Faith, Snails and Guinea Pigs!

An unlikely combination in some ways, but they've all been discussed this week in our house.

I don't really discuss religion as a rule - or blog about it - I always feel it's a thing personal to myself. I was bought up within the Church Of England as a child and my faith is my own. I don't call my dh an atheist as I don't care much for the word, so I usually say, on the rare occasion someone asks, that he has no religion. A general discussion between us some years ago led to us to agree we would bring the children up and allow them to decide which religion, if any, they wished to follow. Not all of you may agree with that, however that is the mutual decision we came to.

Now, both children have been given the same answers to questions, information and so on, but Hettie, it has become apparent, believes passionately in evolution, and Issy believes just as passionately in the Creation. So we have somewhat of a split in belief around here. Further discussion between dh and myself. Decision remained the same really, but we've had a long chat with the girls about understanding and tolerating the beliefs of others. So Hettie has continued her study of Charles Darwin and Issy & I - well we snuggled in bed and read the Bible. We re-read about the creation and her comments were 'that's much better' and 'I think God probably should have had 3 weeks rest, he was probably really tired, the earths pretty big' Oh and obviously 'Did God create Guinea Pigs?'

And so onto snails, more precisely our Giant Land Snails. Created or evolved, they sure are rapidly increasing in size:

A little bit of science - Hettie built a model of DNA and amazed me by pretty much remembering the parts of a cell.

And Issy made a sheep that grows crystal wool, its not working that well so far!!

And lastly we come to the guinea pigs. We let them out in the indoor run and I'm not sure whether it was the sudden freedom and space but it became quickly apparent that at least one baby was a boy - if you see what I mean ;o) Dh woke me with a cuppa at 6.30am and the phrase 'Your guinea pigs are at it' OK time for action! All babies are boys and so they have been separated from their mummies. This in turn led to mummies standing on their houses and squeaking loudly - into the early hours of the morning! This morning dh woke me by saying 'Your guinea pigs sound like they're going to explode' He was right - the mummies were making the strangest noise like a phone ringing, which got louder and louder. They really did sound like they might pop!

All seems quiet this evening at last, children, snails and guinea pigs. Peace at last.