Perfection

"Our vision is clouded when we forget we are not in competition. As children of our Father in Heaven, we are already unique and valuable, beyond anything we can achieve in this world."

—Elder John C. Taggart

"All Things in Wisdom and Order"

August 2010 Ensign

Ever since I was little I've wanted to be the "est." The tallest, the smallest, the smartest; the best. As a teenager I received enough praise from all around to feel like the best at many things—at least to feel pretty great about myself. As an adult I know I'm really good at lots of things, but I want to be better in so many ways.

"nearly" perfect

The other night Bruce and I were talking about body-image. A week or two ago I read a magazine article about Cindy Crawford, the supermodel. The writer said something about her "almost perfect body," which I thought was crazy. If Cindy Crawford's body is only almost perfect, then I must be a cow — and so must most of the rest of the female population! That can't be right. But when Bruce asked me who has a better body—me, or Cindy Crawford—I answered without hesitation, "Cindy Crawford."

Hmm.

nearly "moo"

"But I am like as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind" Mosiah 2:11
"And ye are still indebted to [God], and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
"And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but hehold, it belongeth to him who created you." Mosiah 2:24-25

So if we are all the same and all either worthless or of infinite worth, it really is silly to compare, isn't it? But we do. I do, although not as much as I used to, I think.

Kitchen Update

The Great Kitchen Project . . .

Well, two weeks into the project, phase 1-A of the kitchen is done: I've got all the upper cabinets painted and the doors re-hung. It took a little longer than I'd hoped, what with back-to-school shopping and physicals, and re-tinting the paint—and so having to apply about a thousand coats.

But I did finish 1-A—this morning, in fact. This afternoon was spent in really cleaning the kitchen; for the first time in two weeks, it is bee-yoo-tifully clean. Aahhhh. ☺

And, lucky you, I decided to post pictures of the work as it progresses,

so you don't have to wait to see my colors.

An unexpected side-effect of the new paint color (which is called "Phantom Mist" —which always makes me think of "Phantom Menace" (do we see too much Star Wars around here?). Ahem. The unexpected side-effect is that the mauve countertops don't look quite so obnoxious when they're paired with the Phantom Mist. I still don't love them, but they are more palateable.

This will never do

Phase 1-B is to sand and paint the bottom set of cabinets. I wonder if I can figure out how to repair, reinforce, reconstruct, my flimsy drawers while I'm at it. The kitchen drawers—not my unmentionables!

Kids, wood, and knives don't mix

I'll keep you posted as I go!

Weird Dinner Weekend

OK. So after the banana bread dinner on Friday you'd think I'd be more on top of things. But, no. For our last-minute dinner on Saturday night we had Stove-Top Stuffing, instant mashed potatoes (no gravy), zucchini casserole (which is, basically, zucchini in a creamy sauce with stove-top stuffing), and leftover salad. I really need to be more on the ball with the whole dinner thing.

Weird!

Friday was a busy day. Painting cupboards all day, cleaning house and doing a little school-clothes shopping with the girls. So, once again, there was no dinner plan—or not much of one. This isn't entirely new this summer, or unique just to busy Fridays. I just plain old don't want to cook in the heat of summer, especially when I'm in the middle of a big project that has much of my kitchen scattered all over the place.

Anyway, I did have good intentions for Friday dinner. I got out about a pound of chicken and about a pound of shrimp to thaw so I could skewer them up and grill them. Yum! I thought I'd cook some kind of nice rice, maybe grill up some veggies too . . . Not bad. But by the time I got home from the store it was already dinner-time and everyone was starving and I just wanted to take the quickest, easiest route to dinner.

I asked Bruce, Michael and Jason (who were on the computer in the kitchen) what we should have for dinner besides grilled chicken and shrimp. Jason had made some banana bread while I was out shopping, and someone suggested having banana bread as the side-dish. You're kidding! Grilled chicken and banana bread, and nothing else? For dinner?

As I start preparing the meat, we are having this conversation:

Me: That's just weird.
Michael: Well, when I'm hungry, I don't care what I eat as long as it fills my stomach so I'm not hungry any more.
Me: Well then, why don't you just go out and eat grass? :-)

Michael: Well, it has to taste good. Banana bread is good.
Me: Banana bread for dinner? That's just weird!

Bruce: Why? I think it sounds great.
Me: Obviously you are all guys.

Bruce: I think it sounds good. People have cornbread for dinner.
Me, hesitantly: Well, yeah. (But I am thinking, "It's not the same.")

I start thinking fast. I could throw a salad together, and grill up some zucchini slices. I'd like some rice, or potatoes, or something, but there's not much space to work in the kitchen, and it's getting late. It looks like we'll have chicken, shrimp and banana bread for dinner—and the above-mentioned veggies to appease my sense of what's good for the evening meal.

As I'm skewering up the meat,
Brandon: "What's for dinner?"
Me: Grilled chicken, grilled shrimp and banana bread.
Brandon: Sounds good!

Boys are just weird.

more of . . .

. . . The Great Kitchen Project

it continues:

On days 11 and 12 (July 26-27) I took the cupboard doors out into the garage and sanded them. And sanded them and sanded them. This took several hours, and the vibrations of the electric sander—three hours at a time—made my hands and arms ache for days. But then, what do you imagine they'd feel like if I wasn't using an electric sander?


On days 13 and 14 (July 28-29) I started painting the sanded cabinets and some of the doors. I will not tell you the color. Ha!!


Well, first I had to empty all the cupboards.

Then I had this terrific idea that I could use acrylic craft paints to paint the cupboards—it would be inexpensive, easy to mix colors, it lets the wood-grain show through a little, and it's easy to clean up. I figured I could just cover over it with an acrylic sealer/varnish and all would be well. After I'd painted more than half of everything, I started wondering if this was really such a brilliant idea. So I talked to the people who make the craft paint, and I talked to the people at a paint store. And I learned that all of the good things I thought of were true. But I also found out that the required three coats of polycrylic sealer would be much more expensive than the one gallon of latex paint I'd need for the whole project. Hmm. So now the plan is that the acrylic craft paint is the primer coat, and tomorrow I'm going to get a gallon of acrylic-latex paint to do the top coat. The upper set of cupboards will be all done this week. :-)

More to come . . .