A Springtime Miracle

I cleaned my kitchen. (That's the miracle. I could probably end the post here, which would also be a miracle. But I'm going to keep writing, because I'm avoiding the 90+ chemistry problems I have left to do--I've already done almost 40.)

My friend Tricia came over today with her cute family. She was getting rid of a stereo and I was wanting a new one for my kitchen since the old one no longer plays CDs or tapes (the radio works, though!), so it worked out wonderfully. Except that I was at school when they came over. But Drew and Owen loved playing with little Ethan and told me later that they want him to come over tomorrow.

I had to clear a space on the counter to put the stereo. I don't have any pictures of what my counters looked like before, but you can get a general idea from the background of this Samantha video:

Here is what my kitchen counter looks like since I gave it a good de-cluttering (I put so much stuff in the trash instead of finding somewhere else for it all; it felt so good!):

There are still some dishes in the corner that didn't make it into the dishwasher, but this is probably the least cluttered my counter has been since we moved here.

Here's the stereo up close and personal.

While I was at it, I de-cluttered the other corner of the kitchen, which before today has been the bane of my existence. Or at least a close second. See my early birthday present over in the corner?

It's a 30-year-old, used-maybe-once-or-twice Oster stand mixer that my mother-in-law found at D.I. for $40. She has one just like it that she got 30 years ago for over $200. This one came with the original user's manual and most of the original parts:

It came with 2 bread dough hooks, two beaters, a meat grinder, and a food processor with four different blades. The only thing missing was the smaller mixing bowl. I even threw away a bunch of junk from my cupboards so I'd have a place to put my mixer parts, which before today had been sitting in a Rubbermaid bin on my counter.

So thank you, Tricia, for the stereo, and in a way, for the clean kitchen. David thanks you, too!