I Feel Like a Kid Again

One thing I love about being out in the country is seeing so many different insects and creatures that I've never seen before or even knew existed. I feel like a little kid every time I see something new. I have to find David and drag him away from whatever he's doing to come and look at what I just discovered.

Case in point, one day I saw a stick on the door of the chicken coop. I remember thinking how strange it looked, almost like a bug of some sort. Well, the stick started moving and I thought I was losing my mind. I ran inside the house to grab David and show him this crazy thing I'd found. His response was a cool, "Oh yeah, that's a stick bug." A stick what?! I had never heard of this in my whole life! This was blowing my mind.

This morning there were three of these hanging out on the garage door. They are EVERYWHERE out here. I found some cool facts about stick insects online. http://insects.about.com/od/stickandleafinsects/a/10-facts-stick-insects.htm. Crazy Stuff!

One of the first things I saw out here was a cute little toad sitting in my new flower garden. Of course I took a picture and told David, "Look! A frog!" Always the animal expert, he replied, "That's a toad, not a frog." Maybe this is something most people know by the time they are 27 years old, but not me.

Get that camera away from me, crazy human.

Here's another little guy I saw right beside the back patio just hanging out one day. I think he's smiling at me!

There are so many different types of moths out here. I've seen some that are bright solid white, white with black spots, bright pink, multicolored, tiny, and huge. But this one kind of blew my mind.

I saw this butterfly out in the chicken run one day. At one point there were three of these flying all around me.

We've also seen raccoons, opossums, deer, praying mantises, spiders galore (daddy long legs are everywhere and we saw a Missouri Tarantula once!), lizards, the tiniest toads ever, snakes (a big black one and also one so tiny I thought it was a worm), hawks, hummingbirds, and so much more.

I feel so full of wonder and awe every time I step outside my door and see God's creation. Now what I'm really looking forward to is seeing all the leaves change color this fall. Fall is my absolute favorite season and I can't wait.

If you live in the city, I encourage you to take time to go out to the country and explore. It's great to feel like a kid again!

~Tammy