I have been very sick and very tired for about eight days now.  Jesse and Owen were sick two weeks ago and my body just seems to have over reacted to those kiddie germs.  Last night was the first time I’ve slept through the night in a full week.  My mom arrived last night for the boys’ soccer game.  It was such a blessing to have her here.  She brought me a strong cough syrup that she was convinced would give me a restful night’s sleep and it did.  I woke up at 8:45am to the sound of my washing machine humming, the broom sweeping across the dining room floor, and Starbucks on the kitchen table.  The sad part was that my severe congestion made my iced coffee taste like nothing more than milk.  I literally could not taste the coffee.  I actually sat there with the straw in my mouth, trying to will my taste buds to override my nose!  It didn’t work, but I enjoyed it just the same.

I digress.

Sometimes God knocks us off our feet to force us into things we refuse to choose for ourselves.  Rest.  I can only compare my recent health-related exhaustion to that of a newly pregnant mother chasing after two or three little ones.  I woke up tired, I was tired all day, and I went to bed tired.  One morning last week I slept until about 8:00am.  I fed the boys and we sat at the table to start our school work around 10:30am.  They all stared at me as I tried to muster up some energy but the well was dry.  I sent them off to read and play LEGOs and I got back in bed at 11:00am and didn’t wake up again until 1:30pm.  I was then rested enough to finish our school work and get supper on the table.  I wouldn’t ask to repeat these last eight days, but it certainly has been restful.  Rest, I otherwise wouldn’t have chosen.

I’ve been praying about our family’s priorities lately and asking God to lead my husband in the direction in which He wants our family to go.  The funny thing is, God always knows how to reinforce things in me.  Two of my favorite blogs had posts on perfectionism, to-do lists, simplicity, and priorities today.  I’m thankful for the sweet reminders.

My mom and I took the boys to Sam’s Club today and we were looking at their children’s clothing when Owen decided to pitch a fit about wanting new jeans.  I tried explaining to him that it is still ninety degrees outside and we won’t buy new winter clothes until we figure out what we already have.  I then told him that he already has plenty of jeans at home.  His response shook me:

“But I want more!”

Always.

We always want more.  We’re never content with what we already have.

I want more.

I want a new one.

I want a better one.

I want a bigger one.

My mom and I were just talking about America’s sense of entitlement last night.  She was recalling the days when I was a baby and they were dirt poor.  She remembered vividly the nights of eating white rice and butter for dinner.  I smiled and tried to imagine.

The sad thing is, most people in America don’t know what that’s like any more.  If one doesn’t have enough money to buy groceries and pay the bills, one opts for the extravagant grocery trip and leaves the car loan unpaid because they believe they deserve to eat how they want.

Honestly, sometimes I’m at a loss for how to teach my children not to end up with that attitude.  How do we instill gratitude, thankfulness, having a servant’s heart, and a good work ethic when we ourselves often come down with bouts of complaining and discontentment.

I’d like to try a little experiment over the next week.  My only form of discipline will be thanksgiving.  If one brother offends the other, he will be forced to give thanks and bless the offended.  If a certain child is whiney about the food on his plate, he will give thanks for the abundance of food in our home… and on his plate.  If I wake up tomorrow and don’t feel like tackling the back-log of laundry, I will give thanks for my sweet-smelling detergent, running water, and three sweet little boys to help me fold it and put it away in our big closets and chests of drawers.

Lord, help me to give thanks in all things.  Help me to live a life of thanksgiving.

~audrey

I told the boys we’d make chocolate chip cookies on Saturday after dinner. Well, I forgot to get the ingredients I needed while I was at the store (particularly chocolate chips!), so I resorted to peanut butter cookies. While digging through my pantry looking for the brown sugar, I found a bag of chocolate chips which were surprisingly not expired! I decided to wing it and create our own recipe. I should tell you first that my homemade cookies have never, ever been successful. However, these cookies were a big hit and we will definitely be making them again….soon!

Accidental Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks of butter at room temperature
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract

(Mix these things together first.)

In a separate bowl, mix:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda

Slowly add the flour mixture until well blended.

And saving the best for last:

Add 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips!

Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes or until barely golden. In my humble opinion, these cookies are best when they’re soft, so I’d suggest you not over cook them. 11 or 12 minutes in my oven was perfect.

Makes about three dozen.

YUM! I hope you enjoy!

~audrey

Joshua and Jesse had their first soccer game today.  My mom took lots of pictures of the game with her good camera, so I’ll update this post after she sends them to me.  The game before theirs ended late so we got started 20 minutes late.  That meant we were playing from about 11:30-12:30 in the hot noon sun.  I didn’t even think to bring sunscreen so the really white people in our family (myself and Jesse) are a little burnt.  The boys had a blast and I got way more into the game than I anticipated.  I guess the former cheerleader in me took over and I was embarrassingly shouting all the wrong names…but my heart was in it!  Haha!  I need to work on learning the names of the other boys on the team.   Some of them have very unique names like Waters, Ford, Fischer, and Noel (pronounced “nole”).  They are a very sweet group of boys who love being out on the field chasing that ball together.  It has been a treat to see the sportsmanship come out in my boys.  They made up a ‘team handshake’ and were proudly teaching it to the rest of the team before the game started.  After an intense first three quarters with no score, the other team made two goals in the final quarter and won the game.  The boys were all smiling, knowing this was just the beginning of a very fun season.  They played their little hearts out today and are exhausted and a little stinky.  This is the only picture I took.  Bad, bad Mommy!  I’ll do better on Tuesday.

Yes, Owen brought his pet toad to the game.  That kid LOVES amphibians and lizards!

~audrey

A few of you have asked me to share what we’re eating for dinner since we’ve cut out meat.  To be honest, the first couple of weeks totally freaked me out.  Dinner time would approach and I’d be in a cold sweat in the kitchen, wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD I was going to make for dinner.  My pantry was full of food, but the whole “no meat” label just scared me.  It was unknown territory.  We’ve always had at least one meatless dinner per week so that gave me a jumping off point.  From there I simply modified some of the recipes we already love, asked vegetarian friends for their favorites, and did a lot of searching online.

Here is our upcoming dinner menu:

Egg Salad on croissants with a green salad

Burritos (Spanish rice, black beans, refried beans, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, on a sun-dried tomato wrap)

Veggie Pizza (black olives, mushrooms, sauteed onions, and artichokes)

Broccoli Salad and bagels with cream cheese, onion, tomato, and lox (it’s a yankee thing!)

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes (this is for my hubby.  I’ll let you know how they turn out….pinto beans and quinoa)

Baked Potatoes and butter beans

Spaghetti and garlic bread

Spinach, mushroom, and onion quiche

Broccoli, cheese, and rice casserole and steamed squash

One of the best things of all is that I went to the store this afternoon to buy the groceries for all of these meals and my total was only $10 more than my usual weekly budget.  I was very pleasantly surprised.

Bon Apetite!

~audrey

One hour after I posted last night, I received an email from Paypal:

“You’ve received a donation to your account in the amount of $495.00”

Once again I sat at the computer, hands shaking, tears flowing; in awe of a God who cares for even me.  The God of the universe used a young woman whom I haven’t seen in over a decade to bless us and build the faith of my children (and us!).  It was a precious reminder that He will provide exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.  These times are sweet whispers of confirmation that we’re right where we’re suppose to be; on a journey to Africa.

~audrey

I’m just going to be real here.  Every penny we’ve raised/earned/saved so far for Zoe has already been paid to the agency or used for things like ordering documents for our home study and dossier.  As soon as our home study is complete (we have our last appointment next week!  woohoo!) we can start applying for grants.  However, we can’t finish our home study and dossier without a few important and expensive items and we simply don’t have the money right now. Please don’t misunderstand me and think, “Goodness, if they can’t even afford the paperwork process, how can they afford to adopt?!” It’s not like that.  If we had time to throw together another yard sale this Saturday or a bake sale this Sunday, we’d do it and no doubt have the money we need by next week.  If we wait until payday, it’ll put us almost a month behind in the process.  But this stuff needs to get done, like, yesterday.  What I’m asking is that you share our story with anyone you think might be interested in Bows for Life or our puzzle fundraiser. Here are our current needs to complete our home study and dossier:

Two passports that must be expedited to arrive on time:    $240

Four passport pictures each for myself and my husband:   $80

8-hour Hague Training online:   $175

TOTAL COST:  $495

I know that God is going to provide the money need right when we need it, but I also know that often times He uses His people to bless each other in times of need.  If you feel led to give or share our story, I know you’ll be blessed in return.  If nothing else, please continue to pray.  Pray for Zoe and her birth mom (she could still be in utero for all we know).  Pray for her safety and that she’ll have food to eat or milk to drink.  Pray that someone will be there to love her and sing to her and hold her each and every day until we get to her.  We’ve even been praying that God would put hope in her heart, knowing that Mommy and Daddy are on their way.  That her Father will not leave her or forsake her; she is not an orphan!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within.”  Ephesians 3:20

~audrey

Do you ever have those moments when something makes you laugh so hard you just can’t stop and before you know it there are tears streaming down your face and you can’t even see what’s in front of you?  Well, I did tonight.

Josh and I had to write autobiographies for our home study.  He is a two-finger typer, so I sat at the computer while he dictated his autobiography to me based on the questions we had to answer for our agency.  It is now 11:30pm and we were getting pretty silly.  The final question is:  “Describe the kind of child you hope to adopt and characteristics that you absolutely could not accept in a child.”

After I read the question to him I said, “What a stupid question!  What kind of person would be adopting if that had such strange or rigid expectations of a child?  How can you answer that?”

There was a long pause.  I figured Josh was thinking up a sweet, theological answer.  Then, my laid back, not usually funny husband said with a smirk,

“You will not accept a penis.”

I

ALMOST

DIED

LAUGHING!!!!

I suppose he was right.

We are not planning for a penis this time around.

~audrey

I guess it’s a good thing that I haven’t blogged lately.  That means I’m doing what I’m suppose to around the house and not sitting at the computer!   But I’ve missed you!!

This morning I woke up to my kids yelling about ants under the table.  They must have been feasting on a week’s worth of crumbs that fell to the floor and I just haven’t made the time to mop!  So that is how I started my day; shoooing the kids out the dining room, sweeping, and mopping so vigorously that I got a blister.  That’s never happened before!  I sent the kids to read quietly while I cleaned up the kitchen and made breakfast.  Now they are outside bird-watching and I have a clean kitchen, breakfast is ready, and my second load of laundry is working.  I guess that would be impressive if it was only 8:00am….but it’s almost 9:30.  So that means we’re just now eating breakfast and won’t be starting our school day until 10:00.  Not so great for a Monday morning, but after school it’s going to be a jammie day so I can catch up on all of our laundry, so I’m not too disappointed.

Happy Monday!!

And HAPPY FIRST DAY OF HOMESCHOOLING SAM B.!!!!!

~audrey

Hmmm, I’m trying to figure out where to start!

My meatless quest is going strong and I am very, very happy to report that I feel like a new person since cutting out meat and adding fresh veggie/fruit juice to my daily diet.  We’re still drinking green smoothies for breakfast each morning, except for today because I killed my ten year old blender and will be getting a new one tomorrow.

Before starting our juice fast, I had not had a period since March (sorry if that is too much information, but you need to hear this!).  After only ten days of eliminating meat and adding fresh juice and produce to my daily diet, I started my period!  Could that be a coincidence?  Maybe, but I highly doubt it!  The amount of hormones in our food, mostly through conventional animal products such as meat and milk, are affecting women in ways that will affect generations to come.  Look at how many women have trouble getting pregnant and also how many women get pregnant with twins spontaneously.  The number of women having twins has more than doubled in the past ten years.  Coincidence?  I think not.  As I’ve said before, the only time having twins is hereditary is if your mother was a fraternal twin.  Every other case of twins, including every identical twin pregnancy, is completely spontaneous and miraculous (not that EVERY pregnancy isn’t a miracle, but you get the point.).  We’re consuming hormones that our bodies were never meant to produce.

Meals have been pretty easy as well.  I just don’t serve meat!  We had homemade veggie pizzas last week that were unbelievable.  I made a really delicious crock pot macaroni and cheese recipe and served it with veggies.  Tonight we’re having vegetarian nachos with lettuce, salsa, black beans, cheese, guacamole, and sour cream.  We haven’t cut out all dairy.  We still eat cheese and sour cream, but we’ve switched back to almond milk for baking and drinking.  We no longer have any white sugar in the house!  I had actually run out and when I went to Earth Fare last week, I went ahead and bought a five pound bag of organic demerara sugar, which is just organic cane sugar, never refined and very minimally processed.  It tastes a little bit like brown sugar but is slightly coarse.  This morning I made homemade blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries, demerara sugar, and whole wheat flour.  They were delicious!  Joshua actually ate three and said, “These are awesome!”

We officially started our new school year last week and it has been better than I could have possibly planned.  I have noticed such a tremendous difference in the boys’ behavior, interactions, and patience since we made our diet changes.  I know a lot of it has to do with the fact that mommy is happier, more relaxed, and more patient.  It’s been very peaceful in our house and the television only gets turned on at night when we watch America’s Funniest Videos and Jeopardy as a family.  We’ve done lots of reading and our school work is almost always complete by lunch time if we start at 8:00am.  I thank God each and every morning for my children and for the freedom to homeschool and share each and every precious moment with them.

And lastly, we started our homestudy last week!  Finally!  I also received an email from a couple that Josh and I went to high school with 12 years ago.  They’ve been following our adoption journey and would like to give us $1,000 to help us bring Zoe home!  I could hardly believe my eyes!  I say that, but then I catch myself, because we’ve said all along that we’re confident God will provide every penny we need to bring Zoe home, but seeing that come to fruition is simply amazing.  God is so good.  He’s more than enough.  He is all-sufficient and He will not leave Zoe as an orphan.

Bless you and have a great week!

~audrey