Playing Catch-Up

As usual, I have been so mired in the actual hullabaloo that I have not had a chance to say a thing on THE Hollinhead Hullabaloo...heehee. Is it okay if I take just a minute to catch up on what has been happening around here the last month or so?

~ Irene's violin lessons are going swimmingly...she struggled a bit at first and still sometimes, with getting things "right" with it and even wanting to try, but she is coming along. She is working on the introduction to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. (side note: we love her teacher so much...besides being a very accomplished musician for her young age, she is a great role model for Irene!) We were able to go to a strings concert at Spivey Hall recently for a field trip and we are all amazed at what musical gifts God has given some people, and what can be accomplished with hard work.

~Rachel is continuing to work hard at Southern Crescent at her classes and debating on whether or not to take some summer classes. What she would really like to do is find a camp counselor position for the summer, so if anyone knows of some leads for that, we would love to know!

~ Matt is doing great, working hard on his Life Scout rank and almost there. I am so thankful that the Lord led him to a niche that is such a great fit for him and where he feels acceptance and is also stretched and challenged a bit. Academics are a whole 'nuther story ...

~ Abbie is doing well, just being Abbie! Sometimes I just look at her and have this overwhelming feeling of how much I like her. Obviously, I like and love all of my kids, it is not something more than how I feel about the others, I think it is just because she is coming out of being a little girl and seems to be acting more like a big girl in some ways. Mostly just expressions and things she says. As always it is bittersweet but I am appreciating what a gift and blessing I have now and will have in years to come in the companionship with my children.

~ Things to bore the reader, but are exciting to me...after 15 years of abuse by 5 kids and 2 rather messy adults, we are having new carpeting put in. TODAY! It has been a much bigger job than I imagined. It feels like we have basically moved. A full 2/3 of our house is sitting out in a portable trailer in the front yard (you've gotta love that portable trailer look, right?) And tomorrow come the new appliances. I am not complaining, in the least, but after 5 years with no dishwasher, and 6 years of bending down to light the pilot light on my oven every time I need to cook, I am SO READY!!!! I am so very very thankful. God provided this through a bonus from work for Mike. Although it took just about the whole thing, and I am fighting feeling guilty about that, I do feel like it was a good investment. Especially if we do decide to try to rent the house out, which is looking less and less likely. This will sure make it more fun to stay here!

~ My Aunt Jeannette passed away, and I took a very fast trip with my sister Karen and the two girls up to Michigan to go to the funeral. It was very sad of course, but good to spend the time with Karen and good to see my mom and two of my other siblings, Joe & Kathy.

~ That about wraps up all of the factual info about what has been going on, but I want to end by sharing the thing that I have not been able to shake free from my mind....the other day we were driving along in the car and we were listening to Amazing Grace, the one redone by Chris Tomlin that changes some of the lyrics and adds the "My chains are gone, I've been set free" part. The kids all know that song pretty well because we used to sing it at South Point quite a bit. Well, the part that warms a mama's heart is that I glanced up in the rearview mirror to check my move into the next lane on I-75 and glimpsed Irene...eyes closed, faced tipped up toward Heaven, arms spread wide and lips singing the words silently. We don't really ever truly know all of what is in our kids' hearts, and sometimes it seems like we mostly get to see an oversized portion of the selfish side. It is good, so good to see that she loves her God, and it shone all over her face. She wasn't expecting me to see, she didn't even know I did. I believe it was a gift from God to me that day. It was enough to encourage me to press on, press on...

Gifts 155-159

Gifts I am thankful for today:

~Irene finally gets to start taking violin lessons, after three years of asking!

~I'm thankful for Abby...so glad to have you in our family! I know we can't be the easiest to live with but I am so happy that you're with us!

~ God's timing is always perfect. He knows what we need all the time, always before we do. He is in control of who the pastor of our church is, and He is in control of where I live, and He is in control of how many breaths I take in my lifetime...I am so glad that He knows all of these things and that I can trust in Him!

~cheap peanut butter at Publix this week....Abbie goes through some pb & j 's!!

~a warm cuddly bed to get into at night

Panola Mountain

This weekend was nice...nothing very pressing to do. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, and for the first time in a long time I felt the itch to get out into the woods. Matthew was spending the night with his friend from Boy Scouts, so I went with Rachel, Irene and Abbie up to Panola Mountain to hike the exercise trail. I don't know who came up with these exercises, but not one of us seems to have the know-how or athletic ability to do them correctly...we misuse every piece of equipment on that trail, but it still makes for a great Saturday afternoon!



I hope Rachel doesn't hate me too much for this one:




As you will note, I mostly just stood around with a camera and laughed at them while they did the exercises, but once in a while they were able to drag me out to "participate" in a very non-strenuous fashion.





And last but not least, I took a picture of this tree just because I thought it would be cool to mat & frame a tree that looks like an "H", to stand for....wait for it.....HOLLINHEAD! I would really like to try and get a bit more artwork to fill our walls, but I tend to be a little perfectionistic when it comes to that. What I mean by that is, I want to do it right, and since I feel like I am not very good at choosing and placing art on the walls and decorating in general, I tend to just not start. (Also, it is really expensive!) Pinterest has been giving me some good ideas for inexpensive decorating, and I am hoping to get moving with a few of them soon. That's really a totally irrelevant tangent, though!

In Honor Of....

In honor of Rachel starting college, officially, this week, I am reposting an old post from her graduation...

 

Not only is this one of my my favorite graduation pictures of Rachel, it is one of my favorite pictures; ever. Some pictures capture a single breath in time that is symbolic of much more. I look at this picture and a flood of thoughts rush through my mind.

My Rachel is GRADUATING.
My mom looks so small.
Everything changes.
One day each one of my children will stand in that gown.
Years in this life fly past like seconds.
When she was three, the doctor said she may never talk.
That yellow Honors cord means so much more than Straight A's.

All of those things are true, but none more so than the last statement. I know that pride is a sin. But maybe there is a different kind of pride? Maybe it is better described as joy. But I can't help feeling pride, joy, and love well up in my heart when I look at the expression on Rachel's face, at the demeanor with which she wraps her arm around her Nana's shoulder. It is just so her, through and through. She is tender, caring, gentle, soft and sweet. Kind, generous, thoughtful, loving. She is an "Honors" student, but what means so much more to me is that she is a student of honor. She honors her father and mother. She honors her siblings and friends. I can honestly say that she is a young woman of character, faith, integrity and honor. Not perfect. Just willing for God to change her. Just willing to take up her cross and follow Jesus. I am honored that the Lord saw fit to let her come live and grow with us. Truly, I do not deserve her.
Thank You, Lord, for this one of many blessings.

Isaiah 44:3
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

2011 in Review

Whew! It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. We are already sailing headlong into the new year, and I have yet to put up any pictures of Thanksgiving, let alone Christmas. If this blog is supposed to reflect my real life, then I suppose it is fitting. Recently, there has been no time to document...life has just come at us too quickly. A quick look back over 2011, and just a few of the events that are worth remembering:

~A February snowstorm



~Meeting Henry (my very adorable nephew!)



~My first grandchild born, sweet Madison Renae !



~Took many, many field trips...to name a few: Museum of Biblical Antiquities, Spivey Hall Children's Concerts, Tellus Museum, Southern Belle strawberry farm, Nash Farm Civil War museum, Greenville Zoo, Southern Railway Train Museum among others!


~Rachel turned 19

~Rachel graduated from Veritas Classical School and homeschooling,


...so Nana, the aunts & uncles and the cousins came



~Irene turns 8 !


~Abbie & Irene's first ballet recital with Miss Anna's class




~Summer fun with friends




~Inside Out and Upside Down on Main Street !




~ We said a hello in our hearts to our sixth child, and then said goodbye until we meet our sweet baby in Heaven. If I could speak to our child now, I would say that you are loved every bit as much as your brothers and sisters, and we miss you greatly. We look ahead with rejoicing to the day when we can meet you face to face!

~Ben & Kayla's wedding




~Mike turns 40 !!!!!



~ Wished the Means family blessings as they moved ahead to the next chapter in their lives!

~ Matthew turns 13 !




~Matthew's FIRST CONCERT !!! (Third Day & Tenth Avenue North @ Macon Arena)



~Abbie & Irene send "baby Moses" down the river (that was funnier than a blog post can capture...one of the reasons I love my girls so much is because they think up crazy stuff like this!)


~Abbie turns SIX!


~Fall fun and festivals






~Trip to Covenant College and camping at Cloudland Canyon (Land of a Million Steps)



~Mickey, Abby & Madison come to stay with us for a while, just in time for Thanksgiving!



~South Point Youth went to Windy Gap Camp, in N.C.


~Went with Madison to go see Santa on the Square:



~Spending Maddie's first Christmas with her and her mommy & daddy was such a blessing!!


Goodbye, 2011...you were a good, crazy, terrible, wonderful year! Thank you Lord, for sustaining us with your grace through another year of life's joys and pains!

Gifts 149-154

I have been filling my facebook statuses (stati??) up this month with things that I am thankful for in honor of the approach of Thanksgiving. You would think that the more you search your brain for things that you have to be thankful for, the more difficult it would become as you exhaust all of the usual topics. In fact, it seems to work just the opposite. The more you open your eyes to blessings all around you, the more you are able to comprehend how truly blessed you are, which causes you to see yet even more blessings. Here are a few more that I have been thankful for this weekend...

149~ a great fellowship with the lovely ladies from my church at a brunch. We exchanged our "favorite things", which leads me to my next blessing...

150~ thank you, thank you thank you Jessica! I am still so very happy and excited to be sporting a new cup that I am thrilled to dump Coke Zero into but am also hoping may help me become a better water-drinker. I LOVE IT so much!

151~ the discovery that there is free music available out there on the web...I have been getting a hold of codes for free downloads of some songs that I would probably not known about otherwise and am really loving. Love new (and free!) music on the Shuffle!

152~ a sudden and temporary boon in cleaning jobs due to the approaching holidays...I am so thankful for the opportunity to earn a little extra Christmas money!

153~ as I hear of more and more people who are becoming unemployed, I am reminded of how the Lord has blessed us with a stable job for Mike. Despite mistakes at work, the worst that he faces is a leave of absence. Thank you Lord for your favor with those who make these decisions!

154~ the sound of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the pennywhistle as Irene continues to practice

Gifts 136-148

136~ a safe trip to Lookout Mountain, Georgia and back (God provided for all that we needed when I had only $15 in my pocket for the trip up! Thankfully payday came before the trip back home.)

137~ We had such a fun time camping ...the first two days, that is. Rain came the second night and next morning. But most of it was a blast, when I managed to stop gritting my teeth and just enjoy! After hiking all day, I have never tasted anything as good as those hobo packets we made!


138~ Nature walk treasure hunt on a cool fall day



138~Rachel was accepted to Covenant College! Although we have decided after visiting that she will need to wait on the Lord to provide the right opportunities for her and she will not be going to CC right away, we are so excited and proud of her that she worked hard on improving her SAT & ACT scores to the point that they met CC's requirements. This is an accomplishment!

139~ Sound of geese flying overhead as they head south

140~ the scent of cinnamon in the kitchen from the cinnamon broom I smelled in Publix and just couldn't walk past!

141~ A board game from our food co-op that is about Exodus, which we are reading about right now. It makes me so happy that God cares about those details of our life!

142~fun making little "acorns" with Abbie & Irene out of Hershey kisses and Nutter Butter minis. So much fun for them!

143~ this one is old but deserves a belated mention...friends (you know who you are!) who so kindly let me into their homes for a hot shower when I had no hot water!

144~ In the same vein, still more friends (you also know who you are!)who offered their homes for food, showers laundry and you-name-it when our plumbing problem left us temporarily without water...thank you does not say enough.

145~my sister who is so good to me and helped me out of a tight spot...thank you!

146~ This crisp, cool (even cold!) fall weather feels so good!!!!!

147~ 50 cent corndogs at Sonic equals one CHEAP DINNER (it's the little things!)

148~ The Lord answering prayers for a job for Michael (Jr.)...he got the job with CSX. He is very excited, even about the location (Buffalo, NY). As a central N.Y. native, I am not sure he understands what he is in for in Buffalo, but I am so happy for him and know it will be an adventure. Thank you, God, for answering prayers and providing all that we need!