Kids Bowl Free Program

We signed up for the Kids Bowl Free program put on by the Roxy Ann Bowling Lanes here in town.  Mary can play 2 games for free Monday through Friday all summer long.  For a small fee Rich and I got  a pass to play with her.  Yesterday was Mary's first time to go bowling and we all had a blast.  Rich is pretty good as he spent a lot of time bowling as a young kid.  I did so - so but I had a lot of fun.  It was good exercise and I felt it the next day.

 

 

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day weekend.  I bought Rich a big Jalapeno Pepper plant so he can use the peppers in his 5 Pepper Salsa.  Mary made him a card and with the help of mom she gave him a fishing license.  So we will be able to go fishing this summer.  I loved her little fish she drew with its tongue sticking out looking at the worm.  We went out to dinner with the folks and at Rich's favorite steak house, Roadhouse Grill.  Rich's dad really likes it too!  The guys got their steaks and us girls really enjoyed the fantastic dessert called, Messy Sunday.  We all had a spoon and joined in on the eating of it.  I am so thankful for my dad, Rich's dad and Rich!

 

Ballet Pictures

Mary had her ballet class pictures taken today. They wore the costumes that they will be wearing for the recital this year.  They are snow fairies for the winter scene in the Russian ballet, Les Saisons.

Fluff

Last Friday, in the later afternoon, Mary and I were out in the backyard.  Mary was playing and I was watering the plants when I noticed a dead baby bird in the grass and my heart was sad.  I took the shovel and pitched the little thing over into the blackberry bramble over the fence.  I no sooner turned around and Mary yelled, "There is a baby bird in the grass and it is still alive!"  I ran over to check it out and sure enough there was the little tiny thing, peeping its heart out.  So I ran in the house and got a gram cracker box cut it down, filled it with cotton balls and put the little thing in it.  It looked like it was only a few days old.  A little bit of down, tiny feathers forming on the wings and it's eyes were closed.  We gave it a few drops of water and a few drops of milk. 

 

My heart just sunk to see it as it was so small and so helpless.  I told Mary I don't think it will live because it needs it's mom and dad.  I knew it was a Brewer's Blackbird baby as a whole flock nest in our neighbor's Blue Spruce Tree that is next to their fish pond.  These birds come every year and raise their young and then migrate further north around the end of June.  They always come in April and leave in June.  The same ones come each year and I recognize one male because he only has one leg.  Rich really likes these birds as they kill and eat wasps and all kinds of insects.  They are great little birds and are so fun to watch. 

 

I don't know how the little thing got so far from the nest but I think it was a large Crow that dropped it as they raid the little Brewer's Blackbirds nests from time to time and they have to gang up on the big birds and chase them off.  I decided we would try and see if one of them would recognize the cry of it's young and adopt it back and feed it.  So we set the little bird in its box on the fence next to the nesting tree.  We had several birds land near it and look, but no takers.  So the poor little thing was getting hungrier and it was starting to get dark.  Mary found an earthworm and I cut it up and gave it to the bird and it ate it!  

 

We brought it inside, put it in our guest bedroom so it would be safe and quiet.  I told Mary I didn't think it would live through the night.  She said that she was going to name it, Fluff, and that she would pray and ask God to have it live through the night.  After she prayed she asked me if God heard her prayer?  I said yes, God hears all our prayers and the Bible says that He sees the sparrow fall.  So, nothing passes God's attention.

 

In the morning I went to check on the little thing and it was alive.  I was so surprised.  So, I went on the Internet to see if I could find out what I could feed it.  It said you could cut up a boiled egg up real fine and give it to the baby bird.  So, I did and the little thing ate it and went right to sleep.  Mary was so excited to see it alive too.  It was Saturday, so I took Mary to ballet and then on the way home we stopped off at the pet store and bought some dried meal worms and fresh blood worms.  I mixed that in with the chopped egg and the little thing ate it down.  It was such a sweet little thing.  Every time we turned the door knob to go in, it would lift it's little head and just cry and cry for food.  All day, every 45 minutes we fed it.  It would smack it's beak and lay it's head down on the cotton and go to sleep.  I would clean out it's little poops and kept the little nest clean. 

 

Sunday morning came and the little thing was still a live and it was eating more.  So again we fed it all day.  Monday morning came and it didn't eat as much and by mid morning I could tell it was not feeling well.  My heart sank.  I knew little Fluff was not going to make it.  He slowly died over that day and in the evening he breathed his last and we buried him out in our garden.  Mary made him a little head stone with his name on it and we put flowers on it.  She was so sad and I was crying too.  I had had so much hope that this little bird would make it and we would let it go free and be with the other birds.  I don't know if it was something I did or something was just wrong with the little thing that caused it to die.  I love little birds and I have so enjoyed watching them over the years at our feeder and up in our grape vine. 

 

 The next day when I was thinking about that little helpless life and how I had become attached to it in such a short time.  Being a mom changed me.  It seems after having Mary it has made me more sensitive to something needing me.  Even though it was just a little piece of fluff, it was very sweet and tiny and helpless and I couldn't help it, like I wanted to.  I wanted it to live so bad.  As tears were on my cheek, the Lord spoke to my heart.  Elena, you have watched those birds.  Once the birds become a fledgling and leave the nest, the parents watch over it, feed it until it can take flight.  Then they teach it where to get food and what to be afraid of and how to survive.  Even if it lived to be able to fly and become a "teenage" bird.  You couldn't lead it and give it what it needed to make it in this world.  So it is better that it died in that little soft bed that you made it, then to starve to death or be torn apart by a cat.

 

Mary said the sweetest thing as we were carrying little Fluff out to bury him.  She said maybe we will see Fluff in heaven. Maybe God will recreate that little bird and we will see it again.  It just touched my heart to hear her say that.  As it was Memorial Day and we had been out to the cemetery in the morning to decorate the graves of our family that has gone before.  We told her we have that blessed hope that all those that are the Lord's will be raised up when He returns and we all be with the Lord in heaven.

 

 

 The day we found Fluff.

 The nesting tree of the Brewer's Black Birds

 Fluff sleeping in his nest

 The little grave

 

Ground Zero

 

 

When 9-11 happened it became an event  that was permanently ingrained in many peoples memories.  The desire for all people to remember this event led to a slogan being made, "Never Forget".   I was captivated by this image above as many people were when this cross shaped iron beam was found standing in the rubble.  To me it meant when the walls came down and disaster hit, there was Jesus standing.  He is and always will be at ground zero.

 

I would like to share a true story that happened to me when I was a young teenager that involved the faith of my parents.  It unfolded over a period of several years.  The final outcome changed my life forever. Something I never forgot.  It started when I was about 13 and the little Assembly of God church that my family attended since I was 1 year old, hired a youth pastor.  We were excited and curious about this pastor and his wife.  She was very pretty and musically talented and he was a very interesting speaker.  My mom and dad had them over for Sunday dinner soon after they came.  Immediately Bob, the youth pastor, and my mom hit it off as he was a plant lover just like Mom.  I remember them that day walking around our family room, that was filled with house plants, looking at each one and talking about them.  Mom had found a kindred spirit.  As both, Bob and his wife, Lois, were the age of my older sisters, my folks took them in as their adopted kids.  My older sister had moved out and was married and lived far away.  So they filled a gap and emptiness in my mom and dad's heart.  Bob and Lois were far from their parents distance wise too, so Mom and Dad filled an empty gap in their hearts also.  They were young and full of hope and excitement for the moving of the Holy Spirit in people's lives.  They had pretty much nothing as far as worldly possessions and the youth pastor position didn't pay enough to live on, so Bob got a part time job to make ends meet.  Within a few months they were blessed with a baby that was due in July.  So they came and asked mom if they could have her as a honorary grandma for their baby.  Mom was overjoyed by the request!  My folks also became close to Bob and Lois spiritually because they were not big on the large organized churches like so many churches in America are affiliated with.  They felt it was better for each church to be independent.  Bob and Lois had been part of a ministry back East that was like that and also this ministry was very non-materialistic.  They had seen some real miracles through this ministry.  Sometimes food was multiplied before their eyes, sometimes pests and bugs were driven from their family camps and places with just prayers being given, and they had seen people being healed.   This lit a fire in my folks heart for it reminded them of their early years of marriage and how they were part of a non-denominational ministry in Portland.  It was called Wings of Healing and the minister and evangelist, Tom Wyatt had the gift of healing.  My folks met in the small Bible School that Tom had.  My mom had wanted to go to Bible School but the Bible Schools that the Assemblies of God had would not take her as she missed the last few months of high school taking care of her very ill mother and did not graduate and get a high school diploma.  The Bible School that Tom Wyatt had did not care about those things and invited all to come and be blessed by the study of God's Word.  My mom felt it was more like what Jesus would of done, being open to all regardless of their pedigree or educational background.  So the denominations left a bad taste in my mother's mouth early on.  My dad came from the Amish and all he saw there was a dead religion of people clinging to rules and regulations but hearts were not changed.  He longed to know God in a personal way like he had not known before.  He too was touched and encouraged by the Wings of Healing ministry in Portland.  He had a desire to be a preacher, a teacher of the truth of the gospel.  While at Bible School he met my mom's older sister and she introduced mom to him and the rest is history. 

 

The little church they were going to when I was a kid was an Assembly of God church and part of a huge denomination.  Not a church they would have picked right out of the gate but they went there because it was close to their home and when I was tiny they didn't have much money and had 4 kids and were living in a 8' by 20' trailer.  There was a recession going on in our area and my dad could not find steady work.  So this little church was close by and quite small and the people were very loving and friendly.  There were some pastor changes over the years they were there and the present pastor at the time of this story was very loyal to the denomination and would often say that the Assemblies of God was the best ship a float.  That did not set well with my folks.  They did not like an exclusive spirit.  Well, when Bob and Lois came, their ministry with the youth took off very quickly and in a number of months on a Wednesday night they would have sometimes 50 people coming to the youth meetings and the Senior pastor would only have a handful of people in his study.  Jealousy arose and the Senior Pastor began to make life miserable for Bob by always changing policy and not being supportive of Bob which was hard on him as he was young and new in this ministry and a man much older than him was making things difficult for him.  He and his wife would share what was going on and how it hurt them.  So my folks would go to bat for Bob. They tried to talk to the Senior Pastor about his practices and behavior that was hurting and discouraging both Bob and Lois.  My mom really loved them and thought of them as her kids and my mom was a very loyal person.  So she was more to speak up on things and address issues as she was more outgoing than my dad.  Well over the 2 years Bob and Lois were there, things did not go well.  The people they touched and loved were flourishing but the ministry as a whole was dampened by this trouble between him and the Senior Pastor.  My mom couldn't understand why there would be any reason for jealousy as they were both working for the Lord and the increase and ministry belonged to the Lord.  So what was the big deal?  At the end of the 2 years things came to a head and the Senior Pastor told Bob that he was going to resign his position there and when the Senior Pastor resigns all the staff pastors have to resign too.  So Bob resigned and he and Lois left.  They packed up their stuff and 2 beautiful little baby boys and moved back to the Midwest to be part of the ministry that had been part of before they took this position.  The Senior Pastor remained. 

 

 Our hearts were so sad to see Bob and Lois go and when the Senior Pastor did not resign my folks made the decision to leave. It was difficult as mom and dad had friends there. They even felt that the Senior Pastor was their friend too. My oldest sister was going to another church in town called Faith Bible Center.  It was a Foursquare Church but the pastor did not make a big deal of it and was more interested in people loving each other, witnessing to unbelievers, salvation and people being delivered from harmful lifestyles and habits.  So my folks attended there and entered into church life whole heartily.  My whole family became official church members according to the organizational guide lines and my dad was asked to be on the elder board and was voted in by the congregation.  My mom also continued to talk to people at the other church including the Senior Pastor, just to let them know that she still cared about them. 

 

Mom regularly attended the women's Bible studies at Faith Bible Center, that was held at the Pastor's house and was lead by the Pastor's wife.  It was in 1976 and they started a series on being beautiful for the Lord.  By being beautiful they meant having your nails manicured, hair professionally cut and colored and having a color analysis done to see what set of colors would go best with your complexion.  Mom was a little troubled by this as she looked over the group of ladies.  There was a young mom who had started to attend our church with her husband and little children.  She was a stay at home mom and her husband didn't make much money so they were poor.  Also they were new converts.  She dressed very simply, clean and neat but no fancy hair style or painted nails.  She also was a little bit over weight but not terribly so.  She watched this young girl's face fall as they got into the program for the night and the look of sadness and discouragement as they told the ladies that they needed to be beautiful like this to please their husbands.  The study concluded with all this outward beauty but no emphasis on the inward heart.  Mom kept thinking about 1 Peter 3: 1-6 that says: 

 

"In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, ² as they observe your chaste and ^[a]respectful behavior. ³ Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; ⁴ but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. ⁵ For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; ⁶ just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right ^[b]without being frightened by any fear." 

She also knew that this type of study was most likely going around the churches as a lot of other fads do, like health food teachings, "Being Healthy for the Lord", Easter egg hunts for kids near Easter Sunday, free food and free musical concerts, fancy coffee bars and donuts etc. to draw people into the church.  Things in themselves not particularly evil but were sometimes put above the importance of the Word of God and His truth.  Mom was a truth seeker and believed the word of God, the Bible.  So she being a Elder's wife and much older than the Pastor's wife and in the light of Titus 3: 2-5 which says:

 "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. ² Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in ^[a]perseverance.³ Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, ⁴ so that they may ^[b]encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵ to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored."  

 

She went to the Pastor's wife and talked to her privately about her concerns.  She said she thought it would be better to focus on the inward beauty and not so much on the outward beauty and she also told her concerns about the young girl that looked so discouraged.  The Pastor's wife did not take kindly to mom's words.  She didn't say much to mom but her anger smoldered and she talked to her husband about mom and said she was causing trouble in the women's group. 

 

The next thing I knew the Senior Pastor and his Assistant Pastor came to our house.  It was summer time, so they sat outside on the deck.  The Pastor proceeded to ream my folks, telling my mom that she was totally out of line, a trouble maker and a bad mom and wife to boot.  I was 16 at the time and furious.  He even went on to say that I was brow beaten because I was shy.  Well that didn't set well with me.  After about 45 minutes of this harangue they got up and left.  My mom and dad were in shock.  They began to pray about it and my mom talked to my dad and said they she felt like they should stay even though they wanted to run as far away as they could from that church.  My dad agreed and they stayed.  The next Sunday we walked into church.  The Pastor did a double take up on stage and his jaw dropped down.  He didn't say anything to my folks and went about church business as usual.  For 2 years this went on.  He treated mom and dad like nothing had happened.  Dad was still on the elder board and we all attended the services regularly.

 

As I said, 2 years passed and the church began to grow, he added a new pastor on staff and was going to 3 services.  Everything was sailing along, new people coming, people getting saved.  Things were going great on the surface.  But the Senior Pastor began to hang out with the Assistant Pastor's wife.  She worked in the church office, she had a beautiful voice and could sing and was quite taken with the Senior Pastor.  He took her out to lunch and had some heart to heart talks with her.  But before an affair happened, he caught himself.  He fessed up to her husband, how he had spent too much time with her was attracted to her but that was a far as it went.  His assistant decided to resign and move with his family up North to take another position.  The next step was for the Senior Pastor to confess to his Elder Board.  So they had a meeting and he told his story and asked for their forgiveness.  He knew God had forgiven him but was being accountable by confessing his wrong behavior and hoped that they would forgive him too.  Well all the people on the Elder Board except my mom and dad stood up and walked out and did not come back to the church.  Not only the Assistant Pastor whose wife he had gotten to close to, but the other Assistant Pastor left and the church attendance began to drop.

 

An amazing thing happened.  The Senior Pastor came to mom and dad and begged them to forgive him for what he did to them 2 years ago.  He said that he knew now that they truly loved him and he had been wrong about them all along.  He said that at one of the local pastors meetings that the Pastor from the Assembly of God that they had formally attended told him that mom was a trouble maker and if he didn't watch out she was going to damage his church too!  He had got that and then his wife with her bruised ego came tale bearing about mom to him and he decided he would run mom and dad off by giving them a good tongue lashing and make these trumped up accusations against them.  With tears and sincere forgiveness my folks entered in to right fellowship with this man for the next 2 years that this man was at the church.  He humbled himself to them and he was not their "Senior Pastor" but a brother in the Lord.

 

What did I learn from all this over the years?   That experience made me trust God even more than I had before, that when you do what is right in His eyes He will not forget and He will fight for you, you don't have to.  I learned that if you stand up for the truth you will have a battle on your hands because the enemy of our souls will buffet you, make you feel all alone, sometimes turn people against you, bring false accusations against you, but you need to stand strong in the truth and He will take care of you.  When all our own dreams that are not His come down in our hearts, when all our striving stops to better ourselves in a way that is not His and we stop trying to make things happen the way we want them to, then we reach Ground Zero where Jesus is and always has been.

 

^"He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it." 

                                                                                                                                   Matthew 10:39

 

         

 

Happy Birthday Mac!

Yesterday we celebrated our sweet little dog Mac's, 3rd birthday!  Mary had such a blast playing "Happy Birthday" to him on the piano and making him a little party hat.  We went to Costco to get some things and ended up getting carrot cake cup cakes.  So we used one to put his candles on.  He just got a couple licks of frosting and that was all.  We took a few photos and couple of videos. We were being silly and having a lot of fun!  My favorite website, One True Media, is going out of business.  I was so bummed as I have posted all my videos through them on my blog.  So now I will have to use the blogger video upload or use You Tube.  So we will see how the blogger video upload does this time.

 

 

 

My Mom

In light of this coming weekend I wanted to write something about my mom.  She was a an amazing person and I was blessed to be her child and learn from her and be loved by her.  My mother had a gift, not something that she made but one that God gave her.  She accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior as a young child and grew in the knowledge and light of His truth.  My mother was a very truthful person and seen through the veneer of things and could see deeper because God gave her insight.  Sometimes this gift came in a prophecy of future events and sometimes in the form of knowledge that was not privy to her except by the Holy Spirit.  At times she was able to see pitfalls long before they happened or she was able to learn to do a skill not from a book or a person but through the Holy Spirit giving her knowledge.  All the truth that she had did not contradict what was taught in the Bible but lined up with what it said.  For she knew the Bible was true and you could trust in it.  One of mom's earliest prophecies that was inspired by God was when she was about 13 years old.  Her sister who was 17 years older than her was married and had an adorable little boy.  She loved this little boy so much that she became over protective of him.  What I mean by over protective was that she would not let him go out and play ball with the other little boys and get sweaty as she was afraid something would happen to him.  She would not let her husband, who was a good man, discipline him.  She made the whole world bend to this child.  She was spoiling him.  One day my mom went to her sister in love to warn her of her behavior.  She said that if she did not stop this behavior that her son would grow up and lose his mind, become mentally ill.  Well, these words were not taken kindly by her sister and she chased my mother out of the house with a broom, swinging and swatting at her and telling her how dare she say such a thing.  The following years were peppered with events of her older sister showing anger against her.  It saddened my mom as she was only telling her what God has shown her and she wanted to help her sister.  Well about 16 years later this thing came true.  Mom's nephew grew up being an only child and controlled and spoiled by his mother and he did have a mental break down, went to mental hospital and eventually died from the complications of an attempted suicide.  It took another 16 years after his death for things to be made right between my mom and her sister.  They lived near each other and did see each other but it took another event of a fulfilled warning that my mom gave her about another family member before she changed.  A family member she hung out with ended up not loving her as she should. She had an argument with her, she had a terrible fall during this argument and the family member shoveled her into bed and took off with just a quick phone call to my mom.  My mom went to her house, found her, called the paramedics had her checked out and then nursed her back to health.  After that event her sister broke and told mom she knew that she really loved her and all the anger and bitterness and pride melted away that had been there for so many years and in their old age they became friends.  This story is just one of many, many times my mom seen something in the future and because she loved others more than herself she tried to warn them.  She was usually disregarded and sometimes scorned for her efforts.  As I said my mother was an amazing person with a lot of love and a special gift from the Holy Spirit that she did not abandon in the light of rejection or persecution.  I was blessed by my mother's insight and foreknowledge as she had many lovely things to say too.  She said I would have curly headed children.  Well I have a curly headed daughter and Rich and I lost a little one too small to hold in our arms.  So I never got to see that little ones head of curls.  Another thing she told me one day when I was a teenager as I was sitting at our family piano playing some songs was that when I got married I was to get the piano.  So this special Mother's Day weekend I am able to sit down with my daughter and play the piano together.  Mama saw that little sweet bouncy curly headed girl sitting on the piano stool next to me loving the piano and bringing so much fun and joy to my heart.  Thank you Lord for a loving, truthful and godly mother.
  

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=12cee832f37a4ae5a686e8a&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url 

The Fence

I had the livin' daylights scared out of me last week.  As my usual practice in the morning I took our pup, Mackie, out to the front yard to do his business.  This particular morning I had no more than stepped out on the front step and a large black dog let out this vicious growl and before I could get Mackie, who had gone down on to the lawn, the dog was trying to climb over our low fence.  I heard the dogs owner yell at him to stop. The guys voice had a element of fear in it.  I ran to get Mackie 'cause I knew if that dog got over the fence he was going to kill Mackie.  As I ran to him, he ran back to the front door with his tail down and pressing on the door to get in.  I quickly ran to the door opened it and ran inside too!  The whole time the dog never stopped snarling and growling and was almost over the fence and he never listened to his owner either.  Poor little Mackie's heart was about to beat out of his chest.  After I got my composure, I remembered something Rich said to me a month or so ago.  He had a thought or premonition that a vicious dog would jump our fence and get in the yard.  So, I told him what happened and I also called our landlord.  Why I was so shaken up was the thought of Mary's safety.  Mary plays with Mackie in our back yard all the time.  The yard is fenced with a high board fence all the say around except for the drive way side.  If that crazy dog tried to jump the front fence he could try to get in our back yard if Mary was out there playing with Mac.  I told our landlord what happened and asked if we could raise the fence.  She was totally supportive and said we could and that they would be calling the guy about his dog.  Thankfully we had all the fencing material.  We had bought the stuff a number of years ago but never got around to putting it up.  So Saturday Rich put it up.  We have planted morning glories of all colors by the fence posts so hopefully this summer we have a lovely green wall of blue, white, red, pink and lavender flowers and no more episodes with our neighbor's dog.

  

Easter Time

Here is a slide show of our Easter this year. This one is special because the music is beautiful scripture songs that were written by a very precious couple in our fellowship, Larry and Lindy LeFlore. The Lord gave Lindy the tunes and they found the scriptures together and Larry played the guitar. Lindy did not have any formal music training, the songs were a gift from the Lord. They have written over 50 scripture songs.  The songs remind me so much of my youth group as a young teenager as we sang so many wonderful scripture songs at that time.

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=12cc978a80a046e11996033&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
 

Ladybug, fly away home, fly away home!

I went to the garden center the other day to buy our vegetable garden plants and low and behold on the way back in they had bags of lady bugs that you could buy.  It was only 6 bucks, so I thought, "Hey, why not?"  Rich and I had talked about raising some baby Praying Mantis and I had bought a kit a couple of years ago but we never got the egg sack.  So this would be easier and we could use the same bug cage.  It was a hit with Mary.  We kept them inside for one day with twigs and a little bit of honey water.  I think there was about 500 of them in the bag.  Mary just watched them for hours.  Then the next day it was a beautiful morning so we sat them down by our garden and released them.  I had so much fun taking their pictures.  Ladybugs are just so cute!!  I found a new zoom setting on my camera that I had not used before, so I had even more fun capturing the little things escaping into the garden.  Mary spent most of the day watching them.  This was her home school science project.  Next year we may try some Praying Mantis.