dining

Busted!







There is a photo much like this one of my brother as a toddler--caught bitting into a french stick. I think he was sitting on a potty surrounded by bags of groceries at the time. Priceless. My husband went to cut this loaf later and found bite marks at each end and in the middle. He chopped square shapes into it to remove the bites and served up a block of tetris bread. :)

So today, given the things I have been working on this week, I thought I'd start the first of many posts on a favourite topic of mine: dining. There really is a lot to be said for sitting around a table together, sharing food and conversation. It creates a natural pause in the busyness to listen and be fully present. It is and will be a key, I think, to keeping the connections with our kids alive and strong.







The above pic was of our first family meal together in the new home. The biggest challenge for us is the long hours my husband works. Often we eat without him which makes the nights we spend with him all the more precious. And things are always more fun with Dad around.

Over the last week or so I have begun a bit of a revamp of our dining area. When Nat and I first got married we bought a dining table. I liked it in the shop but once it arrived at our house a bizarre thing happened, I realised that it was very different in reality to the picture I'd built of it in my mind. In my head was a nice plain wooden table with nice plain, normal legs. Somehow in the shop I'd managed to completely over look the fact that the legs had random silver strips down them and were all turned in differing directions. I was hearterly disappointed. Strange, I know. And it's not the first time this sort of thing has happened. I remember a trip to England as a child where my mum took me out to look for character ballet shoes (they were reportedly cheaper in London). Well, we went to every ballet shop we could find and I wouldn't let Mum purchase any because they were not black suede. My ballet teacher had shown me black suede character shoes. I was adamant. Needless to say on return I discovered that the navy blue canvas shoes we had seen everywhere in London were the shoes my teacher had shown me. Mum was right, and she had to pay twice as much for them here.

[I never really liked my pair of character shoes. I still want some in black suede. :)]

Anyway, all that to say, this table has been something I have been disappointed with for years. So, new house = time for a revamp.







Much better.

And beside the dining table is a large frame I have scrubbed up, taken the glass out of and am using to peg up family snapshots. I think I'll rotate them frequently, and add pictures and cards we receive from people we love. Kind of an alternative to photos on our fridge. One day I will find a great print to fill the frame, but this idea is doing the trick in the mean time.











I also managed to find these great stork-line chairs which I am thinking I might use as dining chairs for a while. I can't decide whether to paint them both or not...











And what would a post of mine be without a few 'pics of the week'?
























I had other things to say involving home cooked wedding anniversary meals and butter. Mmm, butter. Flavoured with anchovies and lemon and all sorts of good things. But alas it will all have to wait until next time... :)

So that's all for now. For some great family dining inspiration check out this blog: Dinner: A Love Story.



:)


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