Spring

Spring has finally come. And as no small miracle, the icy, dead winter has melted away and new life is springing forth everywhere.

Flowers blooming, trees budding, birds singing, people playing... everything comes together in a glorious annunciation to welcome in a new season of hard work, playing, and learning.

With the warm weather comes a whole new scenery of exciting opportunities and fresh discoveries in learning, play, and work. What better way to learn about biology and nutrition than to grow your own garden? Or about botany than to collect your own flowers, leaves, and fruits? We are really looking forward to close ups with bugs, plants, and wild animals, constellation spotting, garden tending, berry picking, nature hiking, and so many more of the fun things I did as a child and want to share with my son.

"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell..."

Song of Solomon 2:11-13

Hunter is 3 years, 1 month old  

Harvesting Cantaloupe Seeds

Today we harvested cantaloupe seeds. Not really a special project: we were just eating this lovely orange fruit and decided the seeds were worth saving, considering our new garden and all.

It was a fascinating activity. Here's what I found out:

1. Scoop out the seeds from the middle try and get as much of the gooey stuff off as possible.

2. Rinse the seeds off as good as you can, then put them in a bowl of warm water. Watch and wait.

3. The ones that sink to the bottom will produce fruit. The ones that float won't.

4. Try and get as much of the slimy stuff out of the bowl as possible.

5. Lay them out to dry. You can use a towel if you want: we used a screen frame.

6. Let them dry for a couple days.

7. You can start them inside 3-4 weeks before planting outdoors. Or sow directly in sunny location.

8. Make a 12-inch wide hill for every three seedlings. Or you can plant them in rows about a foot to a foot-and-a-half apart.

9. Water daily, watch them grow!

I told Hunter that there is DNA inside each seed, which is like a set of instructions that tells the seed what to do. When the seeds get food from the ground, water, air (oxygen), and sunlight, they make roots and stems and leaves and grow into a plant. The fruit of a plant always holds its seeds, which is not only God's way of making sure the plants reproduce, but also his way of giving us yummy food to eat.

Exciting business for a three-year-old!

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so."

Genesis 1:11

Hunter is 3 years, 1 month old

Baby Kierra

Hunter and Anthony both love baby Kierra. She is a two month old I just started watching her. Although she sleeps a lot, she is all smiles when she is awake.

Hunter gets so excited when she comes over and loves to sing to her, read to her and kiss her. We're really enjoying this little addition to our clan, and I'm getting practice having three under three, in the mornings at least! What fun!

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby"

1 Peter 2:2

Hunter is 3 years, 0 months old