Dirt Babies

Had a funny conversation with Anna yesterday that ended up with a simple but profound truth that I needed to hear. I’d been gone all weekend and was trying to get caught up with her on homework projects, etc., and we were talking about her latest science project. This one is called “Dirt Babies.” :) Basically, the kids have to put some dirt with grass seeds inside of pantyhose and then decorate the panty hose to look like their favorite scientist’s face and hope that the grass seeds sprout on top of the head to look like hair (think chia pet!). Of course there’s watering to do and I guess the right amount of sunlight is a key… and they have to write up a ‘lab’ and keep track of what they are doing to their “dirt baby” to help it along. So here was the conversation:

Me: So how’s your dirt baby coming along?
Anna: Fine.
Me: Do you have to write down what you are doing with it?
Anna: Yeah. I’ve been giving it water.
Me: So is the grass growing?
Anna: No.
Me: Is everyone else’s grass growing?
Anna: Yeah, mostly.
Me: Well, why isn’t yours?
Anna: Well, I started a day behind because I forgot my pantyhose…
Me: Oh, yeah… well, what happens if your grass doesn’t grow?
Anna: (with a bit of irritation at all my questions) I don’t know!
Me: Well, will you get a bad grade if the grass doesn’t grow?
Anna: (now really annoyed) Mommmm! NO – I can’t exactly MAKE the grass grow!!
Me: (feeling a little silly) Oh… yeah… good point.

At this point I stopped the torture with my questions and this verse came to mind:

"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." I Cor. 3:5-9

And I was reminded, yet again, of the fact that my purpose and use here to God is to plant and to water… but when things GROW – well, that’s God’s business and His doing. And He gets all the glory! Oh, how I want to will myself to grow… and how I want to find ways to make myself be who I think I ought to be and where I think I ought to be. But am I patient enough to do the planting and the watering and trusting enough to rest in faith that God will ‘grow the grass on my head’ in His time?... :)

Fall Has Arrived!

In honor of the first day of the fall season, I thought it was probably time to change my background from its springy/summery theme... I've now run out of time to play with it any more, but I've at least gotten started. :)

I recently started a Beth Moore study on Daniel. Yesterday, there was a challenge to memorize some verses from Daniel chapter 2 - it's Daniel's praise to God for revealing Nebudchenezzer's dream to him. As I was looking it over this morning, I realized that it is very fitting for today, so I just thought I'd post it here on this first day of fall and offer it up as a prayer of my own as we start into my favorite season of the year.

Daniel 2:20-23:

20 "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;

wisdom and power are his.

21 He changes times and seasons;

He sets up kings and deposes them.

He gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to the discerning.

22 He reveals deep and hidden things;

He knows what lies in darkness,

and light dwells with him.

23 I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers:

You have given me wisdom and power,

you have made known to me what we asked of you,

you have made known to us the dream of the king."

Thank you, Lord, for being so willing to give of Your wisdom and power, for changing the times and the seasons as you see fit, for revealing the deep and hidden things for our benefit, and for being our light in a dark world. Please continue to make known what we have asked of you... and all to your glory. Amen.

Bugs

That's an enticing title, isn't it? :-)

Well, Anna's science teacher at school is apparently a little bug-happy. She does this 'bug project' every year where the kids have to collect 40 different kinds of insects, kill them in such a way as to leave their little bodies in-tact, and then identify them and pin them to a board and label them all. Oh, yay... you can imagine my excitement at getting to help with THIS project! Please keep in mind that I don't like to kill things... if you have any doubt about this, scroll back to the very first post I ever put on here about a cricket and you will believe me. ;-) Well, apparently my daughter has this same tendency - we're both either too tender-hearted, or possibly it's just too squemish... ha.

Anyway, I was pretty excited a few days ago when I happened upon an already dead, but still in-tact wasp on our back porch. And not long after that, I found a nice dead beetle of some sort to go with that. Both are still sitting on a paper towel on my kitchen table awaiting pinning. (This might also clue you in to the fact that we're never all home at dinner time any more these days, so the kitchen table is now being used for science projects!) We hit a bit of a snag when Anna spent a considerable amount of time catching a fly in a mason jar - only to set it free the next morning when she saw it still had not died overnight and was really wanting out. (poor fly) I knew right then that we might be having to talk to the teacher about another way to accomplish this project! ;-) ....umm... can we take pictures of bugs? please?

Well, this weekend we spent a couple of days at the lake with Jack's family and lo and behold, who knew that a bunch of kids (and adults!) could have so much fun finding different kinds of insects to capture and freeze to death. (this became our preferred 'humane' way of euthanizing our bugs) We all ran around with plastic sandwich baggies just waiting to spot the next 'cool bug.' I think the prize for the best bug has to go to the capture of a bumblebee. Jack caught it once, but it managed to get away from him. Then it made the mistake of coming back, where it was whacked and stunned with a paddle by my nephew, Carter - it fell into the water just off the dock where it was scooped up in a cup by my sister-in-law, Deb. Jack poured it, water and all, into a sandwich bag that he had bit a small whole into, and then managed to drain out the water without losing the bee this time! And after all that, it was still alive! (ick!) So all Anna had to do was take it up to the freezer, but when she picked up the bag, it started buzzing and moving around so she quickly handed it over to her cousin Taylor, who managed to get it in the freezer for her. (whew!) In all, I think we came home from the lake with 29 bugs - and thank goodness, because now at least that part of the project is almost done! :-)

So, now I have a paper towel with a dead wasp, beetle, and a large horse fly (forgot about that one until I passed them a little while ago), along with a garbage bag full of a variety of dead insects sitting on my kitchen table. I can hardly wait until we start getting them all out and learning how to pin them to the foam board. (woohoo!) I'm sure there'll be pictures to come from all of this... and I'm also sure that was more than anyone wanted to know about catching bugs! :-)