Apart from the vine...

you can survive for awhile...

but eventually...you will begin to shrivel and shrink...decaying from the inside...out!  Alisa was so excited to pick out little pumpkins to decorate for fall.  "Mom, will these get bigger?  Because I think this one has gotten bigger since I picked it out.  Yep, I'm pretty sure...see." 

A teaching moment...are you paying attention, Mom?

"No, honey, it is not growing anymore.  See this stem on the top.  This is where it was connected to the vine.  It was cut off the vine, brought to the store, and we bought it.  The pumpkin can't receive anymore water or nutrients.  It needs those things to survive."  This past week, she started the plant chapter in Science and she is learning more details about seeds and plants.  We have a pumpkin vine growing outside with one pumpkin on it, so we will be able to continue this study!  I love watching the understanding sweep over their faces!

A real life conversation is the perfect opportunity to share God's Word with our children.  A visible picture for Alisa to make the connection and see what God means when He said in John 15:4-5,

"Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches:  He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."