BOYS. Every single one of the backsides in the back row of that photo belongs to a boy. Why is that a big deal you ask? Because my boys have long been almost the only boys in their age-group at church. Just Carter, Owen and a sea of girls. I’m sure at some point in a boy’s life, a lopsided ratio of boys to girls that lands heavy on the girl side is a good thing. In elementary school, not so much. On Sunday mornings, the Harms house was a battlefield: two boys with an arsenal of arguments and emotion…
The swings were empty, and I was close to tears. A wooden playset was about to make me cry. It was ridiculous really. We only lived in the house for six months. But I looked at the empty swingset while I stood in the empty house, and I thought of my three boys. Brothers who have this amazing propensity to find in each other the one nerve in a million that is most easily agitated and then patiently camp out on it until it causes the desired explosive reaction. During the past six months I’d often find those same button-pushing boys…
As I admired all the beautiful prom dresses at church today, I was reminded that I will never help a daughter prepare for a formal. And I thought of several reasons why that is probably a very good thing. 1. I have never had nor do I ever plan to get a pedicure. 2. I’ve had one professional manicure: the day before my wedding. 3. I own exactly 2 purses. The gray one I bought at Goodwill, and the black one I’ve had since college. 4. I own one necklace, three rings and four pairs of earrings. 5. All of my make-up (except for the…
It was all because of the flying cheese. I was tucking my little man into bed when he made his cheese confession. “Mom, I forgot to tell you something.” (Lewis, who shares pretty much every detail of his every day life with me, “forgot” to tell me something…my ears perked up immediately.) “What’s that buddy?” “I had to go to the principal’s office today.” If my youngest had had previous incidents involving disobedience and disruptive behavior in school, this may have upset me a little bit. But as he is a pretty well-behaved, albeit un-Harms-ishly social six-year-old, I was more intrigued…