Better than any argument is to rise at dawn
and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.
~Wendell Berry

I gathered a little lunch snack for Sarah and she ate every single thing but the lettuce.  And then she wanted more peas so she went outside herself and picked them.  She started a project of opening them up to only get the peas out (these are sugar snaps and we generally eat them whole) and she worked until she had about 1/8 of a cup.  Then she ate them.  Parker the dog ate the cases.

I stayed home from church with her while Rich went with everyone else.  I cleaned the kitchen and living room and vacuumed while she rested and kept herself hydrated.  I’m very pleased with how she is doing today.

At one point she said, “I’m so sad because I got that beautiful necklace at the hospital and I never got to wear it.  It’s lost.”  And I said, “No it’s not lost, it’s around here someplace.”  “Yes it is!  Lost is when you don’t know where something is so… it’s lost.”  Then I agreed she was right.  Five minutes later she found it.

As soon as they came home from church Ethan took a nap.

Rest on a Sunday.  It’s only natural.

I went on the porch to read but I didn’t read for very long because it is a very moth and butterfly sort of day.  Quite distracting.  I went in the house to get my camera and Dave walked around with me to see what we could see.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me. ~Thomas Jefferson

The most exciting thing David found was a monarch caterpillar.  We look for them yearly but have not seen any for several years!!

It was rewarding, in a way, because I never ever weed out milkweed in the hopes that we will once again get caterpillars.  The milkweed this one was on grew right through the middle of my lilac bush by the kitchen window.  Can you see the caterpillar?  David spotted it right away.  We couldn’t believe how fat it was.

We put it, along with plenty of milkweed, in an old empty aquarium.  We will observe it while it forms into a beautiful butterfly….stay tuned!

Naturally, I wanted to go up to the field to try to find more but none of the children would go with me.  I went out to the garage, where my husband was waxing his car, and asked him to go along.  He agreed to go as soon as he was done with the left fender.

I waited for him by the stream.

We picked some wild blueberries (1/4 of a cup) and I put them in my pocket.

We talked.

We were attacked by mosquitoes.

We saw birds and butterflies.

MOST EXCITINGLY!!!!!!!!!!!

An Indigo Bunting!

what a heavenly blue

It’s mate was there, too, and they were making all kinds of noise to threaten us so we believe their nest was nearby.

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Author unknown, commonly attributed to Martin Luther