It's that time.

I totally suck at the blog thing. LOL I need to schedule regular blogging time, I suppose. That would probably help. Sounds like a plan. I should probably get working on it.

I have updated my lapband blog. Things are going well as far as that goes. I'm not much better at updating that blog either. I'm getting better, though.


The family is doing great. Lucas has transitioned from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. He's had one troop meeting and he has a lock-in tonight. He really likes it and so do we. From what we have seen so far it's a great group of boys. They interact really well and we haven't seen any bullying issues or anything that would cause concern. Lucas is also going on a camping trip during spring break. It will be his first long camping trip without us. He's done overnight camping without us, but it was one time and at his den leaders house. I know he'll have a blast, though.
Griffin is doing great as well. School is going great for him this year. He's having a good time with Cub Scouts as well. I'm the den leader this year. I can't do it next year, so someone else will have to step up. We may end up looking at other packs. It depends on what direction this one goes in. We're losing our Cub Master. His son moved on to Boy Scouts with Lucas.
David is getting closer to graduation every day. He's currently looking for a job. He has filled out a couple applications. He needs to fill out some more. He has a dog now. She's a good dog. We did tell him that he can't keep her if he can't afford to pay the up keep costs.
Dave is doing the work thing. Same ol' same ol'. He tested for Master this year. We're hoping he makes it. It's time for him to make it. :)
I'm doing the SAHM thing. I have been researching colleges for the fall. I'll probably go to the jr college here in town. I need to get to the base and talk to the people in the education office. I know that will help clear up a lot of questions and concerns.

Well, that's it for now.

It's really not helpful...really.

I would really like to know why people find it necessary to say to me "I'd really like to know what happened to you". It is said to me a lot, mostly at church. Mostly by people praying over me/for me. Actually, it's never been said in that "I haven't seen you in 20 years and you look crap. I'd like to know what happened to you" way. It's always said in a "Wow!!! You're pretty screwed up. I'd like to know what happened to you" type of way. It's pretty disheartening. Really. I mean, if I'm coming up for an alter call, I obviously have issues I am dealing with. Everyone has issues, by the way. Just sayin'... I'm there for a reason, and I do share that reason. What's the point of having someone pray for you if they don't know what they are praying for? I figure the more the pray-er knows the better they can pray, right? I'm also thinking that different people are at different places, ya know? I am probably not at the same point as my designated pray-er( I know there is a different word for this, but work with me here. LOL) At what point does it become necessary to dump the "I'd really like to know what happened to you" thing on me? You know what, I'd really like to know what happened to me, too. It must be something huge. I mean, it comes up a lot..A LOT!!!

I'd like to think it's just an "I'm concerned" type of thing. I'm not sure, though. Visions of people listening to tape recorded sessions sessions with a therapist, pencils at the ready to take notes and tear apart my life come to mind every time I hear that phrase.

I suppose I could see a therapist. Again. I've tried that. I got the whack-a-do therapist who wanted me to sing to myself. Seriously.. In his office..To myself.. Out loud..Whitney Houston, no less..The Greatest Love of All... Seriously... It was nuts. I know I have issues, but I also know I don't have that many issues. LOL In all honesty, I'm good with myself. I'm gaining more confidence. I'm becoming stronger in myself. I can stand up for what I believe in. Life is pretty good. Then the "I'd really like to know what happened to you" hits. UGH.

Oh My Word.

How could I possibly have gone this long with out a post?!?! Well, life, that's how. lol

Tons of stuff has happened since the last post. We took a 2 week vacation to Missouri to visit family. It was nice. I think next year we are goin to bring our camping gear and camp for however long we are there and just have people come visit us. lol Much easier and much less stressfull. :)

School has started for the boys. They are all doing well. Griffin is in 1st grade, Lucas is in 5th grade and David is a SENIOR!!!

We got a dog. A HUGE dog. lol He's a Great Pyrenees/Anatolina Shepherd mix. We all love him. He's 3 months old and weighs just over 30lbs right now. He's a big boy. :) The house trainin is going well. We have gradually increased his roaming space and so far so good. He has learned a few commands. He will go into his crate if you tell him "crate". He also sits, lays down and will give you his paw.

Cub Scouts starts back up again soon. We have our first pack meeting of the year on Monday night, actually. Griffin and Lucas are excited about that. :) There is a camping weekend in a couple of weeks. I think Dave and the boys are going to go. We can't bring the dog and we can't leave him alone overnight so I will probably be staying home. It would be a great time to get some crafts done. :)

Well, that's pretty much it. Not really exciting, but we like our life that way. :)

Praying Mantis

I was out checking the progress on the garden today and found this.

Pretty cool, huh? He was just hanging out on the jalapeno plant. I only saw him because I was looking to see how many blossoms I had on it.

Nature

This is our first Spring/Summer in Texas and I put a couple of hanging baskets on the back porch. One of them must have been particularly attractive to the robins in the neighborhood, so they built a nest in it.

When we checked the nest one day, we found this.

The next time we checked, it looked like this.

So, today we check again and we saw this.

See the little hole where the baby's hatching? How cool is that?

I'll be sure to keep you all updated on the hatching progress. :)

From My Home Friday

So, I've decided to do the From My Home Friday's from Michele's Blog. This week she is using Laine's letter "Grumbling Causes Stumbling".

What a profound letter. I know that I struggle with grumbling myself. It's a tough one to get a handle on. It's so easy to slip into the grumbling mindset. As women, we tend to surround ourselves with like minded individuals. Those that we have something in common with. Those we feel a bond with. We get together for bible studies, coffee mornings, play groups, bunco, etc. We all have a great time. We set aside our precious time for these "girls nights". We share our lives, our hopes, our dreams. We lean on each other for support. We support those we can. We become friends and strengthen our bonds. Then it happens. We have people that are complaining about their husbands, children, jobs, parents, friends, etc., on a regular basis. I'm not talking about the occasional "I'm having a hard time with my kids." or "My husband is on my last nerve." vents. I'm talking about the constant complaining. The "no one does anything right" evenings. Everyone gets caught up in it and before you know it, has become a giant grumbling session.

Something that has started as a wonderful time of fellowship, has turned into something else. Something sinister, something depressing. It's no longer fun. It's just all around a negative experience. That negativity begins to spread into our home lives. It taints our families. It spreads into our spiritual lives and taints our relationship with God. Instead of being content in God's plan for us and in God's timing, we never find the joy in His plans. The peace that comes with knowing He has us covered. We loose sight of our Godly heritage, the legacy God has left for us. Our roles as children of The King.

It is so easy to fall into this trap. It's human nature. We have a desire to feel like we belong, and sometimes we don't consider the costs. I have fallen into this trap more than once. I would love to say I'm over it, but I'm not. Sometimes it sneaks up on me, then the reality hits me like a semi truck. I'm doing it again. However, I am blessed. I know that my Saviour will forgive me. I know that He will truly forget what I have done and how I have fallen away. I know that He will remind me of all the positives, and help me overcome the negative attitude. He will once again be my bright shinning star, the center of my life, the only one I should ever feel the need to belong to. He is my source, my hope, my everything, and keeping the focus on him and not on the grumbling draws me closer to Him and His wonderful plans for me.

Revolution Money Exchange

So, I got an email from a friend about the Revolution Money Exchange site. It's a lot like paypal. Anyway, the email talks about getting $25 just for signing up, so I figured why not. Everyone likes free money, right? LOL So, I signed up. They also have a referral program. For each person you refer, you get $10 (up to $500). So, if you think you might want to sign up, please use the link below. Then pass it on to your friends. :)

Menu Plan Monday

I found a great blog for people, like me, that need a little help getting it together. :) On Monday's this blog has Menu Plan Monday. I thought I would participate.

Monday

Beans, rice, and cornbread.

I cook the beans in the crockpot to make things easier and to keep the house cooler. I may skip the cornbread if no one is really interested, just to keep the house cooler. I really don't want to have to turn the AC on yet. :)

Tuesday

Teriyaki Chicken, rice, broccoli, salad.

My family doesn't mind eating rice two dinners in a row, but yours might.

Wednesday

Fried rice, made with Tuesday's leftovers.

Ok, now this might be pushing it on how many times I can feed them rice in a row. LOL

Thursday

Alice Springs Chicken, broccoli cheese casserole, brussels sprouts, salad.

I may skip the broccoli cheese casserole, because it contains rice. LOL I really should have put a bit more thought into this, huh?

Friday

Pasties and salad.

I am trying a recipe from Dining on a Dime. We'll see how it goes. And no, not those kind of pasties. LOL

Saturday

Kids make dinner night.

I am officially instituting a kids make dinner night this week. I have no idea what they will make, but I am sure it will be fine.

Sunday

Grilled Chicken, potato salad, salad, corn

You can find more Menu Plan Monday Posts here. http://orgjunkie.com/2008/04/menu-plan-monday-april-7th.html

Busy Day

Today was super busy for us. We had Griffin's homeschool zoo class, so I had to drive Dave to work so I could have the car. Ah the joys of being a single car household. :) So, my day started at 5:45. I woke David and Lucas up and had Lucas get dressed and got him breakfast. Then it was off to drive Dave to work. I got home, made Lucas' lunch, made sure his teeth and hair were brushed, and sent him off to school.

Next was David's turn. Now being that David is 16, he doesn't need much help from his mother, other than the occasional "isn't it almost time for you to leave?".

Then it was Griffin's turn. As soon as I reminded him it was zoo class day, he was up and getting dressed. I also reminded him that we were actually going into the zoo and having a picnic lunch with another little boy from his zoo class (and his mom, the most important part. LOL)

While Griffin was eating breakfast, I placed an online order for somethings we needed. However, as I pushed "process order" I realized the shipping address was our England address. Oops. So, i looked all over the website for a way to cancel the order, didn't find one. I tried the "live chat" with customer service and I kept getting "all available customer service representatives are busy at this time". Exactly what were all of them doing anyway?!?! I did get a hold of them by phone, eventually. The shipping address was changed and disaster avoided.

A little later than I would have liked, Griffin and I left for the zoo. They learned about food chains and food webs. They talked about carnivores, omnivores, and herbavores. It was pretty neat and Griffin had a great time, as usual.

After the zoo class, we went into the zoo. We walked around a bit, then stopped and ate lunch. Then we looked around the rest of the zoo. We spent quite a lot of time and saw everything there was to see. :)

After the zoo, we went to the park nearby. Griffin and the other little boy played, while the mom's talked. It was nice talking with another homeschool mom. It was a great day.

Depression.....

I suffer from clinical depression. I've taken meds for it in the past. I'm not taking them right now. I'll be taking them again starting tomorrow.

I figured after 6+ months of feeling like I do, it was time to get back on them. I know that there are a lot of people out there that think that taking antidepressants is something to be ashamed of. I find that a lot, actually. So much so that I normally don't share much. I just don't need the extra stress of some well meaning person telling me how I just need to suck it up, or pray more, or give it over to God, or whatever miracle cure they have for depression. I understand they are just trying to help, but if you don't suffer from depression, you just don't get it. You just don't.


Now, just to set the record straight, I'm not suicidal or homicidal. I don't think about hurting myself or anyone else. I just feel crap, unmotivated, tired, stressed, defeated, like a failure. Every day that I wake up feeling that way, I feel more like a failure. That makes me feel defeated, stressed, tired, unmotivated, crap. It's a never ending cycle. Little things become huge deals for me. Just day to day things become overwhelming. Getting dressed every day becomes a struggle. Getting a shower on a regular basis is a huge chore. Caring for my family is just not something I can do easily anymore. It really does suck. It majorly sucks. Really bad.


Like I said, if you haven't been there you just might not get it. That's fine, you don't have to get it. You don't have to understand. You don't have to have answers for me, or any other person you know that suffers from depression. You can't fix me, or them. Our problems probably have nothing to do with you. I am sure we can't tell you exactly what our issues are and how to fix them. I know that I can't pin point the exact cause of my depression. It's a lot of things and nothing at the same time. If I knew what it was, I would take care of it. Believe me, I would love to be able to fix it and I am sure that everyone who suffers would love to take care of it that easily. It's just not gonna happen. That doesn't make me stupid, weak, lazy, selfish, or not as "religious" as you. It doesn't make me less of a mother, sister, wife, friend, or Christian than you. It just makes me a human being with issues, just like you. :)

I think I have reached a decision

I *think* I have finally decided what I want to be when I grow up. Now, I understand that I am 34 and that most people my age are already "grown up". Now you readers need to understand that your age has nothing to do with being "grown up". Ask anyone I know and they'll tell ya. :)

I am going to go to school to be a nurse. It was a toss up between nursing and teaching, and nursing won. I'll be starting school this fall. If Griffin is still at home doing the homeschooling thing, I'll take night classes. If he's back in school, I'll take day classes. That'll make 4 students in our family of 5. That's a lot of students. :) I am really excited about getting back to school. It is something I have put on hold to be at home with my kiddos. Of course, my kids (and my husband) will always come first. Now that they will all be in school full time and we are living in an area with colleges and universities everywhere, the timing is perfect.

The only issue is the moolah. If the Air Force would get off their duffs and let dependents use the GI bill, all my problems will be solved. I really don't understand how all the other branches of the military have approved letting dependents use the GI bill, but the Air Force still hasn't. It just boggles my mind. :)

Anyway, nursing here I come. :)

What a great idea.

Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way

People will often say that their whole lives flashed before their eyes after they experienced a traumatic event. Perhaps it’s a bit morbid, but we think that sounds pretty incredible.When Taylor McKnight started taking a photo a day on January 1st, 2004, he never imagined the project would not only serve as a way to remember a year, but also help him understand what was important to him in his life.Whether it was his relationships, his career, or his fashion sense, recording a photo a day for a whole year left him with a rich visual history of his life. And it made him a better photographer to boot!Now that he’s in the middle of doing it for a second time, we asked Taylor to write about it for us. Read on for our tutorial on how and why to create your own daily photographic history.

Project 365: How to Create a Daily Photographic History www.photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/ Why do it?Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it:Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!) Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast. Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.

Tips on How to Do ItHere are six tips on how to create your own Project 365:

Bring Your Camera EverywhereYes, everywhere. Get in the habit. Grocery stores, restaurants, parties, work, and school. Going to a movie theatre? Snap a pic of the flick with your phone–there are photo-ops everywhere. If you have one of those tiny tiny cameras, you have no excuse not to have it in your pocket all the time. And if you don’t? Camera phones are a great substitute.
Make Posting EasyYou can install blog software like Movable Type or Wordpress on your own site and create an entry for each photo, but for true ease of use, try a photo sharing site. Flickr will let you post a week’s worth of photos in 2 minutes flat, and fotolog and Photoblog.com are geared toward a photo-a-day workflow. Making it fast and easy means you’re much more likely to do it.
Vary Your ThemesTry to capture the day’s events in a single photo. Perform photographic experiments. Take a photo of someone new you meet, something you ate for the first time, or something you just learned how to do. Take a photo of something that made you smile. And don’t forget to take a photo of yourself at least once a month so you can remember how you’ve changed, too.

Tell a StoryUse your blog entry, or your photo description, to explain what’s going on in each day’s photograph. How good did that dinner taste? What made you want to take a photo of that stranger? It’ll help you remember down the road, and it gives friends following along a better appreciation of why you took the photo you did. You don’t need to write a lot, just enough to add some color.
Don’t Stop, No Matter What This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place. There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.N.b. It helps if you’ve told your friends about the project and asked them to follow along. Their encouragement will keep you going!

Post early, post often Plan on going through and posting your photos at least once a week so you don’t get backlogged and feel overwhelmed. Ideally, post every day or two. Again, spend the time up front to make sure it’s quick and easy to post. It’ll make all the difference.

ExamplesThe Project 365 2004 Recap — Read Taylor’s thoughts on the project after the year was over and see some of the highlights.
Project 365, 2006 (in progress) — Watch a slideshow of Taylor’s second go-around with Project 365.
Noah Brier’s One a Day — In a more self-reflective variation, our pal Noah takes a photo a day using the webcam built into his MacBook.
Taylor McKnight is a co-founder of Podbop, a music lover, and a fanatical concert goer. He’s always planning his next adventure. http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

Christmas Ponderings

Well, Christmas is almost over. All in all it was a good day. The kids all enjoyed their gifts, and so did Dave and I. Our Christmas this year was a bit scaled down compared to previous years. With the move and the new house, the funds were just not as available like they have been in the past. However, I don't think anyone was disappointed.

I fully expected to have some sort of family here for Christmas. Our last 8 Christmas' have been spent in England. I would have loved to have had more family to share the holiday with. Holidays are just not the same without family, ya know? It has been just the 5 of us for so long that this is the norm for the kids. I grew up with huge family gatherings for the holidays. The 6 of us, plus my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and uncles (when they could make it). It was great. I really want my boys to experience that. That sense of family, the closeness, the bond, the fun, the craziness, the memories.

Dave and I have decided we want to have family for the holidays. We want our house to be the hub of celebrations. Of course, right now we live in Texas and most of our family lives in Missouri. We do have some family in Louisiana, Florida, and Oklahoma, but the majority is in Missouri. We do plan to eventually retire in Missouri, but that is going to be quite a while.

So, we are thinking about inviting everyone here for Christmas next year. My mom and Grandma. My sister and brothers, their wives and their kids. Dave's parents. Dave's brothers and their wives and kids. My Aunts and their husbands. Whoever wants to come can come. I'm thinking if everyone comes that would be 34 people total. Fifteen kids, nineteen adults, I think. LOL Who knows where they will all sleep, or sit. We figure if everyone brings sleeping bags for the kids and air mattresses, if they have them, we can fit everyone on the floor somewhere. :) Of course, there would need to be more table/eating space for everyone, but we were planning on getting some folding chairs and tables for camping anyway. Sounds like a ton of fun. At least I think it does. Sure, lots of planning would be involved, but heck we've got a year to do it, right? Yep, sounds like a plan. :)

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to stop by and wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. :) I know that it is sometimes hard to keep our focus on what is truly important this season. I hope that you have been able to keep your priorities straight. I hope that you have treasured every minute with your family and your friends, and the life God has blessed you with. I hope that you continue to be blessed for the remainder of this year and well into 2008. :)

I Corinthians- A Christmas Version

-I CORINTHIANS 13 -

A CHRISTMAS VERSION

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows,

strands of lights and shiny balls,

but do not show love to my family,

I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen,

baking dozens of Christmas cookies,

preparing gourmet meals and

arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime,

but do not show love to my family,

I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen,

carol in the nursing home and

give all that I have to charity,

but do not show love to my family,

it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels

and crocheted snowflakes,

attend a myriad of holiday parties

and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ,

I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way,

but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return

but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things,believes all things,hopes all things,endures all things.

Love never fails.

Video games will break,

pearl necklaces will be lost,

golf clubs will rust,

but giving the gift of love will endure.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Author Unknown

Happy birthday to me

Yep, it's my birthday. You have all be tremendously blessed by having me in your lives for another year. ROFLOL

Dave is taking me to the Olive Garden for dinner. That's pretty much the extent of my birthday plans. We normally just hang out together as a family and enjoy some quality time. We like to keep it simple around here. :)

I hope that you all have a great day. :) I know I will.

Warm and cozy

Looks cozy, doesn't it. It was. We got hit with snow here in Abilene Texas on Thanksgiving day. According to the weather people it was 5 inches. Four inches is the average yearly snowfall for Abilene.

Here's the snow Thanksgiving night.

Here's the snowman David built outside Griffin and Lucas' bedroom window compelet with grape eyes, carrot nose and green onion mouth. LOL Hey, it was the best we could come up with on short notice.

The boys loved the snow and my mom loved sharing it with them. It was a great Thanksgiving at the Harman house. :)

Donate food to the needy

The Bishop Sullivan Center is running a promotion right now. Just for registering at their site you can have 10lbs of food donated to the food bank at no cost to you. What an easy way to help out those in need during this holiday season. So, follow the link below and register. :)


http://www.bishopsullivan.org/

What I Did Today

My mom is coming for Thanksgiving. It will be the first time in 8 years we have had family for any holiday. We are all thrilled. So, like everyone does when their mom is coming, we have been busy cleaning. Of course, we still have boxes piled in the front living room that need to be unpacked along with boxes that are full of packing paper that need to go away. The 16yr old's room is just....well, the room of a 16 yr old. LOL

So today I thought I would do some cleaning. I made a pot of coffee and put together a plan. :) I mopped the master bathroom floor, drank some coffee, mopped the kitchen floor, drank some coffee, hung some towels out on the line, drank some coffee, paid some bills, drank some coffee. See the pattern here? Anyway, a full pot of coffee later I have a killer headache. It has got to be the coffee. I have not had coffee in months. I don't think I've had any since we got to Texas. Maybe a cup or two. Anyway, I'm pretty much useless now. I had planned on doing some other things, but it's not happening today.

Oh, I did manage to re-arrange my spice cabinet. Now it's nice and organized and I can actually see what I have in there. No more buying spices I already have. LOL Anyone have any suggestions for cinnamon? I have 3 jars of it. LOL

Isn't He Precious?!?!?

We have not been homeschooling that long. We started on Oct 15th. We have also had some set backs. I had some dental/tooth issues that made me fairly useless for the better part of a week. We also had some Griffin issues. Just one day, so that is not that bad. However, that one day was enough. I decided to take pics so that when Dave got home he could see how productive we were that day. So, here is Griffin in all his fit throwing glory. :)