Our Homeschool Field Trip - Water Conservation

Today Boo and Nephew came with the boys and I to a new “museum” in our county. I found it while investigating Cub Scout things (ah, the joys of being a Wolf Den Leader!) – and convinced Boo to drive out with me to the semi-faraway city which hosted the county-government sponsored facility, Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center.

To tell the truth, I wasn’t expecting much.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The boys all had a blast. B-10 and CW were able to do a set of worksheets and earn a badge (GREAT for homeschooling parents). We watched a cool video called Blue Planet, which involved water and lights and smoke.

There was an awesome water room, called H2O, where the boys pretended to be water going through a waste treatment plant and experimented with water as a solid, gas, and liquid.

They even have a couple of touch pools with Horseshoe Crabs and Green Mussels! Not to mention we met Bubba the Red-Ear Slider. We missed meeting GwinAnt – the mascot.

We ended up becoming members. I took their party brochure, and am seriously considering having both the boys Birthday Parties there.

We didn’t do the trails, mostly because I wasn’t going to push a wheelchair in 85 degree heat around the woods. Hopefully we will be able to go back a few times the next year, and earn even more badges!

~Lone Butterfly )i(

My New Suit...

Fiancé and I need to go this weekend and purchase his tuxedo for the wedding and for our black-tie event that will be on October 6th. The whole "new suit" business reminded me of a story I had heard about 3 years ago. After searching for the story, I reread it and decided to share it here. I hope you are as blessed as I was.

Billy Graham is now 86 years old with Parkinson's disease.

In January 2000, leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, invited their favorite son, Billy Graham, to a luncheon in his honor. Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, "We don't expect a major address. Just come and let us honor you." And so he agreed.

After wonderful things were said about him, Dr. Graham stepped to the rostrum, looked at the crowd, and said, "I'm reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who this month has been honored by Time magazine as the Man of the Century. Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger.

When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn't find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn't find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn't find it. The conductor said, "Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it."

Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

The conductor rushed back and said, "Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don't need a ticket. I'm sure you bought one."

Einstein looked at him and said, "Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don't know is where I'm going."

Having said that Billy Graham continued, "See the suit I'm wearing? It's a brand new suit. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more fastidious. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I'll be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing. I want you to remember this: I not only know who I am .. I also know where I'm going."

How secure I am to know where I am going, even if I haven't the clothes to get there yet!

~Lone Butterfly )i(

A Rose By Any Other Name...

What is a name? Who decides what your real name is?

My parents gave me a name. I’m not overly fond of it, but I wonder sometimes if it is because I am not confident in who I am. I shortened it into a more ambiguous title, and felt a bit better, most of the people in my life refer to me by that name.

It would be generous to say that perhaps 3,000 people know me by my name, it’s a unique name, and I’ve lived many places. I’m the girl in high school everyone remembers, because of my name.

But it would be stingy to claim that less than 50,000 people know me by the name I gave myself in my other writings. The Internet is a beautiful creation, allowing the common man to express himself in multitude of ways.

What began on a lark, a nomenclature created from the combination of one of my tattoos and the story of my soul, exploded into a place where people gathered. Praise and critiques thrown out equally, words of acclamation and loathing from a crowd assembling to read what I wrote.

Only two of them know my name, the name my mother and father bestowed upon me at my birth.

If the name I gave myself carries more weight, if it identifies me to a world that waits in wonder to read my writing, or at times waits with a cruel sense of purpose to rip my writing to shreds.

Does it then become my name?

What about my children? Is my real name simply ‘Mommy’ or the more oft used ‘M-O-M’, hollered from the backyard and usually followed by “can you bring me a popsicle?”

I like to think my real name, my true name, is the one that will be used throughout eternity. I’m simply convinced that we will have some unique designation upon reaching heaven. The sheer number of Adam Smiths coming through the Pearly Gates alone requires a method of distinguishing between each man and woman.

If heaven’s listening – if possible, may I keep my Internet name? I’ve found, kind sirs, that I’m rather fond of it.

~Lone Butterfly )i(

Remembering the Past

Baby Butterfly - Age 2

I was sorting through old digital pictures and found a few videos of when the boys were teeny-tiny. This is B-10 when he was a little over 2 years old, and living in Germany. He loved bugs even as a toddler. He ran around for DAYS with these wings on his back. He would put them on as soon as he woke up and not take them off until it was time to take a bath at night.

It's amazing to see how much he has grown. I can hardly believe the little "grown-up" that sits next to me on the sofa, reading his Magic Treehouse Book aloud, use to be the tiny caterpillar playing butterfly in my living room.

I have nothing pithy or brilliant to say. I can only pray each day that he will continue to grow into the kind of man that God plans for him to be.

Oh, the plans He has in store for you, my oldest heart.

~Lone Butterfly )i(