The Most Important Room

Most of life is made up of moments that fade into hours that fade into days, just common ordinary days.
My sister and niece cooked lunch for me today.  Rick is always telling everyone that my sisters, nieces and I are great cooks.  We owe our talents to my  mom and all those ordinary days, of cooking in her kitchen.

My mother loved to cook.....for everyone.  I can remember being three or four years old, helping her in the kitchen.  When she was in the kitchen she would talk about everything she was doing.  It all seemed so natural, this creating a meal.  My brothers cook, my dad cooked.  Food was a really important part of our family.
We always had a garden, and we all were taught how to grow food.  One of the things that momma taught.....you had to cook with love.  If you just went in the kitchen and threw a meal together, it was just something to put in your mouth, to ease the hunger.

Cooking with love meant using the best ingredients you could, everything as fresh as possible.
Cooking with love meant, everyone sitting at the table eating together. One of my girlfriends from highschool told me once, that she came to our house at Christmas, my mom and I were in the kitchen making candy.
She said she had never felt so much love in a house.

I miss the meals at my mom's house so very much, my mom and I grocery shopping together, deciding on menus.  I love table linens, she passed that on to me too, and fresh flowers on the table.  I love the fact that she taught me to enjoy food, to enjoy the laughter and love of a table full of friends and family eating together.
Jordan loves to help in the kitchen, my mom didn't live to see him, to teach him her kitchen skills, but I am doing my best to pass them on.  To show him, that the kitchen is the most important room in the house, and it should always be full of love.