MaeLyn's Musings

I'm afraid I might be getting sick. Or something. The last two mornings I've woken up with headaches, but if I take Ibuprofin first thing when I get up it usually doesn't bother me for the rest of the day. But I'm still tired. Maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, stressed out? Or was that just yeserday? Yesterday started out well. We got to church on time, and I felt prepared with my sharing time. Sacrament Meeting was good, and the kids were even good enough that I was able to pay attention to the speakers. I guess it was when we got to primary that things started falling apart. The plan was for my counselor to take the teachers out to do a teacher training while the chorister and I did a combined (both Jr and Sr) sharing time and singing time, and then they would come back in time to teach their classes. The first problem we learned of was that we had no teachers in the nursery. Since my other counselor (the one over nursery, who had been assigned to ...

This has been a very enjoyable long holiday weekend. The kids had the day before Thanksgiving off school so I made them do good cleans of their assigned rooms, and as a reward I took them to get ice cream cones and play at the park in the afternoon (which also helped keep the house clean for a while). That evening we had Steven's scouts over to work on a graphics arts merit badge. I got to show them some of the basics of Photoshop, and the boys seemed to have fun with it. Thursday was a beautiful day! We locked the cats in the master suite and then revacuumed the entire house in an attempt to get rid of as much cat fur as possible before Heather and April and their families arrived. We really enjoyed their company, and the feast was delicious! (I didn't realize until today that we had forgotten to make any stuffing! We had so much food I didn't miss it at the time.) Tejay prepared the turkey, Heather made the drinks and April and Dean provided a fruit salad and rolls. All...

There is something in the air. It is a feeling - very secretive, but filled with mounting excitement. It includes a bit of frustration but mostly anticipation and occasionally even delight. My brain is in a whirl, thinking, pondering, planning and waiting. My activities? Shopping, wrapping, sewing, painting... Getting ready for Christmas! Yes, I know it is a month away. I know Thanksgiving isn't even over yet. But for a few weeks now I've been searching for just the right gifts to please and delight my family come Christmas morning. In a way Steven is easy to buy for because he tells me exactly what he wants, and even sends me links to where they can be bought online, so it would be REALLY hard for me to get the wrong thing. The only problem is that he knows exactly what he is going to get. The kids are a little more difficult. I have to think about what they need (as far as clothes and the like) and about what hobbies they enjoy, what skills they are developing, what kinds o...

When I was pregnant with John, my friend Tabitha was pregnant at the same time. Tabitha's baby, Joseph, lived long enough to be born (one day after John) but suffered from something called Trisomy 13 and only lived about 12 days. A couple days ago I learned that a young family in our ward just found out that the baby they are carrying has this same terminal chromosomal disorder. They are due in January. At the same time, the secretary in our ward primary has gone to see to her mother who is suffering from heart problems. The doctor told her family they had a couple choices: he could do nothing, and her mom would probably die. Or he could perform surgery, but the operation itself could kill her. I hope I never have to make that kind of a choice. I can't express how sad these things make me, or how grateful I am for my knowledge that families can be eternal. I am grateful that my parents were married in the temple, that I was born under the covenant, sealed to them, and that I, i...

Okay. Today is random picture day. No, it is not as exciting as seeing pictues of a brand new baby, but oh well. The first picture was taken on one of the days a couple weeks ago when Lindy was here. She was impressed to see Hannah helping Peter on his little laptop game. The two of them do get along really well together most of the time, and it is nice that Hannah can help Peter when I am otherwise occupied. (Can you see the two cats under the table?) This was taken on November 2nd, a few minutes before we left to go to dinner and see "Wicked". I know I already said it, but I really enjoyed having Lindy and Thom here, and our evening out was a blast. We should do things like that more often! (Note the black cat lying on top of the TV stand on the right.) This picture was taken on my bed on Sunday. Yes, we really do have four cats here. From left to right they are: Abish(the mom), Ishmael(the dad), Lamoni (called LaLa by the kids) and Moroni (called MoMo by the...

Hmmmm. What's on my mind today? Well, first of all, I'm thrilled that April had her baby last night, that her husband was able to come back from Afghanistan to be there for the great event, and I look forward to when I can see them all in person. Yes, I did just see April a week and a half ago, but I still look forward to seeing her with her long lost/newly found family. Another thing that is rarely far from my mind these days is my calling. Primary yesterday went smoothly. I finally feel like I have some grasp on what I'm supposed to be doing at the moment and I'm not feeling quite as overwhelmed as I was before. I will feel better when I know who my teachers are going to be next year, and which class each is going to teach. At last count I still needed to find five new teachers. However, yesterday the new chorister, nursery leader and activity days leader were sustained. I consider that progress! I'm looking forward to the holidays.We had a really nice Relief ...

Tuesday exhausted me. Wednesday I recovered. The kids had the day off school so I took the day off as well. I read a couple of Hannah's books, "The View from Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg (yes, I did have to go look that up. She also wrote, "From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E Frankwiler") and "The Tiger Rising" by Kate DiCamillo.(Author of Because of Winn-Dixie) I relaxed on the couch most of the day while the kids were in and out, on the computer, playing with friends, making concoctions in the kitchen, playing games, doing puzzles and having fun. I didn't go anywhere. I renewed the one library book I had that was due yesterday online so I wouldn't have to go to the library. Steven took John to scouts last night. I had a very relaxing, enjoyable day. Today, I've paid the piper. I got the kids to school, then came home to clean the mess that resulted from the kids' activities yesterday. I cleaned out the cat's litter (Okay, I ...

Yesterday exhausted me. At 9:15am I loaded the kids into the car and we went to the school for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Hannah's was first at 9:30. But before we could go in to meet her teacher, I had to take Peter to the potty. Anyway, Hannah is doing awesome in school. She got over 400 in all areas of the CSAPs last year-and that's really good. She will get mostly 'A's on her first trimester report card. John's appointment was at 10am. We got to his class room about 10 minutes early, and his teacher was still in conference with someone else so we went to see the PE teacher while we were waiting. I was able to tell her that the kids have walked home from school at least 5 times since the beginning of the year, so Hannah and Josh will get credit for meeting the 1st trimester fitness goal. John walks the track at school every day so he has already met the goal. We went back to John's class room, and had to wait another 5-10 minutes before his teacher was ready...

I'm sure this will be a quick one, since I've got all the kids running around (literally) here, and we have parent teacher conferences in less than an hour. Last night for Family Home Evening I asked the kids what they would like to do as a family service project. (We've been talking about service in Primary this month, and I realized we haven't done many family service projects in the past.) The kids decided they wanted to give cookies to their school teachers. I had made sugar cookie dough earlier in preparation for cutting them out for activity and eating them for dessert, so we went ahead with our plans, setting aside the nicest (biggest, unbroken) for the kids to give to their teachers. It was fun, and the children are looking forward to delivering them when we go to conferences this morning. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to try to do at least one family service project each month. We'll see if we can think of lots of different ideas. Oops! Josh ...

Is it just life that as soon as you think you have a bit of a handle on something, you realize that you don't? Maybe it is just me. Primary on Sunday went really well. As I was going to bed last night I realized that I enjoy working with the kids in Primary. I have fun whether I am conducting, like I did yesterday, or teaching Sharing Time. I love the kids and I thoroughly enjoy that aspect of my calling. And then, just as I was ready to drift off to sleep, I realized that I had scheduled a presidency meeting at the same time as I have parent/teacher conferences this Tuesday. Oops! I laid awake for another hour after that thinking about how I was going to explain my blunder to the other members of my presidency - especially after I cancelled our meeting last week. (I cancelled because I wanted to enjoy Lindy's company last week.) I thought about Primary, about callings that need to be filled, about things we should talk about at our presidency meeting, all the while hearing son...

This morning when the kids awoke, I heard an early moan. "I don't have any pants to wear" two of my children groan! This fills my heart with much dismay - I just washed laundry on Monday. Do my kids not have four pairs of pants? I try to find some, but I can't. I know that most of them received pants for birthdays recently.  Do clean pants into the hamper go? They haven't been dirty from rain or snow. Do their pants have holes from crawling the floor? That's never stopped them from wearing before. So away to the store I must go today To buy more pants so my children won't say...     "I have no pants to wear today."

I'm waiting for the phone to ring. It will be the school asking me to come pick up John because he threw up, or isn't feeling well, or is coughing too much. It is hard sometimes to decide whether or not to send a child to school. John threw up twice yesterday-- once in the morning and once in the evening. Most of the morning he wasn't acting particularly sick, but in the afternoon and evening he stayed lying down, and was obviously less energetic than normal. He went to bed early, and I was thinking I would have him at home another day. This morning he was coughing, and his nose was running, and he still didn't look like he was 100% better. I took his temperature and it was 99.4 F. But he didn't feel nausious any more, he ate some breakfast, and he wanted to go back to school. His temperature wasn't all that high, so I'm left with the dilemma: do I let him go to school, knowing I may have to go pick him up in a half hour or an hour? Or do I keep him home, wh...

I got to see "Wicked" last night with Steven, Lindy and Thom. I had been concerned about having a babysitter, but April received clearance from her doctor and was able to come up. She had a few contractions, but hasn't gone into labor yet. I'm so grateful that she was willing and able to come and watch the kids for me. It was exciting to dress up, drive down town, and walk down the 16th street mall for the very first time. It was fun to see the bicycle - pulled carriages, and a horse drawn carriage along with the shuttle that provides transportation up and down the street. We had dinner at Chili's, and the food was good, and the conversation was fun. For dessert I had a shot glass sized key lime pie, that was really good, but it was frozen, which made it difficult to eat. After dinner we hurried to the theater where Wicked was being performed. Lindy and Thom had seats on the orchestra level, and Steven and I had seats up in the balcony. I didn't know much ...

They're here! Lindy and Thom are here in my house at this very minute! Lindy was commenting on how this is the first time she has seen our home, and we've lived here for six years now... I say it's about time! Yesterday, of course, was spent getting ready for them. I had to clean out the kids' rooms. (No I didn't use a shovel on Hannah's room, although I was tempted to.) I filled up a huge trash bag with all the scraps and candy wrappers and junk that was in their rooms. I saved anything that looked like time and effort had been put into crafting - like Hannah's cereal box doll house and felt dolls, and clothing for those felt dolls. Surprisingly, Hannah's crafts fit into one cardboard box! I was able to clean out her closet and under her bed and it only took me an hour or so! The boys room had been cleaned out more recently so that took less time, but I still felt exhausted by the time I had finished, and moved Peter's bed into Hannah's room t...

Trunk or Treating Our ward Trunk or Treat was held on Friday. The parkinglot had been plowed and the weather had warmed up so it wasn't too cold. The evening started out with chili and cinnamon rolls--our traditional trunk or treat dinner, which is unfortunate because none of our kids is a big fan of chili. I was a rebel and brought corn bread muffins instead. After dinner the kids played games and won prizes, and then came the trunk or treating. We got a prize for our trunk decorations. Steven decorated all by himself! Presenting: John - Robin Hood Joshua - Friar Tuck Peter - the king (He couldn't decide if he wanted to be Prince John or King Richard.) Hannah - Maid Marian Josh at one of the games. I'm not sure what he was supposed to be doing, but he liked riding the horse. Peter, after he got tired of playing games and before the Trunk-or-Treating.  Notice me, on the left, holding all the kids' unwanted accessories and prizes. Steven with the trun...