Praying Mantis Farmers

There's the egg case. Like a small, brown chunk of Styrofoam glued to the hedge. 

Praying Mantids have designated our yard a top destination.Lucky us! (the miniature scientists [and the big scientist] in residence, rejoice!)

 I think there's something really tangible and wonder cultivating about watching wild things up close and sometimes even having a part in caring for them. We found a couple of egg cases in our hedge and we brought one indoors and installed it on the kitchen counter in a mason jar. (Next to the mason jar containing a newt, and the one with a caterpillar in it and the one containing two worms that Nib insists are "best friends.") We waited and waited and we kept checking on it but nothing. I told the boys excitedly what it was at first and we faithfully inspected it but eventually I got nervous and started telling them that maybe it wouldn't hatch and there were no guarentees about these things, maybe it was an old one, maybe something was wrong...who knew, really. Amazing how doubt creeps in when much patience in required.

But then one morning returning from errands, Nib made it inside first and boomeranged right  back out yelling "Our ants are out! Our ants are out!" So exciting to go in and see the tiny, almost transparent mantids all over the inside of the jar, and the spiral of egg case sawdust hanging delicately down where they drilled their way out.

We took the jar outside and talked together about garden pest insects and how mantids can be like garden watchdogs, eating the voracious vegetable enemies. We talked to the babies and asked them if a good bunch of them would stay in our yard and keep up the tradition of keeping it a top eating and egg laying location. The boys watched the babies climbing the glass walls of the jar and skittering off down the rail of the stoop towards the flower garden. Such fun to raise, observe and appreciate in person these strange, impressive creatures. The boys thought it was wicked cool to find out that they have five eyes but only one ear and hear that they can turn their heads 180 degrees around. The world is an astounding place.

Staying Outdoors Longer

We are spending all our time outdoors on every single warm day, soaking up every drop of sunshine, slowly mustering up tans and freckles and ignoring the dirty floors and the poor, sad houseplants.On cold days we feel dejected and don't even look out the windows, we curl up with good books and drink more tea and pretend it isn't spring yet, refusing to go out in the bitter chill and feel cheated when the wind is way colder than it looked and a hoodie isn't warm enough. Its that mid-ground season. Mentally we are living in full on spring but in truth its sometimes bitter and then randomly so warm you break a sweat walking across the yard.

Its whip-lash season. Time to make green juices, roast the last of the big cuts in the freezer, dream up spring soups for the cold days, check your stock of vases and make time for walks every single.darn.day.

I am trying to remind myself to go hard in the garden, pushing myself until my bones ache because I am feverish to stay outside on these sunny days and because I know once the weather really turns and its blazing June I'll feel like nothing but sitting in the shade with a lemonade. Now is the time to lay mulch like a crazy woman, divide plants, sprinkle grass seed, assemble the raised beds, put peas in the ground and dig up the email address of the lady I bought amazing tomato plants from last year. Time to go, go, go outdoors. I'll regret it later if I don't.

The boys and I found a pair of wooly bear caterpillars out in the garden who promptly spun cocoons on the glass sides of the mason jar they call home. They are now incubating on the kitchen window sill, next to a jar with a praying mantis egg case in it that we found two days ago. We are assembling  a small zoo, as we love to do. My next goal is to score some frogs eggs. Dee was asking me hopefully if we might be able to hunt up some turtle nests and raise baby turtles, this morning at breakfast. I explained that turtle eggs are a little more fussy to raise than frog's eggs and that there are laws protecting them but I loved his optimistic, sky's the limit outlook. Shoot for the moon! Raise turtles! Why not?!? Those little bits make me feel like a great mama.

The two blow-out diapers and one peeing all over the car by accident episode that also happened this week, not so much. Real life over here folks, don't get any funny ideas! 

Interview With A 7 Yr Old Inventor

This is homeschool. Ru spent all of quiet time working privately on this project and then showed up at my side while I was working and said, "Hey, Mom. Look!"

Bird Study + Lego +Free Time + Seven Year Old Brain......

                                        =This!

 Sometimes my kids drive me crazy. Sometimes they amaze me.