Birth of a Butterfly

Birth of a Painted Lady Butterfly

This is absolutely amazing. We had five caterpillars and four of them have transformed into butterflies. We’d missed everyone of them until this one. And I almost missed it. I didn’t get the chrysalis breaking open, but I started videoing right after it broke open. Click on the picture to watch the video.

What you’ll see:

  • You’ll first see the antennae coming out
  • You’ll see him pull his two tongues from the chrysalis and curl them up.
  • Notice how curled up and small his wings are.
  • Then he moves from the chrysalis to the netting to extend his wings.
  • The red you see to the right of him is “meconium” from when another butterfly emerged. Butterfly meconium is left over color and unneeded tissues from wing formation.

We got our caterpillars from Insect Lore. It’s been fun to watch the little caterpillars grow into huge caterpillars. Then they formed cocoons around themselves (we missed seeing this happen every time). Then, one by one, they “hatched” into butterflies.

We could release them outside if the temps were above 50 constantly. They’re not yet so they’ll likely spend their whole lives in our netting. Their lifespan is only 2 to 4 weeks.

Family is the answer

This is an article entitled: “Chicago working to prevent repeat of deadly weekend”

Here’s the crux of the article:

On Friday, Mayor Richard Daley took the unusual step of calling together more than two dozen officials from the police department, schools, social service agencies and religious groups for a City Hall summit on the violence. Afterward, he said it was just the start of a continuing dialogue about how to combat violent crime.

A fired-up Daley blasted the gun industry and called on parents and adults to do their part by intervening to help troubled youth and by working to keep others on the right path.

“I don’t want people to wait for Mayor Daley to call a meeting. I want you to call a meeting in your home with your children and loved ones. I want you to go next door and talk to those children next door. I want the parents of the block to say ‘This block will be free of violence,'” he said.

It is key for children to be occupied in after-school or other programs so they stay out of trouble, especially when they’re not in a classroom, Daley said.

Before the meeting, some participants talked about possible solutions to end the violence.

The Rev. Bruce Wellems, pastor of Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the city’s South Side, suggested that adults need to get to know the young people in their neighborhoods.

“I think they have to step into the community and accompany these kids,” he said.

And Tio Hardiman, executive director of CeaseFire, an anti-violence group, said young people need help finding alternatives to the streets.

“We need to go right to the corners and find out what some of these young people want to do, identify some employers that are willing to hire maybe 30 from this neighborhood, 30 from another neighborhood and try to get them hired somewhere so then we can get them off the corners.”

Only loosely is family mentioned. Daley says the citizens should call meetings in their homes with their children and go next door and talk to those kids as well. It’s going to take more than a family meeting to stop the violence. What we are forgetting as a society is that the family drives everything. Your family life will largely dictate how you interact in society. Dare I say that none of these violent kids have good family lives at home? It all starts and ends with the family.

It’s going to take more than one family meeting. These parents have to get involved daily  with their kids, (and that starts when they’re babies and continues until they leave the house to live on their own). They need to be proactive parents whose main concern is their children. These families (and we all) need to take back their own children; raise them themselves; teach them morals and ethics; teach them others before self. All of this can and should be taught in the family first. No family is perfect, but reliance on God and actually trying to be a good family will do a lot more for these kids.

Daley’s initial reaction was to call officials from the police department, schools, social service agencies and religious groups. He wants more after school programs, more jobs created, more legislation against guns. (Do I have to mention that it’s not the guns pulling their own triggers? It’s the idiots behind the guns who haven’t been taught the value of a human life. There are plenty of gun laws already in existence. Do you think the criminals are going to obey any more laws that are created?) You can create as many after school programs as you want, but a bad kid is a bad kid whether he’s on the street or in an after school program.

Community programs are nice, but their purpose is to be babysitters to our kids. They are not teachers of morals and ethics. Family is the answer. People of Chicago–don’t rely on government to raise your kids. Do it yourselves and you’ll virtually wipe out the violence that’s plaguing your streets.

Expelled: The Movie

So I finally was able to see Expelled tonight! Thank you, Mom for giving us a date night. It was everything I was expecting. Ben Stein made the point that the Intelligent Design side of the debate has very good arguments and respected scientists behind it. Yet only Darwinism is given air time in academia, science organizations, media, etc. There are major flaws in Darwinism as well, which are not discussed or allowed to be brought up. And anybody who dares to bring up ID as a possible valid part of the origin of life is shunned.

Stein kept relating the way academia, etc. shuts down dissent in the evolution debate to the wall placed between West and East Germany to keep free thought out. Why is this? What are they so afraid of? Is the idea that something intelligent (not necessarily the God of the Bible) created life so bad? Well, if you travel down their thought processes and have their worldview then it potentially could  be bad.

The main point of the movie is that freedom is the foundation of all that America stands for. Why is freedom of ideas and speech forced out of the evolution debate? Let  us speak about Intelligent Design. Let  the hearers make their own decisions.

I highly recommend seeing this movie. And show it to as many young people as you can. People need to know to what lengths Darwinists are going to keep ID out of the public’s conscience.

To those of you trolling blogs looking for fights: I probably won’t respond to any flames you throw here. Go ahead and throw them, it’s your free speech.  It’s more than what your side will allow in the halls of academia or in the press.

Accountability Update: Week 4

This week I did: horribly

My mom told me not to blame it on her. So I won’t. But she has been here the whole week…coincidence? Just kidding! It’s my own fault I don’t have much self determination. I’m not even going to go down my list of things to do each week. I didn’t get to bed on time; I didn’t drink enough water each day; I didn’t exercise, except for Monday. Let me explain why I did so poorly.

Monday morning I get up bright and early at 0600. Read my Bible all the while thinking, “I’m going to go running this morning instead of exercising in the house.” So I actually do that. I go running. Outside. For 30 minutes. The last time I ran for exercise was over two years ago. Let’s just say I probably overdid it. My body didn’t let me forget it. Monday night/Tuesday morning it started raining so I had to get up in the middle of the night to close the window in the kitchen. Somehow I pulled an abdominal muscle or something down there. I was pulling down on the window and felt something pull/pop/stretch/burn, etc. I had a hard time laying back down in my bed and I had a harder time deciding which side to sleep on in case I was bleeding internally. I woke up at 0600 Tuesday morning and it hurt to sit up. I tried to do crunches but decided the pain signals my body was sending me were a sign that I needed to lay off.

So, Tuesday is when I realized I should take the rest of the week off of exercising. No need to increase the injury right? Tuesday is also when the over-scheduled week began. The girls and I had to get up to the city for Ashlyn’s ear appointment (she doesn’t need tubes); visit the sewing instructor so I could schedule my classes that I won; shop at JoAnn, Target,  and WalMart for some necessities; pick up my mom from the air port; stop by a dance shop; and go grocery shopping.

Wednesday my mom taught Reagan’s school so I could go to my sewing class and prepare for the yard sale.

Thursday we didn’t do school and I went to my sewing class. I was supposed to also work on the yard sale but I didn’t. I did work on some Sew Petit orders though. Got all of those fulfilled.

Friday was the big day to organize and price everything for the yard sale. I hate yard sales.

Saturday was the yard sale. Made a lot of money. I love yard sales. We also went to a Spring Bash lawn party Saturday evening at the lady who takes our family’s portraits. Live band, pot luck food, Guitar Hero for the first time ever (I beat Du! He’ll tell you it was because Ashlyn was screaming the whole time, but she was screaming and hanging onto my leg…and I still won). It was a fun night.

Sunday, today: church; Reagan’s second dance recital pictures (Mom took her yesterday for her other ones); a trip to Cockrell’s Mercantile (awesome 5-houses-full kitchen store); saying goodbye to Phillip, our tadpole. Sadly he “croaked” yesterday sometime during the yard sale. We don’t know why. Please do not laugh at us being sad over a dead tad pole until you lose one. You’ll never know the depths of emotion over watching something morph from a sperm-looking swimmy thing with tiny legs into an almost-frog swimmy thing with long legs, protruding arms and a fat belly. Shut up. As if God wanted to make us feel better one of our caterpillars hatched from his chrysalis today and is now a Painted Lady Butterfly. Will he last through the night? Our track record isn’t that stellar right now.

Now I must explain to you why I did the whole Accountability April in the first place. Du’s been gone the whole month of April. He had to take a class for his job. This guy will end up having taken so many classes we’ll have to insure his brain. Wait, that’s called life insurance isn’t it. He’s very schooled.

Anyway, I knew that if I didn’t set goals for myself and try to be organized and proactive everyday then the whole month would be wasted on the couch with popcorn, coke and a serious addiction to internet shopping. I’m happy about what I’ve accomplished. I think my water drinking and face washing are definitely habits I’m sticking with. I’m praying that exercising will be one as well. My abdomen feels better now so whatever I did when shutting the window wasn’t life threatening. I may run again tomorrow. But not for 30 minutes. I’ll work up to that feeling confident in knowing that I could run for 30 if I had to. My everyday planning still needs a bit of work as well.

So, if you want to check in with me every once in a while to see if I’m keeping it up I would definitely appreciate it. Thanks to those of you who kept me encouraged this month!

What’s your yard sale philosophy?

Note to reader: I ask you to answer a question at the bottom of this post…so make it all the way down there…or just skip the gibberish and go straight to the question.

Our neighborhood is having a huge yard sale this Saturday. Since we will be moving soon I am determined to part with much of this crap gently-loved-family-heirloom-quality-stuff that has slowly begun to pile up in our house again. I have become a purger because we move so often–but events like having a baby necessitate the accumulation of lots of items that are needed for a short season and then are needed to be gotten rid of.

Here is my dilema: how do I price it all? There are generally two philosophies about yard sales:

  1. Price it so cheap it will all go within the first hour. And you’re left with two dollars in your hand that you can go reward yourself with about two donuts for all the hard work, hours and sweat you just poured into the sale. OR
  2. Price it so that you can actually make a good amount of cash. Reward yourself with as many donuts as you want and still have money left over for a good shopping spree. (To replace all the crap you just sold, right!).

The problem with theory #1 is evident. If you’re going to put effort into the sale, which means doing anything more than throwing it all in a pile in your driveway and leaving a sign and a bucket that says “please put donations here”, then you need to make it worth your while. I know for a fact that there are people out there that troll yard sales, buy things for really cheap and then go consign them for more money. (Why am I not doing this?) The benefit of this theory is that it’s so much easier to give stuff away, and you don’t feel guilty for taking people’s money who may only be able to afford to shop at yard sales.

The problem with philosophy #2 is how do you know the threshold of what people are willing to spend on second hand items? I do not like haggling  and therefore want to put the exact price I’m willing to take on my stuff. How much can I actually charge before I turn off people?

What I think I’ve decided to do is mix the two up a bit. I mainly have baby clothes and baby gear to sell. Most of the clothing isn’t anything too special so I plan on marking that at a “fair yard sale price” (whatever is that, please tell me). Some of the clothes though are name brand (Gymboree, Gap, Old Navy, etc.) and were really only worn once or twice. I want to make money on these things, not sell them dirt cheap to someone else who’s going to turn around and make money off of them.

SO, HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

  • What do you expect to pay for kids’ clothing at yard sales?
  • If it’s name brand are you willing to pay more?
  • What are the going rates for “regular” clothes and for “name brand” clothes?

Thank you for helping me make my life a little bit easier at this moment. Now I must go continue to procrastinate…

Role Reversal

As a woman I am fairly good about noticing things. The emergence of spring; the new freckles on my daughters; the five new miniscule wrinkles that have added themselves to the legions around my eyes. I kind of take pride in the fact that I’m pretty observant. And my husband usually relies on me to notice things about people when we’re out and about.

My powers of observation have failed me though…

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