I’M
BACK
Well, it would appear that I did
exactly
three posts last year.
And I got my “real” camera out only a few more
times than that.
2018 goes down in the books
as the craziest year of my life.
Not a bad crazy.
Just a “how did we do that?” kind
of crazy.
And a “very good” crazy.
And an “I’m loving this” crazy.
I’m pretty sure we’ll always remember 2018 as
simply,
The
Year We Built the House.
Because, really, not a whole lot of other things happened.
 |
| The craziness begins. |
 |
| Changes happening! |
 |
| painting, painting, painting |
I’m adjusting back to my normal roles; mother, teacher, wife.
Although I do still randomly find a teacher’s pencil
stuck in my hair or behind my ear, carpenter style.
Muscle memory I guess you’d call it. Ha!
 |
| that random teacher's pencil |
A WORK IN PROGRESS
For those of you who would love
to see pictures of the house,
I really am planning to share some… sometime!
Right now, we’re finding our new normal after
our move in November.
And there’s still a list of
“house things” to finish up.
Time doesn’t stand still.
We haven’t hung a single picture on the walls.
(Unless you count the old aerial
photo poster
that’s stuck to the upstairs wall with
sticky-tac.)
There are still boxes to unpack and organize.
But even though there’s some
chaos,
there’s a whole lot of happiness
and contentment.
We’re so grateful for what God’s given us.
We have a home!
Here are
a few random pictures I found on my phone
that show a few rooms.
 |
| The living room. |
 |
| Also the living room. (at Christmastime) |
 |
| Adding shelves in the kitchen. |
 |
Here you can see the kitchen.
You can also see raw meat from Kadence's buck.
So sorry about that if it bothers you. |
 |
The school room on a cleaned up day.
Actually, you can't see the stuff I threw out of the picture behind me. |
A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE
Do you know what a praying mantis
ootheca looks like?
(That’s that foamy brown egg sack – I had to
look up
that word again, ‘cause I can never remember
it.)
For your own benefit please take note:
if you EVER find some such thing
on a branch of your Christmas
tree,
do yourself and the mini-manitises
a favor.
Cut that branch off and move it right outside
to the temperature nature intends it to be in
December!
Warm weather is what causes the
babies to hatch.
We had quite a surprise a few days after
Christmas
when our school room was crawling
with
a hundred or more teeny tiny baby
praying mantises!
 |
| discovering the Mantis mayhem. |
If you happen to know us well,
you know some of the people in
our family care about bugs.
Especially praying mantises.
So what is a mamma to do?!
We collected a great number of them
and left the rest to parish
away.
Sob.
But what do you feed fifty insect
eating infants
that are less than a half an inch long?
There are no insects/food to be found outside
in December.
I tried hamburger and chicken breast.
No luck.
I looked into buying fruit flies for pets.
Too expensive. (I’m cheap.)
I read that mantises become cannibalistic if
there’s no food source.
So we left them to survive as best they could.
Shudder!
Their numbers dwindled and then…
I started seeing fruit flies in
my kitchen.
Never thought I’d be glad for that day.
The last seven mantises began to have meals.
And I began to do my best to propagate
fruit fly larvae!
My husband says anyone who’s
cultivating fruit flies
could be considered crazy.
I don’t argue.
 |
| Mantis home. |
 |
| supper on a skewer. |
Three baby mantises made it to their first molt,
but one didn’t survive that process, and another fell by the way.
 |
| hunting. |
 |
| uumm.... I think you missed. |
 |
| Gottcha! |
 |
| Chowing down. |
Today finds us with ONE praying mantis.
He’s growing and looking very smart.
He knows that when the skewer with the fly comes close
that means food.
We’re hoping he makes it until spring.
And I will be scouring every single branch of next year’s tree.
“Unless the Lord
builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.”
Psalm 127:1
