The Table

My dad is a wonderful carpenter.  I am not.  But I do like to dabble in it now and then.  When my sister in law needed her table refinished, I offered to do it for her.  She was nice enough to let me try.

It’s a beautiful, old piece of oak, but it had lived many years, and the finish was worn off in many places.  I stripped it down.

Here are the two leaves, one stripped and one with the old finish.

After stripping, it looked like this.  Still pretty bad, right?

So, I sanded it … and it looked much better.

Ahhhhhh!  Isn’t that just pretty?!  Doesn’t that make you itch to stain it?

Then I made a rookie mistake.  See this nice little canister?  See how perfectly the little splotch on the front matches the color of the legs (which I didn’t refinish)? 

See how the stain inside the can looks nothing like the little sample on the outside of the can?!  (Honestly, I didn’t even let the stain sit 5 min like recommended, it was pretty much on and right back off.  And since I’m being honest, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color.)

But do you see how it doesn’t match the legs?  And yes, that’s right, I did do all four pieces until I thought of that.  Like I said, this is my first go-round.

So, try again.

This time with a little more smarts and scientific method.  I got a spare piece of oak from Home Depot, sectioned it off and tested new stains for  1) applying over the first stain 2) stripping the first stain and then applying a second stain and 3) if I had to, I could sand the whole thing back down to raw wood again and start from scratch.

Three new colors.

And varying results …

A fourth new color …

Trying to figure out what to do and staring at it so long my eyes hurt …

Then finally going with my gut and just picking one … and the immense satisfaction that I picked the right one, and the top matched the legs again!

Then came the fun part.  My dad made my mom a table when I was a kid.  I asked him what he used to finish it and he told me he’d done a tung oil finish because he’d wanted it to last.  Well, I was sure my sister in law wanted hers to last, too.  Also, I thought it would be fun, as I’d never done it before.

I really liked it.  Okay, okay, it’s much more labor intensive than poly.  Sure.  You have to paint it on, let it sit for 10 min, then buff it back off (I learned a few coats too late to be VERY CAREFUL to buff all the extra finish off or you get shiny spots).

But it’s fun because … well, look at the table while it has a coat of finish on it.  It’s so pretty and shiny!  Also, you just keep putting coats on until you get the luster you’re looking for.  It gets a little more shiny after each coat.

And this is what it looked like after eight coats.  Rich, shiny, pretty.  (And the top matched the legs … well, well enough.)

Now I’ve got it in my head to make my own dining room table next summer when my dad comes to visit. 

S Birthday

My poor S.  Every year, just when I’m glad Halloween is over, we have her birthday.  (Then again, I’m still glad she wasn’t a Halloween baby!)

I wanted to make a cake, but she specifically requested strawberry cupcakes.  (Were you aware that 75% of “strawberry cake” recipes are made from Jello?!  I looked so hard to find a strawberry cake I could make from scratch with … wait for it … actual strawberries!)

But it was worth it for this little doll. 

And the cupcakes were awesome.

S was very spoiled, celebrating her birthday over the space of two weeks, because we had to make a trip for her cousin’s baptism on her birthday.  (Sorry, baptism trumps birthday, and it was her cousin’s day to get the attention.)  As a result, we had cupcakes a week early and let the presents and treats trickle in.

Love my little S!

Halloween 2013

This Halloween started early for us.  L wanted to be Merida from Brave, S was Pocahontas, and J … well, if you make the girls both bow and arrows, you have to make J one, too. 

They actually work fairly well,

And I thought the arrows turned out nicely non-lethal.

Thanks to my mom, we had pumpkin cookies to decorate, and the kids really got into that.

 

We started the day at S’s class party

J ended up as a “Green Dragon”.  (Note the green cake from his birthday and the green dragon … there is a distinct theme in my house right now.)  S was adorable in her store-bought costume.  (I know, I know, I usually make them, but I didn’t have time this year!  Seriously!  And to be perfectly honest, with the costumes on sale, I actually spent less $ than I would have on fabric, if I’d made them.  And the girls were just as happy.  End rant.)

Then we went to L’s party in the afternoon, where S and J also got to participate.

Note, J is not wearing his costume in this pic.  He hated it.  I guess that’s what I get for making his …

Then we crashed the trunk or treat going on at the stake center and threw the kids in bed.  But it was a nice day. 

 

J Birthday

This little one had a birthday!

We ended up out of town that weekend visiting my parents, so we got to celebrate his birthday with them. It also meant I didn’t have time to make him a cake, but this one from the store was good enough for him.  All he wanted was “a green, car cake”.  I think we made it work.

My Dear Daughter’s Testimony

Just around the time C and I had L, the LDS Church came out with a statement discouraging small children from getting up in Fast and Testimony Meeting to bear their testimonies.  Now, we all know no one is going to make them sit down if/when they get up, but the idea was that the small children (with the help of their parents) didn’t really need to bear their testimonies, and they took up a lot of time doing it that would be better spent with adults getting up.

SO … C and I have never pushed our kids to get up to bear their testimonies.  We do, on occasion, get up ourselves, but I don’t grab my kids by the hand and drag them up.  As L got older, I started to wonder what would happen when she decided she wanted to bear her testimony, but it was only ever a passing thought.

Well, three weeks ago, L asked me, at the beginning of sacrament meeting, if it was a testimony Sunday.  I told her it wasn’t, and she seemed a little put out.  The next week she asked again.  I told her fast Sundays are the first Sunday of each month, and she’d have to wait another two weeks.  And she did.

This Sunday, I remembered L had wanted to get up and bear her testimony.  Anxious that she would have a good experience, and knowing how terrifying it can be to stand in front of the whole congregation, I asked her if she wanted to practice before we went to church.  She informed me she’d written it down already.  I scanned it over, asked her to add “I’d like to bear my testimony” to the top and “In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” to the bottom, and declared her ready.  (No, it’s not typical to write your testimony out, but I figured for her first time, it was more than acceptable.)

Then the moment came.  Right after the bishopric member invited the audience to come to the pulpit, L grabbed her paper and stalked to the front of the chapel.  She stood up, read her testimony right into the microphone, and brought her poor mom to tears.  She came right back into my arms where she told me she was SO HAPPY.  I was too. 

A little bit later, C got up to bear his testimony.  He mentioned how proud he was of L for getting up for her first time and that she’d written her testimony all by herself.

And that, my friends, is when L turned to me with a twinkle in her eyes and said, “Mama, I copied it off something!”

(I’m laughing while I’m typing this.  Yes, she copied it off something!!!)

I first assumed she’d had a lesson about testimonies and copied from one of her friends or her teacher.  Then later, at home, she asked if I wanted to know where she copied it from.  I said yes, of course, and she led me over to the side of the bookshelf where I’d hung this:

 

You see that little bit at the bottom? 

“I am a Child of God.  I know Heavenly Father loves me, and I love Him.  I can pray to Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere.  I am trying to remember and follow Jesus Christ.”

That was L’s testimony.

Now first off, I am proud of L.  Sure, she copied her testimony, but when she bore it, she did so out of pure, innocent desire to share something that she’d read and agreed with.  I love that.

And second, it reminds me how important it is to surround ourselves with good things.  I never dreamed what the result of having that little slip of paper on the bookshelf would be, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I love that my daughter is growing and developing spiritually.  I’m so proud of her!

NaNo 2013

If, by some strange chance, anyone has come to this website who doesn't know what NaNoWriMo is, I am very surprised.  This will be my sixth year participating, and even though most of October still stands between me and NaNo, I'm already excited to start.

As if I didn't have a million things to do (between the Primary Presidency with the Program coming up and VP of the PTA) I spent the few extra moments I had today doing this:

That's my book cover.  For the novel I haven't written yet.  I think this makes me officially insane.

I posted about NaNo last year:
A New Year Of NaNoWriMo
NaNo Update
Crossing the Finish Line

And this year, just a few days ago on my writing blog. 
Something you have written

There's still plenty of time to join me.  Come on, you know you want to!