Making Memories

Since returning from our camping trip to Virginia, Charis and Matthew have been working on a scrapbook to capture their memories of the trip. They had collected a few leaves and flowers while there, but once we arrived back home, they had browned and turned to crisp so we were unable to use them. I allowed them to find some leaves around our house to use instead. Here is Charis shading a maple leaf and Matthew shading an oak leaf. The expressions on their faces were priceless as Mommy showed them how the leaf "appeared" by coloring on the sheet with the side of a crayon!



Next project is a pine cone. We found a perfect little pine cone but I am not sure how to "capture" it for the scrapbooks. I thought of just taking a picture, but I want to be more creative than that. So, maybe we'll pull out some finger paint and let them roll the pine cone in the paint and then over a sheet of paper. The "mommy" in me is not quite prepared for the challenge of clean up afterwards though. And with only one pine cone, they'll either have to both be the same color (which the individuals happen to enjoy expressing their individuality) or it must be washable paint to do one and then another color.




On another note, here's a little creepy crawly who decided to visit us on our door jamb. Imagine me nearly tripping over Faith who was behind me when I open the door to take a picture of the oak tree below and come face to face (yes, he was eye level) with this:
Not that I am petrified of a daddy-long-legged spider, just spiders in general. I can pick one of these up (with bare fingers!) and remove them kindly (you should have seen how many I had to remove from the tent during our camping trip!), but any other spider, no matter how big or small, must be squashed with a shoe! I actually left this one to stay or go as it pleased. He was gone by afternoon, when the temperature warmed up a bit.

Fall Foliage

Matthew has noticed the colors of the oak leaves changing as Autumn season has drawn closer. He was so excited to remind us that yesterday was the first day of Fall. Here is a picture of the oak tree we can see from our great window by the dining room table. I am going to attempt keeping vigil on this tree and taking pictures as the colors expand throughout the season. I love Fall; not as much as Spring, but I thoroughly enjoy seeing the finger of God paint the reds, purples and golden hues on various trees. I think of the beauty He gives even as death draws near. We know that winter is a picture of death and yet our Father allows a glow of beauty before it comes.