MaeLyn's Musings

Life gets busy. My new dishwasher arrived Monday, and Steven set out to install it that evening. It didn't seem too difficult until we decided to replace the copper water line leading from the wall to the dishwasher. The one we had was old, not very flexible and not very convenient to have taking up space under the sink. The problem came in finding an adapter to attach the new (flexible) line to the pipe coming out of the wall. It took several trips to the store, and sawing off part of the copper tube to get the screw part off the end off to take to the store, to get the right piece that would fit both the pipe and the hose. What a pain! Anyway, the dishwasher is now hooked up and working wonderfully. It seems to have a lot of space. It gets the dishes clean. It doesn't stop running in the middle of the night.  What more could I ask for? ************* I finally finished piecing the top of my quilt. I sewed the borders on Tuesday. Yesterday I pieced together the back. Now I j...

I'm grateful for automatic dishwashers. I'm grateful for running hot water. I'm grateful that my new dishwasher will be delivered today. I'm grateful for my loving husband who uninstalled our old dishwasher on Saturday so it can be hauled away when the delivery people come today. I'm grateful that I have some experience hand washing dishes so I knew what to do for the interim. I'm grateful that while the hot water was turned off all weekend to my kitchen sink, it was still available in the bathrooms so I didn't have to heat all my dish-washing water on the stove or in the microwave. I'm grateful that Steven was kind enough to wash the dishes Saturday night while I went to bed early due to a headache. I'm grateful that I was feeling well enough last night to wash the day's dishes after Steven had gone to bed early with a headache. I'm grateful that neither Steven nor I have come down with the stomach flu yet. I'm grateful that my three sch...

Last night for FHE we went looking at dishwashers. The one we have is begging to retire. One wheel on the bottom rack has been missing since we moved in. (six years ago.) That I could deal with. More recently something in the door broke so unless we prop a chair or something against the door, it won't run. (And if anything, like a cat, brushes against the chair and moves it slightly, the dishwasher will stop.) Just in the last week one of the supports for the top rack broke so one corner is no longer supported and kind of drags. I feel sorry for the poor thing. So, last night we went for a field trip and looked at dishwashers at Lowe's, Best Buy and Home Depot. There were white ones, yellowish ones, black ones and stainless steel ones. There were buttons on the front and buttons on the top of the door. Some had digital displays. There were silverware trays in the door and on the side and in the middle of the bottom rack. There were tall ones with deep racks, and shorter ones ...

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! The kids are all home from school today in honor of the occasion. They are supposed to be taking advantage of the occasion by cleaning their rooms, and while they got off to a good start, they seem to have run out of energy and will power and I don't know if anything has progressed in the last hour. Meanwhile, I cleaned my room, including cleaning the closet and changing the sheets on my bed. I feel like I've set my example for the kids, and now I can relax and play. Maybe I will work on my quilt. Hannah wants to have a picnic in the park if they get their rooms clean before lunch time. I don't see it happening, but they can try for it. On Thursday afternoon I took Peter to the doctor. He's had a blistery looking thing on his thumb for a week or so that seemed to be growing and crusting over. I didn't remember any injury to his finger that could have caused it, and since it was getting worse instead of better, I took him in. The d...

Peter threw up again this morning. When I got up there was a smelly mess on his bed. When I asked him about it he said, "That was just a mistake. I'm not really sick." And he doesn't act sick in the slightest. He ate breakfast and is running around acting perfectly normal. At least I don't have to decide whether or not to keep him home from school. Yesterday started out pretty good. I didn't get any phone calls from the school. I was able to walk to the school to pick up the kids, and so I got some much needed exercise. I worked some more on my quilt. Last night I took John to scouts. The difficult part was the long afternoon after the kids came home from school. I am frustrated because I don't know how to motivate my children to do the things they need to do. Everyone has an assigned room to straighten. Joshua had two homework assignments he needed to work on. John had homework as well as an assignment to clean out the cat's litter (which he had neg...

After one "sick day" of not acting particularly sick, Joshua is back in school. I'm knocking on wood that they'll all stay there and I won't get a phone call from the school: "Hannah just threw up; can you come get her?" The temps today are supposed to get up to 59 degrees, and I want to get out and take a walk or something to enjoy it. I usually make the kids walk home on Wednesdays because it is their early dismissal day, but I haven't lately because it has been freezing. (Seriously, I won't make them walk when it is less than 32 degrees out, and lately we've had several days in the teens.) I'm thinking today I might walk up to the school to meet them and walk home with them just so I can get out and get some exercise. Yesterday I worked on my quilt some more. If I keep working on it I could probably have the whole quilt top done in about a week. Then I'll have to figure out how I want to quilt it. Also yesterday I got to help s...

Yesterday was pretty quiet. Peter slept almost all morning until 2:15pm when I took him with me to pick up the kids from school. After that he still didn't have much appetite, but he ate some food and it stayed down and he was up and running around again. I thought I was going to be able to make it to my presidency meeting this morning. Funny me. Last night after FHE, Josh didn't want much of the dessert he had chosen (peanut butter and jelly cookies) and complained that his stomach ached. At 4:45 this morning I woke up to hear him in the bathroom, losing whatever was in his stomach. So he is at home today. I rescheduled my meeting; hopefully by Friday everyone will be better? I hope so. Or maybe I will have it myself by then. It would figure. Meanwhile, I have been working on a quilt that I started last summer, but put away to work on Halloween costumes and Christmas superhero capes. I think the cats may have been another issue then too. For some reason they can't see ...