MaeLyn's Musings

I'm not usually one to make an $800 expenditure on a whim, especially when money has been so tight... but what else do you do when your washing machine breaks down? Yesterday, I was washing my normal load-a-day of laundry, and at one point the washer sounded a little odd, but I just thought it was slightly off balance or something. When I went to transfer it to the dryer, the clothes were still dripping wet - and obviously dirty! I ended up rinsing everything out in the sink, scrubbing a few spots by hand, wringing it as dry as I could, and then sticking it in the dryer. In the bottom of the washing machine there remained several inches of dirty water. I tried messing with the controls, putting it on spin cycle, hoping that would drain it, but it didn't, and I noticed an odor, kind of like my hair dryer smells sometimes, like an electric burning smell. My guess is that the pump that pumps the water out burnt out. I eventually managed to figure out how to drain the old machi...

We moved our old sofa into the newly cleaned up playroom/patio on Saturday. By yesterday morning, the kids had arranged the area to their taste, and had made themselves at home. (Despite the smiling faces, most of them weren't particularly pleased that I interrupted their card game to take a picture.)

John passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday. It was an awesome feeling to have him pass me the sacrament trays. I am so pleased that he has lived worthily to be able to be a deacon, to hold the priesthood and be able to serve in this way. Way to go John! And they would have had no  children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.  But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who  knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. ( 2 Nephi 2:23-25 ) I have no greater  joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. ( 3 John 1:4 )

Saturday was a busy day for us. We got up and dressed, then set out for the church to help with an Eagle project for a young man in our ward. For his project, he had collected pieces of fleece for blankets, so on Saturday, we got to cut strips on the sides and then knot them to make blankets for the Children's Hospital. The patients at the hospital would receive the blankets and even be able to bring them home with them. By the time we finished, there were about 68 blankets finished. Peter was bored a lot, but even he helped to tie knots around the edges of the blankets. When we left the church, we went to the home of friends in the ward who were having a garage sale. It wasn't for sale, but they had a tandem bike that they were kind enough to let us ride around. That was fun. After playing with their bike and their drum set, we eventually bought a stuffed cow, a hiking pack thing, and a fancy tricycle (a green machine). From there, we ...

I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. ( D&C 82:10 ) 7  And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.   8  And again, tobacco is not for the  body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill. 16  All grain is good for the food of man; as also the  fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground—   18  And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments,  shall receive  health in their navel and marrow to their bones;   19  And shall find wisdom and great  treasures of  knowledge, even hidden treasures;   20  And shall  run and not be  weary, and shall walk and not faint.   21  And I, the Lord, give un...

I am, by nature, a skeptic. I don't believe everything I hear or see. When I get something in the mail saying, "You've Won!", the first thing I look at is the fine print. When I see a story in a forwarded email or Facebook post, Snopes is the first place I check. When my kids tell me a far-fetched sounding "fact" they learned somewhere, I have to Google it, check out Wikipedia, and a few other sources, before I will believe it to be true. On the other hand, there are a lot of incredible things that I do believe in - strongly. I believe in ghosts. I believe in miracles. I believe that in 1820, a 14 year old boy in New York state saw God and his son, Jesus Christ. I believe that boy, Joseph Smith, later translated an ancient record which was written by people living here in the Americas, and I believe that the words written in that record about Jesus Christ are true; I believe that the Book of Mormon is true. If I am a skeptic, why do I believe in these fa...

My kids love the Despicable Me movie. They haven't yet seen Despicable Me 2, but they look forward to when it arrives at the library or a friend of theirs buys it so they can borrow it. We recently borrowed the original Despicable Me movie from a friend, for the second time. (We should probably just buy it, now that Steven is working again... but we're still pinching pennies because we don't know how long this job will last, and there are a lot of higher priorities, like getting the kids clothes for school.) Anyway, I didn't know what to blog about today, but I was messing around on the computer and Peter suggested that I draw a minion. So I did. Here is my Photoshop-drawn minion.

I read a blog this morning which was written by someone I don't know. She is a mother of three children, all under the age of four. She was wondering what her contribution was, or as I interpreted it, where was her source for a sense of accomplishment? She explained, when you go to school, you get your grades that tell you how you are doing. When you go to work, you get a pay check, which shows how you are doing. When you are volunteer for various causes, you can say, "Hi, I'm fill in name here, and I do _______________." With her young children, she was a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), she was finding less time to volunteer, and she was wondering what her contribution to society was. She claimed that she was an incompetent housekeeper, that she doesn't cook great meals for her children - her children wouldn't eat them if she did. She couldn't even say she was helping to raise a great next generation; she felt like raising her children was a gamble, and she...

John returned home from scout camp at 1:30 Saturday morning. (They decided to come home Friday night instead of Saturday morning, but by the time John woke up Saturday after the late night, it was about the same time he would have gotten home Saturday anyway.) He had a lot of fun there. Here are some of the highlights: John went to "the Crevasses" in Camp Deitler. The crevasses are huge rock things that have big gaps between them and some caves. John went through some of the gaps and climbed a large leaning rock. John made an electronic rectangle. It was made of a circuit board, two capacitors, four resistors, two LEDs, and two transistors. The LED lights blinked slowly when everything was put together and connected to a power source.  John participated in the "Polar Penguin" four times, which means that he got to jump in the lake right after breakfast, when the water was still cold.  He slept in a sleeping bag, inside a canvas tent that wasn't attached to...

Today is John's birthday. He isn't home today. He is at scout camp all this week - from way too early Monday morning until around noon on Saturday. But we are still thinking of him. I'm proud of my oldest boy. He is a very responsible young man. I never have to worry about whether or not he will do his chores. I never have to keep track of his homework - he just does it. I admire John's skill in origami, coming up with the intricate folds required to make almost any kind of animal. Visitors to our home are frequently asked what their favorite animal is, and before they leave, they are presented with a giraffe or a monkey or an elephant or whatever. John loves his LEGOs. From miniature pianos to multi-story tree houses for horses, or tall buildings with elevators, John is always creating something ingenious. When he isn't folding or building with LEGOs, John can usually be found curled up with a book. When we go to the library, he frequently checks out a do...

When April was here over the 4th of July, I was looking at her cell phone. It was a lot cooler than mine. It had a camera. It could record sound. It had a full keyboard that would make texting a ton easier. When she told me how much it had cost her, I had to pass on the information to Steven. He did some research, and last Friday, our new phones arrived. The next couple days were filled with getting our phone numbers and minutes transferred to the new phones, and becoming familiar with them and their capabilities. We acquired additional gadgets for them - one to connect them to the computer to transfer music and pictures, and another to connect to the car stereo so Steven can listen to the music on his cell phone over the car speakers while he is driving his hour long commute each way to work. I spent several hours one day customizing my ring tone and formatting a few of my computer desktop backgrounds for display on my phone. It's been fun playing with our new phones. When we ...

I mentioned here that I was working on a scripture bag for Peter. Well, I finished it that day. The sewing machine worked great. (I figured I should post pictures of it before Peter trashes or loses it.) Peter picked out the monkey fabric for it, and I followed (kind of) a tutorial I found here . The flap closes with Velcro and there is a pocket on the back in which he can keep his Faith in God book.

Yesterday, I got to teach in Relief Society for the first time since I was called to teach. I will teach every 2nd Sunday, from the Teachings of the Presidents Of the Church . This is the first time I have ever taught from these books, and I found the format a little challenging when I was trying to organize my lesson, trying to find a natural progression. I ended up starting in the middle and working my way backwards, throwing in the very end just before I got to the beginning. I always learn far more when I am preparing to teach than I ever get opportunity to actually teach, and this week was no exception. The lesson was Chapter14, "With God All Things Are Possible." Here are some of the connections, questions and thoughts I came up with while preparing, divided by section.  From the Life of Lorenzo Snow "Supernatural aid" is the grace of God, but it can be shown in many ways. It comes via the atonement of Christ. It comes via the whisperings and comfort of...

Hannah returned home from Beehive camp yesterday. Here is what she has to say about it: It was really cool. and stuff. ..Um we did archery and canoeing and horse back riding and we made a trail. yeah. The first day, we met at the church and hung out for about half an hour or so talking to people, putting our gear away and stuffages. The drive up was, like, two hours. When we arrived, it would have been, like, tenish and then we did something really cool, like, we had a hike for, like, five miles round trip to a waterfall. Then we, like, set up our tents, I think. When we arrived at the camp right after the hike, they split us into groups, and then we set up the tent and stuff. Yeah.  I was in the "faith" group. Other groups were "love, humble, divine, sweet and one other. There were five people in my group including the YCL (youth camp leader). Their names were Tortoise (with a hand motion - see movie), Girlie, Jaedyn, Alyssa, and me (Hannah). We had pulled orc sand...

My sister Lia and her family visited us last night on their way home from a vacation in which they visited both Mount Rushmore and Nauvoo. Along the way they were also able to see and visit with my sister April and her family in Wyoming (who had returned home from visiting us just moments before Lia and family arrived.), my parents in Nauvoo, and another sister Kristy and her family in Kansas City, Missouri. We enjoyed chatting together. Joshua danced with his cousin Kylie, and played store with her while the adults chatted and McKenna listened in. I always love getting together with my family, and it seemed like we could have talked forever, but they were staying at a hotel for the night (allergies and cats don't mix) and so they had to go. They drove off, and I went to bed and laid awake listening to a terrific Thunder storm for the next couple hours. I hope they make it home safely! I didn't remember to pull out my camera until they were about to go, already in the...

Last night I set off to a Relief Society Second Tuesday Summer Salad Social and Swap Meet at the Stake Center at 6pm. We sat and scarfed scrumptious salads and sipped water slowly, while socializing with sympathetic sisters about siblings, sweets and silliness. On display were skirts, salvers and sundries. Someone snagged a switchblade spoon from Sonic. I secured a satchel and shirt as well as a softcover suspense novel and some CDs. When shopping was spent, we secured our spoils and shlepped them to our sanctuaries to sleep. When I returned home, I was anxious to hear how Steven's first day of work went. It went well. The people there were friendly. They got him set up in a spacious cubicle, and even took him out for lunch. He has already learned the names of the dozen people in the accounting department as well as a few others. His commute yesterday took about an hour each way, and if this job becomes permanent, we will probably look into moving south at some point, but fo...

A month or so ago, while trying to create a minion for Peter's birthday present, (see here for a picture) my sewing machine broke down. It went slower and slower and finally stopped, and not even turning the wheel on the side could get it to go again. I cleaned out the bobbin compartment, couldn't find a jam, couldn't fix it, it was pretty much dead. I finished up the minion by sewing by hand, and using a glue gun. On my birthday, Steven lured me out of the house, and while I was gone, he opened up my sewing machine, couldn't find anything wrong, blew on it, and put it back together. Once again, the sewing machine worked! I didn't have a project to work on that involved the sewing machine just then, so I didn't use it until after Peter's birthday, when I wanted to sew a scripture bag to hold the new set of scriptures he received. I got about three good seams, and then once again, it slowed down and ground to a halt. Uggggh! Yesterday, I was determined ...

 (As told by Peter) Today I was baptized! First, I changed into white clothes (like sleepers with short sleeves and no feet) in the bathroom. Next, we went into the chapel and sat on the very front row. Some people I knew were there, like the Murphys, the sister missionaries, and Sister Ellis, the primary president. We sang the opening song and had a prayer. Mom played the piano and Hannah led the music. We heard a talk about baptism. Then it was time for baptisms. Four kids got baptized today, and they saved me for last. When I got in, at first the water was really hot. Then it cooled down. I saw my family and my dad said the prayer and dunked me down in the water. When I came up, I was sopping wet, but I was happy. I had just been baptized! Then we went back into the bathroom and changed back into my Sunday clothes and went back into the chapel. We heard another talk about the Holy Ghost, then we got confirmed. I was last again. When it was my turn, I sat in the chair, closed m...

My sister April and her family came to Denver on July 3rd to buy a car. We were excited to have them come and spend the 4th of July holiday with us. On the 3rd, they dropped the kids off with us while they bought the car, and then they returned in time for dinner. The next day, we played Telestrations (a cross between Telephone and Pictionary), Spoons and Cheat. In the afternoon, we all went swimming. In the evening, we had a picnic dinner, and went to watch fireworks. They left this morning to return to their home in Wyoming.  Here are some pictures from our picnic:  Peter made friends with a ladybug.  Dean and the boys had fun playing King of the Hill, and dog piling on each other.  Getting ready for our picnic dinner on our front lawn.  Dean and Andrew. (Aren't they photogenic?)  Peter and Josh hanging out together. Here are some pictures from the fireworks. We parked about 4 blocks away from the park where they were set off,...

We came home from a family grocery shopping trip this afternoon to discover this in our kitchen. It was still alive, and Steven managed to take it outside. Thanks, cats.