God has been doing some pretty radical stuff in our (mine and Josh’s) hearts in the last week or so. I’m so excited to share with you the changes happening in our adoption process but I need to wait on one particularly important phone call before I divulge. We should receive the phone call today or tomorrow. 🙂

Fourth verse for the year with Beth Moore’s Siesta Scripture Memory Team is one that has been heavy on my heart:

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27

~audrey

One of the reasons the boys went to Greenwood this weekend is because my dad had been planning a hunting trip with Jesse.  Joshua went with him during deer season and Jesse was going to go with him for a pheasant shoot.

Oh the joys of southern living with boys!

Thankfully, Josh and I have had a wonderfully productive day.  We woke up around 9:00, grabbed a quick breakfast and headed to Lowe’s to get six windows for our addition.  I cleaned the house while Josh did all of the prep work and then I went out to help.  This afternoon I stopped by Erin’s house to bring three boxes of preemie diapers I happened upon in the back room while cleaning out rubbermaid bins.  It was a treat to be able to snuggle with the babies and feed little Clara before heading back home to continue working.  Now I’m taking a breather and getting dinner started.  Josh is working on window number five and running out of day light, but here’s what we’ve got so far:

I will be so incredibly thankful when this addition is finished.  Then we’ll really be able to make room for Zoe!

~audrey

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We’re taking the boys to my parents’ on Friday.  We’ll head to Greenwood, eat dinner with my parents, and leave the boys there for the weekend.

We haven’t had dinner guests or play dates at our house in quite a while, so it’s been months since I’ve really, really cleaned well.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to have a whole, entire Saturday in my house without children.  I have so many projects on my weekend to-do list and I can’t wait to get started.  I’m trying hard to get most of the “picking-up” done today and tomorrow so I don’t have to actually put things away on Saturday and can right to the nitty-gritty.  I need to mop my kitchen (like twice), re-organize the bookshelves in the office and school closet, change everyone’s sheets, clean out the boys’ drawers, paint my bathroom, and one of my biggest projects is going to be consolidating our 21 rubbermaid bins!  I will be going through each bin individually, getting rid of all boy clothes that Owen has grown out of, setting aside clothes for the spring consignment sale (all money I make from the sale will go toward Zoe’s adoption), and making a pile for friends with younger boys.  I will also be getting rid of entire bins full of clothes that Josh and I haven’t fit in for years.  I have no idea why we hold onto that stuff.  I guess we hope we’ll be able to fit in them again one day and therefore wouldn’t have to buy new clothes, but for goodness sake, someone else can be using them now! I’m trying so hard to be mindful and not wasteful.  Efficient and not extravagant.  We simply don’t need so much STUFF.

We will have a yard sale soon and I will also be listing some larger things like televisions and furniture on Craig’s List; all to go toward Zoe’s adoption.  I’m really looking forward to getting rid of our excess.

Well, time to get working, schooling, and showering.  I’m having our taxes done after lunch.

~audrey

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I stumbled upon a blog yesterday.  You  know how that goes?  You’re reading one of your regulars and she links to someone who had a post that linked to someone else….and suddenly I’m transported to Uganda where a simple girl from Alabama, who obeyed God’s call on her life, is ministering to the people in the village of Bombo.

I must have sat at the computer for over an hour while dinner was in the oven.  I wept, I laughed, and I rejoiced as I read her story and all of the amazing things God is doing through her in Africa.  Christie lives on $3/day.  Her faith can move mountains and her heart beats with the Father’s heart.  She sleeps on three inches of foam and sometimes goes more than a month without a real shower.  Her toilet is a hole in the ground with tin walls on three sides.  One of the things that impacted me the most is how efficient the people are in her village.  If offered a new, shiny soccer ball, the children will politely refuse because their muddy, scuffed up soccer ball still works just fine and they want to “use it up” before accepting a new one.  God has already spoken to one family’s heart here in the states and they gave a whopping $7500 (their entire savings) to dig a borehole in Bombo so the village can have an endless supply of fresh, clean water.  What a gift!  However, their faith list still contains quite a few needs that have yet to be met.  If 1500 people donate just $36, they can purchase and complete EVERY.SINGLE.ITEM on their list.

I haven’t been able to get Christie out of my mind since stumbling upon her blog.  We may not all be called to sell everything we have and move to Africa, but we are all called to take the gospel to the ends of the Earth and make disciples of all nations.  Will you let God take your $36 to Africa to forever change a little village called Bombo?  I can testify to Luke 6:38:

“Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

I know how many people read my blog every day/week/month.  Will you post this story or link back to this post?  Will you let God take your $36 to Africa?  Will you help me spread the word?  How amazing will it be for Christie to testify to the faith and generosity of God’s people here in her home country?  We can do this!

I’m donating my $36 dollars right now.  Lord, multiply my donation by 1500!  Bless your people as they give to further your kingdom!

~audrey

As a home educator, I feel like I’m constantly revising my game plan.  The overall plan and goals stay the same, but the course of travel seems to be constantly changing.  My latest challenges have been reading and writing.  My boys do not enjoy reading right now and Jesse (my six year old) takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to write anything!  This is very frustrating to me because I LOVE to read and write in my spare time.

SOooo, for reading right now, we open to the book of Psalms and the boys each read 15-20 minutes with me.  Later in the day I allow them to choose for themselves what they’d like to read for pleasure/practice.  This helps them with their reading and we’re getting extra time in God’s word as well.  It’s amazing to me how fast they pick up on words like “righteousness” and no longer need help when they come to those familiar words.

For the writing aspect, I decided to let them write creatively for one week.  Everyday this week I’m giving them a list of words to use and they have the freedom to create a story in twenty minutes.  Today’s words were:  chicken, farm, eggs, coop, and garden.  I told them to simply guess at the spelling of words they were unfamiliar with and we would correct themlater.  They did fantastic!  They loved the freedom of writing creatively and both of them were able to complete the task in twenty minutes.  Jesse wrote more in those twenty minutes than he ever does with Bible verses in the same amount of time.  We won’t do this regularly because I don’t want to reinforce incorrect spelling, but if it helps Jesse refine his fine motor skills and handwriting technique, it’s worth it.

~audrey

The inspiration for our coop:

Finished product:

Easy access to the eggs:

I must say, Josh did a great job. His natural, domestic skills never cease to amaze me.

~audrey

**Warning: the following post will bore you to tears if you aren’t a gardener! 🙂 **

Yesterday (February 4) marked ten weeks before Augusta’s average last frost date. Therefore, it is officially seed starting time!

Below are pictures (since I don’t know how to post a document!) of my two 4×8 garden layouts as well as my reference sheet (which plants correspond with which number), and a helpful seed starting chart that I made this morning. The only plants that need to be started 8-10 weeks before the last frost are cabbage, kale, celery, and bell peppers. I did not have very much luck with the seeds I started indoors last year. I’m hoping for better results this year. I did read that it can be helpful to transfer the sprouted seeds to small, individual pots before hardening off and transplanting outside. This prevents their roots from getting intertwined with the other seedlings. I found these pots at the garden center down the street for $.15 each!

Bed One:

Bed Two:

Plant Reference

Seed Starting Chart

My third and final bed will be 4’x6′ and will be strawberries only. I read all sorts of great info online today about how to maximize your strawberry bed. I will only plant one per square foot, even though the real square foot gardener says you can plant up to four per square. Here is the general info that seemed most helpful:  If I will cut off all runners and maximize nutrients to the mother plant, I will have a nice 12-18″ plant in each square and each plant should put out about a quart of strawberries.  Once harvesting is complete, trim plant down to about 3″ above the crown, cover with a heavy layer of mulch for winter, and you’ll be good to go for 3-5 years with the same strawberry plants!

I know I’m a nerd.  But I figured some of you may be as well!  I hope this was helpful.

~audrey

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January went very well as we ate much healthier. The boys asked for snacks much less since the food they were eating at meal time was so nutritionally dense. We definitely spent more money on fresh produce last month than any other month I can think of. However, we did not spend any money on empty carbs such as granola bars, cereal bars, crackers, etc.

Here’s my dilemma:  I have a strict grocery budget of $100/week.  I was able to stay on budget last month, but ONLY because I already had my freezer stocked with meat.  I didn’t have to buy any chicken or ground beef/turkey at all last month.  It is a new month and we’re continuing our fast food fast.  I went to the grocery store yesterday and was really disappointed to see my total:

$118

For the last several years I’ve been grocery shopping for two weeks and a time.  However, I definitely feel like I’m saving the most money by shopping only one week at  a time right now.  It’s very easy to determine exactly how much of each item you’ll need when you’re only shopping for seven days.  I think for next week I may even limit our breakfast choices to two options (for example oatmeal or yogurt and granola).  I’m trying hard to simplify and cut every dollar that I possibly can while still making good, healthy choices.  I was trying to think of things I could’ve eliminated from yesterday’s shopping trip to save money.  I didn’t really need coffee creamer.  I had a little left in the fridge and I don’t even make it everyday so I could’ve gone without it ($2).  Two things I had to buy in order to make more bread were both expensive.  Powdered milk was $8 and honey was $6.  Thankfully, these ingredients will last me a few months before I need to buy them again.  That’s $16 right there and I would’ve almost been at the $100 mark.  Also, I was planning to make homemade veggie pizzas one night.  Sauce and dough are cheap to buy/make, however the artichokes alone are $3/jar, mushrooms are almost $3 fresh, and a large bag of shredded mozzarella is over $6.  Instead I bought a 16″ veggie pizza from Walmart’s deli for $7.98!

Here is my menu for the next week.  I actually had more than seven dinners planned because of what I already have in the house, so going over budget by $18 this week should really balance out by the end of the month.

Keep in mind, yesterday’s grocery trip was all done at Walmart.  I had no coupons and did not shop sales.  I simply did not have time for that this week.  All of these meals are based on many ingredients/items I already have.

Breakfasts:

cream of wheat

oatmeal

grits, eggs, bacon

biscuits and gravy

pancakes

blueberry muffins

fruit and yogurt

Lunch:

turkey, apples with almond butter

pb & j sandwiches (these are organic on whole wheat bread)

deviled eggs, yogurt, and baby carrots

soup and baby oranges

Dinner:

Lasagna, salad, and garlic biscuits

Chicken and Dressing (Southern Living crockpot recipe- YUM!) and sweet potato casserole (already had all ingredients)

Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches

Veggie Pizza

Chicken, Corn, and Wild rice casserole and green beans

Tilapia and broccoli cheese and rice casserole

White Chicken Chili

Hot Dogs, baked beans, fresh broccoli with ranch dip

Broccoli, Ham, and Cheese Soup (another fantastic Southern Living crockpot recipe!)

Snacks:

apples

bananas

applesauce

popcorn

string cheese

almonds

I’m really excited to try Pioneer Woman’s recipe for “the best coffee cake in the world”.  At least that’s what her husband thought it was until she broke the news to him that it is really Prune Cake!!!

I already have all of the ingredients so I’m going to make it this morning and see what the kids think!    🙂

Happy Rainy Friday!  It’s yet another jammie day at Wilkerson Academy!

~audrey

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Okay, so it’s not really THAT bad, but I can’t remember the last time all three of my kids have been laid out for a solid week.  I think it may have started with Joshua when he had a fever last Thursday.  It only lasted about 24 hours, but that was all my immune-deficient six year old needed to catch those germs and run with them.  By Sunday Jesse was running a 104 fever and by Tuesday he hadn’t eaten in three days and I finally took him to the doctor.  I’m one of those mothers who would really rather wait it out before rushing to the doctor.  With almost eight years of motherhood under my belt, I feel fairly confident as to when it’s time to go to the doctor and when it’s time to let a virus run its course.  There’s nothing worse than loading four or five kids into the van (including the sick one that really doesn’t want to leave the house), sitting for an hour in the waiting room while everyone else’s sick kids cough and sneeze all over you, only to be told  “Your child had a virus when you walked in the door, but within a week they’ll probably have the FLU since you just sat in our waiting room for an hour. Either way, there’s nothing we can give you. Just go home and rest.”  haha!

Owen developed a nasty cough and his nose is running like a faucet.  Thankfully he hasn’t had a fever.  And by the time Joshua and I got home from church last night (I thought I had left all the germie kids at home with Josh), Joshua had a 101 fever and still had it when he woke up this morning.  He asked for some medicine but I explained to him, if he thought he could handle the fever without medicine it would be allowing his body to do what God created it to do.  Fight those germs.  I also explained to him that the other day Jesse was taking tylenol and motrin and every three hours to keep his fever down.  When the medicine kicked in, Jesse thought he was “all better” so he started playing and got very rough….several hours later is when his fever spiked again at 104.  The fever is GOOD for you if you’re willing to rest and let your body fight off the bad stuff.  So, he opted to wait it out.

Here are the quarantined:

It’s been a full week of laying around doing nothing. We haven’t done any school work and we missed co-op on Tuesday. Today I plan to clean and disinfect!

By the way, remember the miracle twins we’ve been praying for? They went home yesterday!!! Erin text me this precious picture this morning after their first night at home as a family of five. We praise You Lord!

Happy day-before-Friday!!

~audrey

I love new beginnings.

Mondays.

January.

First of the month.

New school years.

First day of summer.

Today is the first of February and I’m excited about a new month.  Today I will balance the check book, pay bills, change the boys’ sheets (don’t worry, that’s not just a once a month chore!), update our calendar for this month, and take food inventory so I can clean out the fridge and make a menu and grocery list.

Today also marks the third verse in the Siesta Scripture Memory Team challenge.  My third verse is Philippians 4:8

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

One thing the Lord is really working in me lately is taking every thought captive (as I mentioned yesterday) and striving for the things in Titus 2:3-5.  I suppose I will memorize those verses as well at some point.  Right now I’m focusing on being discreet.

Webster defines discreet as being judicious in one’s conduct or speech, especially with regard to respecting privacy or maintaining silence about something of a delicate nature.

I suppose this applies most in my life to the topic of gossip.  I certainly don’t sit around with my friends and talk badly of others, but I’ve noticed lately how easy it is to take part in conversations that start out innocently and before you realize it you’re speaking in a way that doesn’t glorify God.  I just want to be more conscious of every word that comes out of my mouth.  And not just the words, but the tone and intention as well.

February’s challenges will be a fast food fast again and being consciously discreet.  Our fast food fast went very well last month for about 23 days.  For whatever reason, Josh and I just flipped a switch at the end of the month.  We were busy, low on groceries, and over committed in the evenings.  As a result, there were many dollar menu drive-thru dinners and $5 Little Caesar Pizzas.  This month, I’d love to make it the entire 28 days!  It definitely helped us stay on track with our budget almost perfectly…until we blew it at the end of the month!

Clean slate!

~audrey