Who Made the Rules?

The kitchen, (if you could call it that) had insulation walls and  a sink held up by 2x4's.  There was a hole in the floor smack dab in the middle of the room with a rug pulled over it so one could navigate the room without plunging to the cellar. The bathroom had no shower, no sink-- just a bathtub that I once did dishes in but now bathed children. Water was warmed on the stove and then poured carefully into the porcelain and  mixed with cold so as not to scald tender flesh. This was a time in my life that wore me down. I tried so hard to make the best of that old house with the meager resources I had around me.

The epiphany came one day when I couldn't stand another moment of the living conditions and was at my wit's end trying to better my situation. I was vacuuming the carpet over the whole in the floor and beside the 2x4 makeshift sink, when it hit me. “Who made the rules?” I said to myself. The question came into my head and has never left it. I realized right then and there that if I wanted a kitchen I was going to have to build one myself. Now, at the very moment I realized I was going to do this, I knew I would be following through with this endeavor in the most unconventional way as I lacked the skill to actually build anything!

I went to the old, fallen-in barn that was on our property and I tore off barn boards. I nailed them over the insulation and make a very rustic kitchen wall covering. I used those same barn boards to make shelves which stored dishes and mason jars full of my family's foods. I hammered and I nailed while the whole time telling myself that my barn board walls were just as good as any plaster and sheet rock ones. I defied the rules and pushed myself into the nonconformity that had always been inside of me. I needed a kitchen and, by God, I built one. (Not long after, I built my son a bedroom, re-did my daughter's room – complete with enclosed princess bed, and this is only one story!)

There are times in our lives when we have to apply ourselves-- change the rules as we once knew them. We roll up our sleeves and build a kitchen. If you don't do it, it won't happen.

Make your own rules, dear friend. Then live like crazy by them!



Take Good Care Today!