The Apgar test and it's inventor:

How's Your Baby? Recalling the Apgar Score's Namesake

Caution- this is gross and involves "the circle of life" in nature.

So, the kids are spending the night at grandma's and I call to hear how their day has gone and say "good-night."  Oldest DS says, "Guess what!"  I say, "What?" assuming he's going to tell me about the new swingset that I already knew about.  OH NO, never assume ladies....

"One of our ducks is gone because a snapping turtle bit it's head off!"  Yup, nature at it's finest.  Thankfully no one actually witnessed said snapping, though they did see what was left of the duck later and gave it a "proper" burial.  Then DS shares that later one of the other ducks was still tooling about the pond when it squawked and went running/flapping across the water. Apparently this duck had an encounter with our friend Snappy too but faired better than it's sibling, managing to keep its head.  DS thought that was just hilarious to watch.  All the ducks are now sticking close to their private "pool" and away from the pond.  Anyone for turtle soup?

Oh but it gets BETTER, oh yeah! Fair warning- this one's a stomach turner.

Grandma had agreed to allow the kids to hold a baby robin when they came over because she knew where a nest was to be found.  They were understandably excited.  So, the kids are playing outside and grandma hears the parent birds making a fuss.  She thinks one of the babes has fallen out of the nest and grandma and all three kids go over to investigate... just in time to see a startled snake spit out the last baby and slither away!  Eeeewwwwww!  The other two babies were long gone.  I guess snakes are shy when eating. 

Thus concludes homeschool science for the firm-of-constitution this week. 

Matthew 10:29 

 

 ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

I am frequently reminded of this verse as I look out my back window into our yard and view the birds going about their daily tasks.  I was reminded more recently, on Palm Sunday in particular, when my son was exposed to one of his most dangerous allergens and came through unscathed.  He came to me following the church egg hunt to show me that chocolate candy from someone else's egg had gotten on both of his hands.  Miraculously he had no reaction to this contact with his skin (he has reacted to less on the past).  I on the other hand suffered quite a panic attack after tending to his immediate needs as adrenaline rushed through my body. 

As we pulled into our driveway on our return from this eventful morning, I noticed a tiny, delicate sparrow in our shrubs.  As I looked on this pretty little sparrow and remembered God's promise anew, I heard a beautiful trilling song.  It was this tiny sparrow.  The bird was so small, but I could see it's little throat moving making this big beautiful sound and thanked God for His reminder of His care.

During about this same time we were blessed by yet another of God's flighted creations.  This one a robin who chose to build her nest on my son's window sill!  We had a bird nest on the master bedroom sill a few years ago, but only DH and I remember that one.  The children have seen nests in our front yard and have even gotten close enough to one to touch a baby bird at their grandmother's house, but nothing really compares  to the wonder of being able to peer each day into the activities of the mother bird.  At first seeing no sign of the builder, we thought perhaps our nest had been abandonned.  Yet I thanked God for even this little glimpse- how fun to examine the nest's construction up close!  My son was understandably disappointed.

Then it occurred to me that there was no need for the bird to sit on an empty nest.  Sure enough, yesterday morning my children awoke to a bright blue surprise- three of them.  Our mother bird had returned in her due time and now our nest held three bright blue robin's eggs.  If you've never seen the color of a robin's egg up close, you are missing a truly lovely sight; there's no color quite like it.  So again, we have been blessed and God has shown us His care.  We thank Him for His gifts great and small as he watches over us and all of His creation.

We just subscribed to this program, the subscription lasts for 3 years and since I have at least two children who will benefit from it during that time, I thought it was a pretty good deal. 

Mark Kistler's Online Art Lessons

So far we have only viewed the Mini-Marshmallow video art lessons, but I look forward to progressing through the lessons for older children in the years to come. 

You can purchase a subscription via 

So... why have I had to look up alligator habitats, our home state's dimiensions in miles and the distance from our state to Florida, discuss the location of and language spoken in Mexico and compare an island to a peninsula.  (No we aren't planning vacation- though perhaps my son is. LOL!) 

Even though I am a homebody by nature and we homeschool, I've been trying to get out the house more simply because I need the exercise.  I won't "workout" if I'm home so I figured I could at least get a little exercise chasing three kids around.   LOL! 

It has been working, I even did some rock climbing earlier this week.  Rock climbing is a serious workout, btw.  I was just doing "bouldering" where you stay low to the ground and travel horizontally but it got my heart rate up quickly.  Anyway, as part of my new "mission" to get out of the house more and in support of DD's new adventure taking ballet classes, we went to see a free performance by some of the children from her  ballet school at a Germanfest in a nearby town.  The performance took an hour and then we spent two more hours touring the area and looking at the various crafts being displayed and exploring a huge fire engine. 

We learned a lot of interesting things today!  I learned that both my very active boys can sit still for almost a whole hour to watch a ballet performance  (though I think it helped that they were performing A Midsummer Night's Dream which has some fight scenes and bugs!)  We got to see an active bee hive display complete with the queen.  So now we know how to identify a queen bee (and no, she didn't look just like me!)  We saw woodworking and jewelry making and we saw the firemen pack up the engine in a hurry when the got a call while my kids were sitting in the engine cab.  It turned out to be the building right next to where the engine was parked so it didn't actually take off- but those fellow sure do snap to in a hurry when their alarms go off. 

My children got to tour the town where both my mother and I ran around as teens and where my mother met my father.  (Awwww)  And despite my best efforts to convince the poor docent that my kids wouldn't sit still for it- we watched a brief movie about the history of the town which was actually interesting AND the kids did sit still through it for the most part.  We also got to view a diorama of the town and my oldest child learned a new word.   

I can't even remember all the interesting things we saw and did today, in a town that I very much took for granted having grown up viewing it as a place to hang out with my friends.

Next Friday we are going to a Native American festival at the local Native American archeological site and museum (also taken for granted by me) and we may try to go see a Naval battleship that's permanently docked in the next town over.

I know I often assumed that because we lived in a small town that there wasn't much to do, but if there were much more to do- I'd never get to stay home.  Now, hopefully this will eventually mean that I'm in better shape. But if not, at least the kids will have a well-rounded education.   

So today while I wasn't teaching, DS took his color wheel (he had an interest so I picked a small one up at the art store) and made his own color chart using colored pencils to identify primary and secondary colors.  Then he got out the Boggle Junior game and made up his own spelling game with the lettered die.  Later he pulled out some yarn and took the new plastic canvas shapes that I'd picked up at Hobby Lobby and made a little heart for me using the stitches I'd shown him a few days ago. 

He often studies bugs on his own.  Now, if I could just get him to teach himself history I'd be out of a job. LOL! 

My middle child meanwhile, read a Clifford lift the flap book to her younger brother. This book teaches numbers, letters, shapes an colors so it was quite an education for my little preschooler and a boost of self-esteem for the middle child who can "read" this particular book. 

This week a neighbor of my mother's brought her an "empty" plant pot that contained a momma lizard and her eggs!  Three of the eggs have hatched (blue-tailed skinks I think) and there are still several others to go.  One baby is working on coming out- just his head is showing with his tiny little bright eyes sticking out of a tan colored egg shell.  Amazing! 

I lived out at "grandma's house" as a child of course and had plenty of land to roam and explore.  We also raised some livestock and planted a garden, but I never saw a lizard egg.  Mom has added more and more flowers over the years and really worked to make the land habitable to God's creatures and we are reaping the benefits with new science lessons every week.  Our God created many things for the pleasure and delight of His children.  Baby lizards sure are cute. 

This week we've had the pleasure of watching a spider wrap it's prey, a praying mantis masticate - boy can they eat fast with such a tiny little head- and a black swallowtail take flight.  That last one I was the only one to witness as it "hatched" while the kids were at grandma's house.  That's ok though, they got to set a yellow swallowtail free last week.  Grandma finds the best caterpillars out at her place!

My eldest caught two bullfrogs this summer- up from one last year.  He also caught a really large lizard- ugly!  My daughter has been chasing butterflies and today unfortunately got a sting from a wasp.  But she's a trooper and ready to go outside and catch some new critters.  Even the not-quite 3 year old has found a caterpillar or two.  He's got good eyes and can find the really tiny ones. 

This spring after a flood we got to take a quick look at a deceased beaver.  I had no idea how big their tails really were!  And the kids have been able to see a racoon (caught and released in a 'humane' trap) after witnesses it's footprints for several weeks.  They were happy to finally see the feet that match those tracks.

Yesterday, the kids harvested over 100 tomatoes at grandma's house and have shared in several ears of corn from our own garden.  A robin placed her nest in a tree right outside our front window so we were able to watch her little family progress from start to finish and we have a wild rabbit who has decided that our back yard is the place to be.  

That's just a little of the wonderful things the children have been able to see and share this spring and summer.  I can't begin to name it all.  We are so very blessed to not only have our own little yard with it's peeks at nature but grandma's garden full of all kinds of plants and animal to visit.  Her yard is actually a certified wildlife habitat- how cool is that!  So if you have some land, start planting some flowers and trees.  You could create a wildflower field that the birds will love.  Have bushes that give small animals and burns cover from predators or just plant a small butterfly and hummingbird garden.   If you have no yard at all- consider a small terrarium or container garden.  Just a few beetles or crickets and a spider or two (definitely contained!) can teach you and your child a lot about the little creatures living all around us. 

It is amazing to be able to see and show your children how God provides for all his creatures. 

LOL!

We have modelling clay but my son mentioned wanting to make clay marbles after we purchased some while on vacation last year.  So I bought actual clay that will harden- the real (though not rustic) Crayola clay that dries.  Wow, is it messy to work with!  My daughter had no problem getting clay up to her elbows but DS and I were a little more reluctant to "dig in". 

Nonetheless, it was an opportunity to learn about yet another art medium and get real feel for it.  I think that will come in handy when we study folks who made their pots and other items out of clay. 

In a few days we'll paint our creations.  More fun and more mess.  Don't the two go hand in hand often? 

I’m guessing most of you already knew that.  There have been four earthquakes in my life that I’m aware of, and actually I’m not sure of one of those.  Only three have occurred in my adult lifetime.  Two of them took place in the last 24 hours.  I did not like the experience- not one bit!  I was actually awake when the first tremors hit our area.  The window in the bedroom began shaking without any of the advanced warning you’d feel during a thunderstorm.  It sounded like a freight train, or at least close enough to trigger my panic instincts. 

You see, friends of ours had lived through a tornado that leveled many homes in their neighborhood a few years ago and they described it as hearing the sound of a freight train and then the tornado hitting their home before they even had time to grab the kid(s) and get down the stairs.  Thankfully, their home did not suffer major damage and they were kept safe.  Ever since I have drilled the procedure in my head- hear the sound, yell at DH, grab two kids and run for the basement. 

So, that’s what I did.  Well, first I muttered some mild expletives under my breath, as I don’t handle stressful situations well.  Then I hissed, “grab the kids, grab the kids, grab the kids” at my poor befuddled DH who had been sound asleep at the time.  He gathered his thoughts enough to ask what was happening and my brilliant reply was “I don’t know, just get the kids and go, go, go.”  So, we did.  DH later reports that on the way down the steps his charge, my 7-year-old son asked, “Why are we going downstairs?” to which DH could only reply “I don’t know. “  I may need to work on my communications skills.  

Anyway, the local news was already airing their sunrise edition when the first quake hit, a 5-point-something, so at least I had proof from an unbiased source that I was not insane. 

So, after waiting a few hours for the adrenaline in my system to dissipate and the nausea to go away, I was able to fall back asleep.  Oh ho, you say, foolish Midwesterner, didn’t you know?  Earthquakes have aftershocks.  Well, no.  Apparently despite having heard the term many times, I hadn’t put together what “after” and “shock” meant.  So, I’m sleeping away (yes, very late in the morning) when the entire bed starts to shimmy.  I get up and go downstairs to ask my DH whether there was another earthquake and he says “no.”  In fact he’s so certain that there was not another tremor that he told me I must have dreamed it.  Well friends, dreams don’t shake the whole room.  I tuned into the local news to learn that this one was a 4-point-something.  Again, I was relieved to have my sanity confirmed.  Apparently I am the only one in our household who notices when the walls start shaking. 

You know how cats just seem “tense” sometimes, a little jumpy?  Well that was me for the next few hours.  Despite the fact that our house was fine, we were fine and there was really no consequence from our experience- I just don’t like the earth moving underneath me in quite that fashion. 

So there you have it.  Earthquakes are unsettling, literally and figuratively.