Another Busy Week!!!

I cannot believe I let another week go by without posting on the blog!  We have been so busy and tired at the end of the day that I just did not have the energy to stay up and post after the boys went to bed this week.  Now with Zaira on my lap sleeping so nicely and the boys asleep upstairs before 10pm, I am able to put out a quick update of our last week.

The first big news is the weather!  It went from the lower 90's to the mid-50's in just a blink of an eye!  We, of course, were not prepared for this massive change in the temperatures so we were out the door in shorts and T-shirts for one our regular busy days of 4H!  Oh!...we were glad that we were able to spend that day inside.  And, thankfully, we have not had a lot of rain to go with the cooler weather so it has been a drier cold than usual.  In fact, today was in the 50's but sunny, so we actually were able to enjoy the outdoors.

Who can complain when the East Coast is now being bombarded with hurricane Sandy?!  I did get to speak to Amanda this afternoon and she was shopping for food in an EMPTY grocery store!  She managed to get enough food that would not need to be cooked should they lose power in the next couple of days.  She told me that Manhattan was under a mandatory evacuation, so we will see what the storm brings to the area.  She is not in that part of New York and says that the strong winds have already started and it is getting cold.  We just pray that the storm will not be as bad as they are predicting.

As far as our activities for the week, we had our regular Tuesday of 4H project meetings.  This was an adventure this week that I do not care to repeat!  However, we move forward and will be the better for the experience.

I did have a surprise visit from our next door neighbor.  He was concerned because the neighbor behind us has decided to remove the fence line along our property line.  He also cut down several trees and piled the debris on our side of the line!  That was a shocker...I will need to figure out what to do about this situation but not sure what steps to take to have it cleaned up!

Wednesday we prepared a meal for the college students again.  It is such a joy to serve this group of young adults...they truly appreciate the meal.  We were not able to stay and enjoy the meal with them this week.  I was asked to present a talk to the youth group in the next town over.  The idea was that I would talk to the group and then show the group the movie "October Baby."  (If you have not seen this movie, it is a must see!!!)  However, the group meeting started late so I was only given time to show the movie.  I think the movie spoke for itself.  It made a big impact on the youth.  One young man was particularly touched and prayed at the end of the meeting with such passion.  I hope the group will have time to discuss the movie when they meet again.

Thursday was the big day this week.  We left the house at 8am to help decorate for our local pregnancy help center banquet.  This is the one time a year when the center asks for funds to get them through the year.  The boys and I (and Amanda at one time) have been helping with this set up for the past 8 years!  It is always so much fun to get into a bare room and then leave with it looking so beautiful.  I cannot help but be a proud mom as I watched the boys race to be the one who helped most!  In fact, I left Sean and Edward in order to run an errand...I was not able to return for two hours...when I got back the banquet hall was almost completely decorated!  IT was not just our boys...there were several decorators...but it was still nice to know that they were able to help make it happen.  We stayed until the early afternoon with silverware and napkin placement. Then we raced home to have lunch and get cleaned up to go back for the evening!

The boys had the opportunity to go to a friend's house for the evening.  Zaira and I made our way to the banquet.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE:  We had read in the paper Thursday morning that there would be a special historic train passing through town.  In our rush, we did not get to read the details.  As we were driving around town to run our errands early in the day, Henry and I saw what we thought was the special engine.  Henry took several pictures of it and we were on our way.  Then as Zaira and I were almost back to the banquet hall we noticed that there was a large crowd around the railroad tracks so we drove past.  We saw the most amazing steam locomotive!  We would later find out that it was the largest steam locomotive in the United States (in the world?)!  So, I got a few snapshots as we drove past.  I wish the boys could have seen it!  It really was an amazing sight!

Zaira and I finally got to the banquet and welcomed many people as we waited for our guests to arrive.  We had a table for 8 so we were pleased to help them find their seats before the speaker began.  The speaker this year was a Christian comedian/preacher (Dennis Swanberg).  He was a funny guy with his southern humor hitting hoe for most of the 450 in attendance.  I was sitting at a table with a couple I did not know well.  The woman had asked to hold Zaira and I agreed.  About five minutes into the monologue, the woman hopped up and said she was going to take the baby out to the lobby!  I sat in my seat a few minutes (OK...seconds!) and then left for the lobby also!  After all, I did not know her and there was no reason to take a happy baby out of the room!

Zaira was fine but the woman told me she just could not sit and listen to the comedian's jokes about women.  I saw nothing wrong with the comedian but decided to stay out and talk to the woman...maybe that was where I needed to be that night.  She did seem to need someone to listen to her and she did enjoy holding Zaira.  Before we knew it, the crowd in the banquet hall were clapping and we had missed the entire talk (So glad that I was able to a friend who told me the speaker was able to turn his funny stories around to the more serious issue of helping the women and their children.  Come to find out he gave a very powerful message about being patient for the Lord's work to come to fruition (I believe his message came from Jeremiah 31).

One of the big announcements of the evening was the matching grant through the Knights of Columbus and In His Image Ultrasound Program that would allow our center to have a state of the art ultrasound machine.  The ultrasound equipment would allow the center to show the woman her baby as early as 5 weeks!  The center only needs to be able to provide $11,000 for the machine.  I know that seems like a lot of money, but the equipment actually cost over $60,000.  The best part came when one of the local pastors spontaneously got up and placed $1000 in front of the director...he pledged the first of the funds needed for the ultrasound and asked others to join him!  Were there 10 others in the room willing to give $1000 to make this dream a reality?  Well, not quite, but we did manage a large portion of the funds needed!  It was a great end to a wonderful evening.

Friday brought us Math Counts.  We learned about converting fractions to decimals and percents by following a modified recipe for cookies.  This is a fun exercise of their knowledge as they not only had to convert decimals back into the original fraction for measuring purposes, but also make the recipe a larger percentage as I saw the need for cookies increased!  This is done each year with the groups...this year I decided to make it easier by asking them to increase the recipe by 50%.  They did manage to make delicious batch of cookies and learned along the way!

Saturday was our house cleaning day!  Not that a visitor would know we cleaned house if they were to come in now!  How does that happen!?!

Today, we began with our mad rush to get into church clothes in time to go to Sunday school!  I taught our small group about Mary dogmas and apparitions.  It was really great to see the boys (Yes!  All boys in our little group this year!) eager to learn about Mary.  Then our boys ran to prepare for altar serving.  Zaira, Brendan and I arrived later than usual as we stayed to pick up the classroom.  We found the church pew where we sit full!!!  So, we were asked to sit with a friend who sits toward the front (nail biting experience!) of the church.  Brendan and Zaira were very good so we might do it again sometime (like the next time someone takes our pew...LOL...I will always worry about sitting to close to the front with small children.)

It was nice to have a relaxing Sunday afternoon. We did get to walk our back property line.  I took pictures to show the piles of debris our neighbor left us to clean up.  It was not as bad as I thought but it still needs to be cleaned up!  I am hoping Michael can talk to our neighbor about the situation.

So, that was our week for the most part.  It was a good week.  Looking forward to the next one as we will be finishing up our first quarter of school!  It should be an easy week...Lord willing!

Art Class

Do I dare to promote a service we have been provided on my blog?!?

Edward attempt at human eye

Well, I just cannot resist...the boys and I loved this online art class so much that I want other to have this opportunity as well.  We have never done any online classes before, so I must say that I was leery about this one.  However, after several of my friends made good comments about the course, I decided to give it a try.

The class is set up to attend as many classes you want to sit through.  I am sure the classes are the same throughout the week just at different times.  However, the instructor is filming the class live so there will be times when he veers off the script.  In fact, he did that tonight with us and it made it so interesting to see his mind work as he adjusted the course to fit his impromptu style.

My human eye and haircovered eyeball

The artist is very exciting and makes jokes throughout the hour of instruction.  He tries to get us to interact as well to ensure we are staying on track.  Although, I must say he does not always on track himself!  LOL...he reminds me of the dog in Up!...squirrel!  But you cannot help but love his little rabbit trails and where they lead the class.

He starts out each class with an introduction.  He has students all around the world.  He also gives us a 60 second challenge to see if we can draw a basic art concept in less than a minute.  Today we  were working on contour lines, which we would later put to use with the art lesson.

He does have a theme for each week.  This week the theme is 'eyeballs.'  Tonight we drew six different kinds of eyeballs. We began with a basic round eye that was then developed into what he called a robot eye.  Then we created a monster eye.  Followed by eyeballs showing through a pile of hair (supposedly from a cartoon movie).

Sean's monster eye

Then his impromptu spirit came through...he started out showing us his marshmallow eyes, but as he started drawing his mind began to wonder...he remembered an ad that arrived in his mailbox and we were in his little world of imagination!  The advertisement was a girl peeking through a sheet of paper she had ripped open.  As he began his marshmallow eye, he told us it reminded him of this advertisement which he had sitting at his art desk.  He then proceeded to turn his marshmallow eye into the ripped open paper with fingers coming out of the rip to reveal another monster eye!  Now that I type this description of how it came about it seems very contrived, but I assure you it was very spontaneous and exciting to see his artistic mind at work!

Henry's monsters

The boys thoroughly enjoyed it.  And, I must say I liked the experience myself.  I am no artist, but I was able to follow his easy steps and make it work!  Wow!  So, if you have an interest in learning to draw, take a look at his website.  Maybe we will see you on line for his classes too!

We Win Some We Lose Some

This morning the boys eagerly woke up and proved ready to leave the house by 8am.  They were convinced they were going to win a turkey or two.  I had been convinced to purchase three tickets to take a chance at winning these turkeys from a young man from our 4H group.  I was not hopeful but figured it would not hurt to help his Boy Scout troop.  And, the boys would have fun shooting at targets.  

I had heard this annual event could draw a large crowd so the best option was to arrive early and try our chances before the crowd arrived.  Indeed, we arrived early and the only crowd were the crowd that came to see the soccer games that were also being played at the same park.

We were able to walk right up to the shooting line and let the boys take their shots.  Each boy was given three shots for their ticket.  Edward was first in line and he shot well but did not hit the target.  He did mange to hit the hill behind the target and so we knew how he should adjusted his aim.  However the next two shots ended in the trees behind the target.  He did not hit a target but he did scare a few birds from the trees!  In fact, we thought for sure he must have hit a bird as it flew up and then straight down!  LOL...not the kind of bird to win!  Sean and Henry were no more successful   We were done with the turkey shoot within five minutes.  I think we all looked around like we were lost.  However, I was not surprised by our loss.

No worries...I told the boys it just gave us a chance to head back home.  We had had a busy week and needed to finish the last few lessons from our school week.  The boys were not too excited about the idea but they did manage to get their school work done by lunch time.  Even in spite of the fact that I spent an hour of that time on the phone.  I spoke with two good friends about our latest adventures.

One of these friends did call with bad news to start.  For those who do not know me well, I grew up in the small town of Marietta...yes in Texas!  I went to a very small school that only had K-6th grades and had FIVE teachers.  The school building was a nice brick building that must have had a historical marker on it because it was old!  I have many fond memories of that old school house.  A few years back the school shut down and now all the children are bused about 20 miles to the next town for school.  I always dreamed that Michael and I could buy the building and use it for something amazing!

Well, my friend called to tell me the gym was sold and was turned into a factory!  Oh!...it just breaks my heart to think of it!  The memories of the fun we had in that gym go flashing through my mind...I do wish I had pictures of the basket ball games that drew a crowd in spite of our small population.  It was the place to be anytime we had a game!  We also had dance classes... cheerleading practice...PE...rainy day games.  Now it will only be known to this generation as a smelly factory to build some kind of iron works.  It breaks my heart!

No time to mope for this loss as we had our beekeeper friends arriving at the house to inspect our bee hives.  Marie and Roger arrived and we all suited up to see what we had in our boxes.  We were pleased to see that the first bee tree hive had an emerged queen cell.  We could not spot her since she has not had time to make her mating flight.  We will hope that this occurs some time in the next week and we will check on her again a week from Monday.  The hive seemed to be doing well and Roger kindly added some honey frames from his hive to our hive box.

The second bee tree hive was doing well also.  However, it appears the queen that we found on Thursday that allowed us to capture the hive easily must not have survived the move.  We could tell because the bees were producing several queen cells.  These cells were new (most likely new today!) and not even fully enclosed.  We will need to look back in 16+7 days (16 days for emerging  and then 7 days to allow for mating flight) to look for queen activity in this hive.

Then we decided it would be good to check out our original hive.  I was very proud of the boys as they showed off their original hive.  It is a very strong hive and they have worked hard to maintain it.  We have been blessed with a strong set of bees that produce great amounts of honey.  We were assured that it would be more than ready to split into two hives next spring.

After this great success, we decided we earned the right to be lazy through the evening.  We sat around watching old TV shows and eating store bought pizza (always a treat in our house that does not happen often!)  Then we managed to get every one cleaned up and ready for bed at a decent hour.  It was nice to enjoy a quiet restful evening.  I even dozed off after putting Zaira to sleep for the night.  I woke up to write this blog post and now I think I will go back to sleep to enjoy a go night's sleep.  In spite of the losses of the day, it seems to have leaned toward the win side of the scale as far as I am concerned.

Math Everyday!

I used to have a bumper sticker that said, "Math everyday!"  I just love math and so it is no surprise that I enjoy helping others (specifically youth) enjoy math.  For the last six years, I have led a local middle school math program called Math Counts.  I usually only have a small group of youth that allows us to represent our home school group with a team to go to a competition.  This year I only have two students...one being our son Henry...AND he is the only one who is the right age to compete.  

We meet once a week to learn practical skills and how they relate to real life situations.  This is not your typical middle school math.  In fact, usually this is about teaching higher level math skills.  I have even had to pull out a calculus text to solve a problem or two.  The main skill is to learn problem solving techniques.

In the past, I have just taught lessons as needed while working through the word problems.  This year I decided to actually teach a lesson on a specific topic and find word problems that relate to that topic.  Last week we covered prime numbers.  We played a game that helped Henry and Sarah  find the prime or composite numbers.  This was done by choosing a number on a chart and then finding its factors...the idea was to add up the points gained from the factors.  This usually meant choosing a composite number gained more points.    

This week our focus was on exponents.  After going over the basic rules of exponents, we played Exponent War.  The idea was like the old fashioned War game with playing cards; however, the players placed a card as the base number and then a second card as the exponent.  It was a lot of fun to see how quickly numbers exponentially increased.

Sarah and Henry are very quiet and like to work alone.  This might seem acceptable but for the fact that we have a challenge that needs team work.  This year is the 30th anniversary of the Math Counts program.  Each group was sent a blank board along with the supplies needed to create a unique board game.  We started last week going through the steps of how to create a board game.  

I never really thought of this as an engineering project but once it was explained it very obvious.  The steps include: identifying the problem, criteria and constraints, brainstorming solutions, generating ideas, exploring possibilities and building a prototype (which will be tested).  I think it was a great way to get the two to think through a fun problem that needed to be solved.  

Last week they worked on brainstorming ideas.  This week they were supposed to start exploring their options.  Still working together individually, they began creating their board game.  Henry drew out the board while Sarah watched.  I tried to get them to work together but they were happier along side each other.  The decision was to let Henry make the board and Sarah would create the cards used on the board.  

I look forward to continuing this learning process with Henry and Sarah.  It is fun to see how they learn together.  I will try to post their game when they complete it.  Maybe it will be a game found in stores one day!

Has it Been Almost a Week?

Last you heard of us, we had harvested our first wild bees!  Maybe some of you are wondering if those bees had done us in...reminds me of My Fair Lady..."They done her in!"  Not quite!  In fact, it is just the opposite as you will see by the end of this post.

I must admit...we were pretty tired on Sunday.  We gathered ourselves out of bed and made it to Sunday school on time.  The boys talked about the Ten Commandments but through in stories about the bee harvest as well.  I even had time to prepare to lector while they were in class.  I love reading the Word in church.  I take it very seriously and I am always blessed with inspiration as I pray about what I am to read.  Today I was also blessed with one of our older couples who volunteered to take care of the two youngest while I was at the lectern.  The three oldest would be altar serving.

Then we came home and enjoyed a quiet afternoon of rest.  I think everyone was a little more subdued from the experience of the day before.  Henry's arm swelled to his elbow.  He said he was not in pain but that it itched a lot.

Monday we had a normal school day and even finished a little extra in preparation for the rest of the week.  We went to speech therapy for Sean and to the grocery store (I hate shopping even for food!), so it was a nice full day.

Tuesday we had another good day of school completing a third day so we would not be behind when we miss school work on Wednesday.  Then we had our trip into town to pray at Planned Parenthood.  Then headed over to have our usual evening of 4H activities.  However, it rained today so we were not able to spend as much time with our Wildlife project.

I had the boys dropped off for Robotics and left with our friend.  Then Zaira and I rushed to the next town over to attend the Heartbeat banquet.  Shawn Carney (National Director of 40 Days for Life) was the guest speaker and I could not resist asking him to attend an impromptu candle light vigil at our 40 Days for Life site.  Unfortunately, he had a flight that left immediately after the banquet so he was not able to commit to this event.  I told all would be good if he could just mention our site when he gave his speech.  He agreed whole-heartedly...only to forget in his focus to details about pregnancy help centers!  Poor guy!  You should have seen his face when I walked up to him after the dinner!  He was so embarrassed...I just told him it was not meant to be!

I then raced out to meet those who might attend our candle light vigil.  Zaira and I arrived just before 10pm to an empty street.  I knew it was early so Zaira and I sat in the vehicle and I started a Rosary.  I was so sad to think no one interrupted our prayer by tapping on the window.  When I finished our Rosary, I was sure that I was still alone.  Imagine my surprise when I looked our vehicle window to see two candles flickering in the distance!  We joined our faithful prayer warriors, Vicky and Bill.  We stayed and prayed together as well as discussed the dynamics of our clinic.  We know that in the end the faithfulness of prayer is the only answer to end abortion.

The day was not over for me as I still needed to prepare for the next day.  You see...I made a promise to our soon 9-year old.  The next day was his birthday and it was also the day of our first 4H Wildlife contest.  Normally, we let the one having the birthday pick a restaurant for dinner.  However, since his birthday was on our contest day we would not be able to go out to eat for lunch.  Since his birthday fell on a Wednesday. we serve dinner to the college students so he would not be able to go out to dinner.  This left breakfast!  At the time, I thought how great is that for me...he will choose a donut shop and all will be easy for meals that day!  Ha!  Edward decided he wanted to go to IHOP!  The only way that would be possible would be to wake up at 5am and leave as soon as possible.

All the boys agreed to this adventure, so that left me to get all the contest equipment in the car Tuesday night before I went to bed.  And isn't it amazing what a little bit of motivation will do to get someone up in the morning!  Those boys were up and ready to go so fast, I could hardly keep up with them!  We made it to IHOP by 6am...there were few diners in the place so we had our waitress to ourselves.  I cannot help but laugh...she walked up to our table full of children and turned to me..."Are you the mother to all of these children?"...I just looked at her and said, "Who would take someone else's children out to eat at this time in the morning?"  LOL!

We enjoyed our breakfast and headed to our contest with time to spare!  To read about that fun, you will need to check out my other blog.

We also made it back in time to clean up from the morning and then load our spaghetti sauce into the car before racing to the student center to prepare dinner.  When I arrived, I found a note that said our regular kitchen leader was not going to be at the dinner!  I looked around for the food supplies and there were no packages of meat or bread!  After about an hour of searching and asking around, it was discovered that the person who normally brings these supplies had forgotten!  So, a race to the store and all was well....we even manged to get all the food out for the meal (only a few minutes late!)

You know what I love about helping the college students?  They love playing with the children!  It is so wonderful to see them interacting and playing with our children.  I can see that most will be good parents in the future.I really need to get some pictures of this in action.  I will try to do this in the next couple of weeks.

Thursday (that is today!)...we worked on school again in the morning with a twist!  We had to take Brendan in for his dreaded baby root canal (actually called a pulpotomy).  So, I left Henry and Edward at home with a list of school assignments.  Sean, Brendan, Zaira and I went to the dentist with books in tow.  We were at the dentist for three hours so plenty of time to get school work completed!  Brendan was the star patient ..sitting back in the dentist chair and falling a sleep with little effort.  He came out at the end with two silver teeth in his sleepy smile.  He ended up sleeping through the rest of the afternoon (You know what that will mean for later in the evening!  NO sleep at bedtime!).

Brendan even slept through our side trip to Planned Parenthood to pray.  It turned out to be a beautiful fall afternoon with a cool breeze to go along with the sunny 90-degree temperature.  We found a shady spot and enjoyed praying for the women who entered the clinic.

He did not wake up until we headed out for our second wild bee harvest of the week!  Luckily for him, we were passing a fast food spot at the time he called out..."I'm hungry!" (He had not eaten since 6pm the night before and it was close to 4pm!)

So, we managed to pull up to this new bee tree at an angle where the little ones (Edward, Brendan and Zaira could watch from the closed vehicle.  This tree was smaller but had a fork in the main trunk...it turned out that this was where most of the good hive would be found.  This tree was also in better condition than the first tree, so Roger had to a lot more cutting.  However, the best part about this tree was that an active queen existed in the hive!  Truth be told, they never saw the queen...only signs of her activity..such as eggs and larva.

The big clue that showed that they actually had the queen in our hive box came when they shook a piece of the trunk into the hive.  The bees that were surrounding the branch and the tree began to swarm into the hive box!  Roger told the boys that they must have the queen for them to swarm like they were...and it was a sight to see!  I was able to walk around the tree with out a worry about being stung as the bees were only interested in getting to their queen to protect her!  I just love bees!  If only we could all be so protective of our moms!  LOL!

It still took time to gather all the comb and tie it into the empty frames.  This hive also produced a lot of honey that was able to be collected.  It also was another example of how quickly beetles can take over a damaged hive...half the honey was no good due to the beetle larvae.

So, another night of peaceful children, except Brendan.  He and I stayed up and played with Zaira. Glad to enjoy this time with him even though I was exhausted!

Bees Bees Everywhere!!!!

OK...if you read my blog a couple of days ago, you know we are crazy!  Or maybe you already knew that!  However, this time the craziness came in the form of bees!  Our boys had volunteered to collect a wild bee hive out of a tree...thankfully with the help of an veteran beekeeper.

We spent yesterday afternoon in, what I call, a bee hive graveyard.  We picked out two sets of used hive boxes that were in good condition.  We then rummaged even more for the frames needed to fill it.  In the process, we also obtained several bunches of dried and fresh herbs, several plant specimens, and 2 dozen yard eggs.  We were loaded down with all of this about 5 miles out of town.  When we drove off, I heard a ding from the vehicle saying we had low fuel...imagine my surprise when I looked at the gauge and it read empty!  We prayed our way back into town and to the gas station.  I am sure our guardian angels pushed us to the pumps!

I woke the boys up early this morning to take them on a hike with a group from the university.  We thought we were going to be with plant experts so we could learn about the trees and plants of the forest.  Well, we did enjoy the hike but we also realized that we knew most of the plants identified along the way.  It was a very proud mom-moment to hear our boys praised for knowing as much as our guide!

Also, along the way we were each given a shape to look for on our hike.  Brenda, Zaira and I were at the end of the line by several paces.  Brendan LOVED this activity.  I took so many pictures of him with his circle finds!  He really took this seriously and wanted me to take a picture every time he found a circle.  Of course, I could not resist...so I probably have about 20 photos of circles in the woods!  I also was so glad to know that he could take a mile hike without being picked up.  He had a great time and could have probably gone around a second time.

A big thank you to Kerry, Jim and the university students who continue to give the boys these opportunities.  We love the time we have with this group doing what we love most...being in nature!

As for the bees, we came home from the hike and waited for the call....it was like a new doctor must feel waiting for his beeper to go off for the first time!  LOL!  The boys were so anxious that I sent them outside to run around the yard.  I, on the other hand, was just saying little prayers that all would go well and we would not be stung by a swarm of bees coming out of the tree!



When the call finally came, we gathered up the last of our supplies and were out the door.  We actually beat Roger and Marie to the bee tree.  This was good because it gave me a chance to meet the man involved (not the owner of the house but the man who was asked to cut up the fallen tree) and get a better look at what our boys had gotten themselves into with this swarm chasing.  I grabbed the camera and took several shots from a distance but made the mistake of going in a little closer and got stung right on the cheek!  That was silly of me...I knew better but I pulled back and got the stinger out quickly.

I did not have anything to put on the spot to draw out the poison so I thought about what I did have in the car.  The only thing I had was a lime from a drink I purchased yesterday.  I figured it could not hurt so squeezed it on the sting...low and behold it worked!  I have had little side effect as of this moment (some 7 hours later).  I am not going to say it was a cure just yet as I am still a believer that the second day is the worst when it comes to a sting.

It would not be the last sting of the day, but no serious side effects.  I was stung twice more...once on the rear end because I sat on it getting into the car and then on the top of my head. I am thankful for the last one as I thought for sure it was going to sting me inside my ear but buzzed out just in time to get me there instead.  Sean and Henry each got stung once as well...Sean on the neck and Henry on the thumb.  We got off easy as Roger was stung multiple times.  Not sure if I feel to bad for him though because he wore very little protective gear and seemed to enjoy the stings or at least not be too bothered.  I think Roger is just one of those kind of people who does not get too rattled about life.  He made a good partner for the boys.  Marie did not get stung as far as I could tell.  She was very calm most of the time so this helped the boys to not be fearful.

The man who called us out for the bees on the other hand was very concerned about getting stung. He had already been to the hospital over some yellow jacket stings so he stayed in the truck most of the time we worked.  He was not our only audience either...he had three other men join the group watching from their truck.  And, a young boy came trotting up an hour into the removal to tell me he had been stung three times and went to the hospital a couple of weeks ago.  He did not seem to upset by it as he stayed a while and watched and then returned to watch again.

I can hardly blame the audience for coming...it was a fascinating sight!  The tree was about 3 feet in diameter and hollowed out from bottom to top!  About 5 feet of the tree was FULL of comb and bees.  Roger cut into the trunk with a chainsaw and revealed this beautiful sight!  I was amazed at how the comb created by the bees came from each side and overlapped in the middle without touching.  There was a lot of damage to the comb because the tree fell so hard and there was also damage to the comb from hive beetles.

Roger led the others in a search for the queen bee or at least evidence to know if the queen existed.   He predicted that the queen had died soon after the fall because the bees normally would have swarmed by this time (the tree fell a week ago).  This prediction proved true as more evidence was found once he cut into the tree.  The honey supply was low which indicated they were gorging on their honey supply.  Furthermore, they were finding queen cells within the comb.  After sifting through the comb what appeared to be a good quality queen cell was found (several were found that had been crushed...looking at the picture below you can see the queen cell on the right side is larger than the other cells) and was placed in an empty frame to hopefully emerge in the next week.  This would be the only way to keep the bees in the hive box.

I took so many pictures of them working to remove the foundation (honey comb) and shaking the bees into the box.  Then the comb that was in good condition was tied into the empty frames and placed inside the box as well.  After about 4 hours of sifting through the tree, Marie topped the hive box and we left it in place on the tree.  We will return on Monday afternoon to pick up the box.  This will allow the bees enough time to settle into the box and stabilize the frames with their own wax.

There is so much to say about the experience.  I had told Michael that I figured the boys would either love it or hate it.  I am guessing from their enthusiasm that they love it!  At one point Henry came to me upset because Roger was not letting him do enough.  I told him to be firm and ask if he could take on a bigger role.  He did this and he was soon pulling comb from the trunk.  They even found out about another tree down the road that they are going to assist with next week.  I think they are hooked...officially swarm chasers!

The biggest benefit from the experience had to be the fact that the boys went to bed without fuss this evening.  If I had a place to keep the hives, I would have them go out every day.  They literally came home and ate dinner and went to bed!  I am sure they would eventually get used to the bee stings just like Roger.  So glad the boys met him and are able to work with him so easily.  I must say there is not a beekeeper met who has not been a joy to be around.  I am so thankful for the ongoing mentorship the boys have gained from our association.

Quiet Thursday?

Surprisingly, we had a quiet day at home today.  I know some people think we run around too much so I thought I would go ahead and post today just so you know we DO slow down from time to time.

In fact, I thought I would take the time to talk about how we do our school along with our busy schedule.  I have always felt like school should not interfere with our daily lives.  Sound odd?  Well, what I mean is that what we do with our life must go on and this is a part of learning.  The name of our school says it all...we are life long learners!  We do not stop our learning when the books close!    So the children learn the basics of reading and writing...the early years are critical!  However, once this happens...the doors open up and they have the world as their textbook!

Also, knowledge is not always about information gained from a textbook.  I would much rather have an adult who has learned to worship the Lord, help their neighbor, and have common sense...than being able to diagram a sentence and be able to solve the unsolvable equation.  Although those things would be awesome too!

At the end of the week, the lessons are learned and the workbook pages have been filled in.  We manage to get in school assignments at all hours of the day.  I think it is funny when people ask my children if they are doing homework.  The children have just learned to nod their heads in agreement...after all, isn't all of their school work really homework?

So, today we read from Luke 16:19-31 in our religion class.  I am always amazed when people say there is no such thing as Hell.  Jesus could not make it any more clear!  Of course, He WANTS us to be with Him in Heaven and He is merciful, BUT as we see in this parable He shows that Hell does still exist and there is no return from this abysmal place.  I praise God that we have been given a Savior...I pray that we do not squander this gift for the love of this world and lose the next!

We finished school work and even got around to give the house a little deeper cleaning.  The only school work that we did not complete for the day was science!  Believe it or not we were not able to do the science experiment needed to understand the lesson because we did not have any ICE!  I know...of all things...ice kept us from doing a science experiment.  If you read a couple of days ago, we lost a lot of food in our freezer because the door was left open.  Well, one of the things we lost was ice and I had not had time to make any new ice...so we will need to try to finish that tomorrow!

We had guests this afternoon.  A postponed welcome for Zaira from our good friends Lorraine and Krista!  Zaira took to Lorraine quickly...and proceeded to sit up on her several times.  She then decided she was in a comfortable position and fell asleep!  She slept so hard that she snored!  It was a nice visit!  We were even able to share some homemade cookies fresh out of the oven!  The boys were happy to share because it meant they had an opportunity to sneak one (or more) for themselves as well!

We also snuck in a photo session with Zaira in an outfit made by one of our 4H friends.  You might have seen her in this outfit before but she was a little too small to fit it well.  So, I had to get another photo of Zaira wearing this outfit to send to our friend.  The crocheted hat and flip flops just make this outfit too cute!

We did go into town later in the evening.  We had to meet the last of our 4H members to complete a mock contest we had set up in anticipation for the real contest next week.  We grabbed some Subway sandwiches and had a picnic dinner.  Then we made our way to the monthly beekeeper's meeting.

OK...so this is where the fun began.  First the business portion of the meeting took place.  At the very end the group was asked who would volunteer to bring refreshments to the next meeting.  Sean quickly volunteered us for this duty.  I figured it was as good a time as any to do this so I agreed.

Then the speaker for the evening was introduced.  I was sitting there enjoying the talk by Ms. Sheila about making soap with honey and beeswax.  Zaira politely grunted and looked at me sweetly (I really mean this...no joke!).  She needed one of those doozy (sp?) of a diaper changes that just cannot wait.  So I asked one of the boys to get the diaper bag, which kindly proceeded to do.  But low and behold I had used the last of her diapers in the earlier part of the evening!  I thought about it for a minute and decided since this was probably going to be the only diaper change until we got home, I could use one of the larger diapers kept just in case Brendan needed them.

All was going well, and I got to listen to the rest of the talk.  It was very interesting to hear all the ways lye soap could be made.  Ms. Sheila was sure a great speaker, and as she stated from the beginning, she "spoke from her heart."  She passed around samples of her soap and it was so lovely.  She also talked about the benefits of using 'real' soap, especially used to avoid dry skin and for locking in the much needed moisture.  Not to mention that it just had a beautiful fragrance.

After the talk, an announcement about recently donated items (used hive equipment) would be auctioned off after refreshments were served.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to gain an extra hive box set for use next spring when we plan to split our hive.  So we stayed and bid on a few items.  There were several items that would have been useful but we ended up spending a small amount to obtain a deep box and a medium super, along with a hive top, a queen excluder, and a comb scraper.  I was pleased with this 'purchase,' and we began to prepare to leave.

I looked down and in the process of concentrating on the bid, I did not notice that Zaira had another messy diaper...so much more than the first one and now in a very large diaper that did not hold so well!  Oh my we were both a mess!

Can you believe one of the women actually wanted to hold Zaira that way?!  "Just wrap a blanket around her and she will be fine!"  Wow!  What a kind and doting woman...and Zaira loved it!  Good thing because here comes Henry and Sean excited about the idea of becoming 'swarm chasers!'

They were told that a man was going to collect a swarm of bees from a fallen tree and wanted some help!  Not only that but we could keep the swarm!  I was a little nervous at the thought but the boys were so excited and we had hoped to gain another hive soon, so I agreed.  The only problem was the fact that we would need a full set of hive boxes by Saturday.

There happened to be a man who sold used supplies at the meeting so we spoke and he is going to set us up with the remaining supplies needed.

I can honestly say that I think we are crazy to do this, but it will be an experience not soon forgotten.  Say a prayer for us now...we will need those prayers come Saturday evening!  St. Ambrose, pray for us!

Oh! Zaira did get home to take a bath and was perfectly content in the process.  She did not like the car ride home but that is normal...so all was good and all are in bed now!  Praise God!