve as a wresting mat for grandchildren...or... hubby and I when he feels courageous enough to take me on.  Whatever this space becomes I hope it will remain a place for family and friends to voice dreams, relay fears, feel safe and laugh a plenty. 

 I am content to think of our table in a new home.. a place where Africa and America eat together.... a place where children learn to use their napkins, not eat with their mouths full and listen when someone else is talking... a place where Adoptive parents gather to share the challenges and joys of blended families... a place where a pumpkin centerpiece is displayed, Thanksgiving turkey is carved and Christmas pie is devoured.