Archive for the ‘Life Lessons’ Category

Fireworks and Memories

She is sitting on my lap as we gaze into the night sky.  This may be the last year she will be willing to do that.  She’s growing up so fast and pretty soon snuggling with Daddy will be embarrassing rather than comforting.  She lays her head against my chest and I smile.  Above us, cascading explosions of light and color brighten the darkness.  I glance down at her wonder filled face.  She doesn’t notice me looking at her so I take a moment to drink in her innocent beauty.  She is my little girl, my grown up baby.  With every flash in the sky, pictures fill my mind of different times when I have looked at this precious face… « Continue reading »

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What Makes a Great Mother or Father? The Little Things

When I was in my twenties, my gaze was always focused on the big things—finding the “perfect” partner, the “to-die-for” job, the “huge” book deal, or getting into the “best” graduate school. Little things didn’t matter much; they were unnecessary distractions that I treated as rounding errors. I either ignored them or focused on what came before or after. Looking back, I can see that how deeply I was affected by films and operas. I was always waiting for the sweeping climax that would bring resolution, on a grand scale, to my life. I was young and eager to fit together the largest pieces of the puzzle of life, foolishly believing that the remaining bits didn’t matter. « Continue reading »

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Holding the Door

When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.  Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.  In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.  Prov 16:7-9 NIV Little old me needs to read this every day. « Continue reading »

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The Blink of an Eye

I was tempted to say, as usual, “Hurry up! Unhook your seat, let’s go! You’ll be late!” as we prepared to leave the car for Elijah’s gymnastics class.  Truth was, we weren’t actually running late (surprising for the Harvey’s, I know!).  I stood in the 14 degree weather at the open rear passenger door and watched him, wondering just what it was that caused no response from him, considering the lack of the usual repetative announcements regarding tardy arrival times by yours truly.  « Continue reading »

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Empty Yesterdays

My daughter loves to watch musicals.  It is one of our favorite things to do as a family.  Even as young as 5, she was captivated by every musical she watched (expect for Footloose for some reason).  The other night, we got blankies and piled on our bed to watch The Music Man.  I was struck by a quote from the show. « Continue reading »

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Letting Go

Little shoes, little clothes and a huge Mickey Mouse backpack. She is ready to go to school. We get in the car and already I feel a little sad because she will not be with me today. I won’t hear her little laugh and see that priceless smile. I won’t have any owies to fix or hugs to give. I won’t have my little girl sitting on my lap listening to a story or two. We won’t be snuggling in front of a TV show or having a little snack together. « Continue reading »

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More Changing of Seasons

Today I’m going to talk about changing seasons.  I believe that I am qualified to be your own personal control group, having 6 children ranging from 3 to 22 and a 1 year old grandson.  Yep, we’ve got ‘em all.  With that said, let’s touch on that sleep deprivation topic, you know the one, the “gotta find coffee, Fred Flintstone propping up those toothpicks to hold open the eyelids, punchy, drop into bed unable to move” type of lack of sleep. « Continue reading »

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Peeking Through

My grand plans dissolved this morning as my 2 year old Elijah looked up and asked “Put the radio on?” I chose a college station and was pleasantly surprised by some Christian hip-hop as Eli donned his sister’s purple headband (all the better for dancing, I suppose) and proceeded to bust a move for a while with his Mama. He grinned and tackled quite a few snazzy routines, elbows flying as he smiled up at me. “I love my Mama,” he announced. It just doesn’t get any better than that. « Continue reading »

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Catching Rainbows

Last week, my Eli, 4, set about filling a jar full of water on the front walk.  I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was going to catch a rainbow.  He thought about it, and it was the first sunny day in what had seemed like weeks.  He spent the better part of the day working toward his goal, occasionally squinting into the sky. « Continue reading »

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Baseballs and Dandelions

Baseballs and dandelions.  Its that time again.  Grubby hands full of weeds looking intently in to your eyes as they thrust the fist into your hands.  “For you, Mama!”  My son Elijah is a one man weeding crew, ridding our lawn of the dreaded dandelion as if sifting for gold.  He was sitting at the front curb picking today and I said, “E, get out of the street!”  He protested, “But they’s flowers on there, mama!”  But they’s flowers… He continued his mission until my curb was sufficiently weeded. « Continue reading »

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