Adventures in Our Home & Hearts: Making a Splash! ~ May 2014

Giving God Glory

This house is a testimony of God's sovereign protection!

Firefighters were unable to get into this area of Black Forest during the Black Forest Wildfire last summer. Homes were disintegrated all over in this section of the forest, but the Lord preserved this home of my friend's parents for His purposes and plans.

Burn marks at the bottom of tree trunks as well as blackened trees... surrounding this home on all directions!

There are even fire "licks" at the base posts of the back patio as well as posts on the front porch!

Psalm 103:15-19 ~ As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it [just as the fire passed over Black Forest], it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer [man's life as well as man's property is transitory & there are no guarantees with property or possessions]. But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him [sometimes He shows His lovingkindness by preserving homes & sometimes He shows His lovingkindness through trials of losing homes in order to grow us closer to Him & to be more like Him], and His righteousness to children's children... The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all [including over Black Forest Wildfire of 2013].

What's on the Harrisons' Hearts & Marriage Memories

Blessings & Joy in Serving Together ~ ...remember the words of the Lord Jesus...'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Acts 20:35 The Lord greatly blessed Wes and I through the opportunity we had to serve together again in AWANA T&T boys & girls this past year. It was a joy to teach and invest in the lives of many 3rd-6th graders! We also enjoyed seeing how the Lord grew both of us during the year as we sought to help & encourage each other.

Wes took over as director for the boys halfway through the year & taught the boys weekly on the topic of New Testament Survey. Wes made this visual of catchy phrases & pictures (from Walk Thru the Bible flashcards) to help the boys remember the main point & theme of each New Testament book.

I enjoyed teaching the T&T girls this year about the names & character of God.

Our theme verse ~ Proverbs 18:10

Praises & Prayers

Adam & Wendy - Continued prayers for Adam, Wendy, & Nathaniel (son adopting from China) as they are in a season of waiting; in May they had 2-3 weeks until they could bring Nathaniel home. (Current update, Adam, Wendy, & Nathaniel are home from China!)
Tami - Continued prayers for the Lord to give my dad and other loved ones His perspective and that God would heal Tami, but ultimately that His will would be done. Prayer of Galatians 5:22-23 that the fruit of the Spirit would abound in Dad's & Tami's lives during this trial. Also, prayer of James 1:5 for wisdom with this trial.
Wes - Praise for Wes officially finishing his schooling at FRBI and receiving his diploma! Continued prayer of Philippians 3:13-14 that the Lord would give Wes perseverance as the Lord has been refining and growing him a lot lately, which is good but can also be hard. Also, continued prayer for Wes to continue to be a strong light and witness for Christ at work in the midst of a very spiritually dark environment and also for spiritual protection (Ephesians 6:10-20).
Christina - Praise for the Lord giving me faithfulness in teaching and discipling our sons. Please pray Ephesians 5:16 for wisdom in discerning the Lord's priorities for me each day and walking in His will and what is best so that I am not distracted with other good things.
Noah - God would graciously save him at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will. I asked Noah what he would like loved ones to pray for him, and he responded, "So, does this mean what people can get me?" Now it makes even more sense why Noah's past prayer requests involved material possessions. ;) I explained what a prayer request is, and he shared that he would like people to pray ~ "That God would always bless me."
Josiah - God would graciously save him at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will. Praise for the Lord growing Josiah in being kind since we see some progress. Please continue to pray 1 Thessalonians 5:11 for the Lord to grow Josiah in being kind to others such as being gentle rather than hitting others.

Family Fun

Our Fam

Celebrating Mother's Day

Thanking the Lord for my precious sons!

Wes, Noah, & Josiah blessed me in all kinds of ways on Mother's Day :)

Making a Splash!

Noah had his 1st swim lessons & did great!

It helped that his good buddy, Luke, was in the class with him * Smiles while swimming :)

Josiah had a blast kicking & splashing in the pool too! :)

It's official! ~ Wes received his diploma from FRBI for his Bachelor's Degree in Biblical Studies :)

Way to go, Wes! We are proud of all your hard work and perseverance.

Noah News

Age - 5

Cute Communication -

*Noah - "I want lots & lots of brothers & sisters...to play with. I keep seeing lots & lots of bunk beds in my room. I have a big room...for lots of bunk beds. :)

*Tache & I were discussing ways Wendy & I could bless her & Tami for Mother's Day. Some of our conversation involved what kind of corsage she might like. We noticed Noah was listening intently since he was asking a lot of questions, so we asked Noah what he thought Nana & Tache would like for Mother's Day. He said very confidently & matter of factly, "A massage!" Both Tache & I wondered where that came from since that had not come up in our conversation, and then I realized that Noah was thinking "massage" when we were saying "corsage." ;) He was right, though, a massage would have been a great gift! :)

*One night before bed, Noah & I were talking about what he would like to thank God for our who he wanted to pray for, and out of the blue he said, "I want to pray for God to save all the ice cream truck men." Precious... Noah prayed for all of them that night! :)

Latest Likes

Riding his bike

Swimming

Playing outside

Berenstain Bears Book - Play a Good Game

Converse shoes

Noah finished Cubbies this year! * Showing off his spike "do"

*Video - Noah's 1st time riding a horse

Josiah Joys

Age - 23 months

Cute Communication -

*Saying "Bye" to everything & then walking away backwards - ex. "Bye ball, Bye 'Whoa Whoa' (Dozer), etc.

*Making lots of animal sounds - a couple of our favorites of his are donkey & duck

*Josiah started saying a lot of new names this month ex. Baabel (Abel - friend), Duke (Luke - Noah's friend), Beerah (Sierra - our dog)

Latest Likes

Balls & balloons (including water balloons)

Snorting ;)

Airplanes

Candy

Playing in the sandbox

Cracking himself (& us) up while sporting some shades * He demolishes corn on the cob!

*Video - Josiah doing the "booty scootin' boogie" & Noah joining him :)

Bro Bonding

Mowing together

Playing Legos together

Building forts in the backyard together

Homeschool ~ & Preschool ~ Highlights

This month we did a Science unit study on Animals

Click on this link if interested in the FREE preschool skills/benchmarks that I use - Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence of Skills

Click on this link for a corresponding preschool book that I use - Core Knowledge: What Your Preschooler Needs to Know

Science Unity Study: Animals

Noah's little "treasure" aka. worm * Trying to get me with it

Field Trip to a Horse Stable

Noah was excited & warmed right up to the horse * Saylor * Adah was a little scared

Learning about the bridle, bit, & saddle * Noah raising his hand to volunteer to go 1st

Riding Mark - Noah * Adah * Saylor * Grace * Abel * Luke

We wrote thank you notes afterwards to incorporate some writing too.

Buddies :) ~ Josiah & Able

Learning about home construction too!

Going down into a "dirt basement" * Exploring

Climbing & sliding down dirt hills

And eating a little dirt too ;)

Focus on the Family Event Field Trip

Petting zoo - The goats were the boys' favorite animal. There were also chickens, sheep, & bunnies.

Art & Writing - Making Mother's Day cards

Colton's * Noah's

Writing: Noah wrote all of these letters on his own initiative one day

Math & Life Skill: Learning about money, saving/persevering/working hard for something you want

(Noah has plenty of nice shoes, but he really wanted another pair of Converse high tops.)

Art - Painting: Having fun * Painting a tiger picture * Creating his own painting

Various Life Skills

Helping Daddy lay sod & fix a toilet

Science & Life Skill - Planting a garden: Planning the planting * Preparing the soil * Watering

Shucking corn - not from our garden ;)

Learning & practicing self-defense strategies

Making a special smoothie to celebrate our last day of preschool! :)

We enjoyed a "few of our favorite preschool things" ~ favorite Bible story, letter, number, animal, song, P.E. game, etc.

Memorable Moment of the Month

My "oww-ies"... as my boys would say ;)

Knee & shin * Elbow * Palm

The story behind the scars... Noah was riding his bike with me as I was running on a (gravel) trail back behind the houses near our home. Noah was doing great on rougher terrain, and we were cruising along with Dozer running with us too. I let Dozer run off the leash when there was not anyone around, but I saw someone with a couple dogs ahead of us, so I leashed him. I also saw a decent hill and started to coach Noah in some strategies as he approached it. Needless to say, I did NOT see the good-sized rock jetting out from the middle of the trail that tripped up my foot. Normally, I would catch myself and carry on. However, Dozer kept running, and my body sprawled out as he continued to propel me through the air. I finally skidded in gravel along my right side. Not fun! Noah heard me crash and burn, turned around at the top of the hill that he successfully rode up :) , and asked, "Mommy, are you ok?" I replied yes, but he saw my wounds and continued to ask if I was ok. I explained to him what happened, and he informed me in his big boy-desiring-to-protect-voice, "Mommy, you don't watch where you are going so you need to follow me, and I will watch out for you." Sweet boy... :)

More Memories

Celebrating Dad's 60th!