It’s hard to believe that we will be entering the last week of summer vacation in two days.

I plan to have a little ‘team meeting’ with my boys this week so we can go over some house/school rules and discuss what our expectations are of one another. For example, I expect the boys to focus and work with excellence until they finish their daily school work. I expect them to treat me with respect and honor me as their mother and teacher (no arguing, complaining, back talk, etc.) In return, I will give them my undivided attention during school time. I will not answer my phone, get up to do chores, or get on the computer during school time.

I hope this next week will be fun and relaxing. We’ll probably go to the pool a few times…or maybe everyday. We may go to a dollar movie or have a picnic in the park. The great thing is, when you homeschool, you can do all of these things during the “school year” as well! However, I feel that the key to our success this year will be routine and consistency. I need to go ahead and send my letter of intent to the school board and fill out our attendance sheets for the first semester. I didn’t do a very good job with that last year. In fact, I sent in about six months of attendance sheets in April and I have yet to fax May’s. Good thing our county is overwhelmed with more important things than sending a truancy officer to my front door for my last month’s attendance sheet!

ahh, the foster kids are here; gotta go!!

~audrey

This morning I hit the ground running, knowing we had nothing on the agenda. I had some croissants left over from when we had chicken salad the other day. I decided to cut them in half, spread nutella in the middle and close it back up. It was just as good as any chocolate croissant I’ve ever eaten at a cafe. Yum!

Since I’ve been on a roll lately with keeping the house clean, laundry folded and put away as soon as it comes out of the dryer, dishes where they belong, blah, blah, blah, I decided to pick something big on my “Deep Cleaning/Re-Organizing” to-do list. My bathroom has been half finished for over a year. The color no longer tickles my fancy and I’m ready for a change; all the way to the finish preferably. I’ve decided to repaint my bathroom the same color as my kitchen, which is just a subtle blue/gray. It is light, but not baby nursery light. I’ll definitely take before and afters. I’m doing it right this time; 100%. I took down every single thing that could be removed from the walls. I wiped the walls down with a wet cloth, spackled all holes and imperfections, pulled off a few remaining remnants of the 40 year old wallpaper that was removed when we moved in four and a half years ago. Now I’ll have to wait, likely all weekend, before I can actually paint. I may, in the meantime, paint the vanity while I wait. The vanity is small, with two small drawers and four cabinets. I think a coat of white, high gloss paint and some simple new hardware would really spruce the thing up.

I’ve also decided to let the boys help me throw around some ideas to revamp their room. As I’ve said before, I’m really tired of the sand color throughout the living room, hallway, and boys’ room, so I’m going to start changing it, a little at a time. I have no idea what I’m going to do in the boys’ room, but I’d like them to help me decide and we’ll repaint and choose new window treatments.

We’re keeping someone else’s foster children tomorrow, tomorrow night, and until after church on Sunday. My boys are spending the night with my in-laws so the sleeping arrangements for the foster children will be simplified. As a result, I won’t get anything more done on the house until next week. But thankfully, we have another wide open week, so I foresee lots of creativity and productivity!

Pictures to come!

Have a great weekend!!

~audrey

We did not end up getting the two little foster children. We did however get another call yesterday with a placement of three: ages 2, 4, and 7. But we decided to stick with our “only under five” rule, so we said no. I think we’d be more open to consider a five or six year old if the oldest is a girl, but there are just too many risks as the foster boys get older (pertaining to sexual abuse unfortunately); we have to protect our children first.

I had the opportunity to bring lunch to a friend yesterday who just had her second child. His name is Isaiah and he’s so tiny and precious. I made chicken salad on croissants, fruit salad, and cookies. The best part was, I made a lot of everything so my kids and I could eat the same thing. I haven’t made chicken salad in a while, it was delicious and refreshing to eat by the pool after swimming lessons yesterday.

Today was the last day of swimming lessons. We came right home at 1:30, the kids ate lunch, and Owen went to bed. I got to work immediately on knocking a few things off of my Deep Cleaning/Re-Organizing to-do list. It was WONDERFUL!

I spent about an hour completely cleaning out and reorganizing my closet and Josh’s closet. Thank goodness, we have “his and hers” closets. They aren’t walk-ins, but they are both double door closets and it sure beats having to share! They look SOOooo much better now. I smile when I open the doors. 🙂

I also cleaned out our coat closet, which still had afghans and winter coats in it. I found an empty rubbermaid bin and stored it all away for at least the next three months before having to pull them back out again. Believe it or not, every single one of my twenty-one rubbermaid bins is FULL! If I find anything else that needs to be stored, I’m going to have to buy a new bin! The main reason there are so many is because we have several bins full of miscellaneous sized boy and girl clothes, never knowing what foster children we’ll have and what they’ll need. The excess really drives me nuts!

I’m about to head over to Heather‘s house and help her finish cleaning her empty house and load up the camper. She and her six kids leave tomorrow in a big Chevy Express with a 30 foot camper in tow. Final destination: Washington, where they’ll welcome home Jason, who has been in Iraq for over 15 months.

I cannot imagine.

Please pray for Heather and her children as they travel over the next two weeks. They’ll make stops along the way to see friends and family, but it’s still unnerving being the only adult, traveling alone with six children, no man to help you out if you were to have any difficulties along the way. My kids and I are committed to praying for them every single day until they reach Washington. Will you join us?

Can you believe it will be August next week?? When does school start in your area? Our public schools go back ONE week from Monday!! That is just crazy to me! I’m really looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to our co-op starting up on August 24th. I love walking through the stores right now as their aisles are lined with school supplies. Walmart has some of the best deals on the necessities; crayons, pencils, notebook paper, folders, etc. I could stroll the school supply aisles for hours. I don’t know why it’s so nostalgic.

Tomorrow is Friday! Smile!

~audrey

The book club is meeting at my house tonight.  I’m making chicken salad on croissants.  Thankfully, it’s also Sam Bailey’s birthday today, so the big boys are going out with Sam and Mr.Stephen for some birthday fun this morning.  That will give me just the time I need to clean the house for this evening.

I attended a Welcome Tea last night at Kelli’s house.  It was for new moms entering Classical Conversations this year.  CC is our homeschool co-op that helps us give our children a classical education at home.  If you homeschool or have young children and have never been introduced to the classical model, I highly recommend you read Leigh Bortins new book The Core.  However I must warn you, you’ll have a hard time putting your kids in public school after reading it.  Excellent book.  Even if you have children in public schools, it is a great tool to help you strengthen your children’s education at home or during the summer.

I got a call yesterday afternoon from our agency.  I should get one more call this morning to let me know if we’ll be getting two new foster babies.  Only two this time.  A little girl and a little boy.  She couldn’t remember if they were 2 and 1 or 3 and 1, but either way, it seems like they would be a great fit!  It was still up in the air yesterday afternoon when I got the call, so they may not be coming.  I’ll keep you posted.

Have a great day!  Make a list of things you’d like to get done and see how many things you can cross off the list by the end of the day.  I actually made a HUGE list of deep cleaning and re-organizing tasks that I’d like to complete before school gets in full swing.  I’ll share the list with you later and let you know how the progress is going.

~audrey

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous.  By far, the most beautiful wedding I’ve ever attended.

But now to the good stuff.  🙂

Remember this post?  Or how about this picture from this post:

In both of those posts, I had gotten up to about 210lbs.

Needless to say, when I went to the Carolina Weight Management Clinic at the beginning of June, I weighed a whopping 215lbs. I was miserable. Completely, utterly, miserable. I was wearing a size 1X. Yes folks, that’s PLUS SIZE! It was very depressing and I felt completely defeated.

I hit the ground running and began to lose weight and feel better immediately. The first week I did a fast. I consumed five protein shakes and two quarts of water each day. I lost 8.9lbs the first week! By the time the wedding rolled around, seven weeks later, I was down 20lbs and two dress sizes. I now weigh 195 and wore a size 14 dress to the wedding. That is still a long way to my goal, but I’m thrilled to be comfortable in my clothes again, back into normal Misses sizes, and well on my way back into single digit sizes. Best of all, I’ve really changed my worst habits. I drink mostly water now. I get Starbucks no more than once a week, if that. We rarely eat fast food anymore; even my children. It’s going great.

I’m now doing the “modified fast” which consists of two protein supplements and one normal sized healthy meal a day along with two quarts of water.

I will keep you posted, but probably not weekly; maybe monthly.

Here are two pics from the wedding 🙂

with my sweet Momma

and a sweet picture of my dad with my boys:

~audrey

I’ve really enjoyed the last two months with Josh and the boys. It’s hard to believe it’s been two months since our last foster children left.

The boys and I have been in a pretty good routine with pool days, a little school work, keeping the house clean livable, and the normal church commitments.

When I was a child, I can remember moving my bedroom furniture around several times a year. Dresser, desk, and bed. I always did it by myself. Never asked permission. I liked little changes that felt like something new. I don’t know why our flesh longs for newness so often. Why can’t we just be content with “the same”? Ironically, I’m not fond of big change; only small.

Lately, I’ve been craving some small changes around my house. I’d really like to get in the garage and tear it to pieces. Our shelves have lost their organization, my “laundry station” is a wreck, and apparently the garage floor has recently become the place to throw things when the door bell rings and you weren’t expecting company, so you throw the big stuff into the garage and the rest goes in a closet! I’ve been wanting to paint my china hutch white and change out the old bronze hardware for elegant, crystal knobs and pulls from Hobby Lobby. I’m thinking if I buy one knob a week with my 40% off coupon, I’ll be able to finish the hutch by next summer! HAHA!

My living room is boring me as well. It’s so dark. The walls are khaki colored, my window treatments are brown, my couches are brownish, and of course my carpet is brown. Yuck! I do like brown, but the walls need to be more exciting. I don’t really have any ideas yet…partly because there will be a lot of furniture to move and seven window panels to take down before I could even get started.

I recently purchased some really great throw pillows from ROSS for $5.99/each. They are cream and brown zebra stripes and the fabric is raw silk, which makes them a little dressier than the poor, abused pillows that came with our couches.

One of the biggest issues I have with my husband our house is unfinished projects. I just need to start tackling them one at a time, starting with the smallest, which at the moment would be my bathroom.

Well, I rambled on much longer than I anticipated. The bottom line is, I would like for most things in my life right now to stay the same, but I’m ready for some little changes.

Now, it’s 2:00am. I had two glasses of sweet tea at dinner and here I am, wide awake at 2:00 in the morning. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME??

My best friend from high school/college is getting married in ten hours…more on that later.

good night…or shall I say morning.

~audrey

I honestly didn’t think I’d ever have to write this post, but deep down, I always knew that our adoption of the girls was hanging by a thread…no thanks to the broken system called the Department of Family and Children Services.

Here is what went down yesterday:

We’re providing respite care for another foster family in our agency at the end of the month. That basically just means we’re babysitting their foster kids for about 24 hours. My case worker had to come by the house so I could sign a paper stating what we’ve agreed to and that we have room for their two foster children.
After I signed the paper, she said,

“I have bad news. Chatham County called and they’ve discovered that the girls have family members living in Augusta and apparently they are just as crazy and dangerous as the birth parents. They no longer feel it would be safe to move them here. I’m sorry. It’s over.”

I was kind of numb for a few minutes. After she left, I teared up and literally shed one tear. I’ve known all along that this adoption has been on sinking sand. Between the girls’ family history and the unreliable people at DFCS in Savannah, nothing was guaranteed. But still, I’ve held onto hope, decorated their room, buying a few pieces of clothing here and there (on clearance of course!), and we’ve been praying for them by name daily for months. Here are some other thoughts and emotions I’ve encountered over the last several months:

As much as I looked forward to the girls coming, I also grieved over the thought of never being pregnant again. Josh always told me we could have another baby after the girls got here, but I wasn’t sure I really wanted six children. I also grieved over my foster parenting “career” being over. Once the girls got here, we wouldn’t be able to foster anymore because our house would be full. It didn’t feel like it should be over yet. We’ve only helped six children. It’s only been a year. As the news of the girls sunk in, the Lord began to give me hope and even joy. The girls will end up exactly where God intends them.

We are now an “open” foster home again and could get another placement any day now. We can still adopt! We can continue to pray that the Lord would lead us in whatever direction he wants our family to go. Whether it be to adopt from DFCS, adopt a future foster placement, or I can get pregnant again!! It took us a year to get pregnant with Owen and nothing guarantees that the Lord intends us to have anymore biological children, but at least I feel that door has been opened again.

All I know is that I have an aching heart for children; hurting children, needy children, foster children, orphan children, and now I know that my ministry to these children can continue. God is so good. His mercies are new every morning. He is my tower of refuge and strength.
Today, I will pack up all of the girlie clothes and items that are in the foster children’s’ room and return them to their rightful rubbermaid bin. We will no longer refer to that room as “the girls’ room“. Instead, it is a wrapped gift, unsure of what it will hold next.
I’m quite excited about what the next several months will hold. God’s word says He works all things together for good to those who love Him, and in my dictionary, “all” means “every, the whole of, the greatest possible”…it means ALL THINGS!

That is exciting.

Time for a cup of coffee.

~audrey

Kind of like the ticker at the bottom of the screen on news stations that keeps going and going and has great little snipits (ooh, spell check didn’t like that word!) of information. That’s all this post is going to be…

*The boys are in swimming lessons for the next two weeks. Jesse cries everyday because he’s scared of diving in seven feet. I’ve already told him, I don’t care if he learns how to dive, but he does have to try everything else. He seems to be rather paralyzed with fear once the class starts. He’s actually an excellent swimmer and quite fearless when he’s not pressured.

*Jesse recently asked me, “Momma, is that place behind your knee called your leg pit?” That kid never stops thinking of the next thing to make us laugh…although I think he was serious with that one!

*I gave our foster agency a fair warning: If you don’t give us some more babies soon, we’re going to resort to making our own! …yes, I really did say that. However, I’m pretty close to the girls in our agency, so they took it lightly, just as I intended. 🙂

*Josh has been offered a worship leader position at another church and it has turned into one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever had to make….still undecided.

*We’re officially through with our kids’ birthdays for this year. In the last month, Owen turned three and Jesse turned six. Good grief that is crazy!! Kristy, it really is true: One day they’re a baby, the next day they’re in kindergarten!

*God blessed Josh with a good summer bonus and we were able to pay off three debts in full! Three steps closer to DEBT FREE!!

*My dad rejoined the reserves for four years in order to get his full military retirement. As a result, he’ll be leaving for Iraq in March. That will be strange.

*I had a dream about our little girls last night. They had brown hair, brown eyes, and beautiful olive skin. They looked like twins. Lord, does all of this dreaming and nesting mean they’re coming soon?? My heart aches for them to be home where they belong.

*I haven’t swept my kitchen floor in a week. That might be a record for me. But in my defense, we’ve hardly been home long enough to do anything! We’re coming straight home after swimming today, Owen will take a nap, and I will do some serious cleaning. I’m looking forward to it already.

*I’ve been in the mood to repaint some rooms in my house. I think I’ll start in my bathroom since it’s small…I just don’t know when. 🙂

Happy Wednesday.

As strange as it sounds, sometimes I still can’t believe these are mine. God is so good. (Liza, this picture is for you! More to come 🙂

~audrey

I feel like I’ve posted stuff about my weight, and how I’m finally ready to DO something about it, one too many times. Mostly because I never really ended up doing much about it. I’d get motivated and disgusted with my weight, write a big post about how I’m starting tomorrow! I’d lose seven or eight pounds and then never post anything about it again….because I didn’t lose any more. haha.

SO, this time, I haven’t posted anything about what I’ve been doing lately with my journey to get healthy and skinny again. I don’t have time, right at this moment, to give you all of the details but I will tell you that I’m about to go weigh in this morning. This is my sixth week on the program I am doing now and today marks TWENTY POUNDS! I’ve dropped two dress sizes already and I feel amazingly better with those first twenty pounds gone. I’m still taking it ten pounds at a time and trying not to get overwhelmed with the big picture and my ultimate goal.

It’s very encouraging that people are starting to ask what I’m doing and how much have I lost so far.

It also feels great to shop again and I am excited about the dress I bought for Anna’s wedding next weekend. If I can find a good ‘before’ picture, I’ll post it with an updated picture after the wedding. 🙂 I’m not quite ready to confess how much I weighed when I finally got serious and started losing, but I’m sure I will by the time I post pictures in a week and a half or so.

~audrey

Last week we were at church waiting for Owen’s Sunday School teacher to arrive. Owen has been so sweet and funny lately; even more than the usual.

I said to Owen, “Did you know Mrs. Jenny has a baby in her belly?” (Mrs. Jenny is his teacher.)

His response, “Yeah…but Miss Amanda has a bunny!!”

Miss Amanda is one of our babysitters who has lots of animals at her house: birds, fish, dogs, cats, and a bunny…there may be some I’m missing.

It was funny to me that Owen esteemed a bunny, that he can already see and touch, much more worthy of awe than a baby growing inside his teacher’s tummy…which he can’t yet see….in fact, she’s not even showing yet. I’m sure it will get more interesting as her tummy gets bigger.

However, I fear it will inevitably bring on a multitude of embarrassing moments as he will then be asking whether or not everyone with a protruding gut has a baby growing in their belly.

🙂

~audrey