MaeLyn's Musings

There are piles of sleeping bags on the couch on our patio, and the tents and camping supply bucket are out, checked, and waiting to be loaded into the car. There are suitcases and bags stuffed full of clothes on my bed. The kitchen counter is covered in bags of snacks and food. I have one bag that is stuffed full with books, games, DVDs, the camera, and other things that I will want close to hand in the car. Our house key has been given to friends, along with instructions to feed the cats. Substitutes have been found to cover my callings at church this Sunday. I still need to make some sandwiches for our lunch on the road tomorrow, and collect and take out the trash, and vacuum. If I really want to bring carrot sticks with us, I'll need to cut them tonight. I'm racking my brain trying to think what else I need to do tonight. The kids gave up on helping long ago and are playing a game. It's pouring down rain outside. I hope the rain doesn't follow us as we travel ea...

Saturday was Colorado Cares Day. Every year, this is a day of service all over Colorado. Our family joined with other members of the Westminster Stake to gather supplies for A Precious Child . Together, we loaded 117 backpacks with school supplies, and sorted and labeled piles and piles of linens - sheets, bed spreads, etc. All the materials were donated by members of the stake. After the backpacks were filled and double checked, Steven, Hannah, John and Peter got to help deliver them to A Precious Child. Here are some pictures Steven took with his phone camera while they were there. It took a while to unload all the backpacks even though they loaded up well. All the linens that were delivered The backpacks I'm glad that we have opportunities to be part of awesome service projects like this one, and that our kids can learn that it can be fun to serve!

Tuesday morning, Hannah stuffed her stuff into the back of a car and then climbed in herself and disappeared. She returned Friday morning with blue hands, and said that she had fun. What was she doing all that time? That is the BIG QUESTION! Girls Camp 2014 Me: So, Hannah, what was the first thing you did when you got to girls camp? Hannah: Um, that depends on where you say that girls camp started because we got to the main, like, area place and then we got lost, cuz the place is really big and complicated and stuff. But the first thing we actually did was eat lunch. Wait, no never mind, it was kind of just lay down because we ate lunch in the car, but the other girls didn't, I guess, so we had to lay down and wait for them. Me: So what did you do after lunch? Hannah: We played red rover and then, um- Peter: How do you play red rover? Hannah: So, like, you have two lines of peoples, and they say, "red rover, red rover, send the potatoes all over", and then if ...

I made the mistake of mentioning to someone about a week ago that our family really doesn't get sick very often. I guess the fates decided that it was time. On Tuesday, John wasn't feeling well. He had a sore throat, and possibly a fever. He lay around and read; I figured it would pass. By Wednesday, I think the sore throat was better, but he awoke with his eye crusted over with thick green gunk, which continued to ooze throughout the day. Yesterday (Thursday) his eye was still oozing gunk, and the area around his eye was sore from his attempts to clean the mucus. He couldn't open his eye all the way, and it kind of looked like his entire eye was sunken down on his face. As if that wasn't enough, by the evening, he was complaining about feeling a lot of pressure in his ear, and was so uncomfortable that he was almost in tears. Last night, Steven took him to the doctor. Sure enough, he has conjunctivitis (pink eye) as well as an ear infection. He came home with e...

This is the rainiest summer I can remember having in a long time. It seems like we get a rain storm or three or four passing through here every week. They don't usually last very long, but they can be strong. For example: Today started out hot. It was about 95 degrees or so around noon today. About 1:00 this afternoon, I was driving home from a visiting teaching appointment, and noticed that there were some very dark clouds in the sky. A couple droplets landed on the windshield, and steadily increased until I got home, at which point it was a strong sprinkle. Two minutes after I got inside, it was pouring down and one of the boys asked if it was hailing. I don't think it was, not today anyway. There were, however, loud booms of thunder. About half an hour later I noticed rain pouring out of the gutters and drain spouts. A lake began to form on our front walk way as well as in the lawn in front of the front door. (Josh and Peter were strongly tempted to go out and splas...

Yesterday morning, Hannah stuffed her dufflebag and sleeping bag in the back of a car, then climbed in herself and vanished to go to girls camp. Among the things she packed was a roll of blue duct tape to use to make cat ears as part of the costumes for a skit the girls will perform. Josh and Peter and I went swimming yesterday afternoon. We stayed at the pool for about three hours. I only swam for about half an hour, and then I found a deck chair in the shade and read for the next 2 1/2 hours. Josh spent some of the time diving for pennies, and Peter had to be dragged out of the pool so I could get home to make dinner. We had an enjoyable afternoon, and it wasn't until last night that we began paying the toll. Hannah took the sun screen with her to camp, and we ended up getting burned. I'm thinking we won't go swimming again until either she gets back or I can pick up some more sunscreen. Last night we had a bike derby for our pack meeting. We picked up popsicles on th...

Steven went to the scout camp Friday evening after work, and, among other things, the scouts there celebrated John's birthday that night. John got to blow out a candle stuck in a pinguino cupcake, and Steven brought him one gift to open there: a Python programming book.  They returned home Saturday morning, but we made John wait until that evening to open the rest of his gifts. He received Legos from Grandma Kathy, rulers from Peter, candy from Josh, a book from Hannah, and more books from Steven and me. (He should have enough reading material to last him for a few days now.) After the gifts were opened, we had angel food cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries. It was delicious!

Today is John's 13th birthday, and he is still at scout camp. Here are some more of the pictures that his scout leader posted from camp: Service project Tuesday Outside the dining hall after lunch on Wednesday  Wednesday was a rainy day, both here and at camp: Panoramic shot of the camp site Digging trenches to drain the water in front of the tents John was being a goof at the lake party Thursday night. From this morning: John's scout leader said, "John is NOT at all excited for his 13th birthday! Even with his Grand Master Flash hat!"   At least he got one great picture of John!  

Hannah has been speaking in tongues lately. Can you understand this? This is a das el exerpt-ito-en from das booken. El bonusito el pointitos to anyone who can el guessito the el bookito and even more el pointitos if you can el guessito the el pagito. In das el yearitoens to el comeito, das Harryen el wouldito el neverito das rememberen el howito he had das el manageditoen to el get throughito  his das el examitoens when he el half expectedito el Voldemortito to come el burstingito through the el dorito at any el moment-ito. Yet the el dayitos crept el byito, and there could be no das doubten that das Fluffyen was still el aliveito and das wellen behind the el lockedito el dorito. (I got Hannah to type this, because I never know whether to say das or el or en or ito at the end.)

One of my favorite aliens from Doctor Who are the weeping angels. If you don't know what the weeping angels are, watch the video below, where the doctor explains... you can fast forward to about 2:15 if you don't want to watch the beginning. Anyway, yesterday while browsing we came across this tutorial that explained how to make our very own weeping angels, and Hannah decided she wanted to do it. So we did. We made six of them, and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. Now Hannah wants to leave some on the window sills of her Doctor Who fan friends, looking in.

John is at scout camp this week. He left yesterday morning around 4:30am. He'll be back Saturday. Meanwhile, the house is just a little quieter. His bedroom is just a little emptier. Our house is just a little messier (because he isn't here to do his chores... and he's one of my kids who is actually good about doing them.) One of John's scout leaders has set up a Facebook group page where he has begun posting pictures of the boys there at camp. On the drive to camp They decorated their troop shirts themselves. Lunch time Do you notice anything strange about the expressions on John's face?

Yesterday was one of those days when I remember that I have four callings. Here is my day in a nut shell: 4:50 AM Woke up to a loud popping noise from outside. It was probably fireworks, but it might have been a gun shot. It was followed by two more loud pops, then another four. When I didn't hear any more, I tried to go back to sleep. 6:00 AM Gave up on trying to return to sleep, and got up to finalize my Relief Society lesson. I printed up slips with the sections from the lessons I wanted to read so I could hand them to people instead of trying to explain to them which paragraphs I was talking about. 7:00 AM Showered and dressed, gathered my visual aids (A wedding picture, my marriage license, a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and pictures of Adam and Eve and Lehi and Sariah from the Gospel Art Kit, as well as a picture of the ten lepers) and what else I would need at church, read the comics in the newspaper, ate breakfast, sent the kids to get d...

Yesterday, I got to teach Lesson 15 of Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith, entitled, "Eternal Marriage" . One of my biggest concerns about teaching this lesson was trying to make everyone feel included when our Relief Society includes newlyweds and sisters who have been married for sixty years, single sisters who have never been married, and single sisters who have been divorced. There is also a sister who has worked with abused women, and I knew that if I wasn't careful, the topic easily could be diverted in a direction that I didn't care to go. I began by asking the question, "What are the characteristics and qualities of a 'perfect' marriage (i.e. one you would want to last for eternity)?" We spent several minutes coming up with answers and writing them on the board - things like love, friendship, same values, commitment, trust, acceptance of each other, forgiveness, encouraging to reach potential, sense of humor,...

Check out Peter's moves on the diving board at the ward pool party last night! (I apologize for the poor quality of the video. Steven took it with his phone.)

When Hannah returned home from watching "Frozen" in the theater with her friend Sylvia, she told us she enjoyed it. She liked the songs and the story. She thought her family would like to see it. Over the next several months, she was exposed to the hype. The song, "Let it Go" was everywhere. There were parodies in every form on the internet. Long before the rest of our family even watched the movie for the first time, Hannah was sick of it all. Peter learned a medley of songs from Frozen in his music class at school. He loved the music. When "Frozen" came out on DVD, he got to watch it at school. Online, he watched YouTube clips of the little snowman, and adored his antics. For his birthday, one of the top things on his wish list was a "Frozen" DVD. He received it. Now Hannah makes a point of leaving the room - preferably leaving the house whenever he wants to watch it. Last night we were on our way home from Scouts/Young Women's, when ...

  My kids have played so many more games this summer than I ever remember them playing before. Just yesterday, they played: Cheat, Old Maid, Go Fish, Battleship, Connect Four, Hearts, Spoons, The Game That Shall Not Be Named, Top It, Tennis, and Chess. In the last week, they have played all the games above plus: Monopoly, Life, Rack-o, Pit,  Clue,  Operation, Apples to Apples, as well as several other computer games. Yesterday I spent some time straightening the closet where we keep the games. I picked up all the random cards and game pieces that had escaped from their boxes and were cluttering the floor of the closet, and returned them to their homes. I think we have too many games. Either that or just not enough shelving. At any rate, the kids are having fun playing with them!

John and Peter are playing "Cheat". I hear "one jack." "one queen", "one king"... "are you sure that was ONLY one king?" "Yes..... and you know something." *laughter.* "But hold on. DID you cheat?" *sounds of cards being searched through* "You cheated!" This game is played with one deck of face cards, which is dealt out completely to all the players. The players go around in a circle, and the first one is supposed to play aces, the next twos, then threes, etc. As they play, they place the cards face down on the pile, and state the number of cards and the type they are putting down. The first person to get rid of all their cards is the winners. The problem is, that if it is a players turn to play threes, and they have no threes, they must lie and put down some other card instead. Some players may cheat by putting more cards down than they say they are playing. If they are caught cheating in the act, howe...

We had a fun Independence Day! Steven spent much of the day in the kitchen. He made a delicious potato salad, but his masterpiece was this trifle: Layers of blueberry jello, whipped cream, strawberry jello, banana slices, more whipped cream, and topped with Nilla wafers and strawberries and raspberries and blueberries. Just looking at this scrumptious dessert made my mouth water! It was hard to wait until dinner time to dig in. In the afternoon, we went over to a friends' house, bringing the trifle, the potato salad, and some corn. We joined our friends for a fantastic spread of hamburgers and hot dogs, salads, chips, and watermelon, followed by the trifle and cupcakes. We rolled away from the table feeling very full. Later on we went with our friends to watch fireworks put on by the city of Northglenn. These fireworks were closer to home than the Thornton ones we usually go to see, so it didn't take as long for us to get home and to bed. While our Independence Day ...

At our home, we have lots of puzzles. We have cheap puzzles from the dollar store, where pieces will "fit" in more than one place, so you have to make sure the colors and lines match as well as the bumps and gaps on the pieces, and sometimes that is really hard, and you aren't sure that a piece goes where it goes until you have all the pieces that fit in around it. We have children's puzzles that are so simple that we have literally attempted to do put them together blindfolded - and made progress! We have puzzles with pieces that are 9" across, and puzzles with pieces that are only about 3/4" across. We have puzzles with fully interlocking pieces, and other puzzles that are not so interlocking. We have a children's puzzle that consists of sixteen blocks, with six solutions - based on which side of the blocks is showing. That one is fun to use as a slide puzzle, by simply removing one of the blocks and trying to slide the other blocks in their base u...

Some time ago, Steven and I realized that we weren't in as good shape as we would like to be. We had less energy than we used to: running any distance made us feel as though our lungs were going to burst, and it didn't take much exertion to leave us with sore and aching muscles. We resolved to do something to remedy the situation. Steven began jogging during his lunch break at work and exercising with other members of the Elders' Quorum on Saturday mornings. I started doing Pilates and other exercises in the mornings, as well as counting desserts (much to Hannah's frustration). In discussions about what else we could do, it occurred to us that it might be fun to start playing tennis. We looked for tennis racquets at thrift stores, and even found one old wooden one, but finally, this last Saturday, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a couple for $10-$15 each, along with a bag of tennis balls. Last night, John chose to play tennis for our FHE activity, so we piled into the ...