Well, in my case it wasn’t actual writing, but a thin black line that stretched mysteriously all the way across my kitchen cabinets. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t in the original design.
Let me back up and explain. This past Saturday I decided to give my kitchen cabinet doors a good cleaning. I figure they probably need it every 3 years or so, right? Besides, the one that houses our trash can was starting to get a little, shall we say, sticky. So I grabbed a rag and the cleaner and went to it.
Strange how things look differently when you sit on your kitchen floor. As in dirtier. I sat and painstakingly wiped away coffee drips and finger smudges and, ewwww…what is that?? And then I got to the section of cabinets directly under the counter top where I do most of my food prep. There was the mysterious black line. I wiped, I sprayed, I scrubbed, but to no avail. The line would not budge.
Weird. I thought. Then, That could probably use some touch up paint. Wonder if we have it still? It’s probably in the basement somewhere on the “partially used cans of paint and other home improvement necessities” shelf. But first, I had to figure out what could have caused it.
I scooted back and surveyed the line. It ran from the cabinet just beside the sink to the corner and across the cabinets under the stove top. It was about 2 1/2 feet from the ground. It was faint in spots, but it almost looked like something had run into the cabinets to make such a mark.
And then it hit me.
We have lovely wooden dining chairs from IKEA that my husband painted black. Whenever I start doing anything involving food, from making sandwiches to chopping vegetables to pounding chicken, one of my girls hears me and inevitably yells, “Wait! I want to help! Let me get a chair.” Then I hear the tell-tale scraping of said IKEA chair across the floor until they slam it into the kitchen cabinets and hop on up to, ahem, assist Mommy.
They love to crack eggs (I’m an excellent shell-fisher-outer) and peel vegetables and even stir soup. And they do it all perched from their lovely black chair, which is moved back and forth to obtain the optimal helping stance, and sometimes to allow the head chef access to necessary equipment in the cabinets below.
And so, the mystery was solved. In the end, the line made me smile. Because it reminds me that habits and repetition build fond memories. It reminds me that if you do things often enough, they will leave their mark. And it reminds me that there are things more important than sparkling kitchen cabinets.
I think I’ll wait until they leave for college to get that touch up paint.
*This post is a part of the Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom.
What a beautiful post. made me smile
my 2 boys love to help me out in the kitchen too. Every time they do the same, grab a chair from the dining room and drag it across the kitchen floor. every time I am afraid the chair is going to break but I continue to let them do it because it makes them happy and puts a smile on my face that they want to help me. Some day they’ll be too old and helping mom wont be cool.
you’ll love it even more after they leave for college!