MaeLyn's Musings

Tomorrow is the first day of May. May Day. Mother's Day is just around the corner, followed by Memorial Day barbecues, outdoor pools opening, summer vacation. Spring's chill is supposed to be making way for summer warmth... right? I wish. Yesterday was gorgeous and temperatures just reached the 80s. I had hoped it was a sign of good things to come, but apparently not. Tomorrow we're supposed to get snow. Uggggh! I am ready for summertime!

Today the temperatures are in the mid 70s and the sky is blue and gorgeous. The tulips that I separated and transplanted last autumn are finally blooming. I'm looking forward to summer! Saturday night we had our ward pinewood derby. Steven was the only one who made a car this year. We didn't bring the camera to the derby this year, so I don't have pictures of it actually racing, and he wasn't quite finished with it - he still wants to paint it. I'll post pictures of the car when he does complete it.  He received an award for best design. Steven is still working his contract job at GHX, and while he is willing to stay there until the lady comes back from maternity leave (probably mid-June), he really doesn't want to work there permanently, so he is still searching for a permanent job that will be a good fit. At the moment, he is thinking that he would like to go back to Richmond Homes, where he was working in January. Nothing much changes for me. I stil...

Last night, as I was driving home after visiting teaching, I noticed the beautiful full moon. It was gorgeous! When I got home, I went inside to grab the camera and went back out to try to take a picture of it. Unfortunately, my little point-and-shoot camera had trouble with the concept of trying to take a picture of something as far away as the moon. It wanted to use the flash... I couldn't hold the camera steady enough... the street lights were in the way. I am not really a photographer, like a couple of my wonderfully talented sisters with their fancy cameras and tripods. I eventually set the camera on an electrical box near the street, and did the best I could. This morning I've been having fun editing the picture, cropping, editing out a street light or two, and eventually, I got an image that I like. It doesn't quite have the same feel of that bright, crisp moon with the wispy clouds drifting in front of it that was the original inspiration, but it's still not bad...

Not everything that I create in Photoshop is a masterpiece. Frequently, I doodle. Usually I don't post my doodles - they are just something to while away the time, or experiment with different techniques or filters or shapes or ideas. Most of the time, I don't even bother to save them, but I thought I'd share today. Here are a few recent doodles:    These two are exactly the same drawing, but the first is saved as a jpeg and the second is a gif. I liked the contrast between them - but you kind of have to click on the pictures to see them close up to notice. The fun in this one was in creating the border and the background... which you can't really see unless it's close up. I frequently enjoy playing with Fibonacci's spiral. I love its proportions, but also its shape and gracefulness. I'm not sure what this was supposed to be, but something in me liked the effect.

The Haiku  First, five syllables. Second, seven syllables. Third is five again. Awesome Haiku The Awesome Haiku by John William Hiatt This was really cool! Josh's Haiku This was written by: Joshua Isaac Hiatt. Yum, Yum, Eat him up! (John came up with all three of these, contrary to what the third one might say. However, the last line of the third one is something that Josh has been saying a lot lately.)

Do you ever get bored? Do you like to draw? Then this activity is for you! Number of Players: Any number, but lots more fun if there is more than just one. What you need: something to write on, something to write with (pencil, pen, marker, chalk, crayon, fingerpaints, whatever), and a blindfold for each person playing (this could be a scarf, an over-sized hat, anything that can be worn so a person can't see what they are doing), an imagination and sense of humor not required, but definitely suggested. (We played this as part of our FHE last night. Can you guess who drew what?) How you do it: Everyone puts on a blindfold. One player suggests something to draw, and everyone draws it while blindfolded. When everyone is done, take off the blindfolds and compare drawings. Who's drawing looks most put together? Who's looks most random? After every drawing has been looked at, repeat process, taking turns suggesting things to draw.

On Saturday, Steven and I went to a ward activity, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". We had signed up for it a couple weeks in advance, so about 45 minutes before the activity was to begin we received a phone call to tell us at who's house we would be going to dinner. We brought our side dish (Steven made rolls) and showed up, to the surprise of our hosts, who provided the main dish, but knew only how many people to expect at their home, not who would be showing up. After dinner, all the participants gathered at the bishop's home for dessert. At the bishop's home, I admired several beautiful cross stitched pictures on the wall, which the bishop's wife had made for each of her six children. When asked if I did cross stitch, I replied that I had when I was a teenager, but hadn't done much lately. It has probably been ten years since I have done any, and I've passed my collection of embroidery threads to Hannah. Besides that, the projects that I did...

Peter was sick today, so I stayed home from church with him. He has hardly moved from the couch, so I've been occupying myself with an attempt at family history. On our dining room wall is a family tree. The names we have posted are mostly the names from FamilySearch . In comparing those names with other family trees, however, we found some discrepancies. Today, I was going to see if I could figure out one of those. On FamilySearch, my mother's great great grandmother, the wife of a man named George Givens Johnstun, is listed as Mahaley Dudley. In a Pedigree Chart in the back of a book of poems by my grandmother, that great great grandmother is listed as Sarah Sophia Johnson. So, which was it - Sarah or Mahaley? On my dad's genealogy site , he has Sarah's name. In several FamilySearch pedigrees, Mahaley or Mahalia is listed. Considering the place and time (Hancock/Nauvoo, Illinois) it could be that George was married to Sarah Sophia in 1841 and then to Mahaley in 1...

In my miserableness, I've gone minimalist. Here is Abish (orange) and Ishmael (black).

I hate getting colds - face becomes leaky faucet; my head will explode. The back of my throat is scratchy as sandpaper. My neck has a rash. Heaven sent water - soothe my throat, thin the mucous, let me breathe again. Does anyone else tend to get rashes whenever they get a cold? 

My parents finally made it here around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, (only about 26 hours after they had originally planned to be here...) and we loved having them here! The kids did their best to keep them entertained. Hannah played her viola for them. John played the piano and let them help him with his puzzle a little. Josh cuddled up in a blanket next to them and enjoyed their company. Peter told them jokes and drew pictures for them. We had scouts and young women that we had to go to last night, so we ended up leaving Peter alone with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple hours. He loved that! They watched a movie and I think Grandma let him play on her ipad for a little while  (a novelty, since no one in our home owns a touch screen device.) This morning mom and dad got up early and left here at 7am on their way to one of my sisters home in Missouri,  the next stop on their trip to Nauvoo. It was a super quick visit, but it was wonderful to catch up with them! Peter like...

So, my parents were supposed to travel here yesterday on their way to Nauvoo, but they got stuck in Rawlins, Wyoming with the freeway closed due to snow and dangerous conditions. We waited all day to see if they would be able to come, but it didn't happen. Today the roads were opened and they were able to travel onward, only to be stopped again by closed roads. Last I heard, they were taking another route, but unsure about how long it would take. My mom also mentioned seeing several accidents. The roads are slippery! Anyway, while waiting and praying, I've been drawing one of the objects on my computer desk. Have you got time? I've had plenty today!

Last week the weathermen said we were going to get a blizzard. The school called a snow day . Businesses closed. We got a couple inches of snow... but at the end of the day, we could still see the top of the grass poking through. We wondered - where is all the snow we were supposed to have gotten??? Yesterday we awoke to snow falling. It wasn't sticking to the roads and sidewalks in the morning. School wasn't cancelled. We trudged to school. The snow continued to fall all day. I had to walk to the library to return some things that were due, but decided to do that on the way to pick up the kids from school. It was still snowing, and by the time we all got home again, we were pretty wet and cold. It continued snowing. Josh asked if this was the blizzard we were supposed to get last week. I don't know. This morning's snow depth. This morning, the snow had stopped falling, although we are supposed to get more this afternoon and evening, and tomorrow. Again schoo...

Peter's favorite General Conference talk last week was Elder M Russell Ballard's talk , where he talked about the seven year old girl and her tomato plant. Yesterday we watched the talk again, and Peter illustrated it for us. We also watched a talk President Monson gave in April 2008, in which Peter learned this exciting fact: I'm so glad that he was paying attention and learned something! : D

Yesterday, for our Family Fun Day, we decided to go for a hike. To begin with, we went to Lookout Mountain Nature Center and looked around the exhibits inside.  When we went back to the car for our walking stick and water, we discovered some wildlife visitors nearby.  Then we took our hike along the nature trails.  After the hike, we climbed back into the car and headed towards home. Not far away, however, we came across a historic site we thought might be interesting to visit. We paid a visit to Buffalo Bill's grave, as well as the nearby restaurant and gift shop.  We took pictures in front of the museum. We didn't go through the museum though.  Josh enjoyed pretending to ride the horse in the gift shop lobby.  We enjoyed rootbeer floats at the restaurant. John lost his hat at some point while we were there and we had to go back and search for it. Luckily, the lady at the fudge counter found it.  It was a fun day, and we r...

The fact that a cat is stretched out on his back with his paws in the air does not necessarily imply that the cat in question wants his belly rubbed.

No, we didn't get another snow day today. The snow stopped in the afternoon, started up again a little in the evening, but stopped overnight and today is bright and sunny. (A little too bright really. There's a lot of glare out there!) The kids are all back at school, Steven is at work, and the house is peacefully quiet. So why the title? Well, yesterday I drew snowflakes . But I wasn't entirely happy with the result. Last night as I lay in bed, I was thinking about how I might have done them better, and I decided to try again, this time going back to the basic building blocks of snow flakes - building them up starting with the hexagonal water molecules. Anyway, I tried again this morning, and I do like this one better. I thought these flakes had more of the lacy quality of actual snowflakes. (Remember that you can see pictures bigger if you click on them. Most of my art here is 1680x1050 pixels, so I can use them as desktop screen backgrounds. You can too!)

School was cancelled today due to snow. I think this is the first time our school district has cancelled school because of weather in two years. There was only an inch or two this morning when we woke up, but it has fallen consistently all morning. My institute class this morning was cancelled. Relief Society tonight has been cancelled. I don't have to go anywhere all day. Steven's work called this morning... he still had to go to work. I hope the drive home tonight isn't too bad. Meanwhile, I have a house full of children at home. Hannah went out to play with a friend... I assume she is playing in the snow by her friend's house... there are no visible footsteps leading away from the house any more. The boys haven't gone out yet. Do I want them to go out... and then come back in frozen and dripping, crying for hot chocolate? Or do I want them playing - noisily- in the house all day? I don't know. I guess I'll wait and see what they want to do.

I messed around with this one for a long time, trying different effects and backgrounds.These are my favorites.  

One of our local libraries is designed to be more of a "hang out" than a place for books. Besides the big screen TV, the toys and the cushions, they also have an oversize checkerboard game laid out on one of the tables in the children's area. The last couple times I have taken my children there, they have preferred to play to checkers then browse the (somewhat scanty) collection of books. Wednesday evening, Steven saw me trying to close the lid on my bucket of fabric scraps leftover from various quilting and sewing projects, and he mentioned that I should use them up. Hmmmm. What could I make? I didn't really want to do another big quilt since I never completed the last one I made three years ago. (See here to see where it was then. The situation hasn't changed.) I don't have enough of these to make articles of clothing. But I remembered the checkerboard from the library. Maybe I could make something like that. Anyway, I took pictures along the way so I ...