Observations from a woman with a broken stove:

1. Old habits die hard. I had a kettle of Syrian tea on the stove for five minutes and wondered why it wasn't getting hot. Then I remembered. My stove has been broken. For a week.

2. Quirks that come with a rented house sometimes become blessings.  Like an extra stove in the spare bedroom upstairs, for example.  We've had the oddest guest room ever, but now I'm glad for the stove!

3.  Telling guests that instead of having "breakfast in bed" they can make breakfast from their bed is no longer a funny joke.  It has now become painfully too close to home.  We turned down the option of having guests for the weekend because the stove is in their room.  Who wants to knock on the guests' room door to ask, "Excuse me, can you turn the oven to 350 for me?  I'll hand you the breakfast casserole when the stove is preheated and then do you mind bringing it down when it is done?"

4. Cooking upstairs when your fully stocked kitchen is downstairs means you get lots of exercise.  Not that I don't need it.  But whoever thinks of cooking as a cardio workout?

5. The children have excellent appetites for supper because they have trailed me upstairs and down for the duration of the cooking process.  Exercise becoming a family affair isn't a bad thing, now is it?

6.   Maybe I should patent the idea as a weight loss program.  Hey, I might be on the verge of something good!  Maybe this is my million dollar discovery for the day.  I could write a book on it titled The Cardio Kitchen or Cooking Upstairs to Slim Your Downstairs. ?  Or, maybe not.

7. You make more trips to and from your stove when you cook than you probably realize. Try running up and down a flight of stairs any time you want to check your food or stir anything or turn on your oven or check to see if the oven has preheated. Or try getting to the stove only to realize you needed a spoon or a hot pad which is now an entire flight of stairs away from you.

8. Prayer becomes a natural part of the cooking process.  "God, please don't let me trip on the stairs with this kettle of boiling soup!"  (For your info, the children are banned from the stairs when I'm carrying hot food!)

9. I've finally learned what that obnoxious whistle on the kettle lid is saying.  I know.  It says the contents are boiling.  But what it actually is saying is "MOM!!" in kettle language.  It hollers from upstairs and I dash up the steps two at a time to rescue it. 

10. There are Dewdrops of Joy even in a broken stove.  I get to look out the upstairs guest room window while I wait for my food to cook which means there is a whole new view of the world to enjoy.