Oddments & Insects

Things that have been going on, let's see. I cut a foot & a half of hair off, for several reasons, primarily vanity. Ridiculous as it may be for a headcovering woman to be vain of her hair I truly was. There are also some vastly conservative women around here w/ very long hair; I think they believe the hair to be a covering but that is purely presuppositional on my part. I've not yet spoken to them though I automatically fit into their category. At lest I could see other peoples wheels turning & putting us in the same category & I didn't want to. Kind of like the same reason I don't wear Amish headcoverings or hijab, it's false advertising. I do think women ought to have longish hair but I think the main point of it is to be feminine. Anyway, my postpartum shedding had begun so I figured I'd cut it off while it could be more useful to some one for the Locks of Love thing.

Charlotte turned 2 Saturday. We don't do birthday parties or presents, but she had her breakfast on the china & we played w/ sparklers at night. Her aunt brought her some fancy daisies that are sitting by her place at the table. One thing I do plan on doing is taking her picture every year in my prom dress; I paid $200 for that sucker in 1999 dollars. I saw a slideshow on a lady's blog who did the same thing for her daughter in a swimsuit from the 70's. It was neat to watch her grow up, though I don't want my daughters published in swimsuits.
From 1 year...

to 2.



Ah well, the spacing is weird. It has been very hot & humid, alot of the last 2 weeks have been in the mid-high 90's. We are turning on the AC, it feels good to come indoors to a cool 80. I don't know what it is about the heat, but tempers flare on all sides when it gets too hot. The AC assists us in maintaining civility one to another. We fall off to sleep easier too.

Our little microclimate is extreme in its swings; our south side is a small mountain, shading house & yard for 1/2 of the day. 10' from the back of the house is a bare red wall about 12' higher than our roof line that has washed down significantly since we moved in in Nov. We were the first & last to have ice on our driveway & w/ the sun in this weather our little hollow gets into the low hundreds by 2:00. This would be a hard lot for a homesteading venture if God had not graciously provided us w/ rain. Last week 3". The week before 2". Today is Sun . & we have already received 1 & 1/4".

These inches frequently happen along in 10-15 min. intervals, the ocean seemingly turning itself upside down. It's fun to watch the radar & see where the mountains will break up & send the clouds. Were I an Indian (feather Indian, not dot) I could easily believe that the mountains give birth to clouds, they hang so low as to be almost touching & rising off of them like the steam rolls off of the roof in the morning. God's creation is amazing. Segue way!

Etymology is becoming our favorite study. There are so many new bugs I've never seen before. The children & I run to the back door every morning to see what kind of new moths our night light has lured in.
Here is a Pale Beauty.

Here is Victor looking at what I think is a polyphemous. Here is the supposed polyphemous w/ opened wings trying to scare us. He was trying to harden his wings, having recently hatched from his cocoon & Mike (who loathes moths of any persuasion) kicked at him causing him to show his eyespots.

This is a female Luna moth. She's about 5" across & so pretty! Mike saw her on the side of our house & she has been laying eggs. I'm watching them anxiously, as I'd like to do another caterpillar this year. You may have seen her at night when you take your Lunesta sleeping pill, ha, ha.

This is a Rosy Maple moth. They eat red maple trees. I've seen alot of this variety in different colors, there was a flock (flock? is that right?) of 9 lemony yellow maple moths on our wall the last 2 nights. This was the prettiest colored one though.

My last random bit is that my mother in law has purchased a little 4 room house in the area for her & my family to vacation in so we can see each other throughout the year. Everyone but me worked on it really hard to get it ready. I had to babysit. But the house is a success, she'll be here for a week or 2 & it's fun to stop in for a visit.