Harms Family News

Some funnies from Natalie: Fairy-flies (her name for Fairies, like Tinkerbelle) "This game is only for grown-up kids" "Sometimes Grandmas are your Aunt" To Daddy: "You are one crazy woman!" "Mom? Is Pepsi junk food? Because you eat it all the time." (Insert embarrassed expression on mom's face) After I said that my pop was a diet pop: "Does that mean it gives you diarrhea?" "Can I please bring Bronco's head to church?" This said after the poor stick horse, Bronco, was unfortunately decapitated. There were many tears and much sadness. I had visions of the Godfather being replayed at church after this question. (No, I've never actually seen it)

The Lightlings by Dr. R.C. Sproul Published by Reformation Trust The Lightlings starts with a scene almost all children can relate to. A mom is tucking in her boy, Charlie Cobb, and turning on the nightlight. He asks her why he is so afraid of the dark. Instead of answering, she tells Charlie he should ask Grandpa. When Charlie asks Grandpa, Grandpa tells the boy that it’s normal to be afraid of the dark, and that many people around the world are. But he then tells the boy that many people are afraid of the light as well. Charlie asks why, and Grandpa says, “To understand that, I have to start at the beginning – in fact, at the very beginning.” Grandpa tells Charlie the story of the lightlings, magical fairy-like creatures who lived in the light of a great King. Life in the King’s light was wonderful, until the lightling decided they wanted to disobey their king. The moment they sinned, their lights started to dim. They felt embarrassment, and ran from the king. They ran into the darke...

Janna's theme for Feed Me Books Friday is books that inspire imagination. I have an extremely literal preschooler, so we don't read many imaginative books - she has wayyyyy too much trouble understanding pretend in books, although she will pretend in her play. I don't get it, but it's her. Anyways, I have to share this book that I absolutely adore! I got it from the library for Natalie to see if she would adore it too, but I think it was lost on her. However, I picked up a copy (which has since been lost) when I was in college for my bookshelf when I was a teacher, and it's so very funny. My guess would be it's intended for the lower elementary crowd who could get some of the humor, but I promise grownups will love it too. The book is Tough Cookie This book tells the story of a cookie. At the beginning of his life he was at the top of the jar, but over time he fell to the bottom where the crumbs, "folks" other cookies look down on as less than ideal, ...

. . . and hold your sleeping baby. Today was one of those days. But let me back up for a minute. Yesterday I had more paying work than I could possibly do. Normally Mondays are school days for the kids, and so I would have been fine, but yesterday was out of the ordinary and they did not have school. Then, Megan is fighting a cold and only slept for about 45 minutes because her coughing was preventing her from sleeping. Needless to say, I could not accomplish my work load. I became frustrated. My attempt to be supermom was failing. Do you ever have days like that? Days when you honestly cannot accomplish everything assigned to you. For me, when I have days like that I wish I worked in an office. It's not a long lasting wish, but I do wish I did sometimes so I could have 6-8 hours to sit and work, without interruptions, without my messy house staring me in the face, and without the tyranny of the urgent preventing me from working. I love what I do, and sometimes I wish I had more t...

My favorite time of day is not the moment of silence when both children finally fall asleep, although I do appreciate the quiet moment to work. My favorite time of day is not when Daddy walks in the door to relieve me of my parenting "duties," although I adore the sight of my husband coming home and the sound of my children greeting him joyously. My favorite time of day is not giving my children a bath, although I do enjoy the splashing and squeals and smell of freshly washed children. My favorite time of day is just after dinner, and just after Daddy has showered from a long day of work. While mommy cleans the kitchen, she secretly watches over the ledge into the living room. At this time of day, my children almost always get along. At this magical time of day, my children play tag, happy squeals and shrieks coming up and down my hallway. At this time of day my children and my husband, the three people I love most in the entire world, wrestle on the floor. I marvel as my hus...

This week's Feed Me Books Friday is themed Love in honor of Valentine's Day. I have two books to share, and both are on the theme of "Family Love." The first is new to us. We got it through Paper Back Swap, an new site I've been on to unload my old books from college and my years as a teacher, and swap them for new to us books. for the price of shipping a book to someone else, I can pick from thousands of children's books to stock my own girls' library. Here's the link if you want to learn more: The book I want to introduce you to was recommended to me by a college friend. It's called I Love You Stinky Face In this book, a mother is tucking in her child. She says, "I love you my wonderful child," The response is one most mothers can relate to, a classic delaying tactic, yet with a clear meaning and need being expressed: "But mamma, but mamma, what if I were a super smelly skunk, and I smelled so bad that my name was Stinky Face?...

If you are new to this discussion, please visit these posts: Healing After Emotional Abuse , Signs of Abuse , and The Pain of Words . I haven't posted on emotional abuse in a while, well, because I have been caught up in caring for my growing/ill children, going on vacation, and such. I have been thinking on one thing about the topic though. Recently when talking to my friend, she said, "Yes xyz (a topic we were discussing) hurts, but I am moving forward." Later I was thinking to myself, Well, it's good that she is ready to move on, then I realized that was not what she was saying. there is a huge difference between moving on and moving forward. She is still working towards reconciliation with her spouse, but she is not going to sit on her duff and do nothing while she waits for him to step up. If you have been abused or know someone who has, there may not be a "moving on." The scars that were created, the hurt that occurred , and the void left in the life...

Today, we were in the car and Natalie was listening to some Christian music. She blurted out, "I don't want to go to Heaven!" What? You heard that right. I said a quick prayer for wisdom, turned the music off, and asked why. N: "I don't know, I just don't" M: "Are you afraid ?" N: "I don't know." M: "Are you afraid because you don't want to die?" (For some strange, creepy reason, my child is obsessed with death and dying) N: "Yes, I don't want to die." M: "Well, most people don't want to die, but when we die if Jesus is our saviour, we go to heaven. There are mansions there, which are like beautiful palaces (remember, princess mode here), and Jesus is there and we can see what God looks like." N: "I don't want to go there Mommy! I don't want to die!" I tried hard to assure her that unless God had another plan, she wasn't going to die for a really long time, and when ...

The past two weeks have been a tad trying in the Harms household. Two weeks ago today Natalie refused to eat her usual bowl of cereal after Sunday night church and asked to go right to bed. That's usually not a good sign in our house. Sure enough, she woke Monday morning sick, with a cough and slight fever. Megan had been dealing with the cough/runny nose thing that seems to last all winter so we stayed home. They were still sick on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday running on and off fevers, coughing, and overall being miserable. Long story short after two trips to the doctor, an early morning coughing attack followed by respiratory distress and wheezing, a breathing treatment for N and an inhaler for her as well we got a diagnosis of bronchiolitis most likely from RSV. Whatever it was, it was a long-lasting bug. Friday (this week) they were better for the first time. We were home for two weeks, with the occasional trip to the store and one venture out to the library (which was a m...

At the beginning of January we had the joy of taking vacation with my parents and one grandma in Orlando. I haven't posted pics or memories because I've been busy with work and taxes (yuck!) but I wanted to write down a few things before I forget. Here are some highlights of our trip: Megan: At the science museum, she loved squatting on the ground and growling at the dinosaurs. She also really enjoyed the water table and actually sat to listen to a story for several pages. If you have ever met my Megan, you know this is practically a miracle. Megan enjoyed seeing the characters at the character breakfast, until they actually came to the table. She then clung to her daddy for her life! We learned that Megan is not as brave as she thinks she is - when someone in a costume is around, she is not a happy camper. Megan LOVES balls. When she discovered the mini-put practice range in the garage, and the bag of balls that were with it, she would beg to go out to the garage. Luckily she ...

Welcome to Feed Me Books Friday ! My youngest (Megan, 18 months) is not a book person. In the last month or so, however, she is turning into one and I couldn't be more thrilled. Lift-the-flap books are some of her favorites. I felt it was appropriate to open Feed Me Books Friday with an image of her and her homemade "library" - She piled all of our library books into the laundry basket and commenced to "read." With a three year old and one year old, lift-the-flap books are still a big hit in our house. One of my favorite authors is Karen Katz , and almost all of her books are lift-the-flap. Where Is Baby's Belly Button? is one that we enjoy. Each page has a large flap and a question like, "Where is baby's hand?" When you lift the flap it says, "Under her mitten." The illustrations are so darling, and Megan loves these books. I got a nice set of them for her for Christmas on her first Christmas. My only complaint is if you have a roug...

My girls are mommy's girls. They have every reason to be, since I am a work-at-home mom and do meet most of the needs they realize they have. Also, due to the fact that I am with them practically 24/7, I do most of the "fun" things too. Isn't that how most families with stay-at-home moms are? We have a problem, though. Natalie is not respecting her daddy. She loves her daddy, but there are just some things she wants only mommy for. And she says hurtful things, like "I don't want Daddy." How can I teach her to love her daddy? We require respect, but even that is lost sometimes. I am sure this hurts daddy, although he is strong and it doesn't appear to. Here is what we have done: When daddy is home, I require most requests to be taken to him. If something is requested of me, "Can I watch TV/play this game/etc." I say, "What does daddy think?" When Natalie asks me, "Why is Daddy doing xyz" when Daddy is standing right there...