Butterfly, Butterfly

They arrived in mid-August, a surprise to my girl who'd just begun to add an interest in bugs and such to her already lengthy list of topics. 

We opened the box, saw the five caterpillars and their food inside the plastic jar. We introduced ourselves, and after a few days, we discovered that our caterpillars weren't very good housekeepers.  They were, however, very good at following directions. Within the specified number of days, three of our new friends climbed to the top of the container, attached themselves to the tissue paper at the top, and formed the letter J with their bodies. 

The other two caterpillars were a little slower to the job...

...so we waited.

Finally two days later #4 #5 climbed to the top. After hanging for around 24 hours, the caterpillars began to form their chrysalids (what we commonly refer to as cocoons).

As each caterpillar formed its chrysalis, our excitement grew. So we watched...

...and we watched some more.

Finally, all five caterpillars had made it into their next phase in the cycle. All were in their chrysalids. Next, it was up to us to move them to their new home.

Behold the "Butterfly Garden" future home to our butterflies.

Now all we had to do was detach the tissue disk from the top of the plastic jar that had been serving as home for the caterpillars 

and attach it to the netting of the butterfly hut. 

No sudden movements!

Mission accomplished.

 It was time to wait 7-10 days for the butterflies to emerge.

Seven or eight days later, we awoke to find...

one empty chrasalis and one which had fallen to the bottom.

After closer look we found our first butterfly. 

We were all a bit bummed that we'd missed his exit from the chrysalis, but we were still confident about our chances of seeing the other four come forth.

Later that same day, another of the chrysalids began twitching and shaking. We were convinced that this was the moment, so we FaceTime-d our cousins' classroom and invited them to watch with us...

They watched and...

we watched...and

...nothing...

until the next day when, while six Wrights were in the kitchen eating breakfast, two more butterflies joined us...UNNOTICED!!!

During the next few days, the remaining butterflies emerged from their old homes into the new one, each with out being seen by anyone. Sigh.

Painted Lady butterflies live for 2-4 weeks after exiting their chrysalids. Ours lived long, laid eggs, and then one by one completed their cycles. 

Happily, our super-sentimental bug-crazy gal was off galavanting at her Grandma's during the final demise of her Painted Ladies.  

Additional Information: I ordered the butterflies from a company called Insect Lore and was pleased with the service, the product and the instructions provided. Their website insectlore.com is an excellent resource for information and all SORTS of bug related gear.

During the lifetime of the Painted Lady butterflies, we read lots of books about these amazing insects. Below is a list, linked to Amazon.com of some of our favorites.

Butterflies and Caterpillars

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

and our favorite, 

Waiting for Wings

We also colored some butterfly coloring pages which can be found here.

Some fun Painted Lady facts from the Insect Lore website:

~Her scientific name is "Vanessa Cardui L."

~She can lay up to 500 eggs.

~She may travel 1,000 miles in her lifetime.

~She tastes with her feet.

~She has 10,000 eyes.

~She breathes through her abdomen

AND now you know!!

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  And everyone deserves a little sunshine.  

~Jeffrey Glassberg

Pools and Puddles

I woke up in a blur the other morning. I stumbled in and pressed the "Give-Me-Coffee-Quick" button on the coffee maker and grabbed my morning devotional. As the coffee began to do its work, so did the words I read from the skinny brown book. The word picture painted for me was that of a pool of water.

"We dig a well," said the author, "but heaven fills it with rain." It was a good reminder as I looked ahead at the duties the awaited me. The work was mine to do, but it was God's to bless, for, as my slim book asked,

"What are the means and ordinances without the smile of heaven? They are clouds without rain and pools without water. O God of love, open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing."

Thus bolstered, I met the morning with a skip in my step and praise on my lips. My few moments of devotion had changed my morning perspective. I saw beauty everywhere. I grabbed my camera as the kids finished getting ready for school so that I could record God's blessings in my day...

There were the flowers from my mom's cutting garden waiting for me in the bathroom when I brushed my teeth.

Our little cherry tomato plant, which had recovered from animal attack last month and has been producing a red tomato or two every few days.

My children, gathered 'round to listen to their history lesson on a sunny side porch.

Peanut butter cake, delivered to us by one of our favorite families, for morning snack with hot tea along side.

"Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside..."

I was soaring on the wings of blessing, my heart as bright and cheerful as the sun was warm and...sunny. 

Until...remember by devotional and its talk of pools of water...

...the green mug in that picture above was soon to tip over and cover our maps with sticky sweet hot tea which dripped through the table top and covered our shoes and the porch.

No big deal. We stopped and cleaned it up, and got back to work.

Until...remember that green mug up there...after it was refilled with tea, it was knocked to the ground by a student more intent on her work than on her beverage. 

(This teacher is not complaining about that!)

No problem. We stopped and cleaned that up too and got back to work.

Except...during that break, Cole found a slug, a big slug and decided that it would make a good pet. I decided it would probably make an educational pet and sent him to see what a slug eats. After providing apple and broccoli and a bowl to Cole's new pal, we got back to work.

Until...it was time for first grade art to come to an end and ... 

well...remember my morning devotion about pools of water and about how my work was God's to bless and not mine to fret about?

I'm so glad He's in charge of the puddles. 

There certainly were plenty of them for both of us to deal with today.

Know what else I'm glad about? I'm glad I had a moment that morning to lift my chin toward Him first thing. If I hadn't, I might have been a hot steamy pile of discouragement and defeat before lunch time.  If I hadn't given up by lunch time, I'd surely have given up after lunch, because things became more difficult as the day progressed. Nothing was earth-shattering, there were just lots of little puddles underfoot and all about. We just kept cleaning them up and getting back to work.

Having taken a small minute first thing had rescued our day. 

I really must begin every day like that because into every life, a little rain must fall and I want my rain to be the kind from heaven...the kind that fills the pools...the kind that blesses!

"Oh God of love, open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing!"

Morning devotion: Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon. Devotions from this work are also available FREE online here. 

Last Day of School

Ahhhhh......another year of school, formal school that is, is complete. I promised the children that when we finished studying World War 1 that we would be finished for the year and today the Armistice was signed! Following a happy, carefree afternoon of non-schooling, we celebrated by taking in a movie.
Up! was great fun. We had forgotten that it was a 3-D movie and the cool glasses added to our enjoyment. Darrin even got to join us. My favorite part of the movie was when the main character realized that to have worthwhile memories one didn't need to have lived a spectacular life, one needed only to have lived. He discovered that there was true adventure in the "everydayness" of life, a lesson that his late wife had learned ahead of him. I appreciated the message of the movie especially at the threshold of this summer: Appreciate everything, not just the grand and the planned, but the trivial and the normal, the hot-dogs for supper nights and the steak on the grill nights as well for in between all of the little moments and the bigger ones, life is happening whether I'm paying attention or not!