Profile book ready to review

Whew!  Finally sent our social worker a link to our profile book.  I'm so thankful for the rainy weekend as it gave us a bit more time to work on the book (instead of yardwork).

I taking a break from looking at it for a few days then might read through it a few more times... seems like every time I do, I tweak a few words or adjust a layout.  Praying she gives us some good feedback.

Now onto "Dear Birthparent" letters and the web profile.

Pedal Power

He's finally tall enough to reach the pedals on both his trike and bike.  So proud to pedal!  Of course, he watches his feet the entire time.  "Mom, did you see me go so fast?"

Profile Book

We are working hard on our profile book.  My original goal was sometime this week but I still have lots of editing to do.... I've been on "single parent" duty a little more often than usual lately due to my husband's travel schedule which has made it a bit harder to make progress -- both because I'm exhausted at the end of the day (how does one kid wear me out so?) plus when I do get a chunk done, I need some input :)

I'm struggling most with the text -- to be concise, honest and give a clear picture of our family is hard.  Sure it takes time to find pictures that tell the story of our family and arrange them, find backgrounds that fit, etc, but the words are much harder for me, mostly because it takes a lot of reflection and editing -- which are both are difficult when tired or distracted.  I know some people write what they want to say first and maybe that would have been easier... I don't know.  I really think someone looking at our book will see the pictures first so that's where I started. 

I'm praying for some undivided time to track down the remaining pictures and finish the text. I know, probably should be working on it instead of typing a post.  Back at it...

Egg Carton Caterpillars

This project was so much fun!  We made them on two different days and created an entire family of caterpillars.

I cut the egg carton base to create the caterpillar bodies (first time just in half to make six-section ones, second time into fourths to make three-section ones).  We painted them using both sponges and paint brushes.  Once they were dried, we glued on eyes and added pipe cleaners for antennae.  On one we also decided to cut apart blue pom-poms to create a fuzzy caterpillar.

So proud of his caterpillar family!

My favorite part of the project was all the stories my kiddo was telling me about the caterpillar family as we worked.  He asked if they could go for a walk on the window sill -- they certainly brighten the window on a cloudy day like today.

Homemade Lacing Cards

I admit it, I'm a "keeper".  There are some things that I hold on to that make little or no sense.  Sometimes I catch myself, other times an entire box of "momentos" gets moved from one place to another (for example: 10 yr old leftover wedding invites -- keep one silly, not all of them!).

A while ago, I caught myself in a "keeping" mode when sorting though a pile that contained birthday cards and valentines cards sent to my son.  Sure he loved opening them, but unless I was going to scrapbook with them (which is unlikely) he probably was not going to look through them again.  Plus I knew the longer I held onto them, the harder it would be to toss them later.

Instead of tossing all of them them, I decided to reuse some.  I found the ones with the largest pictures/characters on the front, cut them out, laminated them, added holes with the paper punch, and then bought a 68 cent pair of bright green shoe laces.  Ta-dah!  Lacing cards to put in my little boy's quiet bag for church.

Easter Eggs

We had fun yesterday dying hard boiled eggs.  In the past, we've done this at Grandma's but this year I offered to bring the eggs already decorated since we weren't going to be there much on Saturday.

There were so many good conversations about what happens when mixing colors.  He liked to guess and then see if he was right.  Since his favorite color is blue and he thought all of the eggs should get to go in the blue cup, we ended up with lots of blue, green, and purple eggs with very few yellow, orange and red by the time we were done. 

Such a fun holiday tradition to share with him!

Failed Fingerprints

Yesterday there was a notice in the mail from DHS that my fingerprints that were sent with the background check paperwork failed due to "poor quality".  It apparently happens from time to time, more often for women, that the ink fingerprints are not clear enough to run.  I'd actually read a blog post a few months ago about this but honestly didn't think anything of it.

So today I drove back to the county jail.  Thankfully my husband was working from home today as children aren't allowed into where they do the fingerprinting.  I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't charge the fee a second time (silver lining).  Hopefully the set I mailed today will be ok -- otherwise I most likely will need to drive an hour away to somewhere that can take fingerprints electronically as in that process that can keep re-trying until they are clear (or so I'm told).

I know this is such a minor bump in a long journey but frustrating still.  Now our homestudy will likely be delayed by at least 2-3 weeks.  I keep telling my self, "God is in control.  In HIS time".