Doing the best with what you've got does not just mean using  the "things" you have but what you have at any moment physically, spiritually and emotionally. We are to be more than just good stewards of what we have, but what we are also.

Do not expect too much of yourselves.
If you are sick, pray and rest.
If you are tired, pray for strength and rest.
If you are overwhelmed, pray for direction and strength, spend time with your Lord.

Always be quick to pray and work with what you have.
Always seek God's will in His revealed Word for what He would have you do.

If you are well and handling everything well pray to thank God, because without Him you can do nothing.

We must renew our spirits everyday.
And we do that in Christ.
Cling to Him...........He IS the Best of what  you've got!

Goodnight Ladies.......

Welcome to My Pantry.......ideas on storage and re-purposing


Top shelf: I have arranged things closest to where they are used. Here are spices in an industrial metal tray from Goodwill and serving pieces (espresso cups) I bought used. A magnetic spice bag holder (re-purposed office mail holder) on refrigerator wall behind shelves holding packets of stevia and bagged spices from our natural food store..

 Top shelf: baking items and custard cups because they are closest to my baking area. Plastic shakers filled  flour for dusting, cinnamon sugar and cocoa powder sugar (made with organic cane sugar).

Second shelf: oils, vinegars in a re-purposed wood crate so they don't tip over, staples in antique canisters         inherited from my husband's parents and glass jars we bought containing other food, canning jars with tart pans for lids, rice cooker. Small crockpot on counter next to shelves.

Third shelf: canned goods, some kitchen-emergency foods, jars, small recycling container.
Bottom shelf: large vinegars for household use, soup pot, bread maker, wines made by a
friend, empty jugs. Cloth bag of donations to the needy on floor next to shelving.

This is my pantry. Or, technically since it is not a room, these are my pantry shelves. When I  figure out where I am going to put the rest of my things I will post more pictures. Right now they are covering the tops of our counters and the dining room table.

So, what is a pantry? Okay...I Googled it. "Pantry" is from the Latin root word "panis" meaning bread. In Medieval Latin it became "panataria" which was a room where the servant who had charge over all the food slept. In the 14th century the French borrowed it, changed it to "panterie" denoting simply a bread room. Somehow the servant disappeared with the bread and it came to mean just a room where non-perishable food was stored. I wish the servant hadn't left with the bread, but, oh, well. I am thankful I now have shelves! Someday, I hope to have our originally-planned walk-in pantry with our freezers and other stored items inside.But for now this will do nicely and I am very thankful.

The shelves do not hold all that we need them to hold and they do take up precious space in our kitchen and due to our poor planning make the total use of one cabinet and one drawer difficult since they won't open all the way. Things can still be gotten to but with a little bit of agility and contortion.

Today I am working again on the reorganization of the kitchen, trying to figure out how I might re-purpose some free-standing small shelves and an old nightstand that were used in the kitchen before we got the shelving unit. This will be temporary and no longer needed once my husband has time to build a small island with shelves and we can afford a range top to replace the still-present old stove.

Re-purposing requires me to imagine the piece I am working on backwards, sideways, on its side or up-side-down or cut up and more than likely in a different color. I love doing this but with such a small kitchen this is a BIG challenge. I may end up putting the items in a different room or relegating them to my husband who always can use more storage in our basement-turned-garage. What I am striving for right now is simply reasonable-looking order so that it is easier to work in my kitchen again.

Right now I am working on a  white back-less bookcase previously used for canned goods, a soup pot and small appliances. I imagine it spray-painted black to match other items in my gold, red and black kitchen. I will put it on it's side on the counter top which is now too crowded with cereals---oatmeal, granola, my 7qt black crockpot and some other things. I will put the crockpot on top with a set of knives so they are out-of-reach for little grandchildren-hands. The jars of staples should fit nicely on the counter next to the bookcase. And I will put muffin tins, cookie sheets and other metal baking items in the cubicles.

Not sure about the repainted, re-purposed (yellow-gold) nightstand that held our spices in the oven-hole. It was one of two white particle board nightstands that were thrown in free when we got our youngest daughter's bedroom set which is made of nicer stuff. It was white with painted ugly metallic gold around the edges to try to match  the white bedroom set. I  took off the metallic gold drawer pull and painted the whole stand a yellowy gold, screwed a bright red wooden chili pepper that I found at Goodwill onto it instead of the ugly pull and used the whole thing for spices in the oven hole. My husband then installed a painted-to-match shelf to the top of that adding more room to store staples in our oven hole. I don't know if I will find a use for the nightstand-turned-spice storage unit.. I am hoping something comes to me while I am working on the above. The other ugly nightstand was put in one of the upstairs bathrooms. I spray-painted it white, replaced the pull with a metal (silver) decorative leaf  pull that I also found at the second-hand store. The drawer holds shampoos and the shelf holds rolled white towels.

My husband just came in for a minute before he and our son-in-law head out to work on a project and he had ideas for the nightstand unit. Wow, nice!

I hope this gives you some ideas regarding how to reorganize and re-purpose items you have. Doing the best with what you've got is so much fun!

More pictures will follow! 

Kathi~

.....

Today

I got my wall oven today.

It doesn't fit in the cabinet.
I can't get the tape residue off the stainless steel.
The door won't open all the way.
The door slams shut once opened and let go of.
Because the oven won't fit in the cabinet it sticks out taking up space in front of the refrigerator so that it can only be loaded and unloaded from the sides.
We have to open up the back of the cabinet so it will fit.
We have to put trim around the areas above and around the oven to hide areas that will be exposed
because of changing everything.
We have to add depth to the existing cabinet.
The electrical for the unit needs to be changed so it doesn't show.
And.....
Our dish washer latch broke.
Our vacuum cleaner stopped working a couple days ago.
The brand new ceiling texture in our bedroom and the upstairs foyer is coming down.
And there are other even smaller things that have caused us to be discouraged this week

Sigh.

I have a choice here.

I can complain.

I confess, I did complain earlier today. It made me feel worse, not better.
I can  question God, asking  why, when will things be better, why do these things never happen to others (ha!), what did I do to deserve........oh, don't go there. We know we deserve nothing and that by God's mercy, if  you are a believer,  you will not get what you truly deserve. Praise our merciful God!

I can cast blame---on the oven, on the person from whom we bought the oven, the manufacturer, the USPS, the weather, my husband, or the maker of the cabinet the oven will not fit into. But it will change nothing--- only my heart---making it bitter..

But, by God's grace I did not become bitter, mean-spirited or sarcastic about it. Okay----but I did not stay bitter, mean-spirited or sarcastic for long.

This evening the Lord brings to mind  Proverbs 17:22  "A cheerful heart does good like a medicine. But a broken spirit dries up the bones."

It is easy to have a cheerful heart when things are going well. But it takes the grace of God to be cheerful when things go badly----even when it is a lot of very small things.

My husband has always said  that if he bought a turkey farm, Thanksgiving would be cancelled. I don't really want to test this theory for fear it will become true!  We have laughed with friends and family at the seemingly endless stories of  all the small catastrophes that have attended our family. And who knows, maybe someday I will write a book about our experiences, as many have encouraged me to do. Our calamities certainly could fill a book! But for now, though they fill our life, we must guard our hearts. We must learn from our trials, be exercised by them, cling to God in even the smallest of them, learning what He has for us in them. He may be teaching us patience, courage, mercy---many things. We may never find out the whys. But these two things we always know----everything is for our eternal good (and perhaps for others) and God's glory. What a comfort this can be. And in the light of eternity and bringing glory to God things like ill-fitted ovens, broken dishwashers and vacuums these trials are very small indeed.

I expect and hope that tomorrow is a better day. But if it is not---we will pray, laugh and hopefully learn.
Goodnight.
Kathi~