MaeLyn's Musings

Because Peter was so close to his eleventh birthday, he was able to accompany his dad to the multi-stake 11-year-old scout camp this year. Here is an account of camp, as described by Peter. It started on Thursday, with a day camp at the church. They did pushups and situps, then ran a mile, then they calculated their BMI. Then they did a sit-and-reach and measured how flexible they are. Then they had donuts (because that goes perfectly with all the healthy stuff...) Then, they did knots. After knots came lashings, and then they had sloppy joes, chips, watermelon and lemonade for lunch. Then they went to first aid scenarios. They got to see disgusting first aid pictures. Then they went to another first aid station where they made a first aid kit and slings and stuff. Last, they learned about safe hiking. The next morning, they got up early and drove to the church with their packs. Once everyone arrived, they had breakfast burritos and orange juice or milk. After breakfast, they wen...

“Our Father in Heaven” Talk given in sacrament meeting June 19, 2016 (Father’s Day) What will you be when you grow up? There once was a family that raised some chickens. One day the father came home and his children were really excited because several eggs had hatched and they wanted to show their father the new baby chicks that had just been born. As they gathered together to admire the new chicks the little four year old daughter picked one up and held it in her hand. The father, somewhat teasingly, said to her, “That will certainly make a nice watchdog when it grows up, won’t it?” The girl looked at her father puzzled. “No, he won’t grow up to be a dog will he?” the father corrected. “He’ll grow up to be a horse, and we’ll ride him, and gallop around. Won’t that be fun?” “Daddy, that’s just silly,” she said. 1 The little girl understood an important doctrinal principle. A principle that is absolute, eternal and comprehensive, and yet so simple that even a four year...

The other day I asked if any of my children could make the dragon, "Toothless" from "How to Train Your Dragon" out of LEGOs. John took up my challenge, and spent the next couple days perfecting his creation. I love how it turned out!

Our family is into birthday season. My birthday was last month. I opened gifts and blew out candles to commemorate another year lived. Woohoo! This is one of the few pictures of me that I kind of like! The next birthday in the lineup is Peter's, which was yesterday. Hannah made him a minion cake. He got to go on a treasure hunt to find his gifts, which included a wallet, balloons, Bananagrams (a game), a big red rubber ball (that he can paint daisies on), the Minion Movie, a Doctor Who LEGO set, and an "X box". (It was a cardboard box with the letter "x" drawn on it.) The next birthday will be John's... the first one in three years that he won't be at scout camp, but that's not until next month.

Once upon a time, there were four adorable little children. And then they grew up. Last night we attended Peter's very last cub scout pack meeting. He earned several pins, as well as his Arrow of Light. And then he walked across a bridge and became a boy scout. I didn't take pictures. I was standing on one side of the bridge with him representing his parents and his (former) Webelos leader. Steven didn't take pictures either. He was standing on the other side of the bridge to receive him as his new boy scout leader. The bridge looked something like this, but without the handrails. As Peter crossed, he recited the scout law: "A scout is  trustworthy,  loyal,  helpful,  friendly,  courteous,  kind,  obedient,  cheerful,  thrifty,  brave,  clean  and reverent." I am grateful that my boys have the opportunity to be scouts. I hope they are learning these traits and becoming responsible citizens.