I Want to Remember: Distressed

That's what Scott calls our kitchen table. Distressed. He thinks it sounds more high-end and that since it's 'Distressed', as opposed to a more befitting adjective -- like 'Crapola' --, it's probably worth a fortune. Yeah, right, let's go with that one.

This old oak table started it's life with us over 20 years ago. It came with four chairs and I pressed Scott to get two extras and a leaf thinking that would be more than we would ever need. As time went on, we filled up those six seats, and mom gave us two extra chairs to squeeze in with the four originals. When we have company, we pull up stools and sit elbow to elbow. This little table meant for four, will often have up to 12 people gathered round.

It amassed water rings, candle wax drips, glue gun drops, paint splotches and splatters, and scratches from children digging the pointed end of a utensil into it's surface. The varnish has peeled and it desperately needs to be refinished, but I just haven't had the heart to do it. Instead of fussing about destroying our table, I decided to embrace it. I let go and encouraged the kids to 'decorate' their spot there. Those rings and drips and drops and splotches and splatters and scratches all have a story behind them --- they're a part of our history as a family. I hope when they see those marks that it triggers the memory of how it got there.

This table has seen a lot during it's time here. Holidays, birthdays, graduations and various celebrations. Steak dinners and beans and cornbread dinners. Biscuit and gravy breakfasts and bowls of cold wet cereal breakfasts. Leftovers, sandwiches and 'Frutas' and Jammy Sammy snacks. It's also been witness to happy baby giggles, booster seats and the spit-covered rejects of unsavored foods. Fusses, fights, angry words and hurt feelings have had their place here, too. More than one round of, "You're going to sit here until you clean your plate!", and, "This is it for tonight, don't ask me for one more thing if you don't eat!", and, "What do you mean you don't like it? What's wrong with it? What do you mean it 'tastes funny'? Ugh! You're killing me Pea!", has been duked out here, too. Craft projects, science fair projects and loads of homework projects have pulled up a chair, as well.

So, if you come to dinner, this work of art will probably have a floral tablecloth draped across the top, but you'll know what's really underneath---a visual reminder of a family that has been well-fed, well-loved, and full.

This is Aaron's spot. He did the Apple and the Mac-Head part. I defiled his artwork by adding the 'Itty-Bitty-Baby-Wanna-Be'. He thinks since he's got the iPhone and I don't he's all that and a bag of chips. I'm just holding out for the 5, that's all --- then he'll be sorry he got all hot and bothered over the 4.