For those of you who aren’t aware, my husband and I have been married for many years, and that suits us just fine. :) We’ve grown up together, raised three children, made some amazing memories, and then, well, there are his collections. Over the years, his tastes in collecting have changed, and that series of changes is a story of its own.

When I met him in college, he was majoring in entomology: insects to him, bugs to the rest of us. Part of his studies included developing a huge collection of all kinds of insects, all pinned, labeled, and kept in these glass-covered display drawers. Enough to give most of us nightmares, in my humble opinion.

What I didn’t know BEFORE marrying him was that the bugs that he caught for his collection had to be stored in bags in the FREEZER until he had time to sit down and pose and pin these creatures. Now just let me say, the whole premise of being a perfect new wife usually involves dinner preparation and candlelight, right?

Suffice it to say I did NOT know that frozen hamburger looked a lot like a bag of frozen bugs! Oh my word—you can’t imagine my surprise when I arrived home from work that day and got ready to cook dinner with the freezer bag of “meat” that I had been thawing in the refrigerator. No meatloaf that night!

Collections change, people change, but love remains. Over the years, my husband moved away from his insect interest, and on to baseball, softball, tree forts, or whatever else the kids were into at the moment. I am thankful that none of our kids followed in his footsteps and fondness for entomology! However, while they were at home, our kitchen counters often housed jars with caterpillars, cocoons, fireflies, praying mantis, and other bugs galore – they LOVED watching the insects for a few hours, then releasing them. Whew!

When I wrote the unit study Incredible Insects, my husband was thrilled. He had a wonderful time reliving all of his insect collecting, and I was thankful that there were no bugs in the freezer.