Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Becoming a Partner with Safe Families

It's so much easier to blog about the little new things going on in our lives that document the huge changes that are taking place.

Our newest biggest thing is that we just finished our application process, background check, interview, home inspection, reference check, and training to become a Safe Family. Safe Families for Children is a Christian ministry of Biblical hospitality that serves local families in crisis situations. We will be opening our home to children who need a temporary place to stay while their parents get back on their feet. The parents voluntarily place the children in our care while they work through illness, addiction, job loss, or any other number of struggles, and they do so with the help of Safe Families programs, staff and volunteers.

We first heard about Safe Familes about a year ago at church. At that point, we had only recently decided to homeschool, but after some thought, prayer, and conversation, it was clear that this was something that God was calling us to do too. It wasn't until this summer, however, that we got the ball rolling on the process. It was also right after that we decided to make an offer on our current home, so it was a little chaotic with packing and moving very quickly.

This new home offers many more opportunities for hosting children in need, but it also came with additional challenges that were non-issues in our former home. We also had a delay on getting internet here, and then we had an accident that broke my laptop, so our online training got postponed. After these few setbacks it is expected that our file will have its final review very soon and then we'll be contacted anytime after that when there is a child in need that is in our area.

So that's just a quick update on things, but I do hope to fill in some more thoughts and details as time allows. Right, like I expect to have more free time now! Well, in the meantime, your prayers and other support in this new endeavor are most appreciated. We're excited and nervous and everything in between, but are confident that overall and in the end this will be a benefit to all involved!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Animals + Reading + Music = Awesome

If you are on twitter and love science, you've got to follow @sciencegoddess. With over 30,000 followers she's about to the most popular person I know in real life (2nd only to @ahmir, an R&B group my cousin manages and I met at his wedding, yet I digress). I had the pleasure of meeting Joanne at a local tweet-up/girls night out and she was a darling. And smart. And beautiful. And encouraging and resourceful for my homeschooling endeavor. I might have a crush on her.

So today she tweeted about her most recent blog post on Scientific American. Though at the time I just saw the tweet and didn't realize that she had written the article. Later on Pinterest, I saw a homeschooling group pin the same article. Then I knew I had to investigate and I was so glad I did.

Unusual creatures is definitely something our kids love. With Tey at my in-laws, I could only show it to Bean. He was willing to hop out of the bathtub so I could show him the video of the aye-aye on my phone. Of course, then he went right back in but we were able to talk about what we saw, which is recorded on his blog. He's excited to see more videos. I'm requesting that the library buy this book and I'm trying to decide if I should download the music to my phone. I generally like free things, but THIS IS AMAZING. 

I mean, check out this video and his crazy instruments!

Hearst ties together my kids' love of animals, reading and music in a way I've never seen before. Thank you!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Jumping Fun

I heard through the grapevine that some of our friends think my husband and I are so laid back, that in a stressful situation, they ask each other, "What would Mr. and Mrs. Eaglet Trio do?" 

That made my day, because I'm actually a pretty high-strung, impatient, control freak, who often takes life to seriously...but, at least I'm self-aware. 

I'm trying to be more fun. Today I nailed it with the kids and all it took was a blanket,  a camera and their jumpiness. The blanket is to contain them to a certain spot and keep the others away so they don't get hurt. Then I just snapped pictures while they jumped the highest they could or posed their bodies in funny ways. 

Tey is so little and fast, it was hard to capture him in mid-air.
His cheesy smile shows how much fun he had.
I have no idea how he got his body like this and still landed without hurting himself.
Bean was like a little Spiderman. 

If I had a penny for every time I remind him to keep his tongue in his mouth when he jumps...
I told you I'm  high strung. I worry that he will bite his tongue off. 
BINGO! This was the pose he wanted me to capture.  It only look like 50 tries. PE for the day? Check!