MaeLyn's Musings

On Tuesdays, I usually go to institute (and then blog about it), but this week they were cleaning the carpets in the building so institute was cancelled. I puttered around the house doing laundry and stuff, and then looked at the boys room, which had once again reached the point where it looked like a tornado had passed through and it was difficult to find the carpet, and came up with the idea of a Gunny Bag Buffet, thinking that if there really were gunny bag "monsters" who enjoyed eating leftover toys, they would have a blast in my boys' room. I came up with the menu, and posted it on the boys' bedroom door so they would see it when they got home from school. It served as a warning, so they could put away anything they cared about that evening. (They understood the warning, and tried a couple ways to get out of it, like moving the sign to Hannah's door, and crossing out the "Free" and writing "Payment: everything you ate before.") Yesterday...

Due to financial concerns, several months ago I started making my own laundry detergent. I received the recipe in a Relief Society meeting, and next time I ran out of laundry detergent, instead of buying more, I purchased the ingredients for the homemade stuff, which all together, was cheaper. What's the recipe? Well, it is posted in several places on the internet so I don't know who to credit with coming up with it, but here it is: 1/2 C. Washing Soda (It's like baking soda, but I found it in the laundry aisle at WalMart.) 1/2 C. Borax (I actually already had this at home because it really helps when trying to get out ink stains.) 1/3 Bar of Fels-Naptha Soap. (This is good laundry soap, other recipes suggest Ivory, or other types of soap.) Grate the soap. Heat 6 C. water and then add the grated soap and stir until the soap is melted. Add the washing soda and Borax, then stir until the powder is dissolved. Remove from heat. (One recipe I found suggested letting ...

It is 8:30am. The kids and Steven are at school. I'm listening to Disney Songs on iTunes and eating cake and hoping that the fact that I've already cleaned up from breakfast, taken trash out to the dumpster and that there is laundry in the dryer justifies that. I'm feeling lazy today.  This has been a busy week so far - but then every week is busy, it seems. On Monday I didn't have anywhere to go, but I spent the day working. First, I cleaned all the lint from inside the dryer and tried to figure out if anything I could do would speed it up at all. Then I washed and dried four loads of laundry. While the laundry was washing, I scooped everything on the floor in the boys room into a trash bag to throw away. (They had warning I would do this so most everything they cared about had been put away.) When the floor was cleared I vacuumed thoroughly. Then, I emptied out the dresser that has been in our entryway since we moved in. It had been used for keeping school papers, o...

Happy belated Martin Luther King Jr. Day! We had an exciting three day weekend. On Saturday, I made the kids good clean their assigned rooms. (Each child has a room or section of the house that they are responsible for cleaning: kitchen, dining room, living room, or hall/bathroom/entry) The kids were rewarded with tootsie rolls for tasks completed, and by around noon, the house looked pretty clean and I let them get out the big box of little Legos and they had a blast scattering them throughout the house for the rest of the day. (While we were busy with this, Steven was taking his GMAT test, and got a really good score on it, too! He came home and submitted his application to the MBA program he wants to attend.) Sunday was busy with church meetings and relaxing. The kids spent a significant portion of the day playing with Legos. On Monday, since the kids were out of school, I decided that the bedrooms needed to be cleaned. Hannah sequestered herself in her room, the boys worked i...

I was sick on Monday. My head ached, my stomach ached, I had no appetite, no energy, and spent the entire day on the couch not throwing up, but burping up smelliness. Steven was kind enough to drive the boys to school in the morning, so I only had to leave the couch to take Peter to kindergarten and pick up the kids after school. Hannah made dinner. I slept. Tuesday I was feeling a little better. My head still ached a little, and I was still feeling a bit weak, but I was well enough to get up, wash some laundry and straighten the house a little. I decided not to help out in Peter's class like I usually do on Tuesdays, and spent that quiet time resting rather than exposing twelve kindergartners to whatever bug I had. Yesterday, (Wednesday) I was straightening the house and trying to get caught up on neglected housework when I realized I had forgotten to go to a breakfast at the school  for John, who was selected "Physical Education Student of the Month" by his PE teach...

Two days into the school year... so far so good. Hannah got her schedule with Honors classes yesterday, seems to know her way around and doesn't appear to have any worries about anything. She has decided to learn to play the viola in her orchestra class. Both John and Josh say they like their teachers. Other than that, they haven't offered much information about what they did at school, other than which Special (Music, Art or PE) they had. Peter is still loving kindergarten, and unlike my other kids, he actually tells me about what he did! Yesterday, he began with, "When we got to school the teacher showed us where to put our back packs..." he told me they played "mud tag" in PE, and the teacher read Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See to them, and then he started drawing a picture about the story, but he didn't finish so he'll need to finish it tomorrow. I'm glad he is enjoying it and I hope his enthusiasm lasts throughout the school year. M...

Today is day three of normal life after Spring Break. Kind of. I'm not sure it's really normal when most of it has been catching up on things that I put off last week because the kids were home. Monday was mostly spent cleaning the house and putting it back in order from the weekend. I also cleaned out the boys room again. I filled an entire kitchen sized trash bag with trash and papers that were scattered all over their floor. They are down to pretty much beds and clothes in their room now, but somehow they still find ways to trash it. Go figure. Yesterday I made granola and yogurt (we finished off what the kids made last week, and they've been begging me to make more). I figured out our meal plan for April, made a shopping list and went grocery shopping at Sam's Club. I went Visiting Teaching. I washed, dried and sorted two loads of  laundry. I walked to pick up the kids from school. Somehow during all this I injured my knee so now it hurts to bend if I put any weig...

It has been a busy week. First, there is the shopping, visiting teaching, trips to the library, and running kids to and from school, activity days and scouts. Add to that the constant presence of a little boy with a hundred times the energy that you would imagine could emanate from a small four year old body, one who persistently demands my undivided attention, whether he wants to read a book or is playing hide-and-seek with his plethora of stuffed animals. I've been busy with Primary. My second counselor is moving to Utah at the end of this week (she got three weeks notice that her husband was being promoted and needed to move back to Utah) so last Sunday she was released and a new counselor was called. The previous Sunday, four new teachers were called, and so while praying and pondering diligently to figure out who my new counselor was to be, I've had to figure out which teachers to assign to which classes and make sure they had the proper lesson manuals, supplies and i...

I think my energy level might be connected to the weather. The last couple days have been freezing cold. Highs have been in the teens, lows in the single digits. There is snow on the ground and ice on the streets. I've driven the kids to school, picked them up from school, done my basic pick up of the house each morning and prepared meals, but that's about all I've done for the last couple days. I've just wanted to curl up with a good book, watch a good movie or play games on the computer. Today it is slightly warmer. I think the high is supposed to be about 33 degrees. I might actually wash laundry or clean my room or maybe even run to the store to get some things I've been needing. Maybe. It's still cold. I still don't feel like doing much.

They're here! Lindy and Thom are here in my house at this very minute! Lindy was commenting on how this is the first time she has seen our home, and we've lived here for six years now... I say it's about time! Yesterday, of course, was spent getting ready for them. I had to clean out the kids' rooms. (No I didn't use a shovel on Hannah's room, although I was tempted to.) I filled up a huge trash bag with all the scraps and candy wrappers and junk that was in their rooms. I saved anything that looked like time and effort had been put into crafting - like Hannah's cereal box doll house and felt dolls, and clothing for those felt dolls. Surprisingly, Hannah's crafts fit into one cardboard box! I was able to clean out her closet and under her bed and it only took me an hour or so! The boys room had been cleaned out more recently so that took less time, but I still felt exhausted by the time I had finished, and moved Peter's bed into Hannah's room t...

I don't know what to write about today, but I wanted to write something just to stay in the habit. I asked Peter what I should write and he said, "I am a Child of God". Then I asked him if he knew the words to the song, and he said "no". Then I tried singing it and he covered my mouth to make me stop. Oh well. So here is my list of things to do today: 1. Straighten the house (check) 2. Go to the library (I have some books on hold to pick up, and DVDs I need to return today.) 3. Visit the sisters I am assigned to visit teach (must wait until my companion drops off loaves of bread for me to deliver... This has been a crazy month with sickness with us and she's had house guests, so this will have to be it for us this month.) 4. Clean out the fish tank 5. Scoop out the cats' litter (something that must be done daily with 4 cats) 6. Remember to pick up the kids from school at 1:15 since today is early dismissal day. 7. Empty the dishwasher and load ...