MaeLyn's Musings

This morning, I made some ghost earrings that I think are very cute. I thought I'd show you how I made them. Materials: a 4" length of thin wire (I used 22ga.), a 3"x3" piece of white cloth (I wanted cheesecloth, but I didn't have any around so I used a thin muslin instead), a 1/4" bead, a sharpie, and round nosed pliers. First, using the round nosed pliers, I bent the wire in half, making a small loop in the top. Then I poked both ends of the wire through the center of the fabric, and then through the bead. I curled the ends of the wire up to form "arms". I kind of molded the cloth how I wanted it, pulling it down between the head and the arms, Then I drew on a face with the sharpie. When it was more or less how I wanted it, I dipped it in a jar of fabric stiffener, and then let it hang to dry, shaping it a little more in the process, so it would dry how I wanted it. I used a little more wire to help one of my ghost keep it...

The light of the morning sun just begins to peer over the tops of the mountains, revealing the shapes of majestic pine trees. A concealing mist rises gently from the ground. Out of the dimness, figures appear, mounting rustic wooden towers. Lights appear, and the dark figures resolve into boy scouts in uniform blowing trumpets from the tops of the towers in a growing fanfare. Other trumpeters appear and join in from other heights until we are surrounded by beautiful music. Suddenly, two scouts drop from overhead, rappelling down long ropes, bearing giant flags - a scout flag, and the American Stars and Stripes. A scout calls for the audience to stand and salute, and thousands of voices join in reciting, in unison, the Pledge of Allegiance. No sooner has the Pledge been completed, than hundreds of cub scouts run forward to sing the National Anthem, with the accompaniment of a full orchestra I hadn't even realized was playing. Tears are streaming down my face, and I don't underst...

Institute this morning was on 2 Nephi 25-30 , but we spent most of our time on the first two chapters. Today was a day of lots of lists. Here is what we discussed in a nut shell: These five chapters are Nephi's commentary on Isaiah's prophecies, combined with his own prophecies. Nephi talks in plainness, as a contrast to the darkness and confusion of the Jews in Jerusalem.  Nephi tells the Jews of the latter days: Jerusalem had been destroyed, just as Lehi had prophesied, and the Jews were taken captive and scattered. ( 2 Nephi 25:10 ) The Jews would return to Jerusalem ( 25:11 ) Christ will come, be rejected, crucified, and resurrect. (vs. 12-13 ) Jerusalem will be destroyed a second time and the Jews again would be scattered (v 16 ) Eventually, the gospel will be restored, and the Jews will be brought to believe in Christ. (v 16-20 ) All these things would happen because of the hardheartedness of the Jews. According to a conference talk by Kevin Pearson in April ...

In Sunday School yesterday, we were discussing self reliance, and we came across a scripture that I found interesting: Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not  labor with your own hands! ( D&C 56:17 )  We discussed for a little while the importance of work, and why it is important not to be idle. My thoughts are that most people do want to work: most people want to feel useful, and to be appreciated for their contribution to society. I think that it is when people feel that they have nothing to contribute or that their contribution isn't appreciated that they lose the desire to work. On the other hand, work is more satisfying and brings more joy when it provides an appreciated service or when it satisfies our creative urges (I wrote about these last week ). Before...

One of the speakers at Time Out for Women mentioned a talk that President Uchtdorf gave in which he said, "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before." This struck a chord with me, because I feel that desire to create very strongly. There are a lot of days when I just want to make something - whether it is jewelry, or a sewing project, a piece of art or an arrangement of music, I want to make something new and different. It was suggested that we inherited these creative tendencies from our very creative Father in Heaven. I was looking around my house this morning and it occurred to me that everyone in my family has these same creative tendencies. They come out in different ways, but there is a current of creativity running through our blood. Here are some of the projects that were worked on/ made in the las...

At Time out For Women, we were taught that the Lord teaches through parables. A parable is a story with a veiled deeper meaning. It "conveys to the hearer religious truth exactly in proportion to his faith and intelligence; to the dull and uninspired it is a mere story,...to the instructed and spiritual it reveals the mysteries or secrets of the kingdom of heaven " ( BD Parables ) We were told to seek out and recognize the parables in our own lives. A little over a year ago , Steven was feeling discouraged in his job search. He had graduated with his MBA in July, and he was ready to go back to work... but the dream job didn't appear to be coming. He had interviewed with several places for good jobs, and they had all chosen to go with someone else. He asked our home teacher for a blessing, and he was advised to be patient, and to branch out in his thinking. The blessing wasn't as comforting as we had hoped it would be. In an attempt to "branch out", Stev...

The summer garden season is coming to a close. The cucumbers were made into pickles, or eaten in salads. The corn was plucked too early. the melons have disappeared one by one to either squirrels or neighborhood children - we're not sure which. The tomato plant succumbed to the cold and died. All that was left in the garden plot were the carrots, and I picked those this morning. I never know what kind of carrots I'm going to get out of our garden. Usually they are small, short, stubby things. This year I tried planting them farther apart, hoping that giving them more space to grow would produce larger ones. I still got an assortment of tiny, fishy looking carrots. (For reference, the long one in the middle is 4" from head to tail, and 3/4" in diameter at the widest point.) However, I did get one beauty of a carrot, almost twice as long as the carrots I usually get. (The ones on the right below are about the usual "big" size, about 3 1/2" - 4...

In Institute today, we continued the discussion on Isaiah. This week, I've spent a lot of time studying the assigned chapters (2 Nephi 15-24/Isaiah 5-14) During the last couple weeks, I've learned a few things that have helped me to put things together and make some sense of what I'm reading. Here are a few of those things: Historical background: See map to left. There are four major areas that we are concerned with here.  Southern Kingdom of Judah Capital: Jerusalem Major Tribe: Judah Leader: Ahaz, of the House of David Northern Kingdom of Israel Capital: Samaria Major Tribe: Ephraim Leader: Pekah, the son of Remaliah Syria Capital: Damascus People: Aramites Leader: Rezin Assyria Leader: Tiglath-Pileser III (called Pul in 2 Kings 15:19) I find it useful to note that Isaiah uses the names/capitals/tribes/leaders interchangeably, so the list above (which I've written in the margins of my scriptures as a reference) helps me figure out who is who. It is int...

A big blue bear looks in the window of the Convention Center. On Saturday, I had the great privilege of being able to attend Time Out for Women here in Denver. What an experience it was! I am incredibly grateful to my friend who made it possible for me to go by both paying for my ticket and providing me with a ride to the Colorado Convention Center. While the event started Friday evening, I wasn't able to attend because we had signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner, and since we have a set of sisters as well as a set of elders in our ward, both Steven and I had to be there. I missed out on the opportunity to hear James Ferrell and Brad Wilcox, as well as Michael McLean. That was a bit disappointing. Big Blue Bear from outside. Saturday was wonderful though. The theme for the event was "Higher", taken from Isaiah 55:9 , " For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts....

Is it Halloween already? Not quite. But we did pull out our winter hats and scarves and stuff  a couple days ago and this is how Josh chose to dress for school yesterday, and today.  He's been talking a lot lately about an airplane he wants to build, and this morning he gave me a list of materials he will need: wood, motor, gears, pipe, switch, and car battery. This will be a small, two-seater plane that he will be able to fly the 1/2 mile to school, and land on the lawn. This morning he was even telling me that if the family accidentally left on vacation without him, he could just hop in his plane and catch up with us. (I'm not sure what he was planning on doing with his plane after that - strapping it to the top of the car, maybe?) Until he is able to acquire the materials (and perhaps the know-how) to build his plane, however, he is content to drive the green machine, something we picked up at a garage sale a few months ago. Incidentally, this is what the slope ...

My phone can take pictures! They aren't very good quality (only 1.3 Megapixels) so I usually grab my 'real' camera when I want to take a picture, but I notice a couple days ago that I am growing a collection of photos on my camera. I emailed them to myself today so I could post them here.    Interestingly, I have photos of every family member except John. I also have several of the cats: There are also about ten more photos of Lala... his paw, his head, him sitting on the bed... And there is a photo of the computer keyboard. The funny thing is that although it is my phone, I remember taking very few of these pictures, and I have no idea why I would want so many pictures of the cat.

The origins of Halloween are a bit obscure. It might have begun as a Christian holiday in honor of the faithful departed. It might have been influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, like the Gaelic Samhain, which marks a time when the spirits of the dead could more easily visit the earth. Good spirits might visit their families while evil spirits might be out seeking revenge. One way or another, the celebration of Halloween was originally about the spirits of the deceased, and possibly other types of spirits. Today, the influence of these spirits isn't as obvious. Now, Halloween is seen as a time for kids to dress up and eat candy. It might be a time to have a party, to carve jack-o-lanterns, and just have fun, and little thought is given to spirits, unless one appears in a scary movie. Costumes no longer are limited to monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches and the like in an effort to blend in and escape notice from actual spirits roaming the earth. Maybe we no longer believe in...

Institute this morning was about Isaiah. Instead of lecturing, our teacher divided the class into groups, assigned us a chapter of Isaiah (as it was quoted by Jacob, in the book of 2 Nephi) as well as some photocopies of commentaries about those chapters, that we could use to help us decipher them. We were then given about 1/2 hour to read and study them, and then each group sent a volunteer to share with the rest of the class what we learned in our group. Specifically, we were looking for who each chapter was written for (i.e. the people of his day, the people of our day, righteous Israelites, less righteous Israelites, etc), what he was writing about (for example: Christ, the 2nd coming, love, etc.) and also what symbols he used and what they mean. We separated into our groups, read the chapter we were assigned, read the other materials we were given, discussed what it meant, wrote down what we discussed, and assigned someone to share with the class what we figured out. I thou...

I got to teach Relief Society this last Sunday. The lesson was Chapter 20 of Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, entitled The Kingdom of God Moves Forward . I started by having class members look up the following scriptures: Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive the...