The more I wait, the “behind-er” I get....

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging recently. I wish I could give some excuse, like a major natural disaster, or a pandemic, or something....wait....

Actually, we all know that’s lame. We all know that staying at home during the Covid-19 lockdown would be a prime opportunity to do things you normally don’t have time to do, right? Like write, for example. Except, of course, if you’re writing a remodeling blog and there’s no remodeling going on.

But, yay! Kitchen remodeling is back on track, and the kitchen is almost finished! I’m not ready yet for the big reveal, but I do want to bring you all up to date on what’s been happening.

I’ll start by posting an entry I wrote way back on April 2.



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Confinement, Kindness, and Calm

No, I’m not going to write about those other C’s, the name of the virus that’s turned all our lives upside-down, the name of the illness that has weird initials and a number—so clinical and detached a name, juxtaposed with how personally cruel and relentless an illness. No need to write more, as the media has already flooded us sufficiently, thankyouverymuch.

No, I’m not going to complain about being confined in my home. The truth is, it’s really not so different from my normal life. Well, my “normal” life since I moved to this town, anyway. I write at home. I do projects at home. I order stuff from home. I was already buying coffee and some other household goods online, so now I’ve just added to my order. I was already a bit of a food hoarder; confinement has changed this habit very little. My parents were children of the Great Depression, and we always had a gigantic vegetable garden. Add to this growing up in a place with brutal winter storms where we often lost power and got snowed in. A full pantry was always a priority. Since the beginning of my kitchen remodel, the pantry contents are in boxes in my living room, which complicates things a bit. But otherwise, my life looks pretty much the same. The biggest difference for me is having other people in the house with me all the time. Now, that requires a bit of adjustment! It’s a bit like a perpetual weekend.

No, I’m not going to moan about my lack of a kitchen. Whine about the fact the the cabinetmaker closed shop the very night before I was scheduled to have my cabinetry installed. Whimper about being without a kitchen for at least another six weeks, cooking our meals on a camp stove outside on our deck. But this is nothing. I have means, I have privilege. I will eventually get a kitchen, a really nice one. And my family and I are not struggling or hungry. We are able to keep our distance from the mailman, the UPS guy. We have the means to stockpile groceries for a couple of weeks.

No, I’d rather talk about kindness. Thoughtfulness. The kindness of our contractor coming to install a temporary sink and countertop for us, calling the electrician to make sure the wiring can be used to power an electric skillet, making sure we have enough surface area to work on. 

Hard times call for kindness in every way, and to everyone. Making a hard time easier for others is what will get us through. And acknowledging that it’s the little things which can make so much difference—a phone call, dropping off gifts and meals, running errands for someone who cannot do it for themselves. Anything that makes us feel like even though we’re alone at home, we’re really not alone at all.