Save The Children: Get Ready Get Safe and Maine Preparedness Reort

Did you know that 28 states in the United States still lack basic measures to safeguard children against disaster in childcare and schools?

Is your state one of them?

Mine is. 

Here is our "Unsatisfactory" report.....

Totally shameful. 

So, I wrote to my Governor and then I shared it with my friends on Facebook and Twitter.

And, now, I'm sharing it with you.

Do you want to know how your state did?

Click HERE to find out. 

Please, when you're done... share it with everybody!!

This kind of basic safety is so ESSENTIAL. 

And sharing it is so SIMPLE.

We can make a DIFFERENCE. 

Last year was a full of disasters, man made and natural. 

We can do something to be prepared!!

Since Hurricane Katrina, Save the Children has commissioned a state-by-state report of US Preparation and Safety Standards for children in childcare and schools. 

Save the Children’s disaster report card tracks progress on four critical standards: that states require all child care centers to have 

1) an evacuation plan, 

2) a family reunification plan 

3) a plan for children with special needs

4) that states require all schools to have disaster plans that account for multiple types of hazards

You can find Save The Children at these social media sites:

Facebook

Twitter

Google +

Pinterest

They have also got some very very helpful ways of planning ahead!

Here is a checklist for families to make their own personal plans:

GO HERE to find your own printable or downloadable version of this checklist.

Here is a checklist for childcare providers:

GO HERE to download or print this checklist.

I shared this post here:
Between Naps on the Porch
Monday Funday

A Marvelous Mess!!

Friends of ours got married this summer.

And, thanks to Maine for giving all people the right to marry another of the same sex.... the two friends of ours were both men. I could not have been more proud of them..... and of the people of our state for taking such a wonderful stance on gay marriage.

One that I hope will inspire all the other states to do the same. 

They specifically said "No presents", but I couldn't resist. 

On their invitation they had an image based off the animated drawings by Emily Hubley, made for the song The Origin of Love (which was written by Stephen Trask and about Plato's Symposium) for the movie version of the theatrical play Hedwig and the Angry Inch. *whew*

It looks like this:

Wikipedia tells me that Symposium has a speech in it from Aristophanes:

"According to the speech, long ago, humans were composed of two people stuck back-to-back, with two faces and eight limbs. Male-male humans came from the Sun, female-female humans from the Earth and male-female humans from the Moon. The gods, out of jealousy, split them in half. Now, throughout our lives, we are always trying to find our "other half", and sexual intercourse is the only means we have to put the two halves back together; this desire to be one person again is what we call "love". However, it is impossible to fully rejoin two people because it is our souls and not our bodies that most desire to be reunited."

I love the image (though I'm not a big fan of those petty greek gods). 

So, I made it out of wool and I'm going to put it in the mail for them tomorrow!

Here is mine:

Hopefully, for this moment anyway, they are not faithful followers of my blog. 

I doubt it, as they are both very busy men.

But, if for some reason, either one of you sees this post..... thank you so much for inviting me to your wedding. 

It was beautiful.

~

My fave from last week:

Copy McDonalds BBQ Chicken Wrap from Princess and Her Cowboys.

Now, on to the party!!!!

I shared this post here:
Between Naps on the Porch
Weekly Creative Link
Link Party Palooza
Monday Funday

Great Catering Equipment for Receptions

This is a sponsored posts for which a received compensation. It was written by me and all opinions in it are my own.

Thinking of becoming a caterer?????

I've got a fun site for you. 

They got some awesome catering equipment at Hot Chef. 

I found this espresso machine (above) and it made me want to be a caterer.....or at least make myself a good cup o joe. But I could be a caterer. If no one expected their food to be on time. My OCD can go a little overboard and make my meal preparation take longer than necessary. But, if I was a caterer, I would definitely buy one of these:

An infrared thermometer?!? How awesome it that. 

Love it. 

And, it is super important to know that your meat reaches the right temperature. 

Then again, traveling to cater would be a pain. 

I could always set up my own restaurant and have the people come to me. Decorating a restaurant would be fun.  

I love it when they use lighting on reception counters:

But, then, a restaurant needs all kinds of setting up. Everything from plumbing, electrical work, maybe even optical cable. As if I even knew what that was. A restaurant would be a lot of work. 

I think maybe I'll just be a blogger.

A blogger that dreams about that espresso machine up above.