My Kitchen Table Looked This Way

Although I haven't fully determined whether this is a good or bad trait, I've become a master at blocking things out.  Yesterday afternoon, I sat down to grade the speeches my students had presented that morning, pushing aside an overturned box of Legos and stacking Play Doh to claim my own small corner of the kitchen table.

Yes, this is where my deep thinking happens these days.


Barbies hover from the light fixture overhead, like a hot pink angelic host.


They've been dangling there for weeks in full sight, yet I hardly see them anymore.

In many ways, blocking things out is a valuable practice.  Necessary, even.  (I'm not sure about you, but if I didn't block out extraneous stimulation, I'd be on such sensory overload that I'd never accomplish anything!) 

But today I wanted to focus on these details.  I wanted to chronicle that on this day, I graded speeches in the midst of Legos, Play Doh, and Barbies, as my youngest daughter circled around me, singing and chatting and playing.

These sights and sounds and messes are a constant backdrop to my current life -- so ordinary, so everyday, so taken-for-granted.  Afternoons won't always look this way, though.  Neither will my kitchen table or my light fixture.

Today, I want to document that it did look this way.

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8 comments

  1. Good for you! Sometimes these sights can be distracting and take us away from what immediately needs to be done (whether it's work, playing a game with a little one, or simply listening to someone who needs to talk).


    LOVE the Barbies hanging from the light... I wonder how they got up there in the first place.


    Thanks for sharing.
    xoxo

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  2. I love the Barbies, too. I'm pretty sure that it was Child 2 and Child 3 in cahoots to make it happen. ;)

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  3. I love the way you put this! Its so true! I hardly notice the gym trampoline that is upside down or the hot wheels I push aside to reach the fridge and its okay! I will have many years for a clean house but our kids are only small for a short time!

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  4. To fun great share sometimes we do have to make believe we don't see so we can move on to bigger picture love the pics :)

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  5. A garland of Barbies-- I like it. I like it a lot.
    I have become a master at blocking out people practicing piano, since it happens at my house everyday for grand total of 85 minutes. When little kids visit and bang on our piano, I don't even hear it.

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  6. It's amazing how selective our attention can be simply out of necessity, isn't it?

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  7. You're right: it's an elaborate game of make-believe!

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  8. So true. And I confess, that I have many days when I long for that "clean house" to be now -- perhaps just for a few sequential days.... but we'll all get there. (And then we'll miss this!) :)

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