MaeLyn's Musings

One day a couple months ago, I looked into the kids' shower. I don't usually do that. It's kind of gross.  I have these unrealistic thoughts that since they're the ones who use it, they should be the ones to clean it, and they believe that some magical fairy is going to clean it for them, and that's never actually happened. But anyway the point is that I looked into it.  I'm not sure now exactly what I was looking for. I think maybe I was making my shopping list and I was looking to see if I needed to buy more shampoo for them. Anyway, I noticed that there was a tile loose. I wiggled it a little, and it fell right out, revealing a hole in the wall board behind it, and a whole bunch of mildew. Ick! Josh helped remove the old tile I had no idea how long the tile had been loose. When I mentioned it to the kids, they told me it had been like that for months. "And you never told anyone?" I asked. "Well, no. I only think about it when I'm in...

Every few years, the Young Women in our ward have a Spaghetti Dinner and Auction as a fund raiser for girls camp. People donate things to be auctioned off, and all the money goes to the girls camp. When I heard they were having the auction this year, I decided to make some amigurumi to donate. I crocheted the animals, then took them to the park for a photo shoot, and then made up little cards for them. It was a fun project and kept me busy. The dragons were definitely my favorites!   Here are samples of some of the cards. The auction was held last Saturday. We were seated at a table in the cultural hall, which had been decorated to resemble the Italian restaurant from "Lady and the Tramp". Hannah and the other young women served salad, spaghetti, and rolls for dinner. A silent auction was held on tables on one side of the room. Later, with our bishop serving as auctioneer, more expensive items were auctioned off to the highest...

On Wednesday, March 23rd, our morning began with a cell phone buzzing. Seminary was cancelled. Shortly later came the call that school was cancelled. A peek out the window showed maybe a half inch of snow on the ground but snow was falling steadily, and weather reports were calling for a blizzard that would last the entire day. By the afternoon, we had almost two feet of snow on the ground outside our front door! The kids had a blast building forts and caves that afternoon. Josh checking the depth - 21 inches! Hannah climbing out of her snow cave Hannah inside her snow cave Josh building the walls of his fort John working on his fort Peter enjoying the snow When the sun came out... kind of.  A neighborhood squirrel came around looking for a warm nest and discovered my Halloween craft pumpkin on the shelf just outside our patio door. He proceeded to chew a hole in it, dig out the stuffing, and spent the next couple days warm and snuggly inside it...

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Easter Sunday. Here is my talk, as I wrote it out (which is always slightly different from how I actually give it): I. The Plan   Once upon a time, we lived with our loving Father in Heaven. There was nothing we wanted more than to be like our Father. Not only did he know everything there was to know, not only was he perfectly good, not only did he love all his children totally and unconditionally, but he also had a perfect body – one that would never get sick or injured, one that would live forever. And we, well, we didn’t have bodies at all yet. We were just little spirit children, and we didn’t have much experience yet. But we loved our wonderful Father dearly and we wanted to grow up to become like him. Father, being wise and loving, made it his work to help us obtain what we desired – bodies that would live forever, and also a chance to gain experience, to learn and grow so we could eventually have the kind of life that our F...