For any new blog readers, you may want to read part 1 first. And this update from a month ago.
I have been unsure exactly how much detail to share on my blog, since this is after all, the internet, and I have not wanted to open myself up to criticism or condemnation (plenty of that circulating already!). But we are at a critical juncture and since most of my readers are people who know me and love me anyway, I have decided to share a little more specifically how you can pray for us.
It seems at times as if I live two lives. The surface life is the one where I play with and read to the children, prepare meals, do laundry, plan birthday parties, and do all the other daily tasks a stay at home mom does. The other life, the one underneath the surface, is the one where I wonder what we will do if we lose the house (where will we go? how hard will it be to start over? what kind of witness will that be to the neighbors?), where I pray continually for my husband's ability to cope with long term under-employment, where I am trying to plan all meals for 7 people on $50 a week. It's where I cry out to God, and cling to Him, and beg Him to open my eyes so I don't miss the lesson He wants to teach us in this trial.
Through God's grace and the incredible generosity of His people, we were able to meet our financial obligations in the initial months following my husband's layoff. Time and time again, God provided just what we needed, when we needed it. I am still in awe of the ways He cared for us and continues to care for us! There is no way we could ever express our gratitude to the people God used to meet very real needs in our life and to show us God's love. As the gifts poured in each week, I struggled a bit with finding the balance between "expecting" God to provide and preparing for when the gifts ceased. If I prayed with faith, shouldn't I expect Him to answer? But on the other hand, wouldn't it be a tad presumptuous to always expect God to miraculously provide? Could He, at some point, choose to provide another way, or choose not to provide monetarily in order to give us something more than money? Would it be demonstrating a lack of faith if I prepared myself for the possibility of the financial gifts ending? But would it be demonstrating a lack of submission to His authority if I didn't?
I have wrestled with these spiritual issues, and still wrestle with them. I don't have it all figured out. But the bottom line is, I know that God loves me and that He is in control. That is where the buck always stops. And in the larger sense, I don't worry about our house. Our house belongs to the Lord and what He chooses to do with it is up to Him. It's just a house. Wood and bricks. Drywall. Paint.
In the dailyness, however, I have definite feelings about it. I don't want to move. I don't want to be forced out. I want the opportunity to fix all the little things that need fixing and then ENJOY them while we continue to live here. I don't want to have to sort and pack. Or heaven forbid, sell off our things. It would be embarrassing and inconvenient and just downright hard work. I want to be busy planning our next school year, not planning what else we can get rid of in order to fit into an apartment.
The truth of the matter is that we have run out of money. And there is not enough coming in to cover our expenses every month. I cannot feed our family for any less, or cut any more expenses, or delay any more medical exams or repairs. Not enough to make a difference, anyway. There is just not enough money to go around. Therefore we made the difficult decision to apply for a forbearance on our mortgage. This is handled differently by different lenders, but is basically a specified period of time during which payments are suspended. Some lenders tack on the missed payments to the end of the loan, while others increase the payment amount for a while until the missed amount is "caught up". It sounds great upfront, but there are risks involved. Because the lender has already given special consideration, continued inability to pay could lead to foreclosure much easier than without a forbearance. Sometimes it negatively impacts your credit score (and surprisingly, sometimes not). This is like a bandaid for our situation, but not the cure. Because cash flow may continue to be an issue for quite a while, and we have no guarantee that we will have a better ability to pay our mortage AFTER the forbearance period is up than we do now, we feel alot of uncertainty about the future.
On a personal level, I am wrestling with how to practice Philippians 4:6 ~ Do not be anxious about anything. It doesn't say, "do not be anxious about the big things but feel free to worry about the small stuff", nor does it say, "oh, don't sweat the small stuff but by all means worry about the BIG things!" It says do not be anxious about anything. Anything! I am not doing that well right now. I admit I am anxious. Some days I am not very anxious, and some days I am very anxious. Some days it's the big issue of the house that gets to me, and other days it's the small things like new sandals for Little Man (which we finally got yesterday, by the way, so now his toes no longer hang off the ends of his too small sandals!). How I long to live and rest in the truth of that verse all the time!
Please pray:
that Philippians 4:6 will be true in my life
that our lender will be willing to work with us in a way that uniquely fits our situation
that God will provide the means to pay off our debts (it is a wonderful thing to be able to pay off ones debt!)
that God will help us to keep our eyes fixed on HIM
that God will help us to persevere with joy
that God will provide my husband a full time job that adequately provides for our needs
that He will open the door to the right part time job for me, one that fits our schedule and has the least negative impact on our family
that we can parent well during this time, focusing on the majors and trusting our children and their future to God in new ways
that He will be glorified in this situation, and that when people look at us, they will see HIM
Thankyou, so much, for standing with us in love and prayer. That means more than I can express. My mother shared something really profound with me recently from a Beth Moore study on Daniel she has been doing, and I'd like to paraphrase it for you all (with my apologies to Beth Moore).
Sometimes God delivers you from the fire, and the dividend is your faith is grown.
Sometimes God delivers you through the fire, and the dividend is your faith is refined.
Sometimes God delivers you to the fire, and the dividend is your faith is perfected.
Please pray that our faith will be refined through this fire, and we will come forth shining as gold. Thank you, friends.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Art in the Style of the Impressionist's
We ended our school year last Friday with a day devoted to art. Not just any art, but Impressionist Art. This is a style of art that sprang up during the second half of the 1800's and the early part of the 1900's (smack dab in the middle of the century we were studying! Imagine that.....) Until that time, most paintings were done in studios. People were posed. Attention was given to detail. There are some beautiful paintings like this, of course. But then some painters began to want more realism in their paintings. They began to paint people out in the "real world" doing "real" things. Rather than focusing on each detail, they painted an impression of their subject, as if they had glanced at it in passing. Because so many of their paintings were done out doors, these artists began to experiment with light and shadow. Light reflected off a shimmering pond, light from the sun reflected in the grass, with the shadow of a person falling across it. The results of this experimentation were at first decried by the "Salon" painters of Paris, but later became very popular. And now many of the Impressionist painters are household names. Degas, Renoir, and Monet are probably some of the most famous.
I had wanted to give a taste of this style to the children for some time but never found an opportunity to fit it in. It ended up being the perfect way to end our school year! We started out by looking at pictures of Impressionist paintings in this book:
This is an incredible art book I purchased 3 years ago when we were just beginning to use Tapestry of Grace for our core curriculum. We used it extensively when we studied the Renaissance, but had not used it much this year. I flipped through all the pages ahead of time and post-it noted together several pages that had just a little too much art for my children's young eyes, if you know what I mean! While looking at the pictures we talked about what made Impressionist art "impressionist", until I felt sure that the children had a good grasp on what to look for to identify art as Impressionist. (see the post it note folded over several pages?)
Then we looked at a few more pictures in this book (below) which is a GREAT book for kids! (suggested by our Tapestry curriculum and given to us by a generous book fairy). Just the right mixture of pictures, the history of various Impressionist artists, and projects to do that aren't too complicated. Everything we needed for these two projects were items I already had, so not only was this fun, it was also FREE!
Our first project involved working with light (the sky) and shadow (the ground). It had two main steps.
First, the children each picked a stencil (showing something "real" and not posed). We taped these to paper and they painted inside the stencils with watercolors.
While these paintings dried, we began working on the background papers. We drew clouds with white chalk and then filled these in with dashes of colored crayons. Then we painted the background and the crayon "resisted" the paint.
When the backgrounds and the stenciled pictures both dried, we cut out the stencil shapes, glued them to our backgrounds and added shadows under our stenciled figures. They turned out great! (see below)
Our second project was a 3-D painted paper water lily.
It was based on this painting of water lilies by Monet. We talked about the different colors in the water lilies, and about the light and shadows on the surface of the water.
Then we cut 3 small flowers (yellow) and 3 large flowers (pink) for each child, and painted them with tempera paints. All of the children had fun mixing and creating their own color shades.
After they were all dried, we glued them to green lily pads. Don't they look beautiful?!
Here is the first project, all finished.
(this one was Little Man's and he really wanted to add a "j" to his sky!)
And here is each child with his or her art work so you know which work goes with which artist.
It was a very fun day!
I have a more serious post coming soon, but sometimes it's emotionally easier to write about light topics right now (not to mention getting all these pics out of my camera!).
I had wanted to give a taste of this style to the children for some time but never found an opportunity to fit it in. It ended up being the perfect way to end our school year! We started out by looking at pictures of Impressionist paintings in this book:
This is an incredible art book I purchased 3 years ago when we were just beginning to use Tapestry of Grace for our core curriculum. We used it extensively when we studied the Renaissance, but had not used it much this year. I flipped through all the pages ahead of time and post-it noted together several pages that had just a little too much art for my children's young eyes, if you know what I mean! While looking at the pictures we talked about what made Impressionist art "impressionist", until I felt sure that the children had a good grasp on what to look for to identify art as Impressionist. (see the post it note folded over several pages?)
Then we looked at a few more pictures in this book (below) which is a GREAT book for kids! (suggested by our Tapestry curriculum and given to us by a generous book fairy). Just the right mixture of pictures, the history of various Impressionist artists, and projects to do that aren't too complicated. Everything we needed for these two projects were items I already had, so not only was this fun, it was also FREE!
Our first project involved working with light (the sky) and shadow (the ground). It had two main steps.
First, the children each picked a stencil (showing something "real" and not posed). We taped these to paper and they painted inside the stencils with watercolors.
While these paintings dried, we began working on the background papers. We drew clouds with white chalk and then filled these in with dashes of colored crayons. Then we painted the background and the crayon "resisted" the paint.
When the backgrounds and the stenciled pictures both dried, we cut out the stencil shapes, glued them to our backgrounds and added shadows under our stenciled figures. They turned out great! (see below)
Our second project was a 3-D painted paper water lily.
It was based on this painting of water lilies by Monet. We talked about the different colors in the water lilies, and about the light and shadows on the surface of the water.
Then we cut 3 small flowers (yellow) and 3 large flowers (pink) for each child, and painted them with tempera paints. All of the children had fun mixing and creating their own color shades.
After they were all dried, we glued them to green lily pads. Don't they look beautiful?!
Here is the first project, all finished.
(this one was Little Man's and he really wanted to add a "j" to his sky!)
And here is each child with his or her art work so you know which work goes with which artist.
It was a very fun day!
I have a more serious post coming soon, but sometimes it's emotionally easier to write about light topics right now (not to mention getting all these pics out of my camera!).
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones
Do any of you remember this TV series that ran from 1992 to 1996? It chronicled the life and adventures of Henry (Indiana) Jones, Jr when he was a boy and young man. They are very well done and are quite excellent portrayals of the period early in the 1900's (in the series, he was born in 1899). The houses, clothes, transportation, and culture are all beautifully and accurately portrayed as they would have been in that time.
Our boys are allowed to play games at lego.com, and from these games they have become aware of the Indiana Jones movies (and therefore also wanting Indiana Jones lego sets!). The original movies with Harrison Ford were made back when there was no PG-13 rating, so they are rated PG but are quite violent and graphic. We started to watch the first movie in order to preview it for possible viewing with the older children, but turned it off after the first 10 minutes, immediately deeming it not appropriate for several more years.
Then my husband remembered the TV series. They have smooshed two TV episodes together to make a movie length feature presentation. We checked out 2 of these from the library and previewed them and felt that they WERE appropriate. Not only appropriate but historically accurate! We watched the first one last Friday during movie night and the children loved it!
When young Indiana is 9, the family sets off on a world tour so his father can give guest lectures at various universities. The people he meets and events he witnesses are pivotal moments in history, though of course he does not know it at the time. In the first movie, he ends up meeting Howard Carter 3 years before Carter discovers King Tut's tomb. From this encounter at an archaeological dig, Indiana decides he wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up (we did choose to skip over a short scene in which a mummy falls on Indy, and another one where a dead man's burned face is briefly shown. Both of these scenes were on a darkened screen so details were hard to discern, and would not have been too intense for our older 3, but we did this out of consideration for our younger two) . During the second movie the Jones's are in Africa and happen to meet up with former President Teddy Roosevelt who is there on a hunt. Later, in Paris, he meets a young Norman Rockwell, sees the famous (and old) Impressionist painter Degas at a coffeehouse and spends an evening with Picasso. The years match up perfectly with real life history!
These are turning out to be a great alternative to the Indiana Jones movies, and we are all enjoying them immensely!
Our boys are allowed to play games at lego.com, and from these games they have become aware of the Indiana Jones movies (and therefore also wanting Indiana Jones lego sets!). The original movies with Harrison Ford were made back when there was no PG-13 rating, so they are rated PG but are quite violent and graphic. We started to watch the first movie in order to preview it for possible viewing with the older children, but turned it off after the first 10 minutes, immediately deeming it not appropriate for several more years.
Then my husband remembered the TV series. They have smooshed two TV episodes together to make a movie length feature presentation. We checked out 2 of these from the library and previewed them and felt that they WERE appropriate. Not only appropriate but historically accurate! We watched the first one last Friday during movie night and the children loved it!
When young Indiana is 9, the family sets off on a world tour so his father can give guest lectures at various universities. The people he meets and events he witnesses are pivotal moments in history, though of course he does not know it at the time. In the first movie, he ends up meeting Howard Carter 3 years before Carter discovers King Tut's tomb. From this encounter at an archaeological dig, Indiana decides he wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up (we did choose to skip over a short scene in which a mummy falls on Indy, and another one where a dead man's burned face is briefly shown. Both of these scenes were on a darkened screen so details were hard to discern, and would not have been too intense for our older 3, but we did this out of consideration for our younger two) . During the second movie the Jones's are in Africa and happen to meet up with former President Teddy Roosevelt who is there on a hunt. Later, in Paris, he meets a young Norman Rockwell, sees the famous (and old) Impressionist painter Degas at a coffeehouse and spends an evening with Picasso. The years match up perfectly with real life history!
These are turning out to be a great alternative to the Indiana Jones movies, and we are all enjoying them immensely!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Our Week in Review
Workboxes
We had a great last-week-of-school using our workboxes! Here are just a few shots of some things the children did. C enjoyed doing a page each day from the Thinker Doodles book put out by The Critical Thinking Company. In this book only half of the animal is shown on each page, and the student must draw the mirror image of each one. I have had this book for years, but thanks to workboxes we are actually using it now! C had a lot of fun with these.
Daughter G doing playful patterns with Little Man.
After my brilliant idea of putting most of Little Man's activities into his siblings' workboxes for focused time together, I had a second brilliant idea to have our daughter plan some of her own activity times with Little Man, just as she used to do with her brother C. So one day this book was in one of her envelopes, along with a note that said, "plan activity to do with Little Man".
She was responsible for choosing and preparing an activity to do together. She chose a really neat one involving planting seeds in a cut off 2 liter bottle. The top third of the bottle got turned upside down inside the bottom two thirds. G put water into the bottom of the bottle first, and then put a rolled up paper towel inside the neck of the upside-down top of the bottle, so the paper towel would act as a wick, constantly watering the dirt.
See the teeny tiny seeds in Little Man's hand? They are snapdragon seeds.
They had a lot of fun with this activity, and 3 days later we can already see small shoots beginning to grow!
History
Well, we made it to the year 1900 this week! Actually, slightly beyond. We spent this year studying the 1800's (Tapestry of Grace year 3) and what a fantastic year we had! This week we read about Helen Keller, George Washington Carver, and Teddy Roosevelt. This was the great book we read on Helen Keller. Pictures on every page, and engaging text. Great for all ages together!
After we read the book, we played a game where one person was blindfolded (having a "blind" experience) and another person guided them through an obstacle course we had set up in our family room. This was fun, but also really brought home to each of the children how important our sight is, and how thankful we should be for it!
Bible
We are just about finished reading through Matthew (we will finish next week, even though this was our last "official" week of school ~ homeschoolers never really stop learning!). Reading the Bible outloud to my children is one of the best things I have ever done, and probably the best part of our day (which is saying alot, because there are alot of great parts). Nothing has given me as much joy as knowing that we are, together, studying what God says to us, and hiding His Word in our hearts. Some of my children may not be good spellers, and some of them may not excel in math or grammar, but if they know and love the Lord and know and love His Word, I will feel that our primary homeschooling goal was accomplished.
In Matthew chapters 23-25, Jesus talks quite a bit about the end of the age. We read through these chapters several times and discussed them at length. The children were quite fascinated and had lots of questions. This is son G's journal illustrating the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25). The top picture shows all 10 going out with their lamps. If you look closely you can see that 5 of them also have oil, while the other 5 do not. The bottom picture shows the 5 on the left with their lamps lit, having been welcomed into the wedding feast by the bridegroom at the door, while the 5 on the right are crying because they were not prepared and cannot come to the feast.
This is daughter G's journal illustrating Matthew 24:36-42, where Jesus says that no-one knows the day or hour of the Lord's return, not even the angels or even the Son of God Himself! The small picture shows a man working in the field, wondering where his friend went who was there just a moment ago.
And this is L's journal illustrating the same portion of Matthew. The top picture shows a man in the field with a rake on the left that has no man attached to it. The bottom picture shows a woman grinding grain, where just a moment ago there had been two women.
When we finish reading Matthew, we will have read through Matthew, Mark and Luke. In the fall we will begin reading John. We are planning to continue reading in the new testament next year, because the following year we will start over with Tapestry of Grace's 4 year cycle, and begin at the start of history again, therefore focusing on the old testament.
Extra
Our daughter had her last horse riding lesson last week. She had a great time and learned so much! I was very proud of her and how much effort she put into each lesson. She showed a lot of improvement from the first lesson to the last. She is now considering whether or not she wants to continue with lessons in the fall. We have told her that if she wants to continue, she has to pay for half the lessons, and that is assuming that we can pay for the other half, which remains to be seen.
In other G news, this week she reached her initial goal of saving $100! She was able to sell $24 worth of items at our MOPS consignment sale, and when she put this in the bank that put her over the top. Way to go G!!! That's diligent saving for someone who has little opportunity to earn money yet.
Our son L received this bag of freeze dried scrambled eggs in the birthday box from his Washington grandparents. We prepared it according to the directions on the back, and he ate this for breakfast one day. It was quite good!
Yesterday was our last day of regular school work. Today we are finishing up the year with an art project day ~ from the era of the Impressionists. Stay tuned for pictures of our work!
We had a great last-week-of-school using our workboxes! Here are just a few shots of some things the children did. C enjoyed doing a page each day from the Thinker Doodles book put out by The Critical Thinking Company. In this book only half of the animal is shown on each page, and the student must draw the mirror image of each one. I have had this book for years, but thanks to workboxes we are actually using it now! C had a lot of fun with these.
Daughter G doing playful patterns with Little Man.
After my brilliant idea of putting most of Little Man's activities into his siblings' workboxes for focused time together, I had a second brilliant idea to have our daughter plan some of her own activity times with Little Man, just as she used to do with her brother C. So one day this book was in one of her envelopes, along with a note that said, "plan activity to do with Little Man".
She was responsible for choosing and preparing an activity to do together. She chose a really neat one involving planting seeds in a cut off 2 liter bottle. The top third of the bottle got turned upside down inside the bottom two thirds. G put water into the bottom of the bottle first, and then put a rolled up paper towel inside the neck of the upside-down top of the bottle, so the paper towel would act as a wick, constantly watering the dirt.
See the teeny tiny seeds in Little Man's hand? They are snapdragon seeds.
They had a lot of fun with this activity, and 3 days later we can already see small shoots beginning to grow!
History
Well, we made it to the year 1900 this week! Actually, slightly beyond. We spent this year studying the 1800's (Tapestry of Grace year 3) and what a fantastic year we had! This week we read about Helen Keller, George Washington Carver, and Teddy Roosevelt. This was the great book we read on Helen Keller. Pictures on every page, and engaging text. Great for all ages together!
After we read the book, we played a game where one person was blindfolded (having a "blind" experience) and another person guided them through an obstacle course we had set up in our family room. This was fun, but also really brought home to each of the children how important our sight is, and how thankful we should be for it!
Bible
We are just about finished reading through Matthew (we will finish next week, even though this was our last "official" week of school ~ homeschoolers never really stop learning!). Reading the Bible outloud to my children is one of the best things I have ever done, and probably the best part of our day (which is saying alot, because there are alot of great parts). Nothing has given me as much joy as knowing that we are, together, studying what God says to us, and hiding His Word in our hearts. Some of my children may not be good spellers, and some of them may not excel in math or grammar, but if they know and love the Lord and know and love His Word, I will feel that our primary homeschooling goal was accomplished.
In Matthew chapters 23-25, Jesus talks quite a bit about the end of the age. We read through these chapters several times and discussed them at length. The children were quite fascinated and had lots of questions. This is son G's journal illustrating the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25). The top picture shows all 10 going out with their lamps. If you look closely you can see that 5 of them also have oil, while the other 5 do not. The bottom picture shows the 5 on the left with their lamps lit, having been welcomed into the wedding feast by the bridegroom at the door, while the 5 on the right are crying because they were not prepared and cannot come to the feast.
This is daughter G's journal illustrating Matthew 24:36-42, where Jesus says that no-one knows the day or hour of the Lord's return, not even the angels or even the Son of God Himself! The small picture shows a man working in the field, wondering where his friend went who was there just a moment ago.
And this is L's journal illustrating the same portion of Matthew. The top picture shows a man in the field with a rake on the left that has no man attached to it. The bottom picture shows a woman grinding grain, where just a moment ago there had been two women.
When we finish reading Matthew, we will have read through Matthew, Mark and Luke. In the fall we will begin reading John. We are planning to continue reading in the new testament next year, because the following year we will start over with Tapestry of Grace's 4 year cycle, and begin at the start of history again, therefore focusing on the old testament.
Extra
Our daughter had her last horse riding lesson last week. She had a great time and learned so much! I was very proud of her and how much effort she put into each lesson. She showed a lot of improvement from the first lesson to the last. She is now considering whether or not she wants to continue with lessons in the fall. We have told her that if she wants to continue, she has to pay for half the lessons, and that is assuming that we can pay for the other half, which remains to be seen.
In other G news, this week she reached her initial goal of saving $100! She was able to sell $24 worth of items at our MOPS consignment sale, and when she put this in the bank that put her over the top. Way to go G!!! That's diligent saving for someone who has little opportunity to earn money yet.
Our son L received this bag of freeze dried scrambled eggs in the birthday box from his Washington grandparents. We prepared it according to the directions on the back, and he ate this for breakfast one day. It was quite good!
Yesterday was our last day of regular school work. Today we are finishing up the year with an art project day ~ from the era of the Impressionists. Stay tuned for pictures of our work!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Overheard....
I apologize in advance for the crudeness of this episode of "overheard", but they were just too funny not to share. We have some neighbor children who have developed the bad habit of going potty in the bushes behind our backyard shed whenever the urge strikes while they are playing. Our younger boys, of course, think this is fantastic, and we are having to work hard at training them NOT to do this (we're working on the neighbor children too, but that's going rather slowly).
So this afternoon as I was reading history with our 10 year old and the others were outside playing, Little Man came running excitedly into the house to ask me:
"Mommy, if our house burns down can I go pee behind the shed?"
I matter of factly said, "yes, if our house burns down you may go pee behind the shed."
He grinned happily and said, "okay!!"
After he skipped back outside to play, G and I looked at each other and dissolved into laughter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9 year old L during dinner table conversation: "If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned by eating the fruit we would all be NAKED!"
So this afternoon as I was reading history with our 10 year old and the others were outside playing, Little Man came running excitedly into the house to ask me:
"Mommy, if our house burns down can I go pee behind the shed?"
I matter of factly said, "yes, if our house burns down you may go pee behind the shed."
He grinned happily and said, "okay!!"
After he skipped back outside to play, G and I looked at each other and dissolved into laughter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9 year old L during dinner table conversation: "If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned by eating the fruit we would all be NAKED!"
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
An Update on our Insects
Earlier this week we released our beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies into the outdoors. Sadly, one butterfly died when our cat knocked over the butterfly habitat and the orange slice fell on it. But we let the other 4 fly around our living/dining room for a while first, caught them in our hands, and finally let them go outside.
One of the butterflies did not seem to want to leave!
But it finally fluttered away. We watched them for a long time until we lost track of them.
All 31 of C's mealworms hatched into adult beetles and are now happily digging and doing other beetle things OUTSIDE! (my friend Laurie should be very happy about that!)
The ants in our daughter's homemade ant farm have been doing very well, but it's a chore to remember to feed them so she is going to release them back outside tomorrow.
That leaves us with just our non-insect pets ~ two mice and two cats!
One of the butterflies did not seem to want to leave!
But it finally fluttered away. We watched them for a long time until we lost track of them.
All 31 of C's mealworms hatched into adult beetles and are now happily digging and doing other beetle things OUTSIDE! (my friend Laurie should be very happy about that!)
The ants in our daughter's homemade ant farm have been doing very well, but it's a chore to remember to feed them so she is going to release them back outside tomorrow.
That leaves us with just our non-insect pets ~ two mice and two cats!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Exercise Accountability Update
Walking 5 times a week, or even 4 times, remains elusive. But I'm determined to keep trying! I walked 3 times again last week. Shooting again for 4 this week! It may be that I just can't walk 5 times until school is over, but this is our last week so the timing is good. :-)
Any of you willing to walk "with" me today?
p.s. Happy June!
Any of you willing to walk "with" me today?
p.s. Happy June!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
