Snow Days are Here Again

Whitney and Daniel getting ready to ride snowmobile.

You should have heard the children when they realized Brandon was here.  They were shouting, "Brandon is here!  Brandon is here!"  Elly was happy as well as she saw Brandon had brought his machine that she likes to run with.

Ryan didn't want to ride snowmobile and neither did Leah so he played with her, throwing snowballs and pulling her on the tobaggon.  Ryan is an excellent welder and had made a metal target on which we practiced our shooting skills.

We had a great Sabbath.  Even though we had snow to get through the roads were fairly good and we made it to church where it was great to get together with our fellow believers to worship.  Pastor was ill but Curt gave us an encouraging message on holiness.  We so appreciate Curt's willingness and his talents in this area.



I had made a delicious roast with potatoes and carrots as well as yummy baked beans, corn, and a salad.  It was wonderful to have almost all the children here.  We missed Dustin though.

 

I'm not sure what Leah was doing here.  But they had cleaned the snow off the trampoline on Friday and enjoyed some jumping with Whitney and Jade.




Brandon is pulling Daniel and Whitney with the dogs, Jade and Elly chasing.




I love this picture of Leah and Jade.  They both have the same smile on their faces.

I am always a bit sad when Sabbath is over as I so look forward to it all week and really appreciate keeping it. Elly seems a little depressed today as she enjoys having Jade over to play with. Yesterday she not only had Jade but Brandon and his machines which she enjoys even more than Jade.  This morning she keeps wanting to go outside.  When she does she goes over to the Quonset where the kittens are.  The children will bring them inside for the day.  She is getting along well with them.  Leah's kitten, Ace, plays with her. 

 But we have another week and each day is usually pretty great as well.  Today it isn't sunny outside, in fact it is snowing a little.  I like Sundays as well as I can sleep in a bit and take my time getting my chores done as we don't do school.

In astronomy this past week we studied Venus.  Venus is the third brightest object in the sky and is easy to find.  Of course Venus has no light of its own but reflects the sun's light.  Venus is the hottest planet even though it isn't the closest planet to the sun.  It is about 870 degrees!  And it doesn't cool off at night either.  Remember I told you that Mercury, the closet planet to the sun, gets hot during the day but is really cold at night because it has no atmosphere?  Venus has a heavy thick atmosphere with thick heavy clouds swirling around it which traps all that heat.  The clouds surrounding Venus are different than the clouds surrounding earth.  Venus's clouds are made of sulfuric acid.
 
Another funny thing about Venus is that it rotates in the opposite direction as compared to the earth. If you were on Venus you would see the sun rise in the west and see it set in the east.  (But you wouldn't be able to live on Venus as it is so hot and full of active volcanoes.)  The fact that it rotates in an opposite direction disproves the "big bang" theory which says the universe began by a big accident in space.  They say there was a huge explosion that sent particles into space.  Those particles then eventually formed starts and the planets that orbit around the stars.  If this were so, all the planets would have been formed spinning in the same direction.  Venus's rotation is strong evidence that this did not happen.
 
A year on Venus is shorter than a day on Venus.  This means that Venus orbits around the sun faster than it rotates.  It takes Venus only 225 earth days to orbit around the sun, but it takes 243 earth days for Venus to make a complete rotation (a day and a night).  If you were on Venus, then, by the time day turned into night and back into day again, more than a year would have passed!  This is not true for any other planet.
 
Because Venus is close to the sun, we can only see it for a while before the sun rises and for a while after the sun sets.  Of course, since Venus goes through phases, we won't always be able to see it in the night sky.  It is often called the "morning start" or the "evening star" because it shines brilliantly after sunset or before sunrise.  This is the reason the Romans named it "Venus."  It shined so brilliantly in the sky that they thought it was the most beautiful thing in the sky.  As a result, they named it after their goddess of beauty, who was called "Venus."*
 
This week we will be studying earth as it is the next planet closest to the sun.  I will be sure to share any facts I find interesting.
 
I*Taken from "Young Explorers Series Exploring Creation with Astronomy"