Seasons

I really enjoy the change of seasons. While I have a favorite season (spring), I have learned to appreciate all the special things that are unique to each season.  Easter and Passover, gardening, longer days, and the gradual awakening of the plants and animals are what I look forward to most in spring. Summer brings pool days, 4th of July fireworks, cicadas singing, and garden harvest. We look forward to fabulously cooler days, the approach of Thanksgiving, and occasionally some fall colors when autumn mercifully comes around. Winter always holds the hope of a possible snow event, big pots of soup, December and the joy that Christmas brings, and the beginning of a new year.

 Each season has its own joys.

Each season also has its share of less than pleasant aspects of life.

Spring (I'm reaching here...there isn't much not to like about spring) means it's time to get back to yard maintenance and boy, it's hard to focus on getting much work done when those gorgeous days are calling you outside. Summer (I'll limit my complaints) means it's time to melt for 5 months straight, cabin fever, and mosquitoes. With fall (again, reaching!), it's time to clean out the garden and it's the beginning of "sick season." Winter will bring the continuation of "sick season", a little bit of cabin fever during our two weeks of cold weather, and sometimes we have an endless string of cloudy days which always make me want to stay in bed.

Our family life is like the seasons as well. Right now we are in midst of someone's babyhood (also someone else's toddlerhood, and the childhoods of three more blessings). I very much try to remember that as I go through my days. Each baby puts his/her own personal twist on our lives. We have survived the "newborn" and "little baby" seasons of Jacob's life and now have entered the blissful calm-before-the-toddler-storm time of "big baby" season. Baby boy naps twice a day, sleeps pretty well, is happy (as long as we stay home...), and remains in the general vicinity when he is put on the ground (unless a sister spirits him away). This is a season that is like spring--I can't really find many things to not like about it.

Of course, not every "baby season" is the same and not every baby is guaranteed a "peaceful spring" and a "hot summer" (after all, we have had freezing weather in April in Central Texas). And if that's the case, well then it's God's will and we just have to roll with it. That child and his/her temperment are perfect for our family. His plans are always greater than ours even though we may have a difficult season.

I do think that the key to surviving these baby seasons is to look at them as they truly are: seasons. Except that unlike the seasons of the year, once these baby seasons are gone they never return.

I try to remember this when I have to plan an outing with details nearly as complex as the invasion of Normandy. Have everyone get ready, feed baby, jet out the door and get back before nap time.

Or like last night when I kept him up all afternoon so I could put him to bed early so I could run downtown and attend a good friend's birthday dinner only to breathlessly plop down 45 mins late at our dinner table and within a short time receive a text message that Jacob had woken up. I had half an hour until I had to race thirty minutes back home for the little guy's next feeding. I wasn't upset, I know God is in control and I was called back to my family. This time of baby intensely needing momma will pass before I know it.

I comfort myself with the "this too shall pass" mentality when my little boy won't go to anyone except for Jason or myself. Peaceful date nights are out of the question right now--I could leave him but why not wait a short season until he (ok, WE) are ready? I firmly believe that God provides the "breaks" that we need as moms. During this season they may only be an hour at the end of the day after all the children have gone to sleep and I am plopped down on the couch next to my equally tired husband. If that is all the wakeful "rest" that God gives me for the day, I (try to) thankfully and happily receive it because I know if I actually required more, He would have provided it.

Babies are only "babies" for a short year. While ours isn't a "baby centered" household where the family bows to the whims of a tiny tyrant, I do believe that "baby seasons", particularly the first six months where everyone is adjusting to adding one more family member and mom is recovering from pregnancy and birth, are meant to be a time where we slow down a bit and "be still" before God. We stay home a little more, I sit and nurse a hungry little person while reading to the older kids, and rest in the knowledge that God has put us in this season to grow us.

Ressurection Eggs

We decided to dye the eggs from our chickens instead of the white ones from the store. Four of our chickens lay brown eggs and one bird lays a cool green egg. I wasn't sure how they would turn out when dyed but as you can see, they came out quite brilliantly. 

Fresh from her nap, Penny was not enthusiastic about letting her eggs sit.

Daddy and pretty eggs made it all better :)

A Medieval Feast

To celebrate the completion of studying Medieval Times, we just had to have a feast. We spent the entire day prepping for dinner and what a long (but enjoyable) day it was in the kitchen. By the way, this feast took place the first week of February. Yeah, I'm a little behind on updating the blog.

The girls and I came up with the menu and we decided which girl would help with each dish. The pretzels were probably the most fun because everyone got to help with those. This was our first experience with making pretzels and they actually turned out quite good (ahhh white flour!).



Reese and her pocket pies. I made the first one and she did the other three.

Hailey helped with the apple pie. I failed to snap a picture of it before dessert time but it was quite lovely.

They did not have plates in medieval times--they used a chunk of thick bread as a plate and piled their food on that. This was as close to the real deal as I could manage. We did use the bread/plate for the chicken, asparagus, and beef stew but after that the bread/plate was nice and soggy and we couldn't bear to top it off with dessert. The bread was great though--Paige helped with that.

We had milk or water to drink

I told the girls they could wear a dress of their choice if they desired. Paige took that decision quite seriously and wore about three dresses during the day.

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All in all, it was a nice meal. The girls showed off some magic tricks they had learned and the projects they had done.

And the king ended up being quite pleased with the meal and the entertainment :)

Little Miracle

Today I was walking around the house, talking on the phone to the husband.  We were preparing to attack and conquer the grocery store and everyone was running around. I peeked into the caterpillar nursery and I saw this: 

Which made me scream into the phone "There's a monarch hatching! There's a monarch hatching! Girls, get in here!" Jason, understanding these things and exhibiting one of the 1001 reasons we are perfect together, just said "Ok. Bye." and hung up.

And indeed, there was a monarch hatching. I grabbed my camera and got some very bad pictures of the brand new butterfly emerging because everyone's heads kept getting in the way. But I did manage to snap a few of this amazing process.

 Just 20 seconds after emerging (it took me that long to position everyone to a satisfactory view).

 This is about one minute after hatching. See how swollen the buttefly's belly is? It has to pump all those fluids into it's wings quickly. Note the chrysalis that it is still hanging from.

 Thirteen minutes after emerging.

 We released the butterfly later that afternoon.

He (yes, the girls can tell the difference) easily flew across the yard and into a tree. We watched the little guy for a moment and then I ushered the girls back into the house before we witnessed the newly freed butterfly fly into traffic or take a horrific detour into the chicken run. Farewell little creature, may your journey be gentle!

Silly Old Bear

I have to give a shout out to "The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh". It contains both "Winnie-the-Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner" (it really is complete). We have been reading this book as a family and I can declare it as our Number One Favorite Read-a-Loud (so far). It is incredibly funny. In nearly every chapter I have laughed hard enough to put the book the book down for a second. The older two girls usually get it but sometimes it's just the parents who catch onto the humor.

We have just two more chapters left before we start "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew". I haven't read this book before but I know the story line so I've got a feeling that it's going to be quite a switch from gang that hangs in The Hundred Acre Wood.

Parable of the caterpillars

The monarch nursery has taken a turn for the disturbing. It seems that a mean old fly (it even has evil looking red eyes) called a "tachinid fly" likes to hunt down innocent caterpillars and inject its nasty little eggs into the caterpillar's body. The eggs hatch and feed on the caterpillar's insides. No one, apparently not even the caterpillar knows this has happened until the about the time the caterpillar gets to the chrysalis stage. Then, and this is the especially heartbreaking twist that is like that fly giving your hopeful kids the middle finger, right after everyone gets excited about the caterpillar being on its way to becoming a butterfly, Something Bad happens.

Someone walks by the insect cage and notices The Something: A white string appears from the hanging caterpillar (in the chrysalis or just hanging upside down). Weird, huh? Oh well, all is probably well.

Then you notice that a little something has used the string to exit the beautiful green chrysalis (or in some cases it can be the dangling, sleeping caterpillar).

It's a maggot. Yep. A MAGGOT.

A maggot that has just dashed the family's hopes of seeing a monarch butterfly emerge from the chrysalis in a few weeks.

Now here comes the sound of wailing children.

But wait! Teachable moment here!

The Lord impressed upon me that is the bug version of the parable of the sower (found in Matthew 13). Because only about five out of five hundred caterpillar eggs that are laid live to become a butterfly. There are just so many ways that a fragile little caterpillar can be killed: snatched away by a spider, poisoned, infected with a parasitic maggot, infected with fungus, squashed by a person traipsing thru a field, etc.

People are like the caterpillars. Many are snatched away by unbelief, false teaching, love of self/money/various idols,etc. They think they are fine, just like those infected caterpillars. And for many of them, by the time they realize they are not fine, it is too late (death). Jesus wasn't kidding when he said that "But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:14).

We have 10 chrysalises hanging right now; we started out with 25 caterpillars.  It remains to be seen how many will emerge as beautifully transformed butterflies. My constant prayer is that 100% of my own little caterpillars (kiddos) will become butterflies.

Caterpillar Obsession

If you see a white van pulled over on the side of the road next to a field and there's a woman bent over peering into a mound of flowers, don't worry: It's just me, one of the local crazies.

This week, we discovered milkweed.

And you know what eats milkweed?

Monarch Caterpillars.

And you know who loves to raise caterpillars?

My kids.

Me too. I love them just as much.

There is something incredible about watching a caterpillar transform into a butterfly. It's one of the mysteries of God's creation and it is incredibly interesting.

We found a few new types of caterpillars. "The Fuzzies"

I was afraid they were the stinging type so I wouldn't let the girls touch them until we had a chance to look them up. Turns out they are harmless. So the girls spent the afternoon playing with their new friends. There were countless caterpillar races with "The Fuzzies" who are quite fast!

This guy, The Royal Ugly Dude, was unidentifiable. So he had to sit out.