The two toddlers are screaming and bickering (I hated that word as a kid; my mom used it ALL the time…oh my word, I’m turning into my mother!! LOL).

Baby Bear spits up constantly.

I just switched back to cloth diapers so I could take “Diapers- $80” out of the monthly budget, just in time for Baby Bear to start teething, which just happens to make him POOP like crazy! **gross!**

I have a meeting in two hours and desperately need a shower, BUT I also have to run to the store because Baby Bear is officially out of formula.

This is not the Friday I was looking forward to.

I can’t help but remember that today marks “30 days” since we last heard anything about our girls and we were told we’d hear something one way or the other within 30 days. The chances of us hearing from DFCS on a Friday is slim to none…I’m banking on none.

Have you ever noticed that there are certain things that make you feel like your house is relatively clean? For me it is a clean/cleared off dining room table, empty kitchen sink (and preferably counters!), and a made bed. It’s definitely easier to clean when things are already “tidy”.

Oh geez, Owen is crying AGAIN so we better get out the door before the walls come crashing down…and it isn’t even 9am!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

~audrey

Last year (or maybe it was the year before that) my kids learned a song at VBS about letting your actions match your passions.

…I’m going to have to make this quick, I hear kids screaming and fighting…

From time to time, when we’ve had a really rough day, or my children are having a rough day with the “extra kids” in the house, I find myself asking God, “Did you really lead me to do this? Was this the right thing for us?” But on all of the other days, the really great days, I absolutely love my life and feel as though I should pinch myself to make sure it’s all real. I love being home with my children (and other people’s children! :). I know some women would rather get on the “crazy bus to nowhere” (LOL!) than think about home schooling, foster parenting, or staying home with their children indefinitely, but I love it.

I think one way we can tell if we’re doing what we’re suppose to be doing is whether or not it really feels like work.

A few weeks ago, Jesse (my five year old) was talking about what he wants to be when he grows up. Then he asked me what I want to be when I grow up. I told him that I’m quite happy being a mommy and a foster parent. Jesse said, “Mommy, those aren’t JOBS!” I just laughed and laughed. He’s so right. I never thought that I’d want to add more children to my house while I already have six, but I do! Even Josh finds himself telling me that we can have more of our own in addition to adopting if that’s what I’d like to do. I mean, what other “job” has a bigger impact on eternity than raising children to love the Lord and share it with others?

I’m certainly in no hurry to get to a dozen, and in no way do I want to compete with the Duggars, I just really enjoy my children and I like having babies. 🙂 (no, I am not pregnant)

To me, having the desire for more children WHILE taking care of my three and someone else’s three, is confirmation that I’m exactly where God wants me.

The hilarious thing about motherhood is, tomorrow I could be throwing in the towel and heading for the mental ward!

~audrey

I don’t have much time to blog; getting ready for court, but here are my two-cents for the day:

A tree is known by it’s fruit. A sick tree produces bad fruit. A strong healthy tree produces good fruit. Our thoughts produce our attitude and our attitude produces our actions (our FRUIT!).

Choose today to renew your mind with the word of God and choose good, life-bearing thoughts so that you will produce good fruit.

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about THESE things!” Phil. 4:8

I am committing to godly thoughts today…which ought to be a great test since I have to go to court for my foster children this morning.  I expect to see a difference in my responses, my attitude, and my words.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

~audrey

Yesterday was our first meeting for the Battlefield of the Mind study at church.

It was SO good. Here are some really good ‘one-liners’ from the first video:

Your situation may not be good, but GOD is good and He can turn a mess into a miracle and a tragedy into a truimph!

Praise and worship is a weapon! Being thankful is part of praise and worship. We need to think a little less and thank a little more!

Okay, those are your little nuggets to think on for today. 🙂

Be blessed!

~audrey

I did!!

Up until last night around 7:30pm, I had never sent a text before…in my LIFE! I now have a new phone and our new plan has texting!! I feel like a new person!

I hereby vow that I will NOT become one of these texting zombies I see all over the place. Entire families walk into the grocery store WHILE all four family members stare at their phones and walk while texting; it’s absolutely ridiculous.

My old phone was the one you get for free for adding a new line…four years ago! My new one looks like this:

I’m having fun with all the colors, sounds, and features; I’m sure my battery will be dead by lunch. LOL. On top of that, my kids should be content for days with our old phones as their new toys. 🙂 That’s my way of recycling my old phone!

Okay, on to something else.

Our ladies group, affectionately called Girlfriends at Grace, is beginning a new Bible study today on Joyce Meyer’s book Battlefield of the Mind. It’s only a five week study and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m determined to do all of my homework and make it to all five classes.

It’s only 7:45am and everyone is already up, fed, and dressed (except for me, of course).

Only 27 more days until Jesse ‘graduates’. I’m SO ready for the summer.

We should hear the definitive word on ‘our girls’ by the end of next week.

Well, I guess this proved to be a really random post. Oh well.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!

~audrey

Do you remember when we were kids and there were certain things, items, or events that made us jump out of bed in the morning, excited for the day? I can think of a few examples:

Christmas morning
a field trip to the zoo
the first day of school
the last day of school
my birthday
the day I was going to get my driver’s license

These days, it doesn’t take any Earth-shattering events to get me excited and fill me with joy, but not a whole lot makes me jump out of bed in the morning. I like sleep. I love my bed. I have really great sheets (that I bought at Ross’ for $29!). I feel like I haven’t gotten regular, adequate sleep in about seven years; moms, you know what I’m talking about!

However, something hit me this morning, as I took the first sip of my coffee. I closed my eyes and said, “ooooohhhhhh, that’s good.” It was pure delight and satisfaction. I felt like I could’ve stayed in that chair for an hour and sipped my perfect cup of coffee. Then I realized, oh my goodness, this is probably how a smoker feels when he takes the first drag off of his first cigarette of the day. Gross, I know. But then I began thinking about other things that should make me feel like that cup of coffee made me feel. God’s word, spending time in prayer, and exercising should all give me that fulfilled, satisfied feeling. My pastor, who apparently got the quote from Tim Keller, has given a perfect example of what an idol is:

“An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”

On a tough day, when I want to unwind, I can sit down on my bed with a basket of clean clothes and watch my favorite movie while I fold.

I love Little Women. I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite movie of all time. I have the book as well, but have never gotten around to reading it (maybe the 1000+ pages intimidated me!) I plan to read it this summer.

More than anything, I want to re-prioritize some things in my life. I want to crave getting into God’s word each morning, before I do anything else. I want to exercise, not so I can check it off my ‘list of things to do’, but because I crave how good it makes me feel.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know where to start. The thought of waking up any earlier than I already do makes me nauseous. But change usually isn’t comfortable, so I’m going to try hard. We’ll be re-joining the Family Y next month (for the summer) and I plan to start waking up early so I can go workout. I also commit to spending time in the word first thing each morning. As some added accountability, I will add something to each day’s post from my time with the Lord that morning.

Here are a few more of my favorite things; the little things in my life that give me great joy and pleasure:

*spending time with my girlfriends laughing and encouraging one another (even if we’re just grocery shopping together 🙂
*tending to my garden (I love going out to my garden a few times a day while allowing the Lord to speak to me about the power of ‘the seed’, the law of sowing and reaping, and the importance of preparing for harvest)
*sitting down to enjoy a special drink, whether it be Starbucks, Coke (I rarely drink soda, so when I do, it’s yummy!), or just a cup of coffee from my kitchen.
*cleaning my house, getting into bed after changing the sheets, waking up to a clean kitchen
*bubble baths, especially when I have time to shave my legs! 🙂
*watching my husband with our children. There is just nothing quite like a man who loves being a dad.
*hugs and kisses from my babies and seeing that look faces when they tell me they love me; like I can never do wrong in their eyes.
*reading. I love reading, but only when I get to do it uninterrupted for at least 10-15 minutes at a time.
*worship. oh how I love praise and worship.

I could go on and on, but I won’t bore you. This is just what was on my mind this morning as I sipped my coffee and listened to my five-year-old read from his school book at the breakfast table.

Have a Terrific Tuesday.
Time to do school with Joshua.

~audrey

As a mother, you look forward to the many milestones your babies achieve. Rolling over, sitting up, the first tooth, crawling, “ma-ma”, “da-da”, walking, etc.

As little Baby Bear reaches many of these milestones while in my home, it breaks my heart for their mother. Yes, she is reaping the consequences of some very poor decisions, but I do believe she loves her children and I wouldn’t wish these missed moments on anyone. It breaks my heart that Baby Bear calls me “Ma-ma”. About a month ago, when he was 7 months old, he started crawling and pulling up to standing, all in the same day. His first tooth is about to break through, and I’m pretty sure he will be walking before his first birthday. As I hold him close to feed him a bottle, his eyes smile as he gazes into mine and gently reaches up to pull my hair pat my face. I cannot imagine being separated from my children by force, but being separated from my baby (less than a year old) would seem to be more torture than one heart can take. They’re still getting to know you and take comfort in your every move, your every word, the twinkle in your eye, the way your voice gets soft and sweet as you tell them over and over, every day, how much you love them. I can’t even fathom what goes on in a baby’s mind when they’re separated from their mother at six months old. I just can’t imagine.

~audrey

This:

Helped me turn this:

Into this:

That is our game closet. I have to ‘tackle and reclaim’ the game closet several times a year. This was the first time since Christmas and I feel much better now. 🙂

Later in the day, Ash and the kids came over and we had a stressful, constantly interrupted, exhausting, great time visiting and letting the kids play together. Check out these adorable pics of the twins:

Ashley with Ben:

Drew getting a little love from V-man:

and Big Drew giving us a big smile; SOOO CUTE!!! I love these boys!

Have a great weekend ya’ll!

~audrey

I’ve been playing around on Picnik again and finally got around to resizing and editing some of last month’s photos.

There are a few from Easter and also a few of Jesse and their only cousin, Lucy. (**Come on siblings, make some more babies!**)

Thankfully, picnik has a cool feature that allowed me to blur the faces of our foster children for privacy purposes.

Disclaimer: The boys were all extremely excited about wearing ties for Easter, but the rest of the outfit…well, the pictures speak for themselves. Oh, and Joshua desperately needed a haircut. Such is life!

In reference to yesterday’s extremely out-dated picture of my hot hubby and myself, well, this is today’s reality, scary as it may be:

Sweet Lucy with Jesse. Jesse seems to be her favorite of my three boys. Not sure if it’s because his name is the easiest to say, or maybe because they look a lot alike and have equal amounts of hyped-up energy. Either way, it’s adorable and Jesse was loving all the adoration and attention. 🙂

That’s all for today.

Happy Friday!

~audrey

Hmm, where do I start?

My name is Audrey. I’ve been married to the love of my life for a little over eight years.

(unfortunately, this is NOT what I look like anymore. But hey, most of you will never know that! LOL)

I am a stay-at-home mom, for the most part. 🙂 Josh and I are also foster parents and currently have three foster children, ages 8 months, 18 months, and six. I consider myself a professional organizer because people pay me to organize their homes, offices, and “stuff”, but I do it very part-time. I love, love, LOVE cleaning and organizing. Cleaning is my vice. Some people turn to a liquor bottle, I turn to a Pinesol bottle. I am also a freelance writer for Associated Content and Text Broker…bet you didn’t know that!

We have three little boys of our own.

We came home from the hospital with Joshua on our first anniversary. That’s right, we had three whole months of newlywed bliss before getting pregnant! Seven months after he was born, I found out we were expecting number two. I was scared. LOL! Jesse was born sixteen months after Joshua. He’s my “should’ve been a red-headed girl”…quite dramatic, whiney, never-a-dull-moment kind of kid, but also the sweetest and most compassionate.

When Jesse was about 18 months old, we decided it was time for “one more”. Much to our surprise, it didn’t happen right away. It took us about a year to get pregnant with, you guessed it, ANOTHER BOY!! Owen is my sweet little dream baby…okay he’s almost three, but he’s still the baby. He has always been a great sleeper (like 9pm-10am as a baby!) and I was able to breastfeed him for almost year, unlike my other two. Now he’s a giant almost-three-year-old (seriously, he looks like he’s about to turn four) and just as sweet as ever. He loves giving me kisses and telling me how much he loves me. It melts my heart.

I homeschool, cook, garden, and sew. Most days, I feel like I’m stuck in the wrong time period. I would’ve loved to be a farmer’s wife in the 1950’s. I love the Lord with all my heart and thank Him daily for the blessings He has placed in my life. I love children and hope to have several at least one more, whether it be via adoption or my own womb; it doesn’t matter to me.

I prefer the simple life. Very little television (we don’t have cable), lots of books, playing outside, not too many regularly scheduled commitments, and lots of family time.

I love life and I don’t take myself too seriously.

My motherhood motto is: Laugh it off, or be consumed! It drives me nuts when people call me “SuperMom”. Let’s face it, we’re ALL SuperMoms!! We all cram way too much into a 24 hour period on a regular basis, we expect too much from ourselves while being overly critical of ourselves at the same time, and we all have trouble saying NO, which is why we MUST cram so much into each and every day. WE’RE ALL SUPERMOMS! Put your cape on and wear it proudly!

Welcome to my blog!

~audrey