Turtle

Have you ever studied a turtle? I mean REALLY studied a turtle? How does it turn over when it lands on its back? How can you tell how old they are? Why do they cross the road? We studied them this week.

Welcome to school.

This is a "3 Toed Box Turtle"

It is approximately 6 years old.

You can tell how old they are by their bellies. Once they get to be about 15, the lines all become very smooth- which makes it very difficult to tell their age. However, younger than that- you can count the lines (similar to counting the lines on a tree). They live to be anywhere from 30-80 years old.



And by the way... they cross roads looking for mates, or if their young- to establish their homes.



This is my belated Birthday Present. They look BEAUTIFUL! However, I do have room for a few more (see Exhibit "A") .. which I already have ideas for.

(PS. Enoch is reading this-- he read nearly every line on the last entry).


So this is what you see when you walk in my front door. Except I do have 4 more above the piano (on the left just out of the frame), and down my hall.



And Enoch wanted to be in one!


So I got a new lens. Its a fisheye lens. I've been believing for it for over 2 years now. I'm so thankful God is so faithful. I have lots of ideas for the use of this lens, but it has a steep learning curve so I'm just practicing now!


Eleesia laughing with one of our new puppies!


This is how we spend our evenings....






This is our neighbor.. "Ms Agnus" (yeah, you should hear Eleesia say that one!)







So I hear it nearly everytime I leave the house.... "WOW you got your hands full!" or "you have SO many kids" , etc etc etc. - Which would be a fine comments in and of themselves. But its said with snarled noses. ESPECIALLY when I'm out with Jemma and we have all 5 kids.It gets so old. How dare they say that in front of my children. Do they know how hateful it is? Yes, I know I have my hands full. Yes, I know I have "A LOT" of children. And every single one of them is prayed for, well taken of.. and could not be loved more. Children are a gift from the Lord... and I have been well endowed. I'm thankful for that- every single day.

We also get the "how do you have time to manage a home, take care of your kids, homeschool, and run a business". Well, its not easy- but somehow we make it all work. For example, we mix things when possible. Just last week God granted me an amazing idea to bring the story of Moses back to life with a baby portrait session. So we had to go to the river and try it out first. What a better time to do our nature study?




We try to do nature study at least every week. Even if we don't leave the house to do it. Here is a huge frog we caught outside. We then looked it up in our nature study book to classifiy it and learn about him. This guy was HUGE.. pictures don't do it justice!






And Ms. Maddie had puppies!! She had 5, but only 4 made it. They are now 3 weeks old and soo precious. The kids love them!



And some of Essa. She decided she wanted to get her ears pierced. Our rule was they had to be old enough to request it, know its going to hurt, and still want it done. She classified. So I wanted to capture some final ones of her "virgin" ears. I also wanted to show how long her hair has gotten. Its just so white you can' t see it!



She looks just like her Daddy in this one...



And then after they were done... she loved them!






And here is one I got of Jemma during a photo session . I thought it was just too beautiful not to post!


Well thats about it for the Struble family . Enoch has art class and Eleesia has dance on Wed. Then we always stop buy to see Grandma. We have baskeball on Thursdays and tae-kwon-do on Fridays. We are busy... but are having SO much fun!