E's thoughts on Christmas

I want to remember this so I'm writing it down here......

In the car E talking to her brother J boy:

E: Do you know what my favorite Holiday is J?

J: uhhh is it thanks giving? (or some other random holiday, I don't know what he said to be honest)

E: NO! Christmas! Do you know why it's my favorite Holiday?

J: Uuuhh because we have snow outside and we get to go out and play in it? (This kid cracks me up!)

E: NO!

Here is where I held my breath and waited for her response, thinking it would be something about Santa bringing presents or getting lots of gifts, but hoping she would say something about the meaning of Christmas too.

E's response: Because Christmas is a Holiday with real meaning. It's about a real person, Jesus. It's about his birth. And I like that we have a day we can celebrate Jesus.

I almost teared up. I was SO proud. Not once did she bring up Santa or even gifts! What a sweet girl.

Then J said "AND we get presents!" Of course he would :) He's learning though.

E then said to J "But it's not just about getting presents, Santa is the fun part of Christmas and some people don't believe in him but I still do even though I know Santa is the "fun" part of Christmas."

I then went on to tell her that St. Nicolas was a real person at one time and he believed in Jesus Christ and wanted to help others like Jesus taught. I told her it's okay to believe in a real person and that Santa can be a part of Christmas too but that she is right, that Christmas is more about Jesus.

I remember worrying about what to do with the whole Santa thing a couple years back. I remember not wanting to yank it out of Christmas traditions completely but wanting to focus this Holiday mostly on Christ. I guess I felt like lots of kids these days expect HUGE presents or tons of little ones and are disappointed when they don't get what they want. I remember thinking, I don't want my kids to be like that, to be "entitled" as we the future generations are starting to be. I didn't want them to care about all the gifts that they get so much as they care about what this holiday is about. Of course all kids are excited to get presents on Christmas morning but I want them to know that it's okay if it's nothing fancy or huge (whether or not we can afford a big Christmas or not) it's okay to keep Christmas simple and still get fun, exciting presents because Christmas is about, as she put it her self "A real person, Jesus". I was also thinking about how some people play up the whole Santa thing so much and try to have their kids believe in him for as long as possible and that's fine, I don't think it's a bad thing but I do feel bad for the kids that some day they will be totally disappointing that he is not real. I think E will be okay with it and she won't be devastated, especially after that little conversation I heard, and that's good, I'm glad it won't rip her heart out :)

She is getting to be such a big girl with a sweet tender heart. I was so proud and I knew at that moment that I did something right, and that feels good as a Mom.

I love how she kind of knows Santa is not real but that she wants to still believe so she can have a little fun at Christmas. It's the perfect combination of Christmas Tradition, I think. With a lot about Christ and a little fun with Santa.

I was a proud Mom! Now we gotta work on that J boy, he's learning slowly.

Summer fun rewind part three

Summer time means the Fairs roll into town.We hit up two of these with the Grand parents.
Both days were hot but we managed to have some fun anyhow.

This is what my Son thought of the pigs.....

And the cows.....

And pretty much all the other animals we forced him to look at.
He's a funny kid!

E could not NOT watch the bunny judging contest, she loves bunny rabbits and has decided that she will have one for a pet some day, we shall see about that.

I forgot to bring my camera to the other fair which we had a lot more fun at because Uncle David was in town and got to come with us, but at least we can remember that J boy does not enjoy looking at or smelling the stinky animals.

Oh and it was kind of funny/interesting/weird that (since C wasn't able to come to the fair with us and Uncle David) people thought my Brother was the Father of my children, it made me laugh and then I was a bit grossed out.

Summer fun rewind part two

Not long after we moved out West my Son turned the big #5!



It was kind of nice to keep it simple this year.

Since obviously he had no friends out here yet, we did just a family thing and he was okay with it and I was very much okay with it.

I asked what kind of cake he wanted and after a few suggestions he thought an ice cream cake would be fun, and so I made him my DQ version of an ice cream cake. It was delicious!

Then we went to Chuck-E-Cheese with Grandma and Papa for a few games and called it good.

So simple, and yet he loved it.

I felt kind of guilty for not posting this back in August. I usually try and post a special Birthday post on here for each of my kids' birthdays, at the time I was consumed by stress and whatnot, so I forgot to and I felt a bit guilty at first but I have gotten over it.

It blows my mind to think my baby boy is five and in kindergarten. He was so fragile when he came into this world and I remember holding him so tiny and sick and I couldn't imagine him being any bigger and yet here he is five and for the most part healthy and he is quite the character. It seems like over night he became my big boy and that can be a little hard on a Mommy to one day realize they are in the real world and are making those steps to no longer needing you, granted that is still many years away, but still the realization that life keeps going and you can't stop it can be hard.

When you are young, a child or a teenager, you can think about nothing but growing up and time seems to move so slowly but somewhere along the way (probably when you first become a Parent) the tables turn and all of a sudden time seems to go by too fast and you feel yourself clinging to each milestone and each new moment with each child.

That's why I love recording things on this blog, it helps me remember these moments, it helps me savor the past while I try and enjoy the "now" with my kids and my Family.

Any way here is to my big boy! I love you Buddy!

Rewind; Summer fun part one

You might be seeing lots of these "rewind" posts. Just trying to catch up, I have lots a pictures waiting to make their appearance on this blog.

This summer was a warm one but that didn't keep the kids from getting outside.

Much of the summer was spent missing friends from Indiana but loving playing in Grandma's and Papa's back yard.

A favorite morning past time was the garden. Now I don't know how much actual gardening they did, rather they dug in the dirt just to see how dirty they could get.

I don't blame them for wanting to be in my Mom's garden because this summer it was a beautiful garden indeed! (a little shout out to my mom's amazing gardening abilities)

Most of the warm days the kids got to do this to cool off......

Nothing beats the trampoline with sprinklers underneath!

More summer fun rewinds to come......

What's new with us?

Many friends and family have asked "How are you guys?" or "Where are you guys at now?" or "What is new with you guys" and so on.
So this post is an attempt to update you who have asked so many questions. Aaannd to put up some pictures too (Finally! I know it's been a while)

So what's new with the Harkers you ask?

Where to start?

This summer was crazy, stressful, fun, exciting, stressful, crazy, awesome....yeah all of that!

We moved in with my parents at the end of July as I have already said in previous posts and during that time we felt very lucky and blessed to have such wonderful family willing to let us take over their lives for a time (two whole months). But at the same time we also felt very up-rooted, very much in limbo not really having a home or place to call our own and it was stressful but it was also a blessing to me, in that I really really learned to appreciate the meaning of the word "Home" and what it means to me and my family. That a home is more than just walls, but family who love each other. During this short time we lived at my Folks in limbo as I called it, it wasn't easy all the time, it was hard on me and the kids especially but we made the best of it until things (and by things I mean Blessings from God) fell into our laps and everything fell into place.

I know God lets us "suffer" so that we can know how good the "good" actually is. Whether our suffering is small or large or somewhere in between, I KNOW he works in this way because I've experienced it more than once in my life time and I appreciate His love in doing this. I don't appreciate it during the moment sometimes and I think that is why I keep experiencing it, I need to learn to appreciate it during not just after :) But usually after I have "suffered" and then am Blessed I so appreciate this process in life. I do.

So since my last update here is what is new:

Cory has a job! Hallelujah! And not only does he have a job, he has one that fits him perfectly. We couldn't have asked for more.

We rented a house and moved in at the beginning of October. Yes it's only been a Month but it feels like it's been forever, it feels like home already! In fact the day we signed the lease it felt like home to me.

It was SUCH a blessing, this home, these Landlords we have, the location everything about it has been a HUGE blessing from a loving Father in Heaven who knew our situation and our needs and blessed us more than we could have asked for.

So you want to see our "cute" house?
Okay, well I'm gonna show ya anyway!

Here is our "Home"
This home was built in 1925! BUT has had amazing renovations done to it. It's still old and needs some work on the inside and it's not perfect but I LOVE the charm of it!

I can't wait to have some cute furniture to put on the porch and just sit and take in the country view from our cute porch! (I'm just waiting for the dough to start rolling in before I make that purchase ;)

My mom grew 6 pumpkin plants in her garden and got more than thirty, yes that's 3-0, 30 pumpkins from them. Since she had no use for all 30-something pumpkins she sent home 25 with us to decorate our long porch with. So with the ones we got from pumpkin patches and my Mom's 25 we had 30 pumpkins on our porch!

Oh my silly kids! They love their porch too.
I love love this view from my kitchen.....

My family playing in the back yard and loving it.


My kids' favorite part of our back yard.....

No, that is not our horse. But at our fence line behind us is a large field with a horse, Skipper the Horse! My kids love to climb through the fence and feed Skipper apples and pet him. In fact E is in heaven and has tried asking for a horse, but I think we'll settle for feeding our neighbors horse.

Daddy enjoying the swing he put up, and lulu was liking swinging with Daddy too.

The down side of having an acre of land? Having to keep it up. Thankfully the land lords left their riding lawn mower! Now all we have to worry about is the two giant Maple Trees in our back yard that are dumping thousands of leaves all over our back yard that we'll have to clean up! Oh well, the view and land is worth the sacrifice!

We love our Home and are so grateful to have been blessed with such a wonderful place to live.




FYI: for those who don't know....our house is exactly one block behind (North of) my folks' house. Our back yards practically face each other (kind of, in a kiddy-corner kind of way).

Look at the picture with E and J feeding the horse.....did you look at it? Because you can see my parents house in this picture.... Okay now look at the horse's right ear. You'll see some trees off in the distance right by his ear. Then you'll see to the right of those trees a roof top that is grey-ish, that looks like it has a tree with red leaves coming out of the top of it.... you see it? Yep, That's my parents house! We're that close, and we love it.

We went from living thousands of miles away from them while in Indiana to then practically living on top of them while we lived in their house, to now living practically in their back yard, but in our own house.

I think we found the perfect medium!