MaeLyn's Musings

(Peter gave this talk in Primary last Sunday. I thought it was awesome!) In 5 days, we will be celebrating Jesus's birth. On Christmas Eve, my family reads and acts out the story of the first Christmas. We sing Christmas songs and think about his love, which helps us remember that he still lives. My topic is I Know My Redeemer Lives. A few small stories I like about Jesus are when he healed the 10 and when he walked on the water without falling. If someone asks you, "What would Jesus do?" consider the option of pushing over tables and chasing people with a whip. I like that story, too. But the story I would like to talk about is when he suffered in Gethsemane. When Jesus went to Gethsemane, he brought Peter, James and John as guards. While Jesus prayed, the guards were tired, so they fell asleep. That's all I'm going to say about them. In the garden, Jesus atoned for our sins and felt all of our pains. He felt the pain of everyone  from the creation of life ...

John and Josh's snow fort We awoke yesterday morning to snow. There was already a few inches on the ground, and it was still coming down hard. From about 5:00am on, we were inundated with texts and phone calls to inform us that there was no school, no seminary, no institute class. Hannah was disappointed about the snow day but I think it had something to do with it being finals week. No one else seemed to mind. Steven bravely set out to go to work, and by all reports managed to get there and back just fine. Steven's path to the sidewalk.  With nowhere to go, the rest of us spent a quiet day at home. Hannah baked cookies. John and Josh built a snow cave reminiscent of the one they built last year. Peter stayed in his pajamas and played with LEGOs. Some time in the afternoon the snow stopped falling. The snow on our front lawn is now about 6 inches deep. When Steven got home, he spent almost an hour shoveling a path out to the sidewalk, shoveling the sidewalk, and dig...

Washing dishes has never been one of my favorite things to do. As I child, I would procrastinate and play for ever because I didn't want to do it. I hated the scalding hot water. I hated that I never seemed to be able to get the dishes clean enough, so I would spend forever scrubbing at them only to have them come back... not clean enough. It was incredibly frustrating. I was grateful when our family moved to a house with a dishwasher when I was twelve. It was still a pain to have to load the dishwasher, but at least I wasn't responsible for how clean they got. Dishwashers are wonderful things - when they work. Our dishwasher now is almost five years old. (See here for how I know.) A few months or so ago, I realized that it wasn't getting the dishes very clean. The dishes on the top rack especially came out dirty. I wondered if the water was reaching the top sprayer. The door of the dishwasher began to get spots on it that wouldn't disappear in the wash cycle. The de...

As I was taking my morning walk, I came across an unusual sight. On a street near my home, there are concrete traffic barriers, which are intended to slow traffic, making them weave between these barriers. Each barrier is about a foot or 18 inches high. Today, perched on top of one of these barriers was a mail truck. (photo by Google Maps) My first thought was that the postman had parked there deliberately so as to not block traffic as he parked on the side of the road to deliver a package. Sure enough, I saw him leave his truck with a package and deliver it to a house nearby. Then he returned to the truck. As I passed the mail truck on my way up the street, the mailman said, "Pretty stupid, isn't it? I was busy looking for an address and didn't notice the barrier." He had gotten up there by accident! As I looked closer, I realized that the rear driver side tire was the only one touching the road. All the other tires were in the air, and the vehicle appeared to...

I don't like going to the doctor. I don't like being poked and prodded. I don't like being given things to worry about. About a month ago I went to a doctor (an OB, and no, I'm not pregnant) and as usual one of the first things they did was measure my blood pressure. Then they took it again. And again. I watched the little red needle swing around the dial past 140 or so, and then slowly creep back down. "Has anyone ever told you that you have high blood pressure? No? Hmmm. Well, are you feeling stressed right now?" "Some. I don't like going to the doctor." "Well, it's often high when people first come in. We'll take it again before you leave. It usually goes down after the visit." They did take it again before I left, and it had gone down... a little. But I was told that I need to watch that, and make a few lifestyle changes. If it continues to be high, I should see a regular doctor about it. So I went home and researched...

Way back in January of this year, I set a goal to index 25,000 names this year. At the time it seemed reasonable, but a bit of a stretch. At the time I was mostly indexing obituaries, which usually have at least 30 names, and sometimes have more than a hundred. I calculated that if I did 100 names per week day, that made 500 names per week. I figured there would be holidays and vacations when I wouldn't have time or opportunity to index, so I estimated about two weeks of "vacation" time. 500 names x 50 weeks = 25,000 names. Simple, right? Over the course of the year, I have plugged away at my goal. Some days I got a record to index that had more than 100 names. I would go ahead and finish the entire record that day. It never hurts to be ahead of my goal, I thought.  As the days when I did more than I needed to added up, the number of names I had to do each day to complete my goal decreased. The indexing program would tell me that I have to do x names a day in...

I've probably mentioned before that I'm the Webelos Den Leader for Peter and his friend Brian. Last summer, both Peter and Brian earned most of the Camper requirements as they were on family vacations. There were, however, just a few requirements that they couldn't complete on their own. One of those was to organize a campfire program for their pack. In LDS scout troops, the Webelos don't go camping as a den, so we had to be a little creative to help them pass off this requirement. As a result, the Webelos were in charge of pack meeting on Tuesday, and it was a "campfire". Peter and Brian came up with a theme (Christmas), decided on skits, a game, and songs, gave the Bear den assignments to help with a skit, and asked the Cub Master to supply a Cub Master Minute. Our evening went something like this: 6:30 We swung by the house of our cub committee chairperson to pick up the awards that were to be awarded that evening because she wasn't feeling well an...

This week, I have had about fifty bazillion things to write about, and NO TIME to write anything!!!!! Isn't that frustrating? I figure I should really try to get back in the habit of trying to write something every day so I don't feel so behind when I do write. But I have an hour to write before I need to pick up Peter from school today, so I guess you get the highlights: Sunday, November 22nd was a great day. First of all, it was Steven's birthday. He's finally caught up with me age-wise, for a few months anyway. :) Also that day, Josh gave his first talk in Sacrament Meeting. It was on the 7th Article of Faith and he did an awesome job. You can read his talk here . Tradition says that good things come in threes, and on that day, they certainly did. Steven found my camera !  It was in the van, somehow wedged between the side of my seat and the little tray thing in the middle between the two front seats. I would have sworn I looked there, but I guess it nee...