Fluff and Burdens

This was going to be total fluff post. But a couple of hours ago, as we were going to sleep, Dave started talking to me about schooling and well...it's now 3:00am and I am still awake with all the thoughts swirling in my head. As many of you know, we are homeschooling right now, and it is a good fit for our family. When Dave brought up the idea of sending Matthew to school in the next couple of years, it felt like a bomb. Honestly, I have always thought and planned that the kids would eventually go back to school. My attitude all along has been "we'll take it child by child and year by year." Well, I guess in my heart I feel so loathe to change something (or to even plan to change something) we are all enjoying so much. So Dave's questions and bringing up the topic really felt like a searchlight examining my heart.

Our discussion led to much larger questions like: where is our family going, what are our priorities, what is the best for each child. And of course, most importantly, how do we live as the Lord has called us. What has He called us to? It is good to live deliberately, so I know it is necessary discuss, reflect, pray, and wait upon the Lord for His leading and to obey.

But maybe next time we shouldn't start these discussions in the middle of the night!

So, whether you homeschool or not, could you pray for us? There is a lot our family is thinking about now, a job change for Dave, possibly moving to be closer to family... These have ignited a lot of uncertainty and introspection. I need to remember to look to the LORD -He knows and understands far more about everything that is going on.

Ok, will leave you with the promised fluff. In the nursery at church this morning, I was planning our activities and thought it would be fun for the little guys to do a little gardening.

Here's Lily watering and sweeping up afterwards. For those with tiny ones, I got the idea for making the plastic soda bottle into a watering can from a preschool teacher I know. You just make a few holes with a hammer and nail in the cap. Fill the bottle with water and the kids can easily gently water their plants by squeezing the bottle.

Around Here. . .

Well, this has been an utterly s-l-o-w day.

Matthew and Aaron are still out of commission with their stomach bugs.  Nathan took a 2 hour nap this afternoon, which does not bode well.  I have a feeling he is coming down with it as well.  It is a terrible bug.  Matthew was up until 3am, throwing up and just in general feeling miserable.  Poor lamb.  Thankfully, Aaron seems to be getting better now, but he is still sooooo out of it.

Nearly all of our silkmoths have emerged.

A drawing Nathan made in his silkworm science journal.
Here is an excerpt from his journal dated 6/10/12:
"One of are moths has hatched from is cacoon!  And all the moth will do is lay her effs. (if of course it is a female) they lay eggs to about 300-400 eggs.  And when they mate they stick there abdomen together.  When the moth first emerges it will spit out a liqid, (don't ask me why because I don't know).

The reddish liquid actually comes out of its behind, and it is called meconium.

You can see all the eggs that are being laid by these moths.

Totally unrelated, but a rare family photo of us from a wedding we attended a couple of weeks ago.  

A cool photo I got of Matthew and Lily about a week ago before the stomach bug hit.  And Lily's dress is mama-made.  It is from a pattern in Handmade Beginnings.

Looking forward to better health next week :-).

Father's Day

This is our most low key Father's Day ever. Aaron and Matthew have some nasty stomach bug. They are in no shape to do much other than lie down, make trips to the bathroom and in Matthew's case - cradle a barf bowl :-(.

Also, my email was recently hacked. So I have been dealing with that as well.

However, I want to wish Dave and all fathers a wonderful day. You do so much, and I know I couldn't parent our children without you, Dave. It has been a privilege to witness my husband as a loving father. Let's celebrate when everyone feels better!

Cleft team appointment at UCSF

Lily had a follow up this morning at UCSF. I am pooped and am seriously looking forward to a group nap :-). The sooner the better. I wanted to update though.

All in all not much new news. The speech path is very optimistic that Lily does not have an insufficiency and wants her to continue speech therapy. In fact, she wants us to up it to twice a week.

The plastic surgeons defer to the speech path, and we don't need Togo back for 6 months.

There were families lined up in the hallway waiting to see the Cranio facial team! The Lord gave me a grateful heart when after chatting a bit with two families in the waiting room, I found out that one family was from Los Banos (2 hours away) and one from Bakersfield (3 hours away). So...one hour drive from Sunnyvale is not so bad :-).

Also, there was a boy maybe 8 or 9 waiting who I think had a repaired bilateral complete cleft lip (like Lily). He looked so handsome :-). And seemed so well adjusted and happy. It was encouraging.

First pic is of Lil in the waiting room with the shape sorter lid as a "helmet". Second one is aarbear and Lil once we got home. He made a pile of pillows for her and said, "lily is in medical bay."

As always, thank you for praying!

Silkworm Science

This is our second time studying the silkworm lifecycle.  The kids think the silkworms are very cool.  I think they are cool, and a little bit disgusting at the same time.  Dave does not like them at. all.  He nicknames the silkworms things like, "End Times," and "Naked," "Wretched," and "Blind."  Hee hee.

What do you think?  Cool?  Gross?  Apocalyptic?

Our stockpile of mulberry leaves, the only thing these guys eat.

I promise that Aaron's green smoothie does not contain blenderized mulberry leaves!

Here is a fantastic site about the rearing of the domesticated silkworm aka bombyx mori.  Silkworms have been bred for silk production for thousands of years.  These guys are now very resistant to disease, tolerate a lot of handling, and spin lots and lots of silk when they enter their cocoon (pupa) phase.

Even Lily thinks they are cool.  She can even very clearly say, "Wormie!"

So the kids have been keeping science journals about them.  They have been measuring them. . .

Comparing them to other objects. . .

Making observations. . .
Here you see one of them in the first stage of spinning his cocoon.  Pretty neat, huh?

Some of them even had to accompany us on our road trip to Southern California that we took over Memorial Day weekend.  I needed to keep feeding them mulberry leaves, so we stuck them in a shoe box and put them on our car console for the trip.  Dave was not happy.  Here he is saying (while I am trying to get a photo), "Don't open that box!"

All of them in their cocoons!  After they had finished spinning them, we took them out of the enclosure and put them on this tray lined with paper towel so we could observe them better.

And look who I found this morning when I got up to check on them!  Our first moth has emerged from her cocoon :-).  As gross as they may be, they are very fascinating and an amazing display of God's creativity!  Who would imagine that something wrinkled and floppy would become this winged, fuzzy, six legged creature?

A sketch from Nathan's journal dated 5-16-2012.   Here is what he wrote (with original spelling and mechanics):
"We'v Been studying silk worms in school.  Silkworms are a certain catterpilar that only eat mulBerry leafs, spin silk, and make cacoons of silk.  my biggesdt is about 1 in. .75, my smallest on the other hand is about 1/2", the biggst is named Mushroom, the mediumest is named black out, and my Last and smallest is named silkie."

Aaron just climbed out of bed and I showed him our new moth.  Can't wait to see what the other kids think.
More to come about these guys. . . stay tuned. . .

Aaron is 5!

On Saturday (June 2nd), my littlest boy turned 5! Wow! For those of you who know Aaron - he can be very shy. The shyest of all of my kids, at least for now. I think it was only last year that many people at church even knew he could talk :-). When he is comfy, though, he is a regular chatterbox and smiley-face. Thank the Lord for good friends up here in the Bay Area, who in the absence of extended family, made the birthday boy's special day a treat! I made the Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Cake Ever for the occasion. The kids all liked it - but I thought it was soooooo sweet. Too sweet for me. I think you can halve the sugar and it would still be fine.

Post in pictures