Brenda's 13th Birthday Party

Brenda started off her birthday party with a Jonas Brother's birthday cake. What could be better huh?


There were presents
bowling dancing,


a cake fight :-)

and games. I think the girls had a fun night. Brenda has been blessed with great girl friends!!

I'm so proud of the young woman she is turning into.

She finished the evening off by spending the night with her friend, Emily.

Air Conditioning

It's official ~~~~~ we now have air conditioning!!!!

For those of you not up on our crazy heating/air conditioning ~~~~ it's been a long time coming. (It's a 100 year old house and then there was a house fire that destroyed what we did have)

It's done now and we don't owe a dime on it. It could have been done much quicker, but we have made a commitment to God not to go into any more debt and we just waited until we could afford the air. It really is a luxury not a need. So my darling (HVAC Tech) husband has our house cool!!! We slept under covers last night for the first time since I can't remember when. It's sooooo nice!!! It's such a blessing to have a husband who can do so many things. It is such a big weight off his mind knowing this is taken care off. There are still some things we are going to keep working on to make it better (insulation, second unit for the upstairs) but it is cool today and that is all that matters right now!!! :-)

Busy Weeks

We are busily getting ready for school. Here's the countdown so far...

Dentist - done - 6 out of 6 children - plus an extra visit for 2 cavities for Emily

Eye Dr. - 2 out of 6 so far - 4 more to go next week - Terry had his first eye check up - he wasn't too keen on the puff of air or the eye drops - said he didn't think he would go back there!! :-)

School clothes, shoes and book bags - 5 out of 6 - Still have to do Troy's next week (I've been working on this one per week for the past 5 weeks - that way it wasn't such a chunk out of the budget. This is the first year that I've had to buy school clothes for all the children at the same time. $$$$ In home school, it didn't matter so much. Gwyn pointed out I am saving a lot of money this year with not having to buy any home school books - so I guess it really evens out!)

Registration - 1 of 6 done - Troy got his class list and school id yesterday, all the others go next week

Hair cuts - none done yet - what have I been doing, just sitting around?

I'm still looking forward (albeit a little nervously) to all the children going to school for the first time this year? Everyone keeps asking me what I'm going to do. (Stephen told a lady at church that I was going to spend my day watching Dr. Phil!!) :-) Even with them all gone, I don't think I'm going to have to hunt too hard to find things that need to be done!!! :-)

E-Bay

I have been working this week on de-cluttering. I have mostly been working on my bedroom - cleaning all the tops of things!! I am also working a little clearing out school books and putting some on e-bay. I am hoping to make some money to put towards some things for the house. It feels good to be clearing out so much stuff.

Yesterday Troy and Brenda left for the beach with the youth group for the week. Before they left Troy helped me take a big load to Goodwill. How do we come up with so much "stuff". I already have another full bag ready to go and it's only 10:00 in the morning.

Bible School

Terry after a fun night.

Stephen and Bobby singing for the parents.

The kids loved Bible School. I let Troy take the pictures of the program at the end of the week. That will be Troy's last time as official photographer for a while. This is all I got. The video was hilarious - the camera turns a complete 180~~

Anyway, Karla - the Children's Pastor - is great and they have wonderful volunteers with Bible School. I am thinking of helping next year if I'm still sane after all the children have gone back to school.

Emily at swimming lessons

Emily - getting ready for swimming lessons
So cute

First time across the whole pool.

Learning to put her face in the water

Mitten Strings for God - Chapter 6

Book study with Dawn from By Sun and Candlelight...

Chapter 6 - TV

Ok, ok...I know it's been a long time since I've been working on my book study, but Dawn, who is leading the study hasn't finished either, so I decided to keep working on it. :-)

TV....

What a loaded topic to me. I have this love hate relationship with the TV. I am addicted.

One of the best things we ever did during the first year of our marriage was to get rid of cable TV. Artie loves sports - any sports - all sports. He can watch golf, bowling, horse racing, anything with a ball, boxing, you name it and he enjoys watching. He realized that watching a big game every night (and with cable there is always something sporty on - EVERY NIGHT) wasn't the best way to begin our marriage. We were able to take that time and get to know each other - more deeper than ever before (we dated 10 years before we were married, so we already knew each other better than most people do).

We've had cable on and off over the years. This is a currently off season. It's just too tempting for the children. Troy likes to get up in the middle of the night and watch TV - and have you seen what is on in the middle of the night??? The kids shows/teen shows are just never ending. So, our nice little 4 channels on regular TV are there but mostly we watch videos when we watch.

Just like Dawn,


"I LOVE the idea of no TV. Or I should say, I LOVE the idea of less TV. I have nothing but respect and admiration for people who have no interaction with media at all. But, call me a child of the 70s ~ I simply can't imagine having no access to TV at all."

I've mentioned getting rid of the TV to Artie (the easiest way to deal with the addiction, not having to daily work through not letting it be master of me) many times over the years and he always looks at me like I want to cut someone's head off. :-) It's a funny conversation because I love TV and movies much more than he does. But hey, football is always just around the corner...


I am so inspired by watching Livie Walton or Sara from the Sara Plain and Tall Series. I love to sit down to a good movie and just get all caught up in the characters or scenery (I just watched Pearl Diver this weekend - it was a beautifully filmed movie).

Artie is gone to the lake for his friend - Jack's - birthday party. He will be gone all day. I rented West Side Story to watch with the big kids tonight. It's been years since we've seen it. It is Troy's all time favorite musical. It will be new to Emily. I think she will probably love it too. It's fun to rewatch movies with the younger children that the older ones so enjoyed.

Another fun thing we like to do is watch movies of the books we read. This year we read and watched...

The Little Princess - girls
Peter Pan - Emily
Taming of the Shrew (still waiting on the video to come in) - girls
Mother Teresa - Brenda (biography study)
The Gospel of John - all Christmas study
Rhythm of Resistance: Black South African Music - Troy (working with public school)
Little Red Riding Hood - Emily
Charlotte's Web - Emily
Hiding Place - Brenda (biography study - Corrie Ten Boom)
Holocaust: Ravensbruck and Buchenwald - Brenda (Corrie Ten Boom)
Saving Sara Cain - Kelly (Beverly Lewis)
Prince of Egypt - all - Bible study
The Gift of the Magi - all - Bible study
Nativity: The Life of Jesus Christ - all - Christmas study
The Nativity Story - all - Christmas study
Biography: Life of Mary - all - Christmas study
Close to Jesus - Life of Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Nazareth - all - Christmas study
Legend of the Candy Cane - all - Christmas study
The Legend of the Three Trees - all - Christmas study
The works of Beatrix Potter - Emily (artist study)
Cinderella - Emily

It seems to enhance the story so much when the movie is viewed after the book. It has never failed yet that the children like the book much better than the movie!! Right now we are waiting until we read the Kit (American Girl) books before we go and watch the movie. :-)


This summer, we have enjoyed watching movies together as a family more. It has been fun to have Artie watching the Hardy Boys mysteries with us - something I watched growing up. We have enjoyed all having dinner around the TV with the windows open and the breezes blowing in. It will be fun memories added to our summertime. It's been a nice break through the blazing heat outside!!!

Favorite All Time Movie - Legends of the Fall

Worst Movie I Ever Saw - Silence of the Lambs (that was years ago, and I'm still mad that I was dumb enough to watch something like that!!)

Favorite TV show - the Walton's (was there any wondering?)

Favorite TV people - Lucy and Ethel

Favorite TV place - Mayberry (we got to visit one year on the way home from our summer vacation) - more fun memories

Favorite Reality Show - American Idol

Looking Forward to Returning - The Unit and 24

Worst TV shows - all those "eat um' up" shows like CSI, it's not enough now that someone has to kill another person, you have to delve inside their dead body or hear of someone eating them. I'll pass on all those thank you.

I'm looking forward to watching the Olympics coming up. It's getting close. The whole family usually watches that together too when we can. We are especially looking forward to the wrestling and gymnastics which the boys participated in this past year. We are hoping to go and see the Olympic Gymnast Team perform in a nearby town after the Olympics are finished.

Tuesday

Tuesday in the Quinn Home

Breakfast -
Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal (free yesterday with coupons from Wal-Mart)


Children:

Troy - home, waiting on tonight's service with the Jerusalem Project

Brenda - out working in the heat with the Jerusalem Project (it was suppose to hit 100 degrees today)

Emily - making tea with her dolly

Stephen - playing video games in his free time

Bobby - doctor visit

Terry - resting up from a long day swimming yesterday


Bible Study -
printed out Reading the Bible in Chronological Order for when the children start school and I get my quiet, alone time with God again!!! I'm so excited. I've never read the Bible through in that order, have ya'll?


Finances -
listed 4 items on e-bay (working to make money for new bedroom sheets),
one trip to Food Lion, still need to stop by BiLo and Walgreens when Artie gets in from work


Lunch -
leftover black bean quesadillas from last night's dinner


Reading -
The Honor Girl by G L Hill (while waiting at the doctor's office with Bobby)


Tonight's dinner -
chicken and rice in the crock pot (using up a chicken found in the freezer) - trying to use up what we have before I go out and buy more

Happy day~~~

Celia

"It was not in Celia's nature st stay in a room and not make those little changes of picking up a shoe and straightening a quilt and hanging clothing out of sight. She did it as a matter of course."

"I have never tried to be "pretty" as you call it. I only tried to be clean and neat, and have things look as nice as I could without spending much money."


A Daily Rate by Grace Livingston Hill

Help, I'm Melting!!!

Gaffney, South Carolina

Current Conditions Updated: 4:20 PM EDT MON JUL 21 2008

Partly Cloudy, Temp: 97°F

Humidity:
32%

Wind Speed:
SSW 6 mph

Barometer:
29.94 in.

Dewpoint:
63°F

Heat Index:
98°F

Jerusalem Project: God of this City

Brenda will be working this week with the Jersalem Project. Please keep her and the team in your prayers. I just know it will be a wonderful week!!

Our "Jersalem" is Gaffney, that is where the teams will be working. They will be helping with home repairs, painting, and small building projects - like wheelchair ramps. I'm sure it will be a growing time for all.

I'm so proud of the whole team. Isn't this why we raise our children? To be the hands and feet of Jesus, to reach out to the poor and needy?

Dress Parade

"Celia had not spent her afternoon at the parade. Instead, she had been in her small, cold, back bedroom on the third story, attending to various worn garments which needed mending. They had been spread out on the bed in a row, and she had gone steadily down the line putting a few stitches here, a button there and setting in a patch in another, counting every minute of daylight hoping to finish her work before it faded, for the gas in her room was dim, the burner being old and worn out. She tried to be cheerful over the work. She called it her 'dress parade.' She knew it was the best way in which to accomplish as much as she wished to do."

A Daily Rate by Grace Livingston Hill

Disney's Enchanted -

So, this is my current favorite song of the week. I'm trying to get Brenda to learn it with me so we can teach the littles, but she is not amused!!!

Movie not appropriate for little children - Rocky. (What's wrong with their mother that she would let them watch such a movie with all that language?) I just remembered what a good and inspiring movie it was. It had been probably 20 years since I had actually seen the movie. I was a lot less discriminate back then!! :-) The language didn't even register in my brain.

Appropriate for children - Enchanted.

I loved this movie. (There were some intense scenes for little children with the witch (who we had just watched as Marmee last week in Little Women!!), the old woman and dragon.) But, considering the night before, we had let them watch Rocky, it wasn't too bad. :-) The best part was when he sang to her!!! :-)

And Pip was so cute too!! Especially when he was doing charades saying "It's good"~~~~~

Boys' Birthday

Terry decided to wait and have his birthday dinner with the twins this year. Stephen picked the restaurant - Bronco's Mexican - because his teacher had told him it was her favorite restaurant. He had been waiting a while to go. It was so yummy!!! Artie and I love it there too. They ate chips and salsa, tacos, and burritos.

Stephen and Bobby are now 7 and Terry is 5!!!

The party continued the next day with swimming at Uncle Bryan's lake~~~~

Elmo even got in on the fun!!

Later in the afternoon, Granny came by for a visit....

Brenda - Not Getting Wet

Summer Time

Nothing says summer like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich outside after playing in the water!!!

The Hardy Boys

When Troy finally began to like reading (in the third or fourth grade??) it was from reading The Hardy Boys mysteries. He read all he could get his hands on. He had many at home and then read all the school had. The librarian even ordered more for him to read. It definitely started him down a great path loving books. (His current favorite author is Frank Peretti)

So in looking for some fun movies for us to watch, I stumbled on the old Hardy Boys series. I loved this when I was growing up. Shaun Cassidy? Who could resist. It has been fun watching them and Nancy Drew as well. All the children are hooked. Stephen is the funniest. If he gets a little scared wondering what is going to happen next, he stands up and backs out of the room, but never takes his eyes off the TV. It's so great, because everything is always figured out - there isn't a ghost or a pirate or any other crazy thing - just the bad guy who always gets caught. I so hate all the CSI type shows where you have to look inside dead bodies and watch people do every imaginable evil thing. It's fun to just be able to watch a mystery with the kids and know no one is going to cuss or cut a body part off.

And the fashions!!! Last night we were watching Nancy Drew and I kept saying, I used to have a blazer and button up shirt just like that. See how they have a sweater with the button up shirt rolled up over the sleeves? Mama use to look just like that. Daddy just smiled - he fell in love with that girl!!

Don't forget the music. Troy has been blessed to learn the Da Doo Run Run!! All things come back around??

Well probably watch the new Nancy Drew later when these are finished up. Bet it won't be as good....

Brenda with her Interpretive Dance Team

Here is a performance the girls die for an assembly at Granard Junior High. Brenda is on the bottom right in the picture and then on the front row far right in the video (grey t-shirt). Sorry, the video is a little dark and wiggly. I don't know what's wrong with that camera person!!! The song they are dancing to is True Beauty by Mandisa (from American Idol). Angie Wilkerson does a great job teaching them.

Here are the lyrics... It's a great message for teenage girls...

True Beauty

Do You think that a California girl is supposed to have curls and wear a jean size 3?

All the curves in all the right places, spray tanned faces like on TV?

And we read in the gospel of Vogue that we're all supposed to dress and move and be

Visions of perfection

Such a misconception

'Cause the real connection is deeper than the eye can see

Chorus:

What's inside of you

What's inside of me

The hands that made the moon and the stars

The mountains and the seas

Made you wonderful, beautiful, marvelously

Let the whole world see your

True beauty

Don't know much about Dolce and Gabbana

Seems like a lot of drama to me

And you can keep all your red high heels

And open-toed shoes - I'm good in my bare feet

Lets get down to the nitty gritty

Enough sex and the city

What about purity?

Skin is just the surface

The passion and the purpose that's burning down inside us

Is really what we need to see

Chorus

Doesn't come in a bottle, doesn't come in a box

You can't spray it on, you can't wash it off

You can't nip and tuck, you can't sew it up

So don't waste your time

It's the love in your heart, the peace in your soul

The hope in your smile lets the whole world know

This little light - you gotta let it shine

Chorusx2

A Daily Rate

And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life...

2 Kings 25:30

"Charge not thyself with the weight of a year,
Child of the Master, faithful and dear,
Choose not the cross for the coming week,
For that is more than he bids thee seek,
Bend not thine arms for to-morrow's load,
Thou mayest leave that to they gracious God,
Daily, only he says to thee,
'Take up thy cross and follow me.'"

"She smiled to herself in the dim light and thought this must be part of the Master's plan to fix it so that she could do this duty and her others also. This was all he asked her to do, just what she had strength for. He gave her the daily allowance of that. "

~ Grace Livingston Hill in A Daily Rate

Grace Livingston Hill

I have read all but the last 2 of Beverly Lewis' books. I am waiting to get the second to last through my Paperback Book Swap.



I was wondering what I was going to read next and found a wonderful author through the writings of Anna at Pleasant View Schoolhouse.

Grace Livingston Hill

Anna even has a blog dedicated to GLH - Neat and Dainty as a Flower.

Mrs. Hill is a beautiful writer with a strong Christian witness in her books, a wonderful homemaking spirit and to top it all off - she's a LADY!!

You don't see many of those any more!!



Her writings take me away and give me an extra lift to do things just a little nicer than normal. Giving everything the extra touch. She makes me think of my Aunt Violet who so had that gift.

The Little Rascals

Another movie the children have loved is The Little Rascals. First they watched the newer version. They were in stitches watching Alfalfa dancing in a tutu. They went out that afternoon and made a couple of boxes and an old pedal car they had into "The Blur". That turned into days of fun.

Here is a picture of their "Blur". Bobby was the driver in the picture. This was weeks after they originally made it and right before it finally fell apart. I just had to get a picture of what was left. :-)

The week before we went to Charleston, we received the original Little Rascals from Blockbuster Online.

Again, they roared with laughter at all the antics. It's funny to watch it again now after all these years have passed. It is definitely not politically correct ~ there is drinking, stealing, smoking, violence, pants ripped off /showing underwear for laughs and kids running wild & unsupervised through the neighborhood. All back in the days when children didn't have to worry about child predators and evil things like that and could run and play wherever they wanted as long as they were home by dark. I could never let my kids out of my sight like that in these times!! Spanky had the best laugh - how can you not smile when you hear him!!!! A great laugh for my kids!!!

Movies at our House

I think I am going to start blogging about the movies we watch here. I so love movies and have shared some of my favorites before. It seems so hard to find good movies these days, so I am going to recommend some our family likes. We don't have cable, so most of what we watch are movies or older TV shows on video.

This week we watched Little Women. It is one of my girls' favorites. We watched the newer version with Susan Sarandon (who I don't really like) and Winona Ryder from our public library. I like the older one much better, but I think the newer one is prettier.

I think I will order the older one (it's been a couple of years since I've seen it) and compare the two.

Which Little Women Character Are You?

Which Little Women Character Are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Marmee You always know what to say to make someone feel better. You are the one everyone goes to for comfort and strength. You love and are loved by everyone!

Done for now...

Okay, so I'm done for now. The washer and dishwasher are both calling my name. The little ones are almost ready for lunch and I still haven't planned out dinner for tonight. See my summer plans are just all a jumble right now. But, I'm getting on track for a great school year!!! And we're making lots of fun summer memories.

Artie's family

Here are some pictures of Artie's family. He has such great brothers and sisters. There are seven of them too. His mama got all the same silly questions I did - "you know what causes that don't you?". She even had a man in Sunday school one day tell her that only dumb people had lots of children. Wonder where he is today while she is surrounded by all her grown children who have turned out wonderfully - especially that baby boy!! :-)

The boys are - Terry (tan shirt), Brian (plaid), and Artie and the girls are Carolyn (orange flowery), Kathy (pink), Janice (stripped), and Glenda (blue - Glenda was having a tall moment!) .

Brian lives in Florida but is working towards moving back to SC one day soon and Janice lives in Charlotte now after spending many years in Florida also. Everyone else lives nearby in Boiling Springs and Inman.

Hey, look how cute the guy in the rust colored shirt is!!!!!!!


They are a rowdy bunch, huh? :-)

Mother's Day

Here is Bobby giving his grandmother - Bobbie - his namesake - her mother's day present. We gave her a new Beverly Lewis book, some peanut brittle and some orange slices (two of her favorite snacks - she says she hides those from the grandchildren and won't share any!!). :-)

So far behind!!!

So, this is how far I am behind in my posts. Here are some pictures from Mother's Day. The children took me out to lunch after church to Zaxby's. As always with our crew, it was fun!!



We don't even fit at one table now. Troy and Brenda had fun amusing their selves. The little children got some WikiSticks with their kid's meal that Troy used to mark his territory.
The littles always seem to get picture of me and Artie kissing!!



After lunch we went to visit Mimi and Grandy and then had dinner with Artie's mom.

Emily's New Doll

Here is Emily's new doll. We were watching the Waltons one day - Emily and I taking notes on how the women acted - me mostly focusing on Livie and Grandma - and Emily studying Elizabeth.

One thing we noticed was how well Elizabeth took care of her doll. Then we compared how Emily's dolls were scattered over the floor in her room and through her toy box, not being loved at all.

We decided that Emily just had too many baby dolls to care for. We gathered up all her babies and gave them to to Goodwill and then Emily got to go shopping and pick out a new baby ~ ONE new baby ~ to love and care for.

This is the doll, her name seems to change often - so far she has been Olivia, Dolly, Elizabeth, Emily, Gracie.

Today she is known as Emily's doll~~ :-)

Currently she is resting lovingly on Emily's bed. She has been all over town with us - to the grocery store, Wal-Mart, the gas station. She was even allowed to go to Charleston with us (I hope to post on that trip soon). Emily rocks her, talks with her, washes her clothes ~ the first day Emily had to feed her before she could even get out of bed. In the picture, she was on her way to church. She stays in the car during our time inside.

It was a good move for Emily ~ she has had hours of fun with her new friend and has taken much better care of her than she did of her piles of dolls before. Maybe next we can work through her stuffed animals??? :-)

I'm here!!

Okay, okay, I'm here now!!! I'm getting calls at home saying - what's wrong - you haven't blogged lately!!! :-)

Then I promised a post or two and still didn't have time to get a short one up.

I am working on it!!! :-)

I don't know how much I will get done between now and August 18 (the day school starts and I begin my new alone life!!), but I will try. I've got lots of fun pictures to get up and things to share.

I will probably back track a little to update things.

It is amazing how busy a house with six children can be!!! No wonder I never have time to sit down and write anything. Right now the washer and dishwasher are both running and the little children are playing upstairs with some Lego's, so I'm taking a little time.

Brenda is in Charleston with her friend, Emily and her mom and dad and Troy is looking for a new job. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. He won't be 16 until September, so that limits a lot of the jobs available.