I'm Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

Hey! I've been buried in a few projects that have kept me from being the least bit interested in sitting down in front of a computer. I actually don't have a ton of time right now (I should be doing laundry and installing a doodad), but I thought you might like to enjoy the following pictures:

First, my big announcement. It has taken me, and I am not even kidding, FOUR YEARS to finish re-finishing my kitchen cabinets. But I am DONE!!!!!

It was a simple process, really. I have no idea why it would take me so long. First, chemically strip off old finish, use after-project wash, an old steak knife, and a green scratchy pad to clean off stripper and clean out the many, many crevices. You may attempt to guard your hands with all kinds of protective gloves, but they will turn out to be completely useless. Next, use wood putty to fill in holes in the middle of the doors where old handles used to be, apply 1/2 water-1/2 paint layer to mimic stain, paint insides of cabinets with primer and then with a layer paint, then cover the whole thing with one, two, three and four coats of varnish. Throw in a couple of pregnancies (where I would have to stop for 9 months due to fumes), a Primary calling, three other children, and a husband that works 45 minutes away, and crunch all those numbers with your little calculator and you will get: 4. Which, of course, stands for four years. Or was it supposed to stand for four months? Maybe four weeks? My bad.

Anyway, here is the result:

And don't try putting a damper on my happiness by telling me that the pictures are crooked because I'm already on it!

I just have to share the following in relation to this. During this whole ordeal, whenever I'd look at those stupid cabinets, which I know were mocking me, and I'd think that I really didn't want to work on them, that I'd rather blow them off and go paint my toenails instead (which I still have yet to do), I seriously had this poem leap into my mind every time and haunt me:

Stick to your task till it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honor, power, place, and praise

Will always come to the one who stays.
Stick to your task till it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life’s victories, after awhile.

I thought it was Pres. Monson who I'd heard use it in a Conference talk. He did . . . back in 1979. But the only recent reference I found was in a talk by Russell M. Nelson. So I blame him. It is an especially poignant poem because when I used the chemical stripper to remove the old finish, the residue was very, very sticky. I wish to never hear the word "sticky" again. And I wish that no other task will "stick" to me in the quite the same manner. Blech!

And speaking of "Blech!" I have another fun picture for you. You can use it as a party game. Amuse your friends! Begin by looking closely at the following picture:

Now try to guess which one of my highly-favored earrings traveled safely all the way through Mitchell's digestive tract and came out the other end with the back still on!

The answer may surprise you . . . but it probably won't.