MaeLyn's Musings

I may have mentioned that my children like to play with LEGOs. This movie is John, explaining his latest project.

A very exciting event is coming up next weekend. We get to hear a prophet of God speak to us. We also get to hear the words of Apostles and other great men and women who have been called of God in these latter days. It is truly exciting! A couple years ago, in order to help my children to prepare for General Conference, I created cards with the pictures of the prophet and his counselors, as well as each of the twelve apostles. Separate cards had their names printed on them. We have used these cards to play memory match games, Go Fish, or just used them to become familiar with the names and faces of these men who have been called of God. I thought I would share them with you. (Clicking on the pictures below should bring you to a pdf file that you can print full size.)  Most of these pictures have the name printed in tiny print below them, which is great when you are just starting out. If you want the pictures without the names, click here . There are a lot of other resou...

Spring Break is over. Easter is in the past. All the kids are back at school. The house is quiet. It's not clean yet... I know what I'll be doing today. But it is quiet. It's funny how after a break--whether it is spring break, Christmas break, or summer vacation, it is always nice to get back to normal routines again. Anyway, here are pictures from our Easter:  Grandma Hiatt sent us a package almost a month before Easter, and a week before Easter, the kids talked us into opening it, so they could see what was inside. The bunny basket (apparently from Steven's childhood) filled with candy filled eggs, and brightly colored wrapped packages sat on our living room table for the week, unopened, untouched. I was very impressed by my children's forbearance. The morning dawned bright and early, with the kids awake and ready to go hunt Easter eggs. A couple days before, they had prepared treasure hunts for each other, and on Easter Eve, they set them up, so one egg wo...

I've had a headache for the last three days. Sometimes I can push it to the back of my mind and focus on other things. Other times it seems to take over my brain and I just want to detach my head and stick it in a closet for a couple hours so I don't have to feel it. This is the menu that Peter made. Thankfully, this is Spring Break. Steven let me sleep in this morning since we didn't have to get the kids up and off to school. I ended up sleeping until about 9:30. When I did finally get up and wandered out of my room, my children met me in the dining room. Josh had a towel over his arm and a notepad in his hand as he led me to my seat at the table where he pulled out my chair for me. I sat, and was presented with a menu. I made my selections, and very shortly, Hannah was cooking me pancakes - to order, Peter was filling up a glass with water for me, and John was slicing my orange. I ate my wonderful breakfast - even having Peter refill my water glass a couple times. ...

I started this one last week, but didn't finish it until yesterday. I couldn't figure out what to put in the foreground with the tree for the longest time.

Yesterday was our first day of Spring Break. Steven is working, so we aren't going anywhere, but so far we are enjoying a relaxed schedule with nowhere to go. I said Steven is working. Like I mentioned in my last status update blog , Steven has been working a contract job, standing in for a lady who is on maternity leave. Unfortunately, he isn't particularly enjoying it. For one thing, even though he has been there for over a month, and is supposed to continue for two more months, no one has taken any time to get to know him or even treat him as a real person. He only exists when they have something for him to do, he isn't invited to any office parties, doesn't have access to the company gym, or even access to the company intranet. They have incredibly complex and inefficient processes, and haven't appreciated any of Steven's efforts to improve their efficiency. (Yes, we have over 58,000 formulas on that one page of a 50 page spread sheet, and yes, it does tak...

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 ...