Harrington family 2016

Hello to all!

I realize this is already February, but better late than never, right?

January was just spent getting back into routine.

K was chosen to play in the all-city orchestra with several other students in the Wichita schools.  She plays the violin.  She was also chosen to sing in the all-city choir.  Both of these kept us pretty busy.  At the end of February, both J and K competed in the Student Technology Leadership competition.  J's group got 6th place in the PSA category and K's group got 4th place in Graphic Design.  They both went to Topeka for the state competition.

March kept us busy with the solo and ensemble festival.  K played the violin in a stringed ensemble, which I think received a II.  She also sang a solo and got I.  For spring break, we headed to Branson to visit our friends and have some fun.  We stayed in a nice condo with our own kitchen, living room, master bathroom, and 2 bedrooms!  We watched the musical Moses at the Sight and Sound Theater and we tried out several rides at Silver Dollar City.  We enjoyed spending time with our friends, and, of course, had breakfast at Grandma Ruth's every morning.  Track season started for both J and K.

April brought more concerts for K, and more track meets for J and K.  Seth was involved in a car accident while he was driving his work truck.  He injured his back, which still is giving him problems.  He's been dealing with doctors and lawyers ever since.  Laura and the girls got to enjoy a girly weekend with some friends while the guys had a campout.  Although, it started with Laura getting bit by the dog who lived where we stayed the night, it ended up being a fun time.  J was chosen to receive an award for his skills and leadership in the JROTC program.  He also competed on the Leadership Academics Team.  This year, they actually made it passed the first round!  K still got to take harp lessons and had her final harp recital in April.

May, as the school year drew to a close, we enjoyed spring orchestra and choir concerts with K, and J received an award for Excellence in Behavior at their school's Academy Awards.  Laura's parents came to visit and were able to watch one of K's concerts as well as J graduating from 8th grade.  At the end of May, J headed to Kansas Bible Camp for leadership training as he prepared to work on staff.

In June, K entered her teenage years!  J was still gone at camp, and Little A was also at camp for the first time.  So, we took K out to eat for her birthday since we were a family of 3.  She also enjoyed swimming with friends.  In fact, we spent much of our summer at that pool.  K enjoyed a week at camp, too.  June was also the month of our Vacation Bible School.  This year's theme was the Olympics and Laura worked with the speakers to create skits with each of their messages.  It was different, but still very fun.  We celebrated J's 15th birthday after VBS and right before he headed back to camp.  We had the pleasure of dog-sitting our friend's dog while they went on vacation.  He and Rambo get along fairly well.  The girls and Laura headed to Iowa while J was at camp.  Laura's grandma sold her house to her aunt and uncle on the other side of the family.  They walked through what would be Grandma Lola's house for the last time.

In July, we just enjoyed being home.  We went swimming at our friend's pool, like we did in June.  And when they went out of town, we decided to go swimming in a creek outside of town.  That was a fun change to our swimming routine!

In August, Laura and her co-Sunday school teacher hosted a going-away party for one of their students who was leaving for college half way across the country.  It was a fun evening.  Our family had one last hurrah at a water park as summer was coming to a close.  The summer was a long prayerful road as we didn't know where J would attend high school.  God clearly provided the answer and J headed to the magnet high school here in Wichita in the video game design technology career path.  K began her final year in middle school.  Little A started 4th grade at Binding Word Academy (our homeschool).  J had already begun cross country practice, which is with a different school since his high school does not have a sports program.  The first day of school, however, brought tragedy.  As Laura and Little A were walking Rambo, a large dog escaped its fenced yard and attacked him.  Rambo is just a little 7 pound morkie and was thrown around like a rag doll.  Little A was final able to pull the big dog away from Rambo as Laura picked him up.  We soon discovered how badly injured he was as blood covered Laura's arm.  We called animal control and the vet as we quickly made our way there.  He had a puncture wound in his chest that barely missed 2 major blood vessels.  The vet kept him for the afternoon, not sure if Rambo was going to make it.  When we finally took him home, the vet said he was very lucky, and was probably going to be ok.  We spent the next week and a half taking Rambo to the vet for treatments as he slowly healed and recovered.  Although we filed a report, nothing has happened to reimburse our vet bills.  The dog that attacked Rambo is no longer at that residence.

Labor Day weekend, we all headed to Iowa to celebrate Laura's grandma's birthday.  A couple other cousins came and we all had fun catching up.  When we came back to Wichita, our lives were busy with cross country meets and drill meets with J.  Near the end of September, Laura was taking J to cross country practice when she hit a light pole in the parking lot.  The car was totaled.  Both Laura and Josiah sustained minor injuries, but were ok.  Next, we went on a mad search for a new vehicle.

Early October, Seth, Laura, and Little A took a trip to Oklahoma.  We had already been to several car dealerships in Wichita, but God continued to close door after door.  There, in Oklahoma, was the car God wanted for us.  We came home with a new vehicle just as Seth's parents came into town for a visit.  They were able to watch one of J's cross country meets where he infamously ran the race with only one shoe.  They also watched one of his drill meets.  Later, K had an orchestra concert.  Then, Laura left for Kansas City for a weekend with her mom and sisters.

November is the month when we celebrate our Veterans.  With J's involvement in the JROTC, he was very busy participating in different ceremonies in town.  He marched in the Veteran's Day parade and attended the Marine Corps birthday ball hosted by his school.  Cross country season officially came to a close with the banquet.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at home, just the 5 of us.

December began with Little A's 10th birthday party with her friends.  She wanted a spy-themed party, had a few girls come spend the night, and several more girls come the next day for the real party.  There were a total of 11 girls including Little A.  The same weekend, K played the news reporter Charlotte Dennon in her school's production Elf, Jr. the Musical.  It was really good!  A couple weeks later, K sang in their winter choir concert.  Reddi Root'r hosted a family Christmas event at the Botanical Gardens that we all enjoyed.  Our church also put on a Christmas program which Laura wrote and directed.  All 3 kids had speaking parts.  (The full program is on YouTube.  I can send you a link if you wish to watch it.)  We celebrated Christmas here as a family.  Then we celebrated Little A's birthday just before heading to Iowa to spend New Year's with Laura's family and have Christmas there.  While in Iowa, we congratulated Laura's dad on his retirement after many years of teaching high school algebra, coaching sports, and working at the bank.  Thank you for all of your hard work over the last several years!  We love you!

2016 was a trying year, but we see God's blessings throughout.  So far 2017 is starting out well.  No matter the circumstances, God is good all the time and we rest in His care.

With love,
The Harringtons

Busy but super fun summer of 2016

It's been a super busy summer, but it was a lot of fun!  With all of the fun we had, it went surprisingly slow, which is a good thing.

Summer began in May.  Little A was invited to a missions party where everyone dressed up as someone from another country.  She chose China.  Several of her friends also attended.  They played a lot of fun and educational games while learning about missionaries.

J headed off to camp.  Not as a camper, but to work on staff!  The first week was a week of training and Bible study.  He then stayed 2 more weeks to serve.  He filled in pot holes, helped build a new shed, and welcomed parents as they dropped off and picked up campers.  We were some of those parents.

June was packed full of activities.  The week after dropping off J at camp, we brought Little A.  It was her first time going to camp, so she was happy to have a friend going that week, also.  She had a blast!

While Little A was gone, K and I baby sat my nephew and nieces.  This involved taking them to their swimming lessons.  We also celebrated K's 13th birthday while the other 2 were at camp.

We picked up Little A from camp, then a couple days later, K left for camp with a friend.

Little A was now by herself, so we spent some time at a friend's pool.  They were very generous and invited us and others from our church to enjoy their pool during the summer for free.

Little A also attended a vacation Bible school at a different church.  She won this big green ball.

We picked up K and J from camp along with 2 other friends.  K obviously makes friends easily.

This summer, we also got to dog-sit this guy!  He's pretty tame and loves to cuddle.

The week after getting all the kids home, our church held its vacation Bible school.  You can read about that blog here.  J helped with the games.  K helped in crafts.  And Little A enjoyed being an Olympian for the week.  At the end of the week, we celebrated J's 15th birthday.

Then, J headed back to camp, but this time as a camper.  He really enjoyed being on staff and, of course, had fun as a camper as well.

The girls and I decided to visit my family in Iowa while J was at camp and Seth had to stay home and work.  My grandma was selling her house and several of her possessions, so we went up for one last look and to take a few things for ourselves.

Wait just a minute!  Sorry for the interruption, but this is Rambo.  I must tell you about a disturbing event.  Mom's aunts and uncles were all visiting as well.  There were actually more adults than kids!  But that's not the disturbing part.

There were cats.  CATS!  The kids were outside playing and these 2 cats came into the yard.  I had to save the kids.  I ran in and told the adults.  There's cats!  Come help!  I need to save the kids from the cats!  The adults just laughed.

I ran to the window, ran to the door, back to the adults.  They did not understand the seriousness of the situation.  I mean, there were real live cats outside with the kids!

Finally, Mom went outside, but she didn't let me out.  In fact, I think the adults were all conspiring against me as none of them would let me out.  I didn't understand.  I ran back and forth, trying to tell the adults of this horrible situation and watching outside to make sure the kids were ok.  Finally, the cats left.  The kids were fine, thankfully.  I could not believe the adults just sat there and laughed.  I'm just glad no one was attacked.

Ok, interruption over.  Mom, continue.

Um, thank you?  Ok, well, my girls had fun with their cousins.  We went to my grandma's house and looked through her things to lay claim on anything we wanted to keep.

We also got to watch my nephew play baseball.  Then, back to Wichita we went.  We picked up J from camp and June was over.

In July, we had some time to relax and just enjoy summer.  Rain!  There's a tree in front of our house that has dropped large branches during previous storms, and again, another one falls.  This time, nearly hitting Seth.

I received news of my high school classmate losing his battle to cancer early in July.  He had a long fight.  He is missed.

On the 4th, we went outside and enjoyed neighborhood fireworks.

We continued to enjoy our friends' pool along with others from church.  The kids looked forward to it every week.

K tested out her independence with several girl-outtings with friends.  She went to the mall with this friend, the movies with other friends, and back to the mall with even a different group of friends.  Did I mention she makes friends easily?

One week, instead of the pool, a few of us decided to go swimming in the river.  It was a fun change to our routine and a bit spontaneous.  Little A said she preferred the river over the pool.  All of the kids had fun.

Summer was winding down in August, but not before squeezing in that last bit of fun.  We still made a couple more trips to our friends' pool.  My co-Sunday School teacher and I hosted a going away party for one of our students who was leaving for college half way across the country.  They all had a blast.  Pool, food, a daring food game, and a movie.

A college friend of mine lost her battle to cancer in August.  She fought against 2 previous cancers and beat those before this 3rd one took her.  She is very missed.

You know summer is almost over when you hit the stores for school supplies.  It always seems to be an exhausting day, so I let us all enjoy a little treat.

I do enjoy the pool, too.  This was our final swim in our friends' pool.  Then, our family went to a water park for one final summer hoo-rah.  K had fun singing and dancing with the lifeguards.  Little A didn't want to leave.

Yes, it was a fully-packed summer.  In the midst of all of this fun, there was emotional roller coasters throughout.  Besides the loss of 2 of my friends, we had a difficult time figuring out where J would attend high school.  From trying to get him transferred and being denied, to checking into online public school, to considering sending him to my in-laws in Idaho!  We finally got the call that he was accepted into a magnet school and he would get to stay with us.  Whew!

It was a long summer, indeed.  School has begun and a whole new busyness has taken over our lives.  But I love it.  We are blessed.