Yesterday we had a special surprise when we walked home from Canaan's school. On the porch sat a praying mantis. I haven't seen one of those in years! He was crawling on our porch. I actually hadn't even noticed him because ~ well really I seem to rarely notice much these days with 2 high energy boys I chase around ~but anyhow, Canaan saw him first.
I called Ezra out and we all three sat on the porch for atleast an hour watching the mantis walk around the porch, up the wall, under the mailbox, fall off the mailbox into our evergreen bush, and hang out in the bush.
As we were sitting there just watching I thought about how nice it was just to be still and quiet and not be doing. The boys, who aren't particularly fond of bugs, loved watching the mantis and finally Ezra grabbed my phone and wanted to call Justin (Justin is our worship pastor at church that Ezra always wants to call EVERYDAY to talk.) Anyhow, I let him fake-call Justin which was hilarious because he pushes a couple of buttons, holds it up to his ear, and says "Justin, there's a special bug. (pause) Yeah, a special bug! (pause) Huh? What? Yeah. A bug." All this while holding Mike's empty Vernor's can from lunch. Too funny. But then the really funny part was when-without me knowing- he really did push the right buttons from our contact list and called Mike's high school friend, Matthew, who actually answered the phone and Ezra talked to, all without me realizing. I still thought he was fake-calling!
We had so much fun hanging out on the porch and it made me long for more of those times. More times of just stillness and wonder and quiet amazement. They are so few and far between. Mostly because the boys seem to only know the term "quiet" when they are sleeping. I guess I will pray for more praying mantis' to come and captivate my kids amazement. Ha!
This weekend we are heading into the mountains of eastern Kentucky for some R&R and a family reunion. We are looking forward to time away from the projects around the house and a chance to visit with family, take a mountain hike, and hopefully find some ripe pears from our secret pear tree in the woods.
See you Monday!