Last week was Vacation Bible School at our church and I helped in the 4, 5, and 6 year old class all week. I was a little apprehensive at first because that meant I’d be following my own children all week and I just wasn’t sure that was a good idea, however, I do like to observe how they behave and interact with other kids in that kind of setting. We had a great week. The weather held out all week long and all of the kids had a blast. I suppose, before I go any further, I should tell you a little bit about Joshua (my six year old).

Joshua is a tender hearted child. He is sensitive, yet still a man’s man. He loves to do anything and everything that Daddy does. He loves singing…so much so, that when he learns a new worship song, he likes to write the chorus down and hang it in his room.  Joshua has asked about the meaning of the Lord’s Supper on many occasions and often insists that Jesus is ALEADY in his heart, so why can’t he participate? Joshua can tell you all about the birth of Jesus, miracles He performed while on the Earth, his death on the cross, and his resurrection three days later. He understands that Jesus is God’s son, but Jesus also IS God. His understanding, and ability to retell the story of Christ, at the age of six, has always amazed me. His faith is truly that of a child. If someone is hurt or sick, Joshua’s first response is to pray for them because he has the faith that if you ask, Jesus will hear, and many times will answer with healing. Joshua ministers to me through his faith and sincere desire for more understanding on a regular basis. This is why Friday night was so precious to me….

…at the end of their very last class in VBS last night, the teacher asked if anyone would like to pray and ask Jesus into their hearts. Joshua turned and looked at me with the hope of “permission” in his eyes. I nodded and he shot his hand up in the air. His teacher, being a dear friend of mine, looked at me with tears in her eyes, and directed Joshua to come and sit with Mommy so we could pray together. About five other children prayed to receive Christ as well. As Joshua sat beside me, I took his hand and fully planned on helping him say the prayer of salvation. Much to my surprise, Joshua closed his eyes and began to pray by himself. This is what he prayed,

“Lord Jesus, please come into my heart. Thank you for dying on the cross and coming back to life so I could have life. I promise I’ll do anything you tell me to. Thank you for taking my sins. And please come into the other kids’ hearts who love you too! And if some of the kids don’t love you yet, but they change their minds later, will you come into their hearts too? I love you Jesus. Amen.”

Yes, I was bawling.
What an incredible little boy with an amazing destiny for the kingdom of God.

Jesse just happened to be spending the night at his Mimi’s last night and chose to miss the last night of VBS, so Joshua was able to have this night to himself.  However, when we got in the car to drive home, he got on my cell phone and called Jesse to share the news with him…and Mimi, and Papa, and Nana and Grandpa. We’re so proud of him.
He now has a new kind of birthday. The day he was birthed into the kingdom of God and became a child of the king. June 12, 2009 will be in my heart forever.

~audrey

So my day started off busy, as usual. By 11:00 I was rushing to the store to buy food I had volunteered to bring to a post-funeral meal at our church (not exactly something you can be late for!) A cop on a motorcycle followed me ALL THE WAY from the grocery store to the church parking lot (about 10 minutes!). I guess he was one of the scheduled escorts for the funeral, but good grief, he was making me nervous! As I zipped into the church parking lot to drop off the food, I instructed Joshua to lock the doors behind me as I ran inside for literally ten seconds. I hopped out of the car and all of the sudden, the car began to lurch forward into the bushes!!!!! Apparently, in all my stress and nerves from being in a hurry and being tailed by a cop, I forgot to put the van in PARK!?! Did I mention there were SEVEN cops in the church parking lot…all sitting outside their cars, watching the entire thing?! Well, the bushes were only slightly mangled and I dropped the food off and QUICKLY left the church before giving the cops a chance to decide whether or not I was an escaped mental patient. From there we drove through McDonalds to appease my three squirmy children, who would have much rather spent the day by the pool. As we sat in the drive-thru line, three fire trucks and another emergency vehicle flew by with sirens blaring and lights flashing. Of course, being the drama-loving, adventure-craving person that I am, I peeled out of that parking lot as if I were part of the rescue and proceeded to follow them!! They all turned down a street that, of course, was labeled “NO OUTLET”. Without hesitation, I followed them down that street as well. Unfortunately, there was no action to be seen. And even worse, there was no convenient place to turn around and when I did finally decide on the perfect driveway to make my U-turn, the firemen were all staring at me…waiting…so they, too, could turn their big huge trucks around. I thought for sure one of them was going to come over to my car and give me a tongue lashing for obviously following them down a dead end road just for the sake of being nosey. Luckily, I was wrong.
Today was just ONE OF THOSE DAYS.
It is 3:30pm. I need to cut Owen’s hair, give all three boys a bath, cut all of their nails (YUCK!), and somehow manage to get MYSELF in the shower and ready in the next TWO HOURS!?!
I better go.
~audrey

I borrowed a book from a friend recently called, “Having a Mary heart in a Martha world.” To be honest, I’m not even half way through it yet. It is amidst the stack of books on my night stand that I want to read to completion, but only get a chapter in here and there!
Basically, I struggle with the overwhelming desire to get it all done…and I mean get it ALLLLLL done. Every day. Every area of my life. Every subject in homeschooling. Every household chore. You get the picture?! I was beginning to really get my priorities out of whack. I began to realize how much quality time I could be spending with the children if I would just take a break from the “LISTS” for an hour here and there.
I find great joy in doing “Martha” things. I love helping people in need with practical things…cleaning their house, making a meal, keeping their kids. I truly enjoy those things and am richly blessed by doing it. I don’t want recognition, a pat on the back, or a favor returned. Recently I did something “extra” for a friend at church. When she found out what I did, she wrote me a thank you note and in the note she wrote, “It is so great to have some Marthas around!” It was like a bullet to the heart! LOL! 🙂 I know she meant well, but because I’ve been trying to be more like Mary, being called a Martha was like taking ten steps in the wrong direction. I shared that with her at church, in good humor, of course. She told me that she, too, is a Martha. But she also said that Martha has gotten a bad wrap over the centuries. Mary chose the “right thing” the day that she sat at Jesus’ feet instead of hustling around the house with Martha. That parable was an example of a bad choice on Martha’s part. There has to be balance. My friend made the point that if everyone was a “Mary”, nothing would get done! There is nothing wrong with being a Martha, but we have to be sure we choose the “right thing” when the circumstance requires us to lay aside our lists and goals and just be in the moment…like at the feet of Jesus!
I do have to fight my natural inclination to be Sgt. Major Martha on a daily basis. I’m learning. It’s a process that requires daily renewal through prayer and spending time in God’s word. The important thing is to seek the Lord in every situation and be patient. Wait on Him to give you an answer. Maybe He will give you peace about a certain decision that has been weighing on you. Maybe He will send someone you respect to give you advice that is perfect for your circumstance. You must learn to recognize when the Lord is giving you an answer. Don’t pass it off as being coincidence just because it wasn’t the answer you were hoping for.
Okay, I’m chasing rabbits now. I hope you’ve gotten the point I was trying to make. 🙂

~martha…I mean, audrey

– I have recently become addicted to Sudoku…I know, I’m a little behind the times, but I picked up a few Sudoku puzzle books in the dollar section at Target and I’ve been hooked ever since. Josh makes fun of me! 🙂 LOL! I don’t mind. 🙂

-A sure sign that Joshua is officially entering “Big-Boyhood”…I have to use adult hangers for his shirts now. I don’t know why, but it made me really sad the first time I realized it!

-I had a blast playing two rounds of miniature golf with my hubby today…he won the first round and we tied the second. I think we’d enjoy taking up golf together…in our spare time…HAHAHAHA!! Maybe in 18 years!?

-I’m selling my Sonlight Core K curriculum on ebay right now and I’m praying I’ll receive enough from the sale to purchase next year’s Classical Curriculum! (about $370…I paid almost $800 for last year’s curriculum through Sonlight!)

-I made Jesse cry today when I refused to let him drink out of my water bottle…seven years of marriage and three kids and it still grosses me out to share drinks with people…especially sweaty little boys! …don’t worry, I gave him his own.

-Josh was laughing at me, once again, when he realized what I was working on in bed the other night. I was making our packing list for our family vacation: food, linens, clothing, games, movies, beach equipment, etc…I get VERY specific and even estimate what our grocery budget and gas costs will be for the trip…SO, why was he laughing, you ask??? Our trip is still FIVE weeks away!! Can you really ever be TOO prepared?? I mean, come on! If we get there and something is missing, who will that fall back on…ME, of course…so I’m starting early! 🙂 Plus, I enjoy being the “Go-To” girl. If someone forgot something, most of the family knows that I probably have it! …which reminds me, I need to add children’s tylenol, motrin, and benadryl to that list! LOL! 🙂

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for tonight. Another good Saturday under my belt. I didn’t do much cleaning, but we were outside for most of the day, so it has stayed relatively tidy….oops, I guess I should put the clean sheets back on my bed!

Goodnight all!
~audrey

Do you ever find you’ve lost your passion for something that you once loved? Not because you don’t love it anymore, but because the busyness of life has pushed it to the bottom of the priority list and suddenly you’ve become less like a unique individual and more like the energizer bunny, trying to cross everything off the “to-do” list of life? That is how I’ve felt lately, in more ways than one.
The biggest issue lately has been whether or not we were going to homeschool again in the fall, or send the boys to a local Christian school. I was actually physically sick from the stress of making such a big decision. I believe that we’re 99% sure we’re going to continue homeschooling and I’m really excited about that decision. It is the one I was leaning toward the most.
This morning as the family was slowly waking up, I grabbed a cup of coffee, one of my favorite books, and one of the cushions from my patio furniture and headed to the back patio for some quiet time. The book is “Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit”, by Teri Maxwell. This book was such a driving force in our first semester of last year. She is a homeschooling mother of eight and has been homeschooling since 1985. She loves the Lord and has incredible wisdom to give through her experiences with the Lord, a large family, and homeschooling for so many years. All it took was one single chapter to make me want to jump up from my chair and hit the ground running. I don’t know if you ever feel like this, but sometimes I lose sight of my ultimate goal in marriage and parenting. Sometimes, unfortunately, I take my eyes off of the Lord and revert them back to myself and suddenly I’m angry with everyone in my house and all I want is some ME TIME! In actuality, all I really want it to be the very best wife and mother that I can possibly be. I want to shelter, love, educate, and protect my children. I want to prepare them to be godly heads of household when they have a family of their own one day. I want to respect my husband and always make the wisest decisions for our family when the responsibility rests in my hands. I want my husband and children to think of me as meek and quiet. By definition, meek means soft, gentle, not easily provoked or irritated. The definition of quiet is peaceable, not turbulent, not giving offense, mild, meek, and contented. What a standard to live up to. I have to physically tell myself, out loud, each morning, “I have the mind of Christ!” Achieving a meek and quiet spirit is going to take as much work for me as would training for a marathon! I’m not naturally inclined to be meek and quiet, just like I’m not naturally inclined to run every single day in increasing distances with increasing speeds. Everything in life that’s worth having, is worth working for! I just needed a reminder.
I hope this encouraged you, regardless of what you’ve been struggling with.
Have a great weekend!
~audrey
P.S. My weekend challenge to you is to grab a laundry basket and head out to your car. Clean out all trash, clothes, shoes, books, toys…anything that does not belong in your car! Then, when you get back in the house, set the timer for 15 minutes and unload that laundry basket so everything gets back where it belongs (if you’re anything like me, most of it will end up in the trash!). Good luck!

Excuse my laziness. Summer is here and I’m feeling it already. My days of sleeping in are long gone, but I still enjoy a lazy, rainy day in my pj’s with the boys, and lately, we’ve been spending about three hours a day by the pool. It is divine. We pack a lunch, go the pool from about 10-1, and by the time we get home, the boys are completely worn out, Owen goes down for a nice long nap, and I get to chill out with a book or a chick flick for a little while. Now that you know what my schedule has been like lately, it will come as no surprise to you that I’ve done almost NO housework! I’m here every single day and I still keep my house “tidy”, but it is SO dirty right now!
So, the purpose of this post is to tell you what I’m going to do…as soon as I get up from the computer! I’m going to set my kitchen timer for 30 minutes and in that time, I’m going to vacuum the whole house, dust, clean both bathrooms, and sweep the kitchen floor. I’m not kidding. I can do it. And when I finish, I’ll feel SO much better! I challenge you to do the same. Make a short to-do list and set that timer for thirty minutes. You’ll be amazed at all that you can accomplish in such a short period of time when you have specific goals in mind! Good luck!

~audrey