MaeLyn's Musings

Some of you may know that I got a guitar for Christmas. It didn't come with any kind of case though, so I made one. I did most of it about a month ago, but my needle broke when I was adding some finishing touches. But I finished it this morning, and I wanted to show it off. It is made from two layers of thick duck fabric, with cardboard and cotton batting in the middle. It has straps so it can be worn as a backpack, and a zipper opening at the bottom. I saw a similar guitar case here and figured out how to duplicate it. It probably won't protect my guitar from any serious injury, but hopefully it will provide some protection from the normal dings and scratches it would get from just being in my house. (And just in case you were wondering: yes, I am learning to play it. I practice frequently and I'm getting pretty good at picking out melodies as well as playing several chords. ;^D )

I never cease to be amazed by Hannah's creativity. She made this dragon out of cardboard, duct tape and a sharpie marker.

For Christmas, my sister sent us a snowman kit - just add snow! She wanted pictures...unfortunately, it didn't snow for most of January. Finally, however, we have had snow and the snowman kit has gotten some use! Thanks, Lia! Who needs snow? Finally put to proper use!

It is 8:30am. The kids and Steven are at school. I'm listening to Disney Songs on iTunes and eating cake and hoping that the fact that I've already cleaned up from breakfast, taken trash out to the dumpster and that there is laundry in the dryer justifies that. I'm feeling lazy today.  This has been a busy week so far - but then every week is busy, it seems. On Monday I didn't have anywhere to go, but I spent the day working. First, I cleaned all the lint from inside the dryer and tried to figure out if anything I could do would speed it up at all. Then I washed and dried four loads of laundry. While the laundry was washing, I scooped everything on the floor in the boys room into a trash bag to throw away. (They had warning I would do this so most everything they cared about had been put away.) When the floor was cleared I vacuumed thoroughly. Then, I emptied out the dresser that has been in our entryway since we moved in. It had been used for keeping school papers, o...

Something must be clogging the gutters. We get huge icicles! Last Thursday we had parent teacher conferences. All my children are doing wonderfully well. Because of conferences, there wasn't regular school Thursday, and Friday was a furlough day for the teachers. (In order to save the district money, the teachers "get" a day off school with no pay.) So, we had to find ways to keep the kids entertained. Thursday morning we spent a couple hours at the school visiting not only with the boys' teachers, but also with the specials teachers (P.E., art, music). When we got home, I left Hannah to watch the others, and I took Joshua with me to the store to pick up some groceries. He was supposed to go shopping with a parent as part of his homework for the week; otherwise I would have done that shopping trip the day before. When we returned home, the kids had pulled out the beads and put on a movie. The beads kept them occupied for pretty much the rest of the day. Can yo...