Jumpstart on Earth Day

So Earth Day is coming up this week......and being a tree-hugging Jesus freak, I thought I'd pass along a few ideas that help save the world (that God gave us) throughout this whole week.

Genesis 1:26 tells us......

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

I believe that yes, we do have dominion over all God's creatures........and we also have the obligation to do what we can to treat them with respect/kindness, protect them and live peaceably with them.

I am pretty much in awe of all the creatures that God has made (hence the name of my blog). It blows me away to think about how God gave us *so* many beautiful living things for us to look at and learn about. Each living thing playing a critical role in the balance of nature. I don't watch TV often, but I just love the Planet Earth series on Discovery. I simply block out all the "instinct" or "evolving" references and enjoy the amazing works of our God.

The same God that created you and me......taught the spiders to spin flawless intricate webs, the African wild dogs to hunt with such precise strategy, and birds to construct incredible homes for their young.

So speaking of nests, I am simply fascinated with them. It just blows me away to see how birds create these amazing homes.....the intricate layering of twigs with just the perfect amount of mud keeping it all together. Such a masterpiece!I love when we find abandoned ones around our property. In fact, you are sure to see one in many places in my home. Sometimes I fill them with smooth stones or acorns....this spring I put three pastel peanut M & M's for our Easter centerpiece in the one that we found in our Christmas tree!

So this little idea/project helps keep our earth healthy and helps out our little feathered friends.....not sure of the name, so I'll call it a "nesting gift bag".

Basically all you need to do is reuse a produce bag (those plastic onion or orange bags work great) and tuck in items that birds can use to build their nests. You can fill it with dryer lint, small strips of fabric, embroidery thread, ribbons, straw, brightly colored yarn scraps are perfect too......stuff that we find "useless" will make a nice warm, soft and colorful addition to a bird's home. I found some moss and stuck some of that in there as well. You can pull a few pieces of the yarn/ribbon out to give them a head start. Then we hung it on a tree that we could see from our house. It will be fun to watch the birds come by and take some materials....you might even spot where they are heading out to build their nest. The bonus would be to see a nest with specks of color in your yard or neighborhood in a few weeks.

So there you go.....an easy project to do this year for Earth Day. I am sure I'll have a few more ideas for you as the week goes on. Please share what you guys are doing this week....I'd love to get more ideas too. I am linking this onto the WFMW fun over at We are That Family's blog......be sure to stop by to see more great tips/ideas.

I hope you are enjoy the SONshine today. :)

Peace~
*~Michelle~*