MaeLyn's Musings

It is never pleasant to have one's eyes pried open. I don't even like opening my eyes on those mornings when the sun is streaming in my window, but I'm not ready to wake up yet. And when it is the experience of having my horizons expanded, my understanding enlightened to something I wish I didn't have to be so aware of, it is uncomfortable for me. And yet, over the last few months, that is what has happened to me. I'm not sure what started it all, but I do remember a little over a month ago, one of my children asking me something about why people are gay. I told them I didn't know. I had heard enough over the years that I strongly suspected it wasn't just a choice that some people made, but it was hard for me to believe that people would be born naturally with such a difficult tendency towards a lifestyle that is sinful. In General Conference, a month ago, I was uplifted. By the end, I felt the need to repent, to forgive, to not judge others, but to be l...

A week or so ago, I learned that our web host was discontinuing their services. If we wanted to keep our website (stevenmaelyn.com) along with our custom email addresses, we would need to find a new host. Now, some of you will say, "you haven't updated your website in years! Do you really need to keep it?" Well, yes. Why you ask? Because Steven has an online presence that is worth keeping. Open a new window (or tab) in your browser. Go to Google, Yahoo or Bing. Type LDS harmonica music in the search bar. Look for Steven J. Hiatt's Harmonica Music Collection. It's there! Visitors to our web site for the last few years have been looking for harmonica music, not news about our insignificant family. The only other page on our site that gets much use is my children's customized home page , which only they use. Plus there is the fact that I like having a personalized email address. I do have a gmail account as well, but the stevenmaelyn email address is the one ...

On the Saturday before Easter, the kids painted eggs. (Hannah took charge of this activity, including taking the pictures.) On Easter morning, the kids got up expecting to search for Easter eggs, but unfortunately the Easter bunny couldn't find the plastic Easter eggs the evening before in order to hide them. She only found four complete eggs, so those four eggs were filled with candy and hidden and when the children awoke Easter morning, they were told they could only collect one egg each. (The eggs were hidden much harder than they usually are.) Eventually the eggs were all found (and hid again, and found again a couple times), and we gathered in the living room to read the Easter story in the scriptures and remember what Easter is really about. After church we had a delicious ham dinner. It was a good Easter. The kids didn't get as much candy as they usually do, but they didn't seem very disappointed at all. I'm still wondering how come we had over fifty ...

Hannah drew this picture for her art class last year, but only brought it home a few days ago. (Apparently it was lost and forgotten on the drying racks in the art room.) anyway, I was very impressed by the detail that she put into it. The original drawing is about 12"x18", done in pencil and ink.