Becoming New Creatures

My lesson at church yesterday was on 2 Corinthians 1-7 about being reconciled unto God. If you go to that lesson link and scroll down, you'll see that they used an image of a (drumroll....) butterfly to illustrate the lesson topic of becoming new creatures. Well, it just so happens that I am a butterfly enthusiast. So I didn't need to bring that stock image photo from the manual (plus everyone had already looked at it this week as they studied...) but I did want to talk about becoming new creatures, and I do agree that a butterfly's metamorphosis is a great illustration of the change of heart that we need to go through to become new creatures in Christ. ANYWAY, I had four monarch chrysalides on hand that were going to eclose, so I brought them to class, and they came out during my lesson! It was a pretty incredible visual aid if I do say so myself. After class, some people came up to see the butterflies up close. I was happy to send three of them home with a few interested neighbors, and they were able to watch them as they dried and then release them. 

And then we brought one home to enjoy. The older kids were watching Saturdays Warrior on the big screen there.

Pretty fun. I really have enjoyed teaching the adult Sunday school class. I say "enjoyed" because Corey is moving me to a youth class that needs another teacher. Corey is the Sunday School president, so he gets to decide these things, and I seemed like an easy choice. Plus he teased "You can't top that..." referring to my lesson yesterday. Where could I go from there? It's only downhill, so time to move on. I'm going to be teaching Sophi's class now with another mom. It will still be fun. It'll probably be a little less stressful to prepare for, but still allow good focus and motivation during the week to study. It'll be good, but I will miss the adult class. I'm assuming the kids won't be as excited about reading the scriptures or discussing the material, but maybe we can get them excited about it. We still brought home one, plus we've had to many that most of my kids don't worry about holding them, they know there is another one coming out tomorrow. Corey took this pic of me in my butterfly lab "doing science" a few weeks ago. I don't have the best set up, but it's been fine.

Katharine is a bit high maintenance these days. She likes to be held, but we get tired, so we either sit and feed her, or Corey and Abi have been taking her on walks quite a bit. From a recent walk - Katharine playing in a neighbor's dirt! oops.

Oops for making their sidewalk messy, not oops for her getting her pants dirty. That happens everyday anyway, no biggie. Another cute picture by Peter - 

We had violin today. The boys have started riding their bikes to school in the mornings with some neighbor kids. I was headed to violin with Sophi and Natalie today after school when the boys were crossing the busy road to come home. 

I had Abi go meet them to help them cross. 

And even with Abi there, and the blinking lights of the cross walk, there was a car that had to totally slam on it's brakes to not hit Owen. It was scary!! People are always driving so fast on this road, we try to go with them to cross to make sure the cars stop before the kids start to walk out. That's the goal atleast, but didn't happen today. But we're glad Owen wasn't hurt.