MaeLyn's Musings

Yesterday the kids made forts in the living room. When it was almost dinner time and I needed the chairs for dinner, I asked them to take them down, but I took pictures of them first. Josh with his fort. The inside of Josh's fort. He had a battery candle so he could read. John peeking out the window of his fort Peter in his fort Hannah built a fort too, but she took hers down earlier.

On Tuesday, we had a space derby for our monthly cub scout pack meeting. Although we got the rocket kit a month in advance, we waited until the last two days to work on it. It was finished in time though. Steven and Josh putting finishing touches on the rocket. Josh with his rocket The rocket says "Ninjago" As assistant cubmaster, Steven got to help with the racing. Here he puts Josh's rocket on the carrier. On this run, the rocket made it half way across the span. Later, it managed to get across the entire track. Our pack has only been doing the space derby for a couple years, and they are still trying to work out the kinks, figure out the track, etc. By the end of the evening, they had changed the positioning of the weights and greased the wires, enabling rockets to go much farther than they did at the beginning. I don't know how other packs do it, but in our pack, we measure in distance traveled, not speed. Also, it's all in fun. This isn&#

So, yesterday I got a ton of messages on my Facebook account. They were saying something about me having a great birthday. Thank you, if you were one who sent a message. I had a quiet day. Mostly. I awoke to a loud clap of thunder, and it poured rain most of the morning, but by afternoon the sky cleared and Hannah took Josh and Peter on a walk to the dollar store to get me gifts. We didn't have any flour in the house so I didn't get a birthday cake, but Hannah made some Jello and I got that for dessert. My mother in law sent a beautiful birthday banner that she quilted. I'm excited to put it up for each of the kids birthdays this summer. I also received a couple gift cards to JoAnn , so I'm contemplating what I'd like to get there - yarn or knitting needles, or beads or fabric... My sewing machine isn't working right now, so fabric isn't as exciting as it otherwise might be. The kids got me a vase with a flower and Reeses Pieces. John made me a cat ou

Since we don't receive a TV signal at our house, my children like to watch YouTube videos. They find the weirdest things, and watch them over and over. Here are a few of the random videos they have found. If you are ever really, really, really bored, you could watch a few. The Duck Song (Don't miss Duck Song 2 and Duck Song 3!) Dumb Ways to Die ( WARNING : This one may not be appropriate for young viewers. It is rather gory.) JellyFish (The first time I watched this, I could only say, "That's two minutes of my life totally wasted...") Pulcino Pio (It's in French!)  Potter Puppet Pals (There are a bunch of these, but this one is my favorite.) Banana and Potato song by the Despicable Me Minions Beaker Ode to Joy (It's the muppets!) Mahna mahna (Muppets again) snackcercize (Muppets...) Banana Boat (I could go on and on with the muppets, but I'll stop here) Anything by Divine Comedy Peanut Butter and Jelly (T

On Sunday, one of my children was spotlighted. This year, they read a paper the child filled out at the beginning of the year. All the kids start out sitting. They stand if the answer applies to them. Here are my child's answers: What is your favorite color? Yellow Where were you born? here What is your favorite candy? twix What is your favorite primary song? Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. What is your favorite scripture story? King Benjamin How many people are in your family? 6 If you could be an animal, what would you be? monkey What is your favorite part of church? Primary Where do you like to go on vacation? China What do you want to be when you grow up? Zoo keeper When is your birthday? June 20th. Do you know which child it is?

2nd breakfast Today was a busy day! John ran in the BolderBoulder 10k that is held every year. 5:30am. Alarm clock goes off, get dressed, John eats breakfast. I take Josh and Peter to put out flags in people's yards for a scout fundraiser. Steven walks with John to the school where John eats second breakfast and gets a ride to the bus stop on his way to Boulder. Hannah gets to sleep in. John's running club at the school 7:45am. I return home with Josh and Peter, we grab bags of cereal for "breakfast". Steven, Hannah (just woken up), Josh, Peter and I climb in the car and drive to Boulder. 8:20am. Arrived in Boulder. We drop Steven off to go find John at the starting line. The rest of us search for a parking space, then head for the starting line ourselves. At the starting line 9:11am. John's wave starts. Steven had found him and taken his picture. The rest of us wandered around searching for John and/or Steven, but didn't see either of th

Friday was the boys' last day of school. Peter's class had a family picnic scheduled at noon, so Hannah (who's last day was Thursday) came with me to attend the picnic. Shortly after we arrived and checked in at the office, the school came under "lockout", so parents who arrived a little late were unable to enter the building. Instead of having an outdoor picnic, we ate our lunch in the cafeteria, then went upstairs to the library to watch a movie, "Matilda". The lockout (due to a suspected weapon sighting at a nearby high school ) ended shortly before 2pm, so parents who wanted to attend the 6th grade awards ceremony at 2pm were permitted to attend. I snuck out of the movie in the library to go down to the gym to watch. John received 6 awards: Perfect attendance 1st semester, Perfect attendance 2nd semester, Honor Roll 1st semester, Honor Roll 2nd Semester, Outstanding Academic Performance for Language Arts, and Outstanding Academic Performance for Ar

Sometimes the kids take pictures of things that I probably wouldn't have taken pictures of... But every once in a while I can do something interesting with them. Today is the last day of school for the boys. Hannah's last day was yesterday. (Next time she goes to school, it will be to high school!!!)

   

The picture says it all.

Last night we went to Hannah's Spring Orchestra concert. Each year, this concert is held in the cafetorium (cafeteria/auditorium), and it is a chance for parents to hear all three middle school grades perform, and compare how their student's grade played compared to the other grades. The 6th graders played basic selections from their book: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Jingle Bells, etc. as well as a piece called Cripple Creek, which was actually pretty good for kids who have only been playing their instruments for a few months. The seventh graders played more difficult pieces, including songs I recognized from last year, like Sahara Crossing (which sounds kind of like the theme song from Aladdin at the beginning.)  They also played a medley of songs from Pirates of the Caribbean. The eighth graders played last, and their selections included the theme from the Pink Panther, and the theme from Star Wars. They also played a piece called Amadeus, which was written by Mozart an

Today is Monday. The last day of school for Hannah is Thursday. The boys' last day is Friday. This is my last week of seven hours of peace and quiet five days a week. The evenings this week are going to be a bit busy. Tonight, Hannah has a final orchestra concert. That will be our Family Home Evening. Tomorrow is our stake temple night. Wednesday we have scouts. Thursday I have a visiting teaching appointment. Friday evening is open at the moment (Steven and I may go to the temple that night if we don't tomorrow night.) Saturday we have missionaries coming over for dinner. The big question is, what will I do with my days this week? My institute class wrapped up last week, so I don't have that to go to. Considering this is my last chance to have time to myself to work on projects without kids around for three months, I have surprisingly little planned. Today, I've cleaned house, washed laundry and baked bread. I have no idea what I will do tomorrow, or the next day.

Today Josh and Peter had field day at school. They played lots of games and had lots of fun. The weather was nice and warm (Josh says it was hot.) Peter's favorite part was jumping the hurdles. He did really well at that, too.  Josh's favorite part was the tug of war. At one point he let go of the rope and went flying! While I didn't play any of the games (except helping with the tug of war once), I am exhausted from walking to the school and back four times today. (Once to take the kids to school, once to watch Peter, once to watch Josh, and once to pick up the kids at the end of the day - about 4 miles total!)

The first weekend of April, I started knitting a sweater. I had a pattern, but I didn't have the right size needles to get the same gauge as the pattern specified, so I had to figure out how many rows/stitches I needed to knit in order to get an ultimate product the same size and shape as the pattern required. (I hope that makes sense...) Anyway, I miscalculated a couple times and had to do some "frogging" (unraveling several rows) and "tink-ing" (unraveling stitch by stitch). I also changed yarns after knitting a couple parts, and had to go back and knit new pieces in the new yarn color. (Anyone want a sweater with bright white long sleeves?) I got to one point and realized that I didn't have the right type of needle to knit the edge and collar. (I was supposed to use circular needles 29 inches long, and I didn't have the right length or size required.) I thought I was stuck, until Peter asked if I could crochet it instead. After some thought and figuri

The end of the school year means the kids start bringing home projects that they have made at school. Here is a picture/collage John made in his art class.

Hannah is in 8th grade this year. She has been taking a physics class, and for a final project, her class has been assigned to build roller coaster rides. This is an individual project, but Hannah is blessed to have a dad who is creative and has been able to help her with this project. They have been working on this project for a month, and it was due today. We were working on it last night, putting on some finishing touches. It looked really cool! Steven and Hannah went over to a friend's house (who has a woodworking shop in his garage) to cut out the pieces. We dug out some old toys for the animals, and holes were drilled in the middles and dowels were stuck through the middle. The round wheel was attached to a copper pipe. Our home teacher brought over a welding torch and let Hannah weld a cap on the end of the pipe. This would rest on a wooden dowel going up the middle and create the pivot on which the whole thing turns. The wheel is turned by a LEGO crank/gear. Hann

(I know Mothers Day was yesterday, but this post has been simmering for a few days and yesterday ended up being too busy for me to sit down and get out everything my heart wanted to say.) Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to the mothers of children young and old, all over the world. To the ones who read their children bedtime stories, and the ones who stay up late waiting for their teenagers to come home. To the ones who let their adult children move back in when they have no where else to go. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to the mothers who are grieving the loss of a child, due to miscarriage, genetic disorder, illness, accident, suicide, murder, war, or act of terrorism. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to those who are missing a child, due to disappearance, kidnapping, running away, loss of custody, prison, or just plain lack of communication. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to the mothers who are grieving the deat

I may have mentioned before that Steven and I are currently serving as Webelos Den Leaders. One of our Webelos has a huge interest in bugs. He earned his naturalist badge some time ago, but he wanted to help the other boys in the den earn this badge, so the last two weeks, we have let him. The first week he led a discussion of venomous snakes and reptiles, as well as poisonous plants. This past week, he brought in everything necessary to build a terrarium/bug habitat. Until Peter's eighth birthday next month, he is an honorary Webelos, and so he got to participate, and brought home his very own bug jar - complete with a bunch of meal worms and a couple crickets. The next morning, I put the jar in a window sill, thinking that the the sun might do them some good. Then I left to walk the boys to school. When I returned home, the jar was still in window, but Momo, one of our cats was watching it intently. I was wondering how good an idea this was as I went back to the kitchen to fi

Did you go to college or have vocational training - where or when? The only college I ever attended was Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. It might have been the only college I applied to. I went the fall after graduating from high school, in 1993. On the drive out there for the first time, our car overheated in the Arizona desert. Dad and I stayed the night at some distant cousin's home in the Las Vegas area I think, and the next day I found myself on a bus, headed to Provo by myself. That was a long drive. I was very, very grateful to arrive at the bus depot in Provo and see my sister Lindy and her husband there. What would I have done if they hadn't been there? They took me back to their home to rest, and they were the ones who helped me find my dorm in Heritage Halls, took me shopping, and helped me to get settled in. I remember visiting with them several times during my years at BYU, and babysitting my niece, Jessica (who is now attending BYU herself!) While my

Joshua's activity of choice the last few days has been building houses in our planting boxes. (There's nothing planted in them yet.) Each house has walls of stones, and is topped with leaves from our flag iris. They have stood up to plenty of rain and have provided hours of muddy fun. Someone was playing with the camera yesterday and took this partial screenshot of a game Peter was playing on the computer. Bonus points if anyone knows what educational website he was on.

This started out just playing with circles and shades... but then the eyeballs appeared and I had to pursue that theme.

Describe your room as a child. Did you have your own room or have to share it with a sibling? Tell some experiences. I shared a room for all but one month of my childhood. Usually, I shared a room with my older sister, Lindy. Sometimes, this was a lot of fun. We would stay up late talking. We would play games together. On the days that we had to good clean our bedrooms, we would do puppet shows for each other, using the end of our bunk bed as a stage. (The bed was pulled away from the wall so we could change the sheets... It probably took a lot longer than it needed to.)  One night after bedtime, we were playing a game, trying to scare each other. At one point I left the room to use the bathroom or something, and when I came back, I thought that Lindy had given up the game and gone to sleep. I got in my bed and tried to go to sleep myself. Just as I was drifting off, someone reached out from the little space between the edge of my bed and the wall (I think I was sleeping on the top

Here are some recent things John has made. He followed a pattern for both, but he tweaked the pattern for the sea horse a little. Yoda. See pattern here . Sea horse

This weekend, we had stake conference. Steven and I both attended the adult session Saturday evening. It is wonderful that Hannah can babysit for us now so we can both go. For many years, Steven, as member of the Young Men's presidency, would go to the priesthood leadership meeting Saturday afternoon while I watched the kids, and then he would come home and watch the kids while I attended the adult meeting by myself. Then we both could enjoy at least one session of stake conference that we could really pay attention to. (Sundays were too hard to really get much out of due to the children.) Now, he doesn't have to go to that Priesthood meeting, and we can leave the kids and enjoy the adult session together. I sang in the stake choir in the Sunday session, and they wanted us to sit on the stand the entire time, so I think I got more out of that session that Steven did, since he was on the bench with the kids, who - while better than they were five years ago, apparently still were