Learning to Grow: Sorrow and Joy

Yesterday was a pretty overwhelming day. I woke up and checked facebook and saw that two kids in Kaitlynne's youth group were in a roll over car accident, one of them had to be air lifted downtown. I spent a great deal of the morning talking to Kait about that. Around 8:00 last night a garage exploded behind our house, three teenaged kids were inside. One boy died, his brother is in critical care and his girlfriend was badly burnt. My cousins and I walked down to see what was going on. The garage was fully engulfed in flames. It was so sad to watch, although at the time we had no clue anyone was in the garage. We walked back home but had a pretty clear view from my back door and checked every little bit. All of our kids saw the fire from their bedroom windows. They were bothered but not as much as I would have expected, so I was thankful for that. While I was checking the news online to see if the bit about the fire was on there I saw an article about a boy in Wyandotte who was dragged by a train. He is only 14, I couldn't stand the thoughts of what he and his parents now have to live through. However, it especially broke my heart since it was co-workers of my husband who were operating the train. I can't imagine what they had to see and are now having to process. All I knew to do all day was pray.

I woke up this morning with yesterday's events still heavy on my heart. I decided to lay low and just enjoy my kiddo's company. We whipped through our school work and were finished by lunch time. The kids ate and scampered off to pretend they were spy kids. They watched Spy Kids 4 last night and somehow watching any Spy Kids movie brings out the spy in each one of them! About a month ago my sweet son decided that the sod between my shed and our fence was overrated and literally dug up the 8X4 patch of grass between the two. Initially I was irratated, but then I decided to embrace it. I realized how much nature they could take in and learn about while digging and exploring. Since it rained most of the morning the dirt pile turned into a mud pit! I suggested they put on their play clothes and go dig in the mud. After they got changed they headed out the door. They played out there for quite a few hours. I was making dinner and watching them run around and crack up, there was mud flying all over the place. At some point they came and told me they found a bone. I went out to check it out and assured them it was just the root from the neighbors tree. A few minutes later they came to the back door and were pointing and smiling and showing me a big bone they had pulled up. The same bone I was calling a tree root. :) That became their greatest trophy of the day! They were so proud of themselves!! They tried to research on the internet to find out what kind of a bone it was. They weren't quite able to figure it out. There has been a lot of speculation as to what it is. Tristin is sure it's a dinosaur bone, Kait thinks it is a human bone that connects the leg to the knee. I am not sure where it came from, my guess is it's a bone we bought for a crazy chocolate lab we had about nine years ago! The kids decided that it really doesn't matter where it came from, it is just cool! I'm so thankful that homescooling gives us the opportunity to spend what would be "normal school hours" learning in a way that intrests our family!

Prized Trophy!