George II

It is monarch butterfly season.  We go out and look for the caterpillars.  They are usually under the leaves.  We take them home and feed them milkweed and help them become butterflies.  It is all a very fun family event.

Tonight we find 2 of them.  One very small. The other was nearly the size of making a chrysalis (cocoon).  We named him George.  We get them both home and before George in the door, Brandon roughly pushes by Jessica and George falls to the floor.  And George doesn't fall where he is supposed to fall.  He falls right where Brandon's shoe is going to fall.  Yep, he becomes a grease spot on the garage steps!  Farewell George!

Understandably, Brandon is distraught.  He is very sorry for his unintentional mistake and doesn't know how to make things better.  He goes inside to sit by himself and wallow in his misery.  I am surprised that Jessica does not feel any sadness about George.  Possibly their relationship was so short in duration that the emotional attachment did not occur.  Sorry for the psychobabble!

I thought that we could have left things this way with one child OK and the other miserable.  Seriously, 50% isn't bad sometimes.  But would it not be better to try to make things right?  I thought so.  Brandon and I went out on a quest for another caterpillar and came home with George 2.  Not as big but still a monarch.  Guilt washed off his shoulders and his behavior is atoned for.  That is a good day!  Oh that all our mistakes were that easy to fix!  Grace, mercy, and peace!  This good!

Big Fish Plan

Sometimes things just go according to plan.

We were at the church campout and we thought fishing would be a good thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.  Not only do my kids drop anything to go fishing, I enjoy taking them.  We have trained them all to bait their own hooks and all but the youngest can take the fish off the hook.  The fish we catch the most is the sunfish/bluegill variety but we have been catching a few bass lately.  Which brings me to the present story.

We are out on the dock catching all sorts of sunfish and having a great time.  However, they can see this nice largemouth bass about 15 feet off the dock.  Try as they may this bass was not interested in their bait.  It was strange to see them drop a juicy worm directly on top of this fish and he would swim off a few feet with indifference.  Maybe like most of us this fish had a bad experience eating worms.    Well I will not be taunted by some large mouth bass!  I took this as my personal mission to catch this fish.  He would not make a fool of me!  I can do that all by myself!

So I developed a plan.  The little sunfish in the lake seem to like worms and the largemouth doesn't.  But, he might like little fish as bait.  Now if I catch a 1 1/2 inch sunfish, that might tempt him.  Hmmm, sounds like a plan that just might work.  Maybe.

I love it when a plan comes together!  And yes I did catch it on a pink princess pole!  And I feel no shame!

Ending: We were going home soon and didn't have time to filet this huge largemouth bass, AKA Leviathan.  So we gave him to a dad and son coming into dock from their outing.  They didn't have too many fish but welcomed a chance to feast on some bass.  It was a great weekend!