We have s-l-0-w-e-d down around here.  Our days are nice, our screens are off, and our time is well-spent.

Not every day, but most days.

I’ve made time for things that have made my life easier.  I made homemade laundry soap; $3 for 5 gallons that should last us several months.  I bought all of our meat for the month, cooked it, canned or froze it and it has transformed dinner time for me.  I washed, peeled, and chopped ten pounds of potatoes and canned or froze them:  soups, casseroles, side dishes, or breakfast; they’re ready to be used.

We went to the library last week.  I usually only let the boys get three books each…for fear of losing them and therefore defeating the purpose of the library being free!  However, I was feeling brave.  We usually set our books down on a certain round table between the children’s books and the juvenile books.  This also happens to be where all of the really great educational books are.  Everything from geography and history to cooking and camping.  The boys were like kids in a candy store and each started a really great stack of books.  I looked through each of the piles and by the end of our self-check-out we had over 30 books.  I really should have thought about how we would walk back to the car with 20 pounds worth of books, but we made it work with nothing but our biceps.  Sometimes they check out three books each and never really look at the books once we get home.  This time is different.  We spend a minimum of thirty minutes each day reading our library books.

With a slower pace here at Wilkerson Academy, I’ve been able to get a little more creative.  We’ve done word searches that I created online and consist of words from our weekly memory work, we’ve worked through our US map puzzle many times, trying to remember where each state belongs, and we put things back where they belong as soon as we’re finished using them.  This has helped us keep a much tidier house.

With no where to go, I haven’t felt rushed.  When I don’t feel rushed, I’m more patient and have a better chance of cultivating a meek and quiet spirit in our home.  We aren’t busy, so I start to think about dinner around 4:30 and by 5:00, it’s on the stove or in the oven.

We’re not out and about as often as we have been the past couple of months so I’m only filling up my gas tank about once every ten days.  This will save us about $70/month.  When we’re home, we don’t spend money on fast food.  Our Kay Arthur Bible study for kids has been a top priority each morning and no one can discount the importance of starting your day, as a family, in God’s word.

With so many people having constant connection to the internet at their fingertips (literally), we’ve become so accustomed to posting our every thought on the internet through outlets like Twitter and Facebook.  It’s so easy to compare yourself, your possessions, or your life to what everyone else has.  This creates such a spirit of discontentment.  The desire to have the constant approval of others or to have others affirm your every decision is poisonous.

His approval is it. It should be all we strive for and find contentment in.

Every. Single. Time. it comes back to taking our focus off of our heavenly Father.  When I fix my eyes on Him, I am fulfilled; I am satisfied.

So for now, I will remain off-line.  It took me three days to finish this post because I’d start it and realize I needed to be doing something else.

Do what you know is God’s best for you.  Encourage others in His word, with things that actually matter.  Make time for friends and family who are like minded and build you up in your faith.  Cultivate a love for learning in your children, whether they be at home or at school.  Work to make home a sanctuary so your children and your husband can’t wait to get home at the end of each day.

Peace.

Joy.

Love.

A good-smellin’ kitchen. (I just had to throw that in there! )

Blessings,

~audrey

It’s been impossible to ignore a certain disgruntled person around here lately; my sweet, freckle-faced, tenderhearted, blue-eyed, tell-me-he-loves-me-a-million-times-a-day middle child.  Jesse has always been my wild card.  Dramatic, loud, rambunctious (I had to use spell check for that one!), but always willing to serve and give.  I’ve noticed a pattern recently in Jesse’s behavior; really just in his attitude.

He. Is. Never. Satisfied.

I give him an inch, he wants a mile.  I offer him donuts, he wants pancakes.  I take him to the park, he’d rather go to the river.  He asks for something, I tell him no, he hangs his head and works really hard on making an ugly, down-trodden face for as long as he possibly can.  It has gotten to the point where I want to scream at him and take every thing that is his and throw it in the trash; show him what it really feels like to have nothing. It isn’t just the dissatisfaction, it is the ungratefulness.  Not only is he not happy with what he doesn’t have, he is unhappy with what he does have.  I was at the end of myself, right where God seems to prefer me, when I finally asked a friend what to do.  She got to the point and quick.

It’s a heart issue.  He needs to repent.

She was so right.  I’ve been trying to explain to him how ugly his whining and complaining is, but really I needed him to see that his heart is a mess.

Jesse knows the Lord and was baptized less than a year ago.  He did it all without anyone’s prompting.  One night in bed as we said prayers together, he said, “Will you please help me pray to ask Jesus to come into my heart?” This gave me even more motivation to make sure he knew the truth, and well.

We were at my in-laws’ for lunch yesterday after church.  Jesse asked if we were going to go back to the Colonial Times event at the Living History Park that afternoon.  I told him no because we needed to go home and rest.  He hung his head, began to cry (loudly), and I told him to go sit on the back porch until he calmed himself down.  He dramatically headed out to the porch and slammed his fingertips in the door in the process.

*Those are the moments that I so want to pull him in and say, “YOU DESERVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED.  YOU CAUSED IT AND YOU DESERVE IT.” But I don’t.

Instead, I took Jesse by the hand (the one not throbbing), and lead him to the front porch.  He was crying and I refused to say anymore until he calmed himself.  Once he was quiet, I began giving him example after example of his recent dissatisfaction and ungratefulness.  I told him that all of his complaining was not only telling Mommy and Daddy that he isn’t happy with the things we provide for him, but it also tells God that Jesus was not enough.  I explained, once again, that Jesus died for HIM.  I told him that we should find all of our satisfaction in Christ.  I shared with him what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” I didn’t want to heap shame on him so I made sure I filled him with hope:

Jesse, what comes out of your mouth reveals what’s in your heart.  We need to work harder at filling your heart with God’s word and make sure that thankfulness is most often on your lips.  First, you need to pray and ask God to forgive you for not being satisfied with Him.

He cried and cried.  I knew, without doubt, that he saw his heart for what it really is without Christ.  He dried his eyes and prayed a sweet prayer and then sat with me on the rocking chair for a good, long while.

I saw instant change.  His face looked different and that sweet smile once again graced his lips.

It’s been 24 hours.  I’ve softly reminded him once or twice and all it takes is:

Jesse, let’s be thankful.

…and he chooses joy.  I know it’s an ongoing process. We are never fully sanctified or righteous; but God. He made a way.  One day my children will see that so many of the lessons I taught them were really God’s way of drawing me nearer to Himself.

May we be continually filled with joy overflowing; finding all satisfaction in Him.

~audrey

This week has been fast and long, hard and easy all at the same time.  Josh had a long, rough week at work and that always makes me hurt for him.  Now he has a full day’s work ahead of him tomorrow as we need to repair a few things on the house before we close on our refinance Tuesday.  I wish he could just relax.  Do whatever he wants.  I don’t even know what he would choose to do if given the option.

The boys and I had a fast and fun week.  Co-op, the dairy farm, and the living history park; a week full of adventure and hands-on learning.  I’m exhausted.

I walked through the house picking up towels, messes, socks; taking them to the laundry room one handful at a time.  I began to make a mental list of all the things I would do if I was given the option of what to do tomorrow.

-a box of books to be consigned at 2nd and Charles

-laundry, of course

-clean out the fridge and freezer and make next week’s menu

-sort through the boys’ winter clothes

-clean out the garage and re-organize

-take a load to the dump

-mop the floors

-clean the bathrooms

The list could certainly go on.  The only thing we’re committed to for tomorrow is a birthday party from 10-12:30.  I’m thankful for that and I look forward to spending some time with birthday boy’s momma.

I haven’t put my mental list on paper yet.  The busier life is, especially on the hard weeks, the more I want our weekends to be about family and rest.  We work all week, so what good are we doing ourselves if we also work all weekend to prepare for the next week…or in my case, to catch up?  God intended for us to rest on the Sabbath.  How often do I really, truly rest on Sunday?  I can say almost never.  Never.

I am aware that this needs to change.  This will be the second weekend in a row that I do my very best to get everything done on Saturday and take the entire Sabbath to rest; truly rest.  I realized last week that it is a very hard thing to do; truly rest.  My mind still raced even as my body rested.  I had to resist, several times, the urge to get up and do what my brain was reminding me of.  Mondays are not busy for me, so I should be able to write it down on Sunday and know that I can get to it tomorrow, but somehow that is still difficult.

Time to make dinner and let the weekend officially begin.

May all grace abound to you.

~audrey

It’s been two weeks since my last post. Amazing the things that happen in 14 days!

We heard back from the Netherlands regarding the ‘good conduct letter’ that we’ve been waiting on in order to finish our home study. Some dear friends from Holland translated the letter for us and wired the euros that the government requested. We mailed a copy of Josh’s passport and driver’s license on Friday and settled in for another 3-4 week wait.

All the while, we had another yard sale on Saturday that brought us $700 closer to Zoe! The yard sale was such a tremendous blessing, but I am so incredibly thankful to have my house back. I suppose it’s kind of like when you have long-term house guests. You don’t mind them being there and you’re glad to help (or in our case, thankful for the donations), but there’s just something special about having your house to yourselves again when the guests leave. That’s how I felt as I dusted, vacuumed, and threw away bits and pieces of trash that were left behind by the yard sale frenzy. I had such a wonderful time with our friends that helped us prepare for the sale. Thursday night my friend Sharon came over at 9:30pm to help me sort and bag the baked donations from Panera Bread. We finished up around 10:45pm and were going to sort through some bags of donated clothes when I remembered that I had about six loads of clean laundry on my bed. Sharon graciously offered to help me fold them and put them away so they wouldn’t have to be pushed back onto the floor in order for Josh and me to go to bed.  We sat and folded and laughed for an hour and a half.  My poor hubby fell asleep on the couch!  Ha!  I probably don’t have to explain to you how good it felt going to bed with a clean room, knowing all of my laundry was done!! I think I smiled when I opened my eyes the next morning.  To top it all off, we decided that we need to make our laundry night a regular thing.  Every month we’ll rotate and pick one night to help each other with our household…um…challenges.  Whether it be a closet that desperately needs organizing, cabinets that need to be cleaned out, or two weeks worth of laundry that need to be folded and put away; it’s way more fun to get it done with a friend!  I can’t wait to head to Sharon’s next month!

Today, I received a phone call with some fabulous news!  Due to the fact that Josh was in Holland over ten years ago, our agency has decided that they don’t even need the good conduct letter after all!  Our home study can be finalized and we can move forward with our USCIS application.  Once our home study is approved we’ll wait for an appointment with Homeland Security in Atlanta, get our final fingerprints done, and head to the nearest FedEx with our dossier!  We have another $5,800 in fees due before our dossier will be sent to Ethiopia.

How about one last piece of fantastic news?  My dad and I were texting back and forth a few nights ago.  …Before I go any further, I should tell you that I was just talking with a friend recently about what a blessing it would be if someone donated their frequent flyer miles in order to help us pay for the four airline tickets that will be required to go to Ethiopia twice before we bring Zoe home…. Okay, so my dad and I were texting and he asked me how much each plane ticket costs.  I told him it was somewhere in the ball park of $1700-$2200 each.  He wrote back the following:

“Mom and I received a gift several years ago: two airline tickets to anywhere in the world that never expire.  We have to check on the details, but we want to give you the tickets to go get Zoe.”

This would be a $4,000 gift!

At a time when money and deadlines are starting to weigh heavy, this was such an incredible reminder that God has all of the details worked out in advance.  He won’t let a deadline pass without providing every dime that is needed.  Already, He has used three incredible friends/families that Josh and I haven’t seen in years to bless our socks off.  We’re talking big, we love you, we support you, we share your heart for adoption, sacrificial blessings.

$800

$495

$1,000

Blessings that we will one day pay forward to someone just like us.  Waiting.  Trusting.  Praying.  Believing.  You know who you are and we pray for you daily, that God would open up the heavens and pour out upon you….” good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  Luke 6:38.  I love the promises of God.

I hope you’re encouraged and blessed.  No matter your situation, God is able.  He holds the world in His hands.

~audrey

I’ve been hunting and searching for a console table for quite some time now.  But nothing I’ve found has fit into my $20-$30 budget.  Imagine that!  Today, I was out and about with a friend and we went to three nearby home consignment stores.  It kind of felt like the three little bears story…

The first consignment store was huge with big scary price tags.

The second consignment store was very small and smelly and didn’t even have what I was looking for.

And the third consignment store was just right and we found my little table in a corner with a price tag that read: $29.

Did you like that story?  I think I had a better ending than Goldilocks.  Especially after I went to Lowes and bought a bottle of yellow spray paint and then to Hobby Lobby where their specialty knobs and pulls were 50% off.  I could stomp on my own foot for not taking any before pictures.  They would have been kind of sad.  But check out my little table that could now!

You just don’t find deals like this every day!  Now it’s about time to paint these poor, drab walls.  I’m thinking a soft  gray with this fabric on the windows:

Well, one can dream, right?

~audrey

I can’t believe it’s finally time to start the plans for the 2nd annual Trot-To-Adopt 5K and One Mile Family Fun Run!  The race is scheduled for January 28, 2012 at 10am.  It will take place at Blanchard Park in Evans, Georgia.  We are one of four recipient families this year in addition to an orphanage in South Africa.

The official race website will be up and open for registration on November 1st, but I’m attaching the sponsorship form for anyone who may want to get started before the holiday season arrives.  You do not have to live in Augusta to be a piece of the puzzle!  You can raise sponsors on behalf of one of our boys who will all be participating in the one mile fun run!  Please be praying even now that we will have a safe and successful race!  And by all means, SPREAD THE WORD!!

sponsorshipform

~audrey

It has been ages since I’ve put my creative juices to use….or even produced any creative juices!

Today I went to Hobby Lobby and got what I needed to make a fall wreath.  My house is pretty bare now that we’ve moved the furniture into the addition.  The front room (formerly the living room) is empty except for the piano, which I very happily moved out of my dining room.  As of yet, there is nothing on the walls or windows in the addition and I was feeling the urge to accessorize on a super small budget.

All of Hobby Lobby’s floral and fall decor is 40-50% off right now.  I got a twig wreath and a few stems from the floral department and voila!

I got this idea on Pinterest.  I’m thinking I should have gotten the wreath that was the next size up, but it’ll work for now.  I’m already super excited to make one for Christmas.  The white pumpkin on the piano is actually what inspired the orange and purple color palette.  I saw this white ceramic pumpkin and I absolutely loved it.  As I got closer and picked it up, I realized it had two beautiful, metal leaves coming off of the stem.  The leaves are deep purple.  It’s a little strange; not normal fall colors, but I went with it and I’m quite pleased with the outcome.

I hope you’re feeling inspired as fall starts to creep in with refreshing breezes, colorful leaves, and pumpkin stands on every corner.  I’m trying to savor each day.  Fall seems to be the season that passes the quickest.

~audrey

In March of 2009, my husband demolished the addition on the back of our house.  It had wall-to-wall crank windows, a flat roof, ceiling tiles that wreaked of mildew, and three layers of berber carpet.  The roof was leaking and we found black mold in the ceiling tiles.  My sweet husband is a dreamer.  He loves to make plans.  Big plans.

He sketched up our new addition and got to work; one nail at a time.  Not long after starting the rebuild we participated in Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey.  We felt very strongly that we needed to put the addition on hold while we worked our way out of debt.  After paying off about 80% of our debt and interest rates reaching record lows, we began working on the addition again with the hopes of refinancing the house once it was complete.  The entire addition was paid for with cash.  When Josh got to a step that he was unsure of, he’d read a book about it or find a YouTube video that showed him the step-by-step instructions.  He learned new words, used new tools, and surprised us all every step of the way.  He put his high school geometry skills to use while framing and building the roof and proved over and over the old saying:  measure twice, cut once!

I was an observer for the majority of this process; constantly going behind with a broom or dust pan.  He never showed any signs of being discouraged.  He never feared that he couldn’t do it.  He just worked.

Every spare weekend, many late nights, a few vacation days.  He worked so very hard.  On occasion our dads and a few close friends came to help.  Those days were full of laughter and much thanks.  There’s something so rewarding about working with your hands long and hard beside a friend and then sitting down to a meal together before the day’s through.  Like days of old when neighbors came together to build a house.  If a barn needed fixing, the community would come together to get it done.  Many hands make light work.

God is so good.

I began to think today as I recalled the journey in my mind; Josh is a classical learner.  He has slowly built the foundation of his skills through studying, reading, and hands-on, life experiences.  There is no task too large for him to accomplish because he knows, with confidence, that he can learn whatever is needed to conquer the next mountain.  He is a lifetime learner and he loves it.  Realizing this gave me a huge boost of confidence in our classical homeschool journey.  Once again, where I fall short, Josh is right there to balance me out.  I was created to be his helpmeet.  With each passing year I realize more and more that we make a pretty great pair.

Here are some pictures of our journey.  I guess I haven’t taken any pictures of the outside of the room since it’s been finished.  I’ll have to do that this weekend.

~audrey

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