There were a few things today that stood out from the background of yet another day at home. We spent much of the morning inside, me working, the kids watching shows, Jeremy off doing chores. But when I put my work away and got the kids away from their screens we went outside and sat in the sun, dangling our legs off the edge of the porch. Why is sitting with one's feet swinging so fun? I immediately felt a simple, child-like happiness rise within me. A butterfly was flitting around our spring wildflowers. I just bought
Arkansas Butterflies and Moths by Lori A. Spencer this winter and I ran inside to get it to identify the butterfly. Back on the edge of the porch, William sat himself on my lap, the sun glinting off his light hair. We paged through the book, and at every single picture he asked, "What's that one?" and I had to read the name of each and every butterfly and moth in the book. At first this was tedious, but when I settled in to his pace, it became poetry. Hairstreak. Cobweb Skipper. Goatweed Leafwing. Dejected Underwing. Joyful Holomelina. On and on we went, looking at all the different pictures until we found a match: we were looking at a male Red Admiral. I am so glad I bought this book so we can keep track of who visits us this spring and summer.
Our butterfly watching reminds me of a beautiful little moment I witnessed the other day: Taiya went out into the yard and stood very still about six feet away from our bird feeder. A Carolina chickadee was there, and Taiya just stood very still watching it for several minutes as it hopped on the feeder, flew to a branch again, and back to the feeder. She came back and said, exhilarated, "That's the closest I've ever come to a bird!"
We had some more wildlife discoveries today: a toad hiding on the kids' wooden play set, its color matching very well. Then a little brown lizard. Then a rare Ozark Octopus. Pretty exciting stuff.
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| Hiding toad. |
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| Dashing lizard. |
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| Suspicious Hank. |
Another fun thing today: we introduced the kids to the first original Star Wars movie. In the Legos we are borrowing from our now-teenage nephew are many Star Wars-related characters: C3PO, R2-D2, Obi-Wan-Kenobi (I have no idea how these are spelled), Darth Vader, and many storm troopers and rebel pilots and the like. And many characters from the newer movies that I don't know. Jar-Jar Binks? I'm spelling these phonetically. Anyway, the kids kept asking about Star Wars, so we ordered the DVD of the first three from the 70s, and we watched the first one tonight. It was hilarious. The movie, and the experience of watching it with the kids. Every two seconds: what's that? what are they doing? is that an alien? is that earth? are those the bad guys? how can you tell? what did he say? they're going to be okay, right? because there are more movies. did he kill him? It's been so long since I've seen Star Wars that it was actually a real treat to get to watch it and enjoy the epic nature of the story as well as the utter silliness of it. I mean, the bar scene with the alien band... so classic.
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