God's Mercies in Daily Happenings

Underground Wasp Nest

 One of our children was recently stung by a wasp...actually, he was stung 3 separate times within a week's time.  This poor child has had more bee stings in his short six years of life than most people have been stung in their entire life.  That's another Alaskan adventure story for another day...

So back to the present...or at least a few days ago to be more precise.... my oldest son dug up this underground nest after the bees had been poisoned with gas.  WOW!  We had no idea how large this wasp nest was.  We had hung a hammock not 2 feet away from the nest and the three small children had enjoyed many a lively swing; laughing and tipping upside down there.  To think of the danger that lay so close by...  my little boy who was mad about getting stung, soon realized how much to be thankful for. 

I was thinking how we adults react in much the same way...get mad or upset and then get thankful.  I'm not saying we should like getting stung by a bee.  I'm just saying when things don't go our way or we experience suffering, pain, or trials we often don't realize just how bad it could've been...like my sister-in-law always says, "It could be worse." 

Experimenting with dry ice in the chemistry lab aka Kitchen

 Here's a fun photo I took of my guys calculating the time it took for various pieces of dry ice to melt in various sizes of containers...Yes, we're always taking advantage of any moment of any given day to learn something new but don't necessarily call it "school."


Going for a hike with big brother...

 My older kids are preparing to go on a lengthy backpacking trip...their little sister volunteered for the job of extra weight...for practice.  So cute and precious to me, as a Mother, to see my 17-year old son enjoy his siblings in this way.  He always has time for them...even in the previous wasp nest picture, he took the time to show them the queen and point out the individual cells, eggs, and larvae stages.

 

Teaching Baby the art of cleaning up after oneself...

Somehow he managed to open a small Ziploc bag of cheerios in one fell swoop...I had no idea so many cheerios could fit in that little bag!