Praise God for Angiosperms!

"Praise God for angiosperms!  Not only do they provide our lives with essential things we need to survive on this earth, they are also beautiful to behold."  (Exploring Creation with Botany by Jeannie K. Fulbright)

What are angiosperms, you ask?  Flowering plants, of course!  :)

Have you ever thought about how many flowering plants you come in contact with every single day?

Or better yet...all the products that come from flowering plants?

Roses, sunflowers, mums, and lots of other beautiful flowers we enjoy indoors and outdoors are all obvious angiosperms.

But what about fruits, veggies, wheat, oats, corn, rice, honey, sugar? ...Most of what we eat wouldn't be here!

But, we could eat meat, right? 

WRONG!  Most of the meat we eat (chicken, pork, beef, wild game) rely on angiosperms to live and grow...so our meat wouldn't exist without flowering plants. 

We could probably eat fish...but all the time?  That would get pretty boring!

How about cotton in our t-shirts, undies, and bed sheets?  Nope...not without flowering plants.  (*side note:  If you've never seen blossoms on a cotton plant, you are missing out!  They come in the prettiest shades of pinks and yellows!)

You get the picture? 

My kids were pretty good at recognizing the benefits of flowering plants in our discussion today - probably because they get to help garden a little in the summers. 

...And, they know their momma absolutely LOVES flowers - that totally makes them important, right? :)

So...for our Botany lesson today, we performed a flower dissection on a rose from the back yard.

Truth be told, sometimes our little Science labs wind up being a crazy headache, especially with the little ones...but, today, I still have enough sanity to want to write about it, which means everyone was interested enough to be attentive - SUCCESS!  ;)

(I DID have to steer our conversation back to flowers after Silas, my 5 year old, asked if he could go "kill a frog so we could dissect that" instead! ..."Ummmm, no, Big, we don't get to do that in Botany - that has to wait until Biology." )

Today, during our flower dissection, we started learning about how flowers make seeds...and that's important in learning about a whole lot of other things to come (pollination, seed dispersal, fruits)!

After our work, I sent them outside to soak up some much-needed SUNSHINE (it's been raining for a week here, but the sun finally peeked through today!)...and I encouraged them to look around them while they played, and to try not to take things around us for granted...

..and to "Praise God for angiosperms!"

Our Home Was "EGGED"!

Yesterday morning we awoke to a note taped to our front door...

What a unique reminder of our Savior and His empty tomb!

(Special Note:  Our yard didn't contain the usual 12 eggs...instead we had 3 dozen!  Guess this group of "outlaws" knew a single dozen wouldn't be enough for our 9 kiddos!)

It was a lot of fun...and we were able to talk to the littlest ones about the significance of an empty egg representing the empty tomb of Jesus.

Easter is right around the corner. It has nothing to do with bunnies...or eggs...or pink straw...or chocolate - although those things can be fun.

Easter is a celebration of our Risen Savior.

We can never be perfect on our own...but, with Jesus' death and His resurrection, we can be made perfect!

A very special thank you to our friends, who found the time to sneak around our home late one night. (Glad we didn't hear you and try to shoot you!  Lol!)

Thank you for your effort to bring joy - and a gentle reminder of God's never-ending love to our family this celebration season.

Our home was EGGED!...and we might just have to pass it on...

"Curls are for girls!"

Daddy says, "Curls are for girls."

Mommy says, "Curls are cute, cute, cute!"

But, admittedly, John's "curls" were cutest right after bathtime...otherwise, they were sort of limp and long strands.

So, John had his first haircut last night - at 1 year and 2 weeks old.

He loved it!

I took photos while Daddy performed the hair cutting.

Silas, the very responsible big brother, held the keepsake strands until they could be placed in a tiny bag for safekeeping.  Eva labeled the bag of curls.

It was a family event - sort of.

In any case, it gave me a chance to get back to this blogging thing.  ;)

Funny how these little milestones are making me sad these days...I'm pretty sure I'm getting old. ;)

And, just for the record, curls are NOT just for girls! ;)

 

It's No Accident

Lunar Eclipse Observation 101 - Oct. 8, 2014

Kids awake by 4:15am... (No, I am not a morning person...and, yes, I got called "grumpy" by my 11 yr old. She was right, and I am not proud of this...but I did straighten out my act after being called on it. Go, Mom!)

Much excitement...(just picture a 3 yr old little girl running through the house in pink fleece footie pj's at 4am)

At one point, the "moon gazing" evolved into "star gazing", b/c the clouds kept covering the eclipse...

Part of my moon-gazing, star-gazing crew...
The outside light was on only briefly,
b/c I couldn't get my camera to take a pic in the darkness.
And, the Ritz cracker box -
this was a homemade pinhole box we made several weeks ago
to view a SOLAR eclipse.
Samuel grabbed it with excitement and thought we could view the moon with it.
Nope, little man, sorry.  You can see the moon much better with your own eyes.

So Gregg showed them Jupiter (and 1 of its moons) through the telescope.

At the time of total eclipse there was complete cloud cover, and we were very disappointed.

"We waited 2 hours for THIS?"

"Ummm...this is interesting...but highly overrated."

"Well, at least I TRIED to make school fun.  Do you understand what a big deal this is?  Even when an eclipse occurs, it's rare to be able to see it in YOUR town.  And, even then, the weather conditions have to be just right.  At least we were able to see part of it, right?" (I did well keeping my grumpiness at bay...Go, Mom!  I'm not sure they were convinced it was worth it, though.)

But...then the clouds parted for about 30 seconds! (Thank you, Lord, for answering my spoken prayer from just minutes before!)

We were able to behold the "blood moon" just after 6:30am.

Honestly, I think the kids were tired by then and less enthusiastic than I had hoped.  (and naptime will not come soon enough!)

But, we managed to grab a few photos, and we discussed the physical logistics of how an eclipse occurs.

We talked about how God does, indeed, have an order to our universe, and He gives us glimpses of this every day in "ordinary ways" and sometimes in some "not so ordinary ways."

The heavens truly behold His glory...it's no accident.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

                                    Genesis 1:1