the state of my table

Is your kitchen table EVER completely cleared off except for those few minutes during dinner when you're sitting around it? Some days, I'm so organized I actually get the table set a few hours before we sit down, but it never fails that some child will come in, some project in hand, stack up the plates, move the silverware aside, shove the table cloth back and get to work. I decided to photograph it this weekend. To embrace it. And really, this picture isn't too bad. If I panned back you'd see a very ripe pumpkin waiting to give up its seeds, a large stack of unread newspapers and probably groceries I haven't put away yet. Maybe even the toaster from breakfast or a box of cereal even though it is pushing 4pm.

I think I can usually judge the kind of day I'm having by the state of my kitchen table. Some days it's all very industrious looking--laundry piles neatly laid out to be put away or lists and clipped coupons. Other days very studious--school books and notepaper, pencils and unifix cubes. Or creative--art supplies and jars full of purplish black water with seven, different sized paint brushes  propped inside. Or chaotic--like today, when I'm cleaning away the breakfast dishes to make room for the lunch plates and scraping bits of last night's rice and beans from the tablecloth (and shooing the flies--anyone else having a fly outbreak in their house?! One is buzzing around my head right now. I'm not lying. Maybe I shouldn't have shared this detail about my house....yikes.)
Either way, I love my kitchen table. It's tiny and we smoosh around it, banging knees and practically needing to share milk glasses. But it's intimate and fun, and sometimes a crazy wild mess. But it's the place where we come together. The place where I try, for just a few minutes, to bring a little beauty and order--real dishes, a candle or some fresh flowers. It's a meeting place, a working place, a creating place. A special place.

See a few more pictures that didn't make it into the posts they were meant to be, here. Oh and I finally did something slightly crafty. A little embellishment...
And am I so behind the times that I've never heard of these? I saw it Amy's blog. How cool are they?!