A Day in the Life of...

Just a glimpse of my day today-- Project & Lab day

Psalms 84:3 NIV
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

I've been teaching Chase about birds. Spring is here and that brings nesting season for birds. Chase and his dad built this home for small birds. We'll watch to see who will nest in this home. We wrote the words from Psalm 84:3 on the side of the bird house.


Stephen worked on chemistry lab today. In the midst of his lab experiment, it was time for lunch so his lab work became the table centerpiece.


Blessings in Christ--

Bats & Spiders - Oh My!

Oh how the Lord uses my children to grow me and change me! When I was blessed with my children I did not realize how much it would change me. Emily discussed some of this on her blog and I’m going to build on it and elaborate on it from my point of view. I call this God’s Character Building 101. I suppose 201 will come with grandchildren someday.

We still have Charlotte (see this post). She has laid a huge egg sack. I have not been able to find out how long they eggs will stay there. But I have read that when the little spider lings come out that they will build the parachute type web, climb up on something high (like a fence post) and fly away on the wind. Just like on Charlotte’s Web. I hope I get to see it. But the sad news is that Charlotte will probably die after this event takes place. And today as I walked by the shrubs in my front yard, I noticed at least a dozen spider webs with spiders in them. I guess the word got out in spider land that we allow spiders to live here and they’ve moved in. I’m okay with it as long as they stay outside.

Last week our local home school group announced a scheduled field trip to the Devil’s Sinkhole in Rocksprings, Texas, to see the bats emerge at sunset. This trip is a one hour drive each way. In our new science book there is a chapter on bats. We skipped right over and started studying bats and I signed up to take this field trip with the group. I learned that bats are not dangerous and don’t actually attack people. These little creatures eat tons of insects every night. Chase said, “If we didn’t have bats, it would be an all out war between people and insects.”

Chase waiting for the bats

The bats that we went to see are called Mexican Free-tailed bats or Brazilian Free-tail bats. The tour guide said that the name Mexican Free-tailed bat is commonly used here because they cross the Mexican border to get here. This particular species of bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) lives in colonies. They like the caves. Bats are mammals, give live birth and nurse their young. These bats migrate north in the spring after mating, then return south for winter (about October). The mothers have their pups (the term for baby bats) in the caves. These pups stay in the nursery for six weeks. Amazingly, the mothers know their own pup out of the millions of pups when they return to nurse. Then after six weeks, the pups learn to fly. Bats don’t have much lift on their wings so they have to drop or hop and start flapping. And they continue flapping their wings during flight.

The sinkhole we visited is 350 feet deep. The bats start stirring before sunset. I call it stirring because before they start flying out of the sinkhole, they fly in a counter clockwise circle out of the hole. When they come out, it looks a like a tornado and then they fly off in swarms toward the south. They feed on tons of moths every night.

I just stood in awe of God’s creation as I stood there and watched this. I stood there and allowed the bats to fly around me. Yet I did not squeal like the little girls in front of me. I saw some land on the deck in front of me and watch it hop and hop to try and get some lift to flap its little wings. They are as small as one of my hands. Some are a little bigger. I think the tour guide said there are estimated 4 billion, but maybe he said 4 million. This includes the mothers and pups. There are some males, but from what I understand they mostly stay south. I don’t know exactly how many there were, but lots of bats came out of that cave. I asked the tour guide when they stop and he said he has only been out as late as 11 pm and they were still coming out.

My husband is just in awe at how much I have changed lately. Before, I would have never allowed spiders to hang around or stand and watch bats fly all around me. God has used my children and His call on my life to home school them to change the way I see His creation. If I weren’t teaching my children at home, I would NEVER do the things I’ve been doing—like entertaining spiders and standing around the bats. I am certainly overcoming fear.

Having my children has certainly blessed me and they continue to bless me.

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.

God's Wonderful Works

Wow, today has been one of the most interesting days for me. Now I am the type that really, really dislikes snakes and spiders. If it were up to me there would not be any. I keep asking God why he created them. It seems like He just lets me know that He is God and I am not.

This past summer while we were on vacation, we stopped at a Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas. At this museum we saw a film about how in a hyperbolic chamber they placed a venomous rattlesnake and kept there for a while. I think it was a year. In this chamber the scientist tried to recreate the atmosphere of the earth prior to the flood. During this time frame, the snake grew so much larger than what is normal in this atmosphere and what amazed me the most was that the snake was non-venomous!! I felt the Holy Spirit just comfort me and let me know that I wont always be afraid of snakes. [But I still don’t want to be around them. Thank you.]

Now God has put one of His awesome creations in my back yard. I home school my boys (Stephen is going to the junior college part-time for dual credit this year). And we started our school this week. I decided to change the way I was home schooling because the boys were getting bored and burned out. For science, I decided we would start taking nature walks and keeping nature journals, especially for Chase. Last spring when I pondered on choosing this type of curriculum, I wondered how it would work as we don’t live somewhere “pleasant” to enjoy nature walks. I pictured nature walks in the mountains with pine trees and pine cones on the ground. We don’t have mountains or pine trees. But then my son walked out in the front yard to play and I went out later to look for him. It had been raining a lot and the grass was getting tall. He stooped down, picked up a mushroom and turned to me and asked, “What is this?” That moment has frozen in my mind as a snapshot from God that I have nature in my own yard.

Yesterday—Chase came in from the back yard all excited that he found a “GIANT” spider. I’m thinking “yeah right how giant can it be?” Be a dramatic child, I just thought he was exaggerating. And being the type of woman that avoids spiders, I just didn’t care to go see it. Well finally after his constant badgering me, I went a saw it behind the storage shed. I stood there stunned. It is BIG and I didn’t know what it is! Thinking poisonous—stay away. I begged my husband to get rid of it NOW! He replied, “Why? It eats bugs and it could be Charlotte.”

This morning my walking partner, friend, and another home school mom, Anna, came over to go walk. I told her about this “GIANT” spider and immediately wanted to see it. We went and she was wowed. She got so much closer than I would; so close she frightened it a bit and it moved up the web. We went and got the camera and started taking pictures. Now I find myself actually getting excited about seeing a spider like this.

Later Stephen started researching the internet looking for this spider. Because the web has a unique zig zag in it, we googled zig zag web and came up with a Golden Garden Spider (or also known as Orb Spider or Writing Spider). I just started the first chapter of Apologia’s Elementary Science—Zoology I with Chase. So far in the first five pages, which is all we have covered, we have learned about classification. Its binomial nomenclature is Argiope aurantia. The spider in the pictures looked just like the spider in my back yard. It was so exciting to learn what type of spider we have that has made her home with us. I start calling Anna, but she was out on business. But she brought her children over later to look at the spiders. She brought them over for science class, notebooks, pencils, magnifying glass and all. My husband was laughing at us. He jokingly started announcing by the back door, “One dollar per person please.”

We went outside and started looking and examining this spider. Stephen found an insect and threw it in the web. We were all amazed at how quickly this spider ran to the prey, wrapped it up in the web, and sat on it for a while. Anna watched it through the magnifying glass and said when she was shooting web out of her spinnerets that it looked like it spread out into four strands. She tried to get me closer, but I declined and said, “I’m just fine where I’m at.” Anyhow, I didn’t want to get in the kids way.

We learned that this spider is in the family, but has a different genus and species that than the one in Charlotte’s Web. Though both are in the family of orb weavers, but different, Chase still named her Charlotte after the spider in the book/movie.

Yesterday, Chase & I wanted to get rid of the spider. But today the Lord has shown us a wonder of His creation in our back yard. Charlotte will stay and we will watch her. We will toss her an insect once a day. The last time we checked on her she was eating the one we fed her earlier and she had another wrapped up.

Psalm 145:4-6

4 One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.

5 They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.

Having this paradigm shift in my mind, I now realize I shall tell my children of the Lord’s mighty acts. This spider is a part of His creation and a part of His mighty acts. [Besides, I've learned this particular spider is not poisonous and I'm no longer afraid. That too, is part of God's mighty work in me!] Blessed be His name!