4 Moms Open House: Kitchen and Dining Room

Welcome to the second week of  4 Moms: How Moms of Many Manage open house.  Please feel free to link up your post tour of your kitchen and dining room below and visit the other moms of many KimC, Connie and The Deputy Headmistress to see how things work in their food areas.

Last week we explored our yard and entry way, this week you’re invited into what many call the heart of the home, the kitchen and dining room.  Although honestly for us the ‘heart of our home’ is the family/school room.  You’ll have to come back next week for that tour.

Our kitchen doubles as the passage from our entryway, living room and the rest of the house into our family/school room.

I love our kitchen and am thankful the previous owners put in white cabinets (although they do require a daily wipe down in a house with 20 small dirty hands running around).   Our kitchen is much bigger than our previous kitchens and has a wonderful amount of counter space which enables several people to work in the kitchen at the same time.

Left side of kitchen

However, when little children decide to run in our house, they run right through the kitchen. They run from the front door, through the kitchen and jump onto the couch in the family room (although they aren’t supposed to) and then they run back again.  They are usually running in pairs ’cause you know it’s lots more fun if it’s a race.  So I’m constantly reminding little children to walk through the kitchen, reminding big kids to be VERY careful when they are working in the kitchen and also trying to keep the dishwasher closed so that no one impales themselves on a fork.

Right side of kitchen

When we have large groups of people in our home, our kitchen works as a large buffet.  We start in the family/school room, dish our plates and get drinks as we pass through the kitchen and then move into the dining room or out on the deck to eat.

I also appreciate that we have so many large, bottom cabinets that enable us to store all but our most used appliances {we don’t have a microwave} out of sight.  This gives us more space on the counters for food preparation

Kitchen counter

and makes it easier for the children to do their table chores each evening.

One of the biggest challenges for our family when we’re looking for a home is finding one with an eating area that is large enough for our family and for guests.

Dining room from kitchen

This house provides that space for us.  It also opens onto the covered eating area on our deck which provides additional room for larger crowds.

Dining room from Living room

Deck off the dining room

From our group Bible memorization and  morning worship to a quieter place for the children to work on writing or science projects, our dining room gets a lot of use during the school day.  At breakfast we write the children’s daily assignments and other notes that should be remembered and checked at the end of the day on the chalkboard wall.  We display time lines, maps and the children’s most current art work on the magnetic wall.

Chalkboard wall and magnetic wall in dining room

One thing that we have done to make setting the table a little more simple for our younger children and to free up cabinet space in the kitchen is to move some of the dishes into the dining room.

Extra dish storage

I purchased this wheeled cart at a yard sale for $2.50 (it’s waiting to be spray-painted) and we store one of our sets of dishes (also from a yard sale) on it in addition to a pack of wipies, just in case someone gets messy during dinner.   We often have company a couple times a week, so we have two large sets of dishes and two sets of silverware.

Buffet in between Living room and Dining room

We store one of our sets of silverware in the top drawer of this buffet.  This is also where we store cloth napkins, place mats, table clothes and serving dishes.  We use the bowl on top to store our fresh fruit.

Storing the dishes that we use everyday in our dining room enables our younger children to set the table without getting underfoot in the before -dinner-rush in the kitchen.

Nearly everything used to decorate our dining room home comes from yard sales, although we did find the table and buffets at a used furniture store.  I’m constantly amazed at God’s blessing and provision of much more than we need.

Just a note, last week I had several comments wondering if our house always looks like this, of course not, there are times when our counters are covered with flour or piled with dirty dishes and there are times when there is play dough all over the floor and crayons scattered about.  There are also times when things get out of hand and need some serious work. (Just take a look at my decluttering series.)  However, this is what our home usually looks like after our daily chores.  It’s an advantage of having a lot of children,  there are a lot of hands to help.

Raising Olives open house:

• Yard and entryway
• Living areas/ school room
• Bedrooms (boy’s room and little girl’s room)
• Bedrooms (big girl’s room and master bedroom)
• Laundry area and tips

Visit the other 4 Moms to take a look at their kitchen and dining areas.

The Common Room
Life in a Shoe
Smockity Frocks

Share your kitchen and dining room open house post with us. Please link directly to your post, not to your homepage and link back to one of the 4 Moms blogs so that your readers can visit all the open house posts.

You may also enjoy:

1. 4 Moms Open House: Yard and Entry
2. 4 Moms Open House: Living Areas
3. 4 Moms Open House: Bedrooms Part 1