Haven't done one of these in a while...

I haven't done a Five Question Friday with Mama M. (or much other blogging) in forever! It's about time, don't ya think?

Here we go!

1. What did you wear to prom? Include a picture if possible.

I actually went to three proms-

My junior prom 

  

Daniel's senior prom

(this dress was my favorite!)

and my senior prom.

And while I was digging out those pictures, I found this one. Not sure why, but it's one of my very favorite pics of the two of us together. It makes me smile!

 Has it really been 16 years? Crazy!

 2. Would you rather be on the biggest loser or a food eating challenge?

I'd definitely love to take a shot at The Biggest Loser, but I can't imagine being gone from my family for that long. I have a lot of respect for the contestants on the show. It takes a lot of courage and hard work to do what they do.

3. Done fave sonic drink? Refreshing summer drink? (Hey, Kristina...was that a typo, or some "done good" Southern thing?)

My favorite used to be blue coconut slush, but now that I have to keep an eye on my sugar, I have a new favorite-Diet Cherry Sprite! Yum!

4. What was your first car, and what did you call it?

My first car was a '66 red mustang. I believe we called it "The 'Stang." I loved that car! So many fun memories!

Good news! I have an update on "The Stang" since the last time I posted about it 

She has come to live with us! 

Last summer, we moved the mustang from my mom's garage to the shop on the ranch. One step closer to getting back on the road! 

Some day! 

Here's the mustang looking all shiny and clean after going through the car wash for the first time in forever! 

 

Such a bittersweet day for me. I love that I have the mustang, but it just felt like such the wrong time. It should still be in my dad's garage, and not mine yet! One of my hardest moments since we lost him was when I opened up the door of the mustang and found his hat still sitting in the seat. I left it there because that's where it belongs...

5. What's one thing your child or spouse does that sends you over the edge? 

I can't take it when the kids fuss at each other over things that don't matter-who sits where in the car, who's turn it is to push the button to open the door at the library, whether or not to pause the television while someone goes to the bathroom... It drives me nuts! Love my kids, but can't stand the arguing! 

 

Dakota's 30 Hour Famine

A couple of weeks ago, Dakota had an awesome opportunity to participate in World Vision's  30 Hour Famine  with the youth group from our church. The teens (and the adults with them) fasted for 30 hours to help increase awareness of poverty and hunger in the world and in our own community.

The famine began on Saturday night at midnight and continued through Sunday morning at 6:00am.

The group met at the church around noon on Saturday. Their first order of business was to make shirts to wear for the event.

Next, they learned some statistics about world hunger. Dakota's word was that the stats were "staggering." The one she talks about the most is that more people in the word have a cell phone than access to a toilet! (Wow! How crazy is that?!) The kids made posters about some of the statistics and posted them around the church.

The 30 Hour Famine wasn't just about not eating, it was about serving in the community. Saturday afternoon, the group traveled to a nearby town and worked with another organization from our community to operate a clothing give-away. They took the "mobile clothing unit" along and helped those who came find clothes for their families. 

 

Later that evening, they returned to the church to learn more about the issue of hunger. They each took on the identity of a "child" who was hungry. Some of them had handicaps or hunger related problems. They played some games where they had to simulate their character's disability or hunger-related problem. Dakota carried her backpack with her stuff inside to represent being "weak from hunger."

 

This was Dakota's "house" for the night. They each had a box to sleep in (girls in the gym, boys in the classroom down the hall).

 

She said she got pretty cold during the night and she was pretty sore from the hard gym floor. 

 

When they woke up Sunday morning, the fasting was over. They had some breakfast before time for service. One of the rules for the famine was that they were not allowed to change their clothes before church. They came in the clothes they had worn all day Saturday and slept in Saturday night. No showers, make-up, etc.

 

This is my very favorite picture from the famine. 

I am so thankful that Dakota has the opportunity to belong to such an awesome youth group! The teens are so incredibly blessed to have a wonderful youth pastor and great adult volunteers to work with them. I know this activity was life-changing for Dakota and I'm sure for the other teens as well!

 

 I asked Dakota to write a report about her experience for school. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from it:

"When I woke up it was already 6:00 AM. The famine was over! We could eat again! People were already up, snacking on granola bars and chatting. T’s dad came with breakfast; sausage and egg biscuits and biscuits with gravy. I don’t normally eat eggs, but after thirty hours I was ready to eat just about anything, and the biscuit was really good."

"The famine extended my horizons and showed me just how good I have, and just how bad things are for other people. I’ve become more thankful for what I have, since other people don’t have nearly as much as me."

 

I am so proud of Dakota! She has a desire to help people and I can see God working to lead her to her purpose. Can't wait to see what He has in store for her!

 

 

Mornings at the Harmon house

Mornings are kind of quiet around our house. As quiet as it can be with 4 kids in the house, anyway. On the weekdays, I usually let the kids sleep until they wake up on their own. Wednesday is the only day of the week we have a schedule to keep. Landon has speech at 10:00, so we have to leave the house by 9:30. Other than that, we're pretty laid back in the mornings.

Our number one rule for school mornings is "No TV or computer until schoolwork is finished." When the kids get up, they (are supposed to) make their beds, get dressed, and eat breakfast. My plan is that I will have everything I need to prepare for the school day ready by the time they all finish breakfast and get the kitchen cleaned up. Some days it takes me a little longer than I plan to prepare and they have some free time. This is where our second rule comes in-"If you can't find something to do on your own, mom will find you something to clean."

They have gotten pretty good at finding things to do. Sometimes they play their DS's, but it doesn't take long before they're bored with that. Other days it's legos, play dough, Mr. Potato Heads, drawing, reading, magic tricks, or board games. Rarely, if the grass isn't wet with dew, they go outside and play on the trampoline or ride bikes.

Today things took a little longer than I would have liked. I decided to make a couple of games that I saw on pinterest and it took more time than I expected. When I finally had everything ready, this is how I found them.

Cheyenne was coloring her box from Build-A-Bear (actually, it was Build-A-Dino inside T-Rex at Downtown Disney),
Sierra was reading a library book we're returning tomorrow,
and Dakota was giving Landon a chess lesson.
While they were busy with all of that, here's what I was doing.

First, I made a couple of games using Easter eggs (better late than never, right?).
The first one was for sight word practice.

After they play a few times, I'm going to make it a little harder by just giving them the list of words without the boxes. Later on, I'll take the list away and have them unscramble to words from memory.

The second egg game is for practicing word families.

Today, I just had them practice turning the top of the egg and reading the words. Next time, I will have them write the words they make on the paper. I put it in a sheet protector so they can use a dry erase marker and reuse the paper many times. This will be a really easy activity for me to change up so we can use it over and over again.

I also made another sight word activity for them today.
I found this pattern block page at PreKinders . There are a lot of different designs to choose from. Next week, I'm going to take the labels off the blocks and have the kids draw word cards instead. Then, they'll have to figure out which piece they need for the word they draw.

Finally, I made a lego tower with the memory verse on it so they could build the verse.
I usually do this with the bigger Duplo blocks, but I think I like the small ones better. I like this activity because they have to build it backwards and really think about which word they're looking for. It's been really great for helping Landon work on fine motor skills as well.

Tomorrow is Wednesday. We have to be up and out the door early (for us), so I should probably get busy setting up everything we'll need for tomorrow. I'll be glad I did when school time comes around.

I am NOT as crazy as some might think!

So, when we had given up on finding the rest of the clues, Dakota blew out her candles (again) and we had some more cake and ice cream.

Once I got the kids all sugared up, I sent them to bed. Ha!

I spent another 1/2 hour or so looking for the missing clues. I looked everywhere she had already found one, just in case. Then, I looked in all the places I had thought about hiding clues, but didn't. I still came up with nothing.

Finally, I decided that they would turn up sometime when we weren't looking for them. I sat down at the computer to do some blogging and facebooking. When I was trying to type a status update and it came out as dddddddddddddddddddd because I fell asleep with my finger on the d key, I decided it was time to go to bed. I went into the kitchen to turn off the lights and double check that the back door was locked-it was.

I was turning to go back into the kitchen when something caught my attention.
Ta-da! The three missing clues!

I can assure you that I did not put those three clues on the dryer. There were two different clues hidden in the laundry room, so Dakota must have set them down when she went to get one from in there. I was so excited, I actually considered waking her up to show her!

Instead, though, I left them until morning so she could finish the puzzle and get the full effect.
Makes much more sense now, right?

So, I get to take my name off the ballot for "Dork of the Year," for now.

Good thing I wasn't in charge of hiding the Easter eggs!

Wow! It's been a looooong time since I've posted anything here. I keep saying that I'm going to get back into a regular posting routine but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe someday soon...But tonight, I did something that just has to be told, something that only I would do and that will definitely qualify me for the Dork of the Year Award. If you know me in real life, you won't be a bit surprised...

This was a very important weekend in our family. This little baby girl

turned 14 on Sunday! Hard to believe!

On Saturday evening, we celebrated her birthday with family at our house. Per her request, I made rainbow chip cupcakes, put them side by side, and frosted over the top. She was quite pleased with how it turned out.

We lit the 14 candles for her to blow out

and she opened her presents cards.

It was a lot of fun!

In our family, the kids usually get two birthdays a year-the one we celebrate with family/friends and their actual birthday day with just us as a family. We usually save most of the gifts from Daniel and I for their actual birthday.

Dakota is tough to shop for. It took a while, but I finally came up with an idea I thought she would like-tickets for her and Daniel to go see The Hunger Games together. So last night after dinner, I ran into town to pick up a gift certificate for the theater.

When I got to the theater, I was told that they don't sell gift certificates. So, I had to come up with plan B. After a few minutes, I had it! I would do a scavenger hunt for clues to tell her what her gift was.

I went to the Dollar store and picked up a cute little 24 piece puzzle, then went to Wal-Mart for a few more small gifts to go with it. I took it all home and put the puzzle together. I then turned it over and wrote a message on the back. "Dear Dakota, you have a date with dad this weekend. You are going to see The Hunger Games movie. Have fun! Happy Birthday!"

I took the puzzle apart and put each piece into an envelope and sealed it. Then, I wrote a clue on the outside of each envelope and hit them around the house. Every 4th or 5th clue would send her back to the table to open another gift. When she found the last clue and opened gift #6, she could open all the envelopes, put the pieces together, and find out what her last gift was.

She LOVED it!
She found a clue under her kitchen chair
One behind a picture on the side of the fridge

and one behind our memory verse.
The other kids were having fun too. A couple of times, she had to get some input from them to figure out the clue.
It was so much fun! And it went really well, until she opened gift #3. The clue said, "Do you see a pattern here?" Dakota ran to the bookshelf and lifted up the container of patten blocks, but NOTHING was there. She gave me a puzzled look and then turned the container around to look inside it. Still nothing...

That's when I realized that I didn't remember actually putting anything with the pattern blocks. I remembered writing the clue but I didn't remember actually going over and hiding it. After a few minutes of thinking and looking, I told her to just go ahead and open the 4th gift.

Things went smoothly again after that and she found the rest of the clues just fine. Once she had them all, she opened all the envelopes and started putting the pieces together. As I counted them, I discovered that we didn't just miss a clue, we missed 3! And I had NO CLUE where they were.

When she finished putting it together, this is what it looked like

You saw that right-the three missing pieces were the most important words of the message!

I just died laughing! Leave it to me to lose the three most important clues of the whole thing! And I still have no idea where they are. I have looked everywhere I can think of. I can remember all kinds of places that I had thought about putting a clue and then changed my mind, but I cannot remember at all where those last three are.

Luckily, she figured out the message without them and we all had a good laugh. I decided it's just a way to make her special day last longer because I know we'll come across one later on when we're least expecting it.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who does things like that!

Just a regular Friday

Did you see the comments on my last post? I have been reading Lynnette's blog, Dancing Again , for several years now. I asked her to check out my last post and give me some feedback and she did! Not only that, but she posted a link to it on her facebook page as well. I was so honored that she took the time to read my post and share it with her readers as well. Follow the link above and check out her blog. She has an amazing story! Did you know she also has a new book getting ready to come out? I can't wait to read it!

This year, we have been schooling only 4 days a week because Daniel's days off have been Thursday and Friday. We typically have school as usual on Thursday and then take Friday off for "Fun Day Friday." Daniel's schedule is changing though, so this week our family day was Thursday. Friday we were back to school. Here's a peek at some of what we were up to on Friday.

I put off getting Dakota's new science book until after Christmas. I had been looking for an inexpensive used copy online, but wasn't ever able to find one for much less than the cost of just buying it new. So, when we went to Tulsa for my birthday in January, I picked up a copy of Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science at Mardel. Dakota is really enjoying it. The only problem we've had with it is that I can't seem to read the supply lists for the experiments very well. I try to read ahead and pick up all the week's supplies when I do my grocery shopping, but somehow I always overlook something. I'm working on it, though. On Friday, Dakota worked on catching up on a couple of her experiments since I (finally) had all the supplies on hand.

Doesn't she look very studious in this picture? (Note to self-have Dakota clean off the counter before taking blog pictures of her doing science experiments)

See the battery with the two wires leading into that bowl of water (and some other stuff)? Made me just a tiny bit nervous. But it was fine.

If you look closely, you can see tiny bubbles coming from the ends of the wire in the bowl.

After a few minutes, this is what the water looked like. Pretty cool! And look at the ends of the wires. They were the same color when she started. I love fun science experiments like this!

I found the idea for this game on Pinterest (where else?). It came from Shari Sloane at kidscount1234.com . For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to print her game board, so I made my own version. You can make one pretty easily on Microsoft Word.

Once you print your board, you need some beans (or something to cover the spaces on the board) and two dice. The players take turns rolling the dice, adding the numbers, and removing a bean until all the beans are removed (or until each player has gone 20 times, etc). Another option is to have a board for each player and they take turns rolling and removing a bean from their own board. Whoever clears their board first is the winner.
Something we learned from this first time to play is that it takes a loooooong time to clear the board if you cover all the spaces. We played again today and only covered 25 of the spaces. MUCH faster. This game was great for older kids too. Cheyenne didn't play, but she watched us and it gave us a chance to talk about probability and why it was easier to clear the numbers in the middle than the ones on the ends.

If you have a child (surely I'm not the only one) who tends to throw the dice so hard they end up all the way across the table or on the floor, here is my solution to the problem. We have all sorts of plastic lids around and they are perfect for giving kids a target for their dice. It's also great for reducing the noise!

While I was working on math with Landon, the girls were doing independent work. Here's Sierra working on an addition facts page.
(Yes, those are her pajamas. Homeschool's fun like that! Dakota was leaving for a youth conference Friday afternoon. Sierra decided to do her schoolwork first and get it out of the way and then get dressed)

One way that I have the kids practice their memory verse for the week is to cut it apart and then glue the words in order on another piece of paper. For Landon and Sierra, I print them off on the computer.
The older girls write theirs themselves, then cut them apart and glue them on construction paper.
Another thing I do for Sierra and Landon is to make a puzzle for each verse. I write the verse on a sentence strip (from the Dollar store-yea!) and cut it apart. The puzzle stays in their work basket and they put it together several times during the week. This has been great not only for helping them memorize the verse, but also for learning sight words. The first few words Landon learned (the, God, is) came from his memory verses.
After lunch, it was science time. We've been learning about the sun in our Exploring Creation with Astronomy book (also by Apologia). Our final project for the sun chapter was to make a pinhole viewing box for looking at the sun. We all took turns and helped put it together.
We went outside to try it out, but the sun decided to hide behind some clouds. So, instead, we tested it on the lightbulb in the kitchen. Not quite as impressive, but we got the idea. We have our box in a safe place waiting for a nice, sunny day to take it outside.

This week, we are beginning the chapter on Mercury in Science and learning about Noah and the flood, the ice age, and dinosaurs in history. We also have a Valentine's Day party with our homeschool group on Tuesday. It's gonna be a fun week!

What I learned at church last Sunday

I'm thinking that I'd like to make this a regular feature on my blog. It really helps me go a little deeper into the message and think about ways it applies to my life. Maybe we could make it a little blog hop...something for me to think about. Let me know if you'd be interested.

This Sunday, our lead pastor was away at our new campus and our associate pastor filled in for him. I'll admit, that when the pastor is away, I sometimes feel myself "check out" a little during the message, but not this week. Pastor K's message was so good! It was an amazing service!

The main scripture for the message on Sunday was Matthew 13:16-17

"But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

Pastor K talked about how we, as believers, are blessed because of the things we have seen God do and things we have heard that God has done. Things like God healing the sick, God stepping into someone's life and turning it around, God blessing our finances when we choose to give, or God restoring a marriage that had been broken.

As I listened to the message, I thought about the ways I have been blessed by what I have seen God do. I thought of some times when we have had a financial need and God has met it in an unexpected way. I thought about jobs that have come our way because God has supplied them.
But the main thing that I thought about is how I have been blessed when I personally experienced God's peace in my life in situations that we anything but peaceful.

I've heard the Philippians 4:7 quoted many times,

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"
There have been several times in my life that I have felt the powerful peace of God-a good friend died in a car accident when I was 19, when we lost my dad, and when we decided to move here with no job and no home, not knowing what the future would hold-I have felt God's peace.

During the service, my mind kept going back to a time when I had felt that peace that I haven't really shared about before. It happened on the day that I was taken by helicopter to the heart hospital with "bilateral pulmonary embolism", or multiple blood clots in both lungs.

I had been to the ER the night before with a racing pulse and difficulty breathing. My blood pressure and blood sugar were also through the roof. The doctor at the ER said the my high blood sugar was causing the other symptoms and didn't look into it any further. He gave me an insulin shot and sent me on my way with orders to make an appointment with my doctor at home on Monday (this was a Saturday night).

Sunday morning, I continued to get worse so back we went to the ER. After a chest X-ray, blood work, and a CAT scan we were left to wait for an answer. The doctor had come in once and said that she felt I had pneumonia but was waiting for test results to confirm it.

Finally, after a long time, the doctor came in and asked a question I wasn't expecting.
She said, "How do you feel about helicopters?"

I don't remember a lot about the time between being told I was going to be "life flighted" to the heart hospital and when the crew came to pick me up. I know it was quite a while and that they were delayed from the original time we thought they were coming. I remember that the wind was blowing and hearing that there was only one crew flying that day. I remember that I got a new IV and the male nurse that was putting in my IV was arguing that I didn't really need it, which made me a little nervous. There's something a bit scary about an angry nurse starting an IV on you (although I must say that he was the most knowledgeable nurse taking care of me that day and I was blessed he was there to talk me through what was going to happen.).

When the crew arrived, they came in and started asking me a bunch of questions. They actually asked me the exact same set of questions twice. One guy was standing next to me asking me questions and writing things down. Another guy was hooking up equipment, talking with nurses, etc and would ask me the same question about 10 seconds later.

Once they got me all hooked up to their machines and loaded onto the gurney (that's a weird word, but that's what it was) for the helicopter, they wheeled me out of the room and into the hall to make our way out to the waiting helicopter. It was the weirdest thing-every few feet all the way out, there were security guards along the hall and once we were outside, there were several more lining the sidewalk to the helicopter. It was a strange feeling having all those people watching me being wheeled away.

The helicopter crew (are they paramedics or is there another name for them? I don't know.) got me loaded up and then climbed in. They put a helmet on me that had a speaker so they could talk to me and a microphone in case I needed to talk to them. The pilot started the motor and off we went.

If you've never ridden in a helicopter, the best way I can describe the feeling is that it's like being on a really tall ferris wheel. It kind of rocks side to side as you lift off the ground. I thought I might be scared, but it was actually a pretty cool experience (not that I want to do it again). The only thing I didn't really care for was that I was right in the very front of the helicopter, which was made of glass. The only option I had if I didn't want to see what was happening outside was to close my eyes, so I did.

I rode with my eyes closed for a while trying not to think about what was going on. I knew if I let myself think too much that I would lose it. But trying not to think about something is a sure way to make yourself do just that, so I started to get a little lot nervous.

Before we left the ER, I had been told there was a med they could give me if I got panicky. I hadn't felt I needed it then but still had the option if I needed it after we got in the air. After about 20 minutes in the air, I was starting to think I needed it. I was feeling overwhelmed and afraid. My husband was out of town and I was worried about  him driving back. I was worried about my kids being taken care of, and I was afraid of what was going to happen to me. The reality was setting in of just how sick I was to warrant a helicopter flight to another hospital. I opened my eyes, ready to ask for something to calm my nerves.

When I looked out, we were just approaching a river (I think it was the North Canadian). I wish I had words to describe the view. It was breathtakingly beautiful! The way the river and it's banks snaked through the trees and the sun reflected off the water was so pretty. On the other side of the river, the blue sky touched the tops of the trees. It was view of creation that I hadn't seen before. As I took it in, this song immediately came to my mind.

I could hear the music in my mind almost as clearly as if someone had turned on the radio and as I "listened" to the song, I felt a peace fill that helicopter that was so strong you could almost touch it. It was an amazing feeling!

That peace stayed with me through the rest of the ride, being transported by ambulance from the helicopter to the ER of the heart hospital (nearly a whole block-ha!), and being admitted to the ER alone because my family hadn't made it there yet.

I was truly blessed that day by what I saw and by the song that I had heard! Even today, when I hear that song I close my eyes, see that beautiful view in my memory, and feel that sense of peace fill my heart. God is so good!

How has God blessed you by what you've seen and what you've heard?