If you haven’t discovered the blessing of Ann Voskamp, here is a video that gives us a glimpse of her new book, “One Thousand Gifts”.

~audrey

My boys were quite disappointed to find out that, although their regular school friends got another day off today because of the snow and ice, we’ll be returning to school as usual.

I had to remind them that we took the entire month of December off and will be finished with co-op at the end of March. Or how about last week when we spent the majority of the week in our pajamas and played long games of Qwirkle when we finished school before noon.

Today, we slept in until 9:00am. Of course Joshua woke up much earlier and didn’t feel the need to wake anyone else. When I was making breakfast he came in the kitchen and said,

“When I got up earlier than everyone else, I decided to find Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands on the map in the school room.” (his georgraphy for this week)

That’s what a momma wants to hear!

Right now I’m finishing my cup of coffee and the boys are sitting at the table coloring.

I picked up a Lite-Brite for the boys for Christmas. It was only $10 at Target and it was a huge hit. I only got one, so the boys take turns with it, but Owen seems to like it the most and it’s helping him learn his letters at the same time. He can now fill in all the “O”s, “G”s, “W”s, and “Y”s by himself. We’re working on “R” for red and “V” for violet (purple).

Josh will likely work late tonight and the rest of the week to make up for their snow day yesterday. I have a roast and veggies in the crock pot and I look forward to a quiet, thought-provoking day with the boys.

P.S. I did my second 5k workout last night on the treadmill. It was much easier than the first workout. It’s amazing how quickly your body adjusts. Tonight is my favorite form of inspiration: Biggest Loser!

~audrey

It’s one of my favorite times of year again:

Yankee Candle Company has votives and tarts for $1 with $5 flat rate shipping!!

If you don’t see the discount applied automatically in your shopping cart, use the promo code: TS008A1

My favorite scents are:

Cranberry Chutney
Red Berry and Cedar (for the holidays)
Garden Sweet Pea

The sale ends on August 8, so hurry over to YankeeCandle.com! 🙂

~audrey

As I’ve said before, we used the Maxwell‘s scheduling material to come up with our Master Schedule and Chore Packs.

Our Master Schedule is simply a tool. There is never a single day that everything on everyone’s schedule gets accomplished. However, if we get off track during the day, it’s an excellent tool to refer to in order to help me reel us back in and continue being productive. It’s also a great way to make sure your time is accounted for on those days when you feel like you got nothing accomplished whatsoever!

Hope that helps!  Let me know if you have any questions.  It’s very trial and error in the creation process.

Happy Monday!

~audrey

I must confess, I was quite nervous about providing respite care this weekend. There is just no way to know what to expect out of foster children being placed in a temporary, new environment.

Big Brother and Little Sister hopped right out of the truck and uncertainly stood at my front door. Big Brother has autism; once the door was open, he let himself in and began to explore his new world for the next 24 hours. Little Sister wasn’t quite as brave, but she and Owen really hit it off and before too long, they were running around the house squealing with joy.

I was relieved.

I was told neither of them could swim without life jackets, so I decided to take them to the Y after lunch since they have several kiddie pool options. Little Sister and I went to Target in search of a little bathing suit on clearance; we found the perfect suit. Pink and red and white with little sparkley polka dots; she loved it.

The pool was a success but we had to leave after just over an hour because a storm was rolling in and it began to thunder. Dinner was corn dogs, tater tots, and applesauce; everyone ate well. My in-laws picked Owen up around 7:45pm and headed over to the church to get Joshua and Jesse before going home. Once Owen was gone, the kids sat beside me on the couch and we read four books. When we finished our stories, they brushed their teeth and got into their beds. As I tucked little sister into her bed, she looked up at me with a big smile on her face and said, “I’m not scared. This isn’t a scary room, it’s pretty.” My heart ached and my mind wandered as I remembered what their foster father told me of why they were removed from their biological mother’s care.

Neglect.

Severe neglect.

They were found living in squalor, left alone in a nasty rent-by-the week motel in the worst part of town. I can only imagine what they’ve seen, heard, smelled, and experienced.
By the grace of God, they are delightful, happy children.

By the end of the night, I was already Mommy.

~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

Did your momma ever tell you, “Be careful honey. You become like the company you keep.”?

Ashley and I were just talking recently about a friend of hers that she chose to stop hanging out with. Not because she didn’t like her or because they didn’t have anything in common, because that’s wasn’t the case at all. She made the tough decision based on a few things that the other girl esteemed highly in her life and Ashley did not. She knew that if she hung out with her regularly, she would surely be influenced by her. I was so impressed and encouraged by her decision. It is so incredibly true, and unfortunately, most of the time we do not make that hard choice and instead continue to subject ourselves to standards lower than we should. Would you have hung out with your future husband in a strip club while you were dating, just so you could spend time with him? Would you allow your children to play with children who had foul mouths and hit your kids, just so you could spend time with their sweet momma, who happened to be your friend? Then why do we do it to ourselves?

I’ve come to realize recently, just how much people change as we grow into adulthood and choose new circles of influence. My ten year high school reunion is in the fall and I will likely be a completely different person to those who haven’t seen me since graduation. It’s just a fact of life; people change.

This became more evident to me this weekend as I went to my friend’s bridal shower. The shower was in a new, million dollar neighborhood, and most of the close friends in the bride’s life right now have husbands or fiances who are doctors, dentists, lawyers, or are merely a year away from one of these professions. They are very career focused and many of their conversations center around their houses, neighborhoods, job opportunities, or upcoming vacations. Please don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. But everything seemed so shallow. To be honest, I tried to keep to myself without being rude. The last thing I wanted to do was gain attention by someone asking about “all my children” and “how I do it” and “bless your heart, what a good thing you’re doing”. All the while, I’m thinking to myself, in my circle of friends, I’m NORMAL!. I’m a stay-at-home mom. No career. No crystal. No china. No extravagant weekends. But I love my life. I love having three (or six) children. I love homeschooling. I love that my husband does what he loves for a family-friendly company where he can go in late because his son has a recital or a doctor’s appointment.

So why do I leave company like that feeling inadequate? Why do I allow their different choices and different lifestyles make me feel like my choices and my lifestyle is wrong? Most of those girls love the Lord just as I do and one day will have a few, or even several, children of their own. I suppose deep down there is jealousy and a bit of pride. But most of all, I yearned to cross back over the tracks to my middle class neighborhood and my house full of kids, whom my husband so lovingly sat with so I could spend five hours with my mom.

I hope that if the Lord chooses to bless us with abundant finances one day, our conversations will not waver from God’s goodness and what is truly important in life. Our stuff does not define us. I am a child of God. I am royalty! Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves. 🙂

~audrey

These days, with six children, my organizational tendencies come and go…mostly GO.

However, I have been despising a certain pile of magazines on the floor in my room for some time now, and I decided it was “high time” to do something about it. My friend Mary inspired me when she showed me a notebook she had created for all of her take-out menus. She simply gathered their favorite take-out menus and put them all in sheet protectors in a nice, neat notebook. She’s even done the same thing for friends that were new to their area and weren’t familiar with the restaurants. I thought, “Hmmm, what a great idea. I may run with that!”

My pile of magazines consisted mostly of Family Fun, Better Homes and Gardens, Parenting, and Southern Living. Over the years I have dog-eared my favorite recipes, projects, crafts, decorating idea, etc. I decided to take the plunge and finish this project, knowing that in the end the magazines would be gone and I’d have the best of all of them in three organized notebooks!

I started by tearing out all the great ideas. I organized them by crafts, activities, holiday, recipes, and just plain great ideas (decorating, parenting, party planning, etc.). I purchased three notebooks and a few packages of sheet protectors and got to work. Here are the finished products. I’m quite happy with the results.

I hope this helps someone out there who has been hoarding magazines for fear of throwing away a really great article or idea!

Happy Organizing!
~audrey

This is it.

The final weekend before school is out for the summer. Jesse has his end of the year party on Monday with early release at lunch, and Tuesday he only has to go in for graduation rehearsal, early release at lunch, and graduation that evening. It’s all SO exciting!

I received some books in the mail yesterday that I had ordered on Amazon. The first is a Bible study that I intend to work through with the boys this summer. It is called, The Young Peacemaker, by Corlette Sande. The second book was Sequential Spelling, which I intend to use with both boys this year, next year, this summer…whatever; it’s all the same when you’re homeschooling. I mean, do you ever really stop schooling and learning??

I look forward to the mail, like a child waits anxiously for Christmas morning, although with Amazon, you never know exactly what day “Christmas” is going to fall on….there I go again, ending a sentence with a preposition.

I’m excited about this weekend because I’m attending a bridal shower for my best friend from high school. She’s getting married July 24th. Remember THIS post? Yep, I’m still scared and not much skinnier…or shall I just say less fat…skinny doesn’t apply to much of anything on my body, with the exception of my pinkie fingers. My mother is coming to town for the shower and I look forward to spending the day with her.

I hope your weekend is fantastic! We’re suppose to get lots of rain. Bring it Lord! My garden needs a free drink!

~audrey

My sister-in-law, Erin, came over on Tuesday and washed her car. Of course, when there’s sun and water, my boys are IN IT! They quickly got their bathing suits on and splashed in the nasty, muddy, soapy puddle that grew and grew where our driveway dips. They had a blast.

Can you tell Owen is in mid-air in this picture? I told him to jump and this is what I captured. And thank goodness he’s positioned just ‘so’ because Joshua’s new swim shorts are a bit too big and you would’ve otherwise seen a half moon!! 🙂

I must say, the time Erin spent at my house while the kids were all outside (or napping) was such a blessing! She was here for about an hour and a half. The boys had a blast and didn’t come inside once. That allowed me to sit at the computer, write a few posts, check my email, and read a few of my favorite blogs; all things that do not happen very often anymore! Thank you for that sweet gift Erin! 🙂

Have a Fabulous Thursday!! I’m off to Field Day at Jesse’s school!

~audrey