Dreams From My Dining Room
I am loving the freedom I have right now to dream and think and plan. Hiromi finds it slightly unsettling, as evidenced by the sigh I heard when I was talking today about finding table legs to replace the broken ones on the Duncan Phyfe dining table my parents left behind when they moved out of this house. I think the antique store in Nickerson might be just the place to find something like that. New legs can be purchased online, but good used ones would fit in better with the old table.
Our dining room is a decorating horror right now. It has four tables in it--three too many. There's the plant-germinating table in front of the double windows, the Ethan Allen trestle-style dining table Hiromi bought before we were married (This is actually the one we eat from right now.), The small Duncan Phyfe table that used to serve as Grant's desk, and the big one I mentioned earlier. Both of the Duncan Phyfe (D.P.) tables are as small as they can be, with no boards, and the drop-leaf ends folded down. They huddle behind the couch that faces the living room.
Hiromi got one of the boys to help him move in the plant table--without consulting me. It's a great table for its purpose, but quite ugly. I will say it's well-located to insure that the plants won't dry out. They're right beside my computer desk and right beside the table where we eat. I see the plants many times a day.
The Ethan Allen (E. A.) table is not big enough for the whole family when everyone is home and it can not be extended, so we moved the small D.P. table out from Grant's bedroom to set up along with the E. A. table for company. But there' was no place to go with the big D.P. table that was already in the dining room. Today it dawned on me that what we really need is the big D.P. table to recover from its wobbly leg, poor-balance problems. Then it can be here all alone and do all that needs doing--except for starting plants. That can happen in Grant's old bedroom, now that the bed finally has a new home at Harry S.'s.
The big D.P. table has quite a history and bears testimony to my mother's resourcefulness. Unable to afford a new table, she contrived a way to make an unremarkable used table expandable to seat at least 18 people. Somewhere she located a source of table slides that allow for significant expansion. She bought them and they were shipped to the house. She also had saved the boards from another table we used to have that was the same width as the D.P. table. She hired someone to install the slides and create some matching holes and pegs in the "imported" boards so they would all fit neatly side by side, and presto!--a nice big dining room table. With a long white tablecloth she made for it, it looked great and served admirably for many years. Eventually though the glue gave way on the tips of two of the legs that sweep up from lying horizontally on the floor to attach vertically into the "hubs" of the table legs that march in a row of three along the center of the table. Those shortened horizontal leg supports introduced some ominous instability, to say nothing of it's unsightliness. That's why the rehabilitation is needed now.
All these horizontal surfaces attract great quantities of after-school, before-market, plant-growing, and flower-arranging clutter. I am working at creating order, and feeling a little lighter and better every single day.
********************
Today is my Mom's 84th birthday. All those in the extended family who could arrange to do so gathered in a Wichita restaurant this evening to celebrate. Ronald and Brenda had made the plans and invited everyone. They and Lowells were already in Wichita for the homeschooling conference, and Ronalds headed home to Oswego with three guests afterwards. The guests had attended Kristen and Andrea's wedding, and wanted to spend the weekend in Oswego, so they followed us (Dad, Mom, Linda, and I) down to Wichita to meet up with them. I'm not sure they knew what they were in for. It was quite a family crew--at least 32 DLM family members.
My mother is very modest, and would never have sought such hoopla in a birthday celebration, but it was a wonderful evening all around. She is less cognizant of what goes on around her than she used to be, but still enjoys times like these.
*********************
Some day I'll tell you about some of the other things I've been dreaming about and mulling over.
Our dining room is a decorating horror right now. It has four tables in it--three too many. There's the plant-germinating table in front of the double windows, the Ethan Allen trestle-style dining table Hiromi bought before we were married (This is actually the one we eat from right now.), The small Duncan Phyfe table that used to serve as Grant's desk, and the big one I mentioned earlier. Both of the Duncan Phyfe (D.P.) tables are as small as they can be, with no boards, and the drop-leaf ends folded down. They huddle behind the couch that faces the living room.
Hiromi got one of the boys to help him move in the plant table--without consulting me. It's a great table for its purpose, but quite ugly. I will say it's well-located to insure that the plants won't dry out. They're right beside my computer desk and right beside the table where we eat. I see the plants many times a day.
The Ethan Allen (E. A.) table is not big enough for the whole family when everyone is home and it can not be extended, so we moved the small D.P. table out from Grant's bedroom to set up along with the E. A. table for company. But there' was no place to go with the big D.P. table that was already in the dining room. Today it dawned on me that what we really need is the big D.P. table to recover from its wobbly leg, poor-balance problems. Then it can be here all alone and do all that needs doing--except for starting plants. That can happen in Grant's old bedroom, now that the bed finally has a new home at Harry S.'s.
The big D.P. table has quite a history and bears testimony to my mother's resourcefulness. Unable to afford a new table, she contrived a way to make an unremarkable used table expandable to seat at least 18 people. Somewhere she located a source of table slides that allow for significant expansion. She bought them and they were shipped to the house. She also had saved the boards from another table we used to have that was the same width as the D.P. table. She hired someone to install the slides and create some matching holes and pegs in the "imported" boards so they would all fit neatly side by side, and presto!--a nice big dining room table. With a long white tablecloth she made for it, it looked great and served admirably for many years. Eventually though the glue gave way on the tips of two of the legs that sweep up from lying horizontally on the floor to attach vertically into the "hubs" of the table legs that march in a row of three along the center of the table. Those shortened horizontal leg supports introduced some ominous instability, to say nothing of it's unsightliness. That's why the rehabilitation is needed now.
All these horizontal surfaces attract great quantities of after-school, before-market, plant-growing, and flower-arranging clutter. I am working at creating order, and feeling a little lighter and better every single day.
********************
Today is my Mom's 84th birthday. All those in the extended family who could arrange to do so gathered in a Wichita restaurant this evening to celebrate. Ronald and Brenda had made the plans and invited everyone. They and Lowells were already in Wichita for the homeschooling conference, and Ronalds headed home to Oswego with three guests afterwards. The guests had attended Kristen and Andrea's wedding, and wanted to spend the weekend in Oswego, so they followed us (Dad, Mom, Linda, and I) down to Wichita to meet up with them. I'm not sure they knew what they were in for. It was quite a family crew--at least 32 DLM family members.
My mother is very modest, and would never have sought such hoopla in a birthday celebration, but it was a wonderful evening all around. She is less cognizant of what goes on around her than she used to be, but still enjoys times like these.
*********************
Some day I'll tell you about some of the other things I've been dreaming about and mulling over.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
8:51 PM
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