The Caterpillar Chronicles

It all started with a cup of caterpillars. 

They arrived as tiny eggs, and over the course of about two weeks transformed before our eyes-at our table side even- into beautiful Painted Lady butterflies.

The process is really amazing to see up close and personal. Four out of the five eggs we received turned into butterflies. What happened to "Tiny," we will never know(of course, many a story has been told). On that note, we affectionately named them all. "Ronald" was by far the most popular in the group, and by the end of it all we were calling every caterpillar in that cup Ronald.

Day by day we observed mother nature in action, with little to no help from us. It's a small sort of miracle to see one thing completely change and become a whole new creation. 

These guys grew FAST! Basically, the cup comes with all the food they need to grow. And grow they do. It was so interesting to see these guys move and roll around up close!

Once they're ready, the wiggle on up to the top of the cup and hang in an "J" shape. I'm sure Bennett will always picture his "j's" like this. It's there that they form their chrysalides, and begin the metamorphosis into butterflies.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

After the outer shell of each chrysalis had hardened, we(Chris) carefully transported the cocoons to the butterfly house. We furnished their new home with flowers and apple slices, and then waited. The kit we bought from Insect Lore also comes with a pipette to feed your butterflies. You can make homemade nectar easily enough with sugar and water, but we mostly let the butterflies dip their long proboscis' in left over banana slices.

It was very exciting to come downstairs every morning to see the progress with each passing day. Try as we might, we missed the magical moment they emerged from their chrysalides-I think they were waiting till our backs were turned! One by one the came out of their chrysalides as new butterflies. Their wings were paper thin, beautiful and full of wrinkles to start. We watched them grow in strength, size and even color over the next few days before we released them into the wild world outside. It was pretty amazing.

To watch them grow in each stage, both as butterflies and caterpillars, was so interesting to the littles AND the bigs in this house. I am not a buggy person by any bend or stretch of the word, and will admit I was full of the heebie jeebies when these crawly critters arrived on our doorstep. But when it was time to let this new creatures fly, even I was a little sad to see them go. I took a few videos below, it was a fun and special moment!
Butterfly release! from Rebecca Scott on Vimeo.
Letting the butterflies fly #2 from Rebecca Scott on Vimeo.

I remember reading somewhere that experiencing things hands on, outside of a textbook, moves information from  the left brain to the right. Or rather, from short term to long term memory. I'm so thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling offers us and the many opportunities we have to take learning outside of our textbooks or four walls. While you can't always make that happen, this one is a winner and an A+ learning experience. Alongside our fun family project, we also visited the butterfly observatory at the Durham Museum of Life and Science. Interestingly, Evan is still skittish in the big butterfly house(he comes by it honestly) but was very hands on and comfortable with our own butterflies. He took many pictures of them on top of our yellow cabinet, read to them, drew them, fed them, and was all around a very brave friend and protector while they underwent their transformation. As for Bennett, we are thankful the butterflies survived him hehe.

Every now and then we catch sight of a new "Ronald" around the neighborhood, and always wave a friendly hello to our fluttering friends.

Nine months

Our sweet smooshy Asher smElliot is already 9 months old. As far as I'm concerned, he is growing much too quickly and I agree wholeheartedly with my big boys who think their baby Asher should stay a baby forever. None of this crawling and pulling up and getting into the dog bowls business.

At 9 months this boy is on the go and ready to roll. He pulls himself up on just about everything, and is seen mostly standing in his crib these days. Sleeping is for the birds he says.

This third boy of mine may be my most difficult sleeper, but he is for sure turning into an awesome eater. His appetite does not quit and he's using his two teethe well to chomp down on just about the same table food we have. Like his mama and brothers, he favors fruits over the veggies but enjoys everyone in the squash family. I would say his top favorite foods are blueberries, chicken, and rainbow sherbert ice cream. Say what? I meant peas and spinach...

His nicknames include: Smoosh, Smash, Smish, Ashey and...Butter Biggens. :-) When he's not eating, this little one loves the fresh air. We go outside quite a bit and he is always happy in the sun. I tried to take these pictures above this afternoon and he was just too captivated by his older brothers to cheese for me. 

I was worried this third boy of ours would feel like a third wheel to the dynamic duo that is my bigger boys, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Asher is the adored up and down and all around. Evan and Bennett love their little brother so much-they often tell me from the backseat how glad they are that we got Asher for a baby brother, and just as often fight over who gets to play with or sit next to him. They are proud of him and eagerly tell strangers in the grocery store all about their little brother, and the way this baby smiles up at them something tells me the feeling is mutual. A random aside-just yesterday Evan was giving Asher a hug and Asher pulled his hair pretty good, enough to make Evan cry(it doesn't take much lol). When I was explaining to him that Asher was a baby and still learning not to pull hair, he told me that it wasn't because he pulled his hair that he was crying, but rather he was worried that he wouldn't be able to hug him anymore. Sweet! In any case, brothers are the best.

When your big brother crashes your walker jam,

and the other one sits on your car...

In other 9 months news, we were once again thankful to get a great report from his pediatrician at his well check. Weighing in at 20 pounds and meeting all of his milestones, we've got ourselves a healthy, happy boy-praise God! These are precious times.

Happy 9 months stud muffin!

Low sugar challenge low down

It's been a week since I've sipped on a sweet treat like this-I made it!!! By my calculation, I've spared myself a pound or two of sticky sucrose this week alone. I can feel my arteries thanking me...

Shocking! I'm guessing my beloved Target icees aren't much better...

Really though, how do I feel? I have to admit I am just now, at the very end of these 7 days, feeling a notable change for the better. The greater half of the time has been somewhat rough, being that the majority of my sugar was tied to caffeine. Eeek! All things considered, I'm happy to say that I do feel like I've turned a tiny corner. For starters my husband would be the first one to tell you that I am NOT a morning person. That said, I feel much less sluggish in the morning lately and have slowly but surely reclaimed some energy throughout the day without the aid of coffee and sweet tea. It's also nice to ditch the food guilt for a change-chewy Chips Ahoy you will not get the best of me today! I'm proud of myself for sticking to it-I turned down Baskin Robbins AND a cupcake this week! As for the scale, I lost a whopping one pound. Now I wasn't in it for weight loss primarily, but I'll happily claim my little loss.

Over the course of this little experiment, I learned that cutting added sugars out of your diet really isn't that difficult at all-unless you live in America and love a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks that is.

Cue the broken record-what it all comes down to is eating healthy whole foods. Tadaaa! It's the not so secret truth and we all know it. You can still eat fruits and vegetables, meat, seafood, dairy, protein like nuts and whole grains too-does'nt sound incredibly restrictive right? If only it were that easy.

Oh USA, you win the gold. 

Going without over this past week has been a steep learning curve for me because sugar is just too familiar a friend in this day and age-and parting is such "sweet" sorrow. At this point, I don't plan to dive off the whole 30 edge just yet, and yes I do see a Baskin Robbins rainbow sherbet ice cream cone in my future. It will be glorious.

Can we rewind the clock 300 years on the processed food front please?

The name of the game is moderation, and that's my take home. I don't need to make special occasion sweets an everyday event. I do plan on consuming less sugar, and will continue to work towards incorporating more whole foods and less of crazy processed ones. I've already cut my coffee sugar in half, and am considering switching from french vanilla creamer to milk. Also, I've learned so much more about reading labels and have already started making better choices at the grocery store. Hopefully this will be a small diving board to bigger changes in the long run. And now, I think I'll help myself to a sweet something to celebrate. :-) All things in moderation!

FlipStir Puzzles-A Review

Up for a challenge? Try your hand at FlipStir puzzles from Enlivens LLC. Since we love puzzles, we were excited to receive the Level 1 Tyrannosaurus Rex puzzle to review. These fun FlipStir puzzles are self contained in a plastic tube and come with a wand used to manipulate the pieces in place. Simply stir, shake, and solve! Except that, it wasn't so simple for this mama!
To be honest, this puzzle is incredibly challenging and unfortunately my kids were more frustrated with than engaged in it. While my husband was able to solve the puzzle, he also struggled. To be fair, it is possible! Determined to make it work, I tried a last time just before writing this review and was able to line up all the pieces correctly. Sweet victory!

On the pro side, you can't deny the "cool" factor of these innovative puzzles. I was immediately intrigued just looking at the product from the website, and excited for a new spin on the traditional puzzle. Plus, you can't loose any pieces. I repeat, no lost pieces! Is there anything as frustrating as coming to the completion of a puzzle to discover those last two pieces aren't there? Problem solved!
As for the negatives, I can't deny the difficulty here-especially for children. Though, I imagine it to be excellent hand-eye coordination practice after messing with it for hours! And, young or old, we can all use a lesson in patience and persistence. :-)

FlipStir puzzles come in two levels of difficulty with a variety of colorful designs. They are:

• Level 1-Tyrannasouras Rex
• Level 1-Rainbow Pencils
• Level 2-Statue of Liberty
• Level 2-Solar System

For more information, make sure to check out Enlivens LLC on social media:
Product Accounts:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/flipstirpuzzle
Twitter: www.twitter.com/flipstir

Company Accounts:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/enlivenze
Twitter: www.twitter.com/enlivenze

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