P is for "Planting Trees"

Remember my post on our unit study of The Lorax? At the end of that post I told you that we had joined The Arbor Day Foundation for $10. We were to receive 10 trees (we chose the Wild Bird Variety) in exchange for our membership fee. I wanted Brynne to experience how planting these tiny "twigs" could make such a huge difference in our world. Those trees arrived a few weeks ago, and we planted them in several places in our yard.

We received the following varieties of trees:

Two Arrowwood Viburnums ~ "provides food, cover, and nesting sites for birds, larval food for butterflies and moths."

Bur Oak ~ "provides food and shelter for a wide variety of birds and animal life."

Gray Dogwood ~ "provides food, cover, and nesting sites for birds and squirrels."

Northern Red Oak

River Birch

Sargent Crabapple ~ "Birds love the fruit."

Tuliptree ~ "Squirrel and birds eat the seeds. The flowers are a favorite of the ruby throated hummingbird."

Washington Hawthorn

Colorado Blue Spruce

I can happily report that 7 of the 10 trees have survived the planting and are budding new leaves. It is so fun to see these babies grow and know that someday they will be full-grown trees.

A few days ago our neighbors had three young trees planted in their yard. They are 10 feet tall or so and fully bloomed. Those trees are nice, I guess. But there is something so special to me about watching these little bitty twigs we have planted grow into mature trees. It makes me feel like we are a part of something important. Sure we could have ordered some trees to be planted in our yard by the nursery. But that wasn't the point to me.

Make a difference to your surroundings and to our world.

We are linking up with Marcy at Ben and Me for Blogging Through the Alphabet.

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

A New Year, the Same Me

Happy 2019! It is that day of the year where everybody is up extra early starting their new exercise routine, eating only healthy foods, cracking open the pages of a new planner and Bible study, and debuting their Word for the year. You chuckle or roll your eyes, but you are doing at least three of these things. By the way, so am I. So let's start with the Word of the Year. Mine this year is Lagom. It's the Swedish word for "not too little, not too much, just right". It's a concept of being, doing or having just enough. So let's rewind to last New Year's Day. My Word was Might. And that's how I planned to tackle my year. And, I did. I worked out hard, I mommed hard, I traveled hard, I worked hard. And it was a good season. It prepared the way for this year. I accepted the Challenge I set for myself and succeeded. But, I don't need to keep up that pace. I am at a place in my life where I can kind of sit back and enjoy my life without f...

Science Sunday ~ Hmmm ... Let Me Think About It!

This week in our study of the Human Body , Brynne moved on to the Nervous System . Our first stop was a Pamela Hill Nettleton book called, Think, Think, Think: Learning About Your Brain . As part of our discussions about the brain , and the fact that it's the BOSS of the body, we discussed the importance of the spinal cord . We did a hands on spinal cord project by alternating gummy Life Savers and wagon wheel pasta on a pipe cleaner. We talked about why there was the "squishy" stuff in between the vertebra and how the back can bend and sway because of it. We completed "The Brynne" by adding the stomach, small intestine and large intestine, from our study last week of the Digestive System (although I just realized I have the large intestine coming out of the stomach, when the small intestine should be) and the brain and spinal cord. We are now done talking about the parts of the body and will conclude our study of the Human Body with a two-day unit ...

Journey to Excellence

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