Christmas photo cards

I am SO excited to have found out about the wonderful deals from Shutterfly on photocards for Christmas. I have ordered cards from themin the past and have been really, very happy with the way they turned out. It requires minimal effort and creative input from me, which is a HUGE plus in this very busy month! Check out the deals they have going on, there is something good there for everyone! http://www.shutterfly.com/

Here is the background I am thinking that I may use:

Monkeyin' Around

First Aid... in the 6th Grade

Matthew joined Boy Scouts this year. He has been in Scouts for 2 or 3 years before this, but we took a break last year. He switched troops this year to a homeschool troop and he is loving it. And I love it because it is the first thing so far in this school year that has caused him to pick up and read a book (Boy Scout Handbook) without me having to stand over him and threaten bodily harm (which is not so conducive to a relaxing reading atmosphere). In honor of Matthew reading a book, I present you with pictures of him giving us all a (very funny) seminar on proper administration of first aid for a nosebleed :


caring for a burn victim's wounds:


And of course, your standard, run-of-the-mill boo-boo:

He also enlightened us on how to care for bug bites, snakes bites, blisters and ingrown toenails (not really) and other various injuries common to rascally little kids like mine!

Don't Grow Up Too Fast

One of my prayers for my kids is that I pray they don't grow up too quickly, and that they keep an innocence about them in regards to "worldly" things... I find that they are changing so fast lately that I can barely keep up, and some days I feel like it is all passing me by. But, for today, they are still my babies...

Matt's 12th Birthday!

This year, Matthew had a sleepover with a bunch of friends (Noah, Chase, Nick and Christopher) for his main birthday celebration, so we were not sure what to do for his family celebration. I don't usually ever deviate from any established holiday traditions, but I guess I am learning to be more flexible...he asked if we could have a birthday breakfast with cinnamon rolls instead of cake. He even humored me by pretending to blow out candles on his "cake":

I thought this year was especially fun because his younger sisters were old enough to pick out and even help pay for the gifts that they picked for him!

I must say, the birthday breakfast was a lot more fun (for me) than the sleepover!

Fourth of July

We went to the Fourth of July celebration at the Conyers Horse Park this year, along with Nuna and Papa Hollinhead. All of the kids swiped Papa's "country hat" (that's what Irene & Abbie call it) at least once. We found a nice spot under the trees to park our chairs,

and then wandered around to see what there was to see. We watched a dog agility contest (here we are, trying to see over the crowd),

looked some cars that I think Michael would have liked looking at, but I had little to no appreciation for their beauty :

Nuna and Abbie shared a funnel cake, while I hogged one all to myself,

and then settled in to wait (what seemed like forever...) for the fireworks to start.

We all got a little bit bored, and a lot silly....
see exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Exhibit D:


and, Exhibit E:

All in all, it was a fun Independence Day, but it did make me long for the simple days of watching fireworks from Cazenovia Lake in my dad's beat up old Starcraft.
But then again, we didn't get any funnel cakes...

My Bookshelf: When You Rise Up, by RC Sproul, Jr

I decided that I will start posting books that I have finished reading, mostly just because I love to talk about books. I don't have any great literary analysis skills, that's for sure, but maybe it will be useful information to someone looking for something to read. It also helps me remember what I have read because, believe it or not, sometimes I forget I have already read a book! I don't seem to find a whole lot of time to read these days, but what books my measly, puny reading list does include I will make a quick note of. A final reason for posting it is to let anyone who may want to borrow it from me that they are welcome to it, I have too many books on my shelf already!
Now that I am done explaining why I am telling you what I am reading or have read, I will say that I really liked this book. There was nothing really earth-shattering or ground-breaking about it, but it was a great reminder of the "why" of homeschooling. In a nutshell, it helped me to renew my resolve and to take a minute to stop and commit this school year to the Lord, to whom it belongs already. For someone still on the fence about deciding whether to homeschool or not, I will just say that Sproul comes on very strong in making his case. I personally agree with almost all of what he says here (at least in theory), but not everyone will. It is a fairly short book, and it is not a "how-to" book. If you are looking for that, it will come up short. Basically, the book is based on applying Deuteronomy 6 to the education of our children, and most all of the text flows within that theme. The one aspect of the book that I might say was a bit of a negative is that it is not very grace-filled toward those who see things differently, but in my case there was no problem there for me. All in all, it all boils down to...I liked this book!

My little seamstress

Irene really loves to sew. I, however, am really not very good at sewing so I always groan a little when she asks if she can sew. To her, up until now, sewing has just meant making designs with yarn on those plastic embroidery fabric thingies, but when she saw me getting out a needle and fabric because I needed to make a couple of bean bags for an activity at VBS, she was right there. I ended up showing her a basic stitch and letting her go to town on it, her very first "real" sewing project.

So, South Point kids, your beanbag activities this year came courtesy of my little seamstress! Voila!

Uncle Joe & Brad come to town!

My brother Joe and (his son) Brad came to visit us, late in June, too. Actually it was the same day that Hannah & Grant were here, so they met some of my family! They probably wondered what in the world was going on, the Moore family gatherings are always a little on the boisterous side, but they seemed pretty fine with it. Makes me wonder if their family has a boisterous crowd, too?



Joe has always had a way with my kids. Even as babies, they have all just always loved Uncle Joe. (Matthew has always looked up to Brad...and he couldn't have picked a better guy!) Abbie took this picture of Uncle Joe.



And then they started taking pictures of each other. If you wonder how long this went on, it was quite a while.... We had a great time with them, they had to go too soon!

Good friends, good times...

I am woefully, pitifully behind on getting anything put on my blog. These pictures were taken in late June, when Irene and Abbie had their friends Hannah & Grant over to swim, play and eat a pb & j. Seriously, good times!
(It was so hot & humid out the lens kept fogging up, that's why everyone has that angelic glow!)

Powertime Camp

Rachel & Matthew were so excited to be able to go to Powertime summer camp in South Carolina this year. They had a blast! I would like to think that they missed us and were ready to come home by the time we picked them up, because I know their little sisters were ready for them to come home!

Matthew's primary focus as he retold the events of the week were the recurring theme of hanging out with his awesome counselor, fun times on the "Blob", and the fact that he was the only camper not afraid of the driver of the boat that pulled the tube for the non-stop tubing action ("Dr. Death", aka Tom). Sorry for that horrible run-on sentence.


This was Rachel's last year to be able to go, and it was very important to her to be able to go and say goodbye to some friends. Truthfully, this was the biggest reason for making the decision to send them. As it turned out, none of Rachel's old friends were able to come, so it turned into a growing and s t r e t c h i n g experience for her. I believe that she still had a great time, and God helped her work through some things that had been weighing her down. It was definitely time well spent for her.

I love moments like the one in the picture below...taken before the bickering ensued over which one of them was going to listen to stories first on *my* iPod shuffle, and who should get the back seat, and everyone started moaning "I'm hot...", or "I'm hungry"... It is one of those rare moments when you know that your kids are truly, genuinely thrilled to see and hug each other. But all good things on earth must end (5 seconds later), so we get in the car to finish the road trip...

Just Do Something

I was spending a little too much time on the computer this morning. I was blog surfing. I really like CJ Mahaney as an author (his book "Living the Cross Centered Life" is a favorite of mine) so every once in a while I meander over to his blog and see what's new. He had a post on there that struck such a chord with me that I had to re-post it, I hope that's legal! Here is a link to it, in case that makes it more legal:

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Just-Do-Something.aspx The general gist of it is a list compiled by Kevin DeYoung (who wrote a book called Just Do Something) about not always needing to wait on God to give us some cataclysmic event or sign to prompt us into action, but using the brains He gave us and His word to guide us. I think this promotes living in an attitude of appreciating every day with it's "smallness" and seemingly insignificant details being a day that God gave us, and a day that can bring God glory in the regular things that we do. It resonated with me because I sometimes tend to seek after "fireworks" in the way I see God moving in my life and the lives of others, but this encouraged me to set my eyes to an everyday faithfulness in the small things, that aren't really small at all. Here is where my words end and Mahaney's begin:

Just Do Something
By C.J. Mahaney7/13/2010 8:23:00 AM

To close out his Next 2010 conference message, “The Church,” Kevin DeYoung gave a list of suggestions for how to be a difference maker in the local church. He said:

• Find a good local church.
• Get involved.
• Become a member.
• Stay there as long as you can.
• Put away thoughts of a revolution for a while.
• Join the plodding visionaries.
• Go to church this Sunday and worship in Spirit and truth.
• Be patient with your leaders.
• Rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.
• Bear with those who hurt you.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt.
• Say “hi” to the teenager that no one notices.
• Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.
• Volunteer for the nursery.
• Attend the congregational meeting.
• Bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everybody else.
• Invite a friend.
• Take a new couple out for coffee.
• Give to the Christmas offering.
• Sing like you mean it.
• Be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet for you.
• Enjoy the Sundays that “click.”
• Pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t.
• And in all of this, do not despise the days and weeks and years of small things (Zechariah 4:8–10).

I cannot recommend this message too highly. Please take time to download and listen to “The Church” by visiting the resource page at thisisnext.org.

There is one more message from the conference I want to highlight. We will do that next time

Going to Greenville

We went to South Carolina in June, to take Matthew & Rachel to Powertime Camp. The kids had all been waiting for this day to arrive for so long, we haven't gone anywhere since last summer, and they were itchy for a road trip! Here they are, ready to hit the road (Irene wore her Mickey Mouse shirt for her little buddy Grant, who loves M.M. !)



After we dropped Matthew & Rachel off for their week of fun, we headed on to my sister Karen's house in Greenvile, SC. Irene & Abbie loved spending time in her neighborhood pool, they are like little fish!

We were able to squeak in a quick visit up to my sister Colleen's as well, she lives in Kernersville, NC. The girls have such a great time with her three girls, who are all teens and so good to my kids. Here are the three of us (Colleen, myself, Karen). One night was not enough time for three sisters to catch up!

It was so different to have just the two girls with me. It took a little bit of getting used to, but we really had fun together. My sister Karen ("Aunt Krinny") and the girls just love each other's company, they all love the same things...shopping, being silly, and more shopping! I have a hard time keeping up with the three of them...

Matthew's Baptism

Matthew Scott Hollinhead (my baby!!)
baptized on May 30th, 2010
at South Point Church,
by Rev. Matthew Means

There is nothing that compares to the joy of knowing that your children truly love God!

Veritas Graduation '10

This year I was so happy to go to my second Veritas graduation ceremony (the first one was Michael's graduation). Both times that I have gone I have left more inspired and encouraged than when I came in.

As I watched the graduates and listened to what their parents shared about their lives with these students I felt truly honored to be there, and to be part of a school like Veritas.

I have known Bethani (above) since she was just barely old enough to babysit, and yet now she has grown into a lovely and mature young woman. As I listened to her dad talk about how quickly she had grown, I relived Michael's leaving home, and wondered what it will feel like next spring as I say those things about Rachel?

I know it is trite, cliche, and all the rest...but my, how time flies!!