The Catalyst

I have a feeling that your response to the above photo is quite different than mine. You probably see a mountain of colorful rubberbands that come in just about every shape imaginable. You possibly question my restraint as a parent, and wonder why in the world I would let one of my children have so many. You likely think they are a terrible waste of money. (You may have no clue what they are; if so, ask any elementary school aged child).

What I see when I look at these silly bands is hours (literally hours) of sitting on the couch listening to my son read. This is my son who HATES reading. This is my son to whom reading (so far) hasn't come super-easily. This is my son wants to quit trying after struggling with a couple words. This is my son who preferred to do almost anything besides read.

These bands are his reading rewards. They are the catalyst that changed him from "non-reader" to the one who asks, "When are you going to go get new books from the library?"

You may think it's tacky when you see kids with arms full of these, but I don't mind one bit when he wears them proudly from his wrist to his elbow. To most they are just a crazy passing fad. To me they are golden.

Wisconsin Dells 2010

We really owe Corey's boss a big thank-you for allowing us to use a free 2-night trip the company had earned several years ago. We spent those nights at the Dells, and loved it so much we have made the trip 6 times in the past 4 years! We started going on these trips when Owen was Lewis' age, which seems so funny to me. We have increased our ventures to three nights at a time, have switched to a different resort, and have added my folks and my brother, his wife and son; and we have a ball every time! We all love the waterparks; and it's such a nice treat to go swimming in the fall. I'm looking forward to next year already.

That's Carter's head in the middle of the picture in the wave pool.

My brother and my favorite toddler.

"Ah, mom. Not another picture."

Will he look at these pictures someday and ask me why I ever let him grow his hair this long?

Carter at the wave pool.

Corey and Owen in the lazy river.

Thankfully, we still have one child who doesn't realize these games take money. He is happy to just sit and play.

The ducks outside the resort ate bread right out of the boys' hands. They thought that was pretty cool.

We played 3D blacklight mini-golf. The course had several aquariums with eels and puffer fish and even sharks. Put your 3D glasses on to get the full effect of this photo.

ISU Football Game

Corey took the boys to their first Cyclone football game Saturday night. Not only was it their first Cylcone game, it was their first ever football game, and they had pretty close seats on the 45-yard line (thanks to Kate from Corey's office for giving these to us!!!) They had a great time, but that is a lot to live up to. I fear their first high school game may be a bit of a downer.

This Is What Happens....

...when you think God wants you to do something, and you don't say, "No, I'm not very good at that," or "No, that seems like it will take a lot of time," or "No, I don't really feel like it," or "No, my husband will think I'm crazy." (He already does, and that's okay.)
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This is what happens when you say "Yes." No excuses. No questions. Just "Yes."
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The little nudge I felt to sew dresses for Haitian girls with my mom has turned into
- 50+ yards of donated fabric with more coming
- financial donations to cover more fabric and shipping
- Two dozen women offering to help in some way
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Though sewing dresses seems like such a little thing as far as giving goes, the thought was somewhat overwhelming at first. 100 dresses seemed like a lot. Now it not only seems doable, it even looks surpassable.
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That is what I love about the God I serve. He likes to take our little victories in obedience and turn them into more than we imagined.
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100 dresses (or more) here we come.

The Last Harms Superhero

Do you suppose he's flying in his sleep?

She Floats

We took a very short trip on the water at Big Creek. Corey's hoping to take the boys on an overnight canoe trip in a couple weeks.

A Hundred Dresses

I believe that God sometimes uses the occurances in our daily routine of life to prompt us to do things we wouldn't necessarily choose on our own. And I believe he did that to me last week.

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Occurance #1 - a meeting with an aquaintance (now that I've had coffee with her and spent a morning with her, I'm going to call her my friend) from college who is in the process of adopting 3 (yes 3) children from the Congo.

Occurence #2 - an afternoon of sewing new curtains for Lewis' room.

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These two things may seem totally unrelated, but God fused them together and used them to put an idea in my mind. That idea is to sew dresses for little girls in Haiti. The number that is stuck in my mind - 100.

You see, I have recently been reminded more and more of my many material blessings, and I have been reminded that God doesn't want me to be a "blessing hoarder." So, what does he want me to do with my blessings? Well, there is this stirring deep inside of me to go get an orphaned child, and bring him/her home to love, but Corey and I are not at that place right now. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm off the hook when it comes to using my resources to care for them. Have you ever noticed how many times in the Bible taking care of orphans is mentioned? A lot. When God says something, he means it. When he repeats himself multiple times, I think it's because he REALLY means it.

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So, as I was sewing curtains, [You see, my mom taught me to sew when I was growing up. I wasn't always a very willing student, but I did learn. I would consider myself a mediocre seamstress at best, but my mom - she's good. Seriously, Vera Wang has nothing on her.] I started thinking about the little girls in Haiti who never get new clothes, and who are dependent on the kindness of others even for the few hand-me-down items they have. And I started thinking, I can sew. My mom can sew. My mom has lots of fabric. We can find some easy patterns that I can handle. We can buy more fabric. Maybe some of my friends would want to help...

That was how it started. I contacted Mission to Haiti, which is my favorite mission organization, and asked if they would distribute dresses if we made them. Well, they said yes, so I guess that means "game on."

I'm putting this out there for the readers of this blog in case anyone would like to help in some way. Can you sew? Do you have extra fabric? If you can't sew maybe you'd like to cut out the patterns for someone else to sew? Would you like to donate money for fabric or patterns or shipping? Please call me or email me or facebook me if you want to help in any way. I am excited to see how God help me follow through with this idea he placed in my head!