Ashley & Audrey

One Life Ends and Another Begins

2012-01-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough week.

First I came down with a nasty stomach virus last Saturday night. This was the virus that just wouldn't quit. When I thought I was feeling better, I'd eat a little something and be back in the bathroom within 30 minutes.

My sweet Papa, my last living grandparent, passed away last Monday. I boarded a plane for Little Rock Wednesday morning. I prayed that my stomach bug was gone....it wasn't. I wasn't able to eat normally until Thursday! Papa's was the first military funeral I'd ever attended. What an honorable celebration of life. I am so blessed and thankful to have been able to attend. I have pictures and video of my trip that I will share soon. Ashley was scheduled to be induced Thursday morning. I've had the privilege of attending all of her other births and I was heart-broken that I wouldn't be able to attend the grand finale. However, thanks to modern technology, I was able to attend the delivery afterall! Stephen (Ashley's husband) called me on Face Time (like Skype) about thirty minutes before Natalie's birth and I was able to "be there" for the final minutes of labor and the delivery. It was such a special time and I am thrilled that I didn't miss Natalie's birth just because 700 miles separated us. Stephen propped me up near the TV in the delivery room, where I listened, watched, and waved to the nurses.

What a fun story that will make one day. Natalie Praise Bailey was born at 11:44am, weighing 8lbs. 9oz. She looks exactly like her oldest brother and sister. Absolutely precious!

I'm home now and it was wonderful to be greeted by Josh, my sweet boys, and a really clean house! I missed them so very much but I knew they were in great hands with my dear friends Sharon, Ali, and Kelli. Thank you ladies again for all of your love and support while I was away. You are truly a gift to me!

One last update:

The boys' video and $1 Challenge has raised almost $600 in the past six weeks. But we can't stop now. We're so close to the finish line! The race is in two weeks. We are hoping it will be our final big fundraiser before we bring Zoe home. We have about $13,000 left in fees. Once the race is over I will begin applying for adoption grants. Most of them take 6-8 weeks to process. If we don't have any hang-ups in our paperwork, we're hoping to get our dossier in the mail by February! Once that is sent, we'll be finished! I'm praying we have a referral by my THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY: May 25. As I boarded the final plane yesterday, my eyes filled with tears and butterflies filled my stomach: The next time I board a plane, it will be bound for Ethiopia....and ZOE!

I imagined what it will feel like finally holding her in my arms on the flight home. This is the year! Zoe is coming home! Will you help share our video if you haven't already?

~audrey

It's Race Time!

2012-01-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

It's here! It's time! The Trot-to-Adopt is three weeks from Saturday! The shirts are awesome but you have to register by January 20th in order to guarantee you'll get one on race day, January 28th. But there's more....if you don't live in the Augusta area but would still like to participate, you can register for the race online, raise sponsors right where you are, and we'll mail you your shirt! Please help us spread the word and if you're already registered, start asking all your friends, family, and neighbors to sponsor you as you run for a precious little girl in Ethiopia! When we ran last year for the Digsby family, I was able to raise $100 one Wednesday night at church! We are praying that God would use this race to spread awareness about adoption and help us raise the rest of the money we need to bring our sweet baby girl home.

SponsorshipForm

Thank you for all of your love and support! I hope to see you ALL on Saturday, January 28th!

~audrey

A Thankful Countdown...Tuesday

2011-11-22T12:44:00.000-08:00

Today I'm thankful for the time that our little family, all 7 of us, got to spend out together this morning. I'm thankful for our special tradition of getting Christmas ornaments for all the kids. I'm thankful for our picnic and playtime at the park. I'm thankful for such a beautiful, though warm, fall day. I'm thankful to have my wonderful husband home for the week and that his basketball duties for the week end today. I'm thankful for the quiet house that I'm sitting in right now. I'm thankful for time to read, to write and to do some much needed editing.

I'm thankful for the book I'm reading right now. I've had the book for a long time, but haven't looked at it in I can't tell you how long. It's called The Prayer That Changes Everything: The Hidden Power of Praising God and it's by author Stormie OMartian. Perfect timing, right?

Praise is not just something that we are called as Christians to do, but it's something that we NEED to do and God knew that from the very beginning. Praise draws us closer to God and as we are drawn nearer to his heart, "it releases us from negative thoughts and emotions." I needed to hear this. I've been tormented with negative thoughts towards a certain person for quite a while now and the thoughts have consumed me. I've prayed and prayed and spoken scripture, but just haven't been able to get free from them.

"We don't want to think futile thoughts that lead to darkness and misery. (The Bible says) 'Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened' (Romans 1:21). We want to have the transformed and renewed mind God has for us (Romans 12:2). Praise and worship is where it begins."

-The Prayer That Changes Everything

Talk about "a word in season"! God is so good about that and I'm so very thankful. I hope this has encouraged you as much as it has me.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Saturday, Sunday and Monday

2011-11-21T16:16:00.000-08:00

I am so behind on my countdown, but it shows you what kind of weekend I had...busy!

This is one of those posts that feels more like a sacrifice to write because I'm tired and don't feel like writing. I'm sitting in my recliner in my bedroom with my feet propped up and NO ONE'S HOME BUT ME. I'd rather be editing some pictures or laying on the couch, but here I am. I can't not write in response to God's goodness and I need to put my thoughts on something besides myself right now. One of my favorite hymns says,

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

in the light of his glory and grace."

Oh, how I need for the things of this earth to grow dim! I'm thankful for the hope that we have in Jesus. I'm thankful that all is not lost and we can run to him anytime and anywhere, and I do. I'm thankful that when we turn to him in thankfulness and praise, our hearts and our perspectives are changed. God is truly so good. He's my Father, my comforter, my strength, my rock and my refuge. Without him I would be crazy and depressed. I'm not joking.

I'm thankful for the blessing of a large family. It's not easy, but it's SO GOOD!

I'm thankful to have my family home this week.

I'm thankful for a home that's filled with laughter and joy.

And I thankful for a peaceful, loving and godly husband.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...day 8

2011-11-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

I think my count is off, but that's ok. Bear with me and I'll figure it out:)!

Today I'm thankful for cool days and morning walks with friends, even if it is while I'm doing a shoot:). I'm thankful for warm cups of coffee and all things that inspire. I'm thankful for art and that it's expressed in so many different ways. I'm thankful for the ability to bless others with my talent. I'm thankful for God's creation, the perfect inspiration.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...day 9

2011-11-17T18:36:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for funny moments like the one I got to experience this morning. I went into the twins' room to check on them and found Ben on TOP of Susan's armoire with his diaper on his head.

I'm thankful for Audrey volunteering to come clean my house and when she didn't finish, because she may have worked on my nasty bed and bathrooms the entire time, she volunteered to come back and finish the next day. I'm so blessed!

I'm very thankful for the van we're able to rent for the next 4 days. I'm thankful for the transmission they were able to find to put in our van and that we're able to get to it $2000 less than expected.

I'm thankful for my husband and my children. I'm thankful for my relationship with the Lord. I'm thankful for good friends. And I'm thankful for God's goodness to me.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 10

2011-11-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

Today I'm thankful that God reminds me of his promises and that he faithfully keeps them. I'm thankful that he sees my family and our needs and promises to provide. For some reason, I find myself many times asking God for his provision, but realizing that I don't really expect him to do anything, especially anything big. BUT, this is what his word says about his children and I am one, so it applies to me.

"If your child asks for bread,

do you trick him with sawdust?

If he asks for fish,

do you scare him with a live snake on his plate?

As bad as you are,

you wouldn't think of such a thing.

You're at least decent to your own children.

So don't you think the God who

conceived you in love will be even better?"

Matthew 7:9-11 (The Message)

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Days 11 and 12

2011-11-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

Day 12

I'm thankful for naps! I'm thankful that the twins lay down for a nap at the same time each day and don't wake each other up, which allows me to take a nap. I'm thankful that Sam plays quietly for however long I need.

I'm thankful for God's provision as we are without our van. I'm thankful for the truck he provided Stephen to drive back and forth to school in (even if it does only get 12 miles to the gallon!). I'm thankful that Stephen was able to talk the rental car company into letting us rent a vehicle for 7 days instead of the original 2. I'm thankful for favor from the representative Stephen talked to at the rental company who brought the cost of renting a van down from $90 a day to $40. I'm thankful for our neighbor who willingly lets Sam stay at her house for the 30 minutes it takes me to take the other kids to school and come back home, since all the kids can't fit in Stephen's car. We won't get the rental until Thursday.

Day11

I'm thankful that I'm almost 31 weeks, which means that I hopefully only have about 8 weeks left, if my OBGYN will induce me as he has in the past. I'm thankful that this pregnancy has gotten so much better, especially with the use of the belly band. I'm thankful for the excitement that's in the air as we await the birth of Natalie Praise.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 13

2011-11-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

Today I'm thankful that our family was pretty much forced into staying home because our van is in the shop and we can't fit all 7 of us into Stephen's car. I'm thankful for rest. I'm thankful that my husband and I are on the same team and that God uses him as a voice of reason. I'm thankful that I can trust Stephen and his opinion. I'm thankful that God is trust worthy and that he has sent his word to direct our steps. Finally, I am thankful for this smile, even if it was dirt that did the trick!

Party Time

2011-11-13T08:59:00.000-08:00

The twins' birthday party was yesterday at a local park. The weather was perfect and except for a couple of other families, we were the only ones there. We invited 2 other couples and their children, my younger brother's family and my parents. It was small, but so much fun.

I chose a Mickey Mouse theme for the party because the boys LOVE Mickey Mouse. I didn't go crazy and buy all the Mickey Mouse party supplies. I bought a few theme items, but used matching colors for the rest.

I found this Mickey Mouse cupcake stand at Party City. I made cupcakes out of a yellow boxed cake mix and used store bought cream cheese and milk chocolate frostings. I decorated them with Mickey Mouse sprinkles, which I also found at Party City. They were a HUGE hit!

I found the table cloth in the Christmas section at Target. I thought the top was going to be red with the white polka dots and the bottom would be lined with the green and white, but I was wrong. I still, however, love the way it turned out.

For plates and napkins, I went with plain black. They were cheaper and carried the MM theme without going overboard.

Look at the shirts Audrey made for the boys!!! I found the design on tipjunkie.com and she was able to recreate it. The only thing I left off the shirts were their names because that wasn't a big deal to me. I bought the plain white T shirts from Target and the black and red material from a local fabric store and she did the rest.

I found these adorable Mickey Mouse ears, also from Party City, and used them as party favors. They lined the table when the guests first arrived. Such a cute touch!

I had the best intentions of making some really cute invitations, but that didn't happen. Instead, I made these thank you "cards" and tied them to plastic baggies filled with pretzels and sixlets. The sixlets were the MM theme colors, so it was a perfect touch. I found these at Party City also. I gave these to the guests as they left.

The party was fun and simple, just the way I like it. All the kids had fun playing and the adults enjoyed hanging out. It was a great day in honor of two great little boys!

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 14

2011-11-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

If you ever find it hard to praise, let me help you. One of my all time favorite chapters in the bible is Psalm 145. It helps me get my focus off myself and onto God. In fact, I went to it this morning when I wasn't sure of what else to read and the following passage of scripture jumped out at me.

"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,

Slow to anger and great in mercy.

The Lord is good to all,

And His tender mercies are over all His works."

Psalm 145:8-9

When I read it, I thought of a song that we sing in our church. I love this song and pulled it up on youtube to listen to it as part of my quiet time. I posted it below to share it with you. I don't really like the video, but I closed my eyes so that I could focus on the words. Hope it leads you into worship as it did me. Ashley

<br><br>As

A Thankful Countdown...Days 15 and 16

2011-11-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

Day 15
I'm thankful for my family and the nights that we get together once a week to have dinner at my mom and dad's house. I'm thankful that I can watch my youngest brother's children grow up. I'm thankful that I have two wonderful sisters in law who love my brothers so very much. I prayed for them so many years before they even met them.

I'm thankful for our vehicles. I'm thankful that my husband works close enough that if something happens to the van I drive, that he can come home (or I can go there) so he can switch with me. I'm thankful for the connections we have with friends who are more than willing to help us out with our vehicles...especially when the transmission goes out in one of them. Ok, it's the van. I'm thankful that I don't have to worry about how we're going to get our entire family from one place to another because we all don't fit in Stephen's vehicle. I'm thankful that I can just trust the Lord to provide, and he will. I'm thankful that we thought ahead and got an extended warranty on our van because it's older and we knew it would eventually need a new transmission.

Ashley

Day 16
I'm so very thankful for Drew and Ben and that God thought it a good idea to put them in our family. I'm so very thankful that 2 years ago today they came into this world and brought with them a sweetness like none I've ever known. I'm thankful for the smooth transition and that God took it easy on me...in the beginning. I'm thankful for the many laughs we get from them. I'm thankful that I have older children to help me with them. I'm thankful that they fit so perfectly into our crazy family. I'm thankful that even though one of the boys is extremely high maintenance, the other is calm, patient, content and quiet (so much like his daddy). I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a mom and to be a mom to MY kids.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 16

2011-11-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

"Heavenly Father,
thank You for Your grace.

Your forgiveness is SO good
that I struggle with believing it at times.

Thank You for rescuing me from myself
and giving me Your Holy Spirit.
Your love is better than life."

~Francis Chan

Off-line

2011-11-09T06:24:00.001-08:00

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

A Thankful Countdown...Day 17

2011-11-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

"Praise the Lord of hosts,

For the Lord is good,

For His mercy endures forever."

Jeremiah 33:11

"Oh Come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms."

Psalm 95:1-2

The note in my bible for Psalm 95:1-2 says "The satisfying result of being in God's presence by means of praise is rest. Grumbling, complaining, and unbelief destroy that rest."

We enter into God's rest and peace through praise, taking the focus off ourselves and circumstances.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 18

2011-11-07T14:06:00.000-08:00

"Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High." Psalm 50:14

Our thanks and praise is our sacrificial offering to God, especially when we don't feel like it. Our praise then becomes a vehicle for God to come to us and to minister to and through us.

I'm choosing to be thankful for the season I'm going through with this little guy, for I know that "He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it."

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 19

2011-11-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Today I'm thankful for my church and church family. I'm thankful for a pastor who loves people and truly has a heart for others. I'm thankful for a godly worship leader who leads us each Sunday into true and authentic worship. I'm thankful that, once a month, I can be a part of that. I'm thankful for our children's ministry. I'm thankful that my children enjoy going. I'm thankful that they learn to pray and care for the poor and develop and heart for others because they too are God's people.

I'm thankful for my belly band and maternity clothes. I'm very thankful that these last two months of my pregnancy will be spent in the fall and winter. I'm thankful for iron tablets and prenatal vitamins. I'm thankful for a Doctor who jokes with me about me being pregnant...again. I'm thankful that he's OK with me bringing my kids to the appointments with me when I have to and that he doesn't look down on me for sitting my iphone on the counter and letting them watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while he checks me.

I'm thankful that I have so much to be thankful for. God's been so good to me and my family.

"Enter into his gate with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name." ~Psalm 100:4

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 20

2011-11-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for the shower my sweet family threw for my sister in law and I, who are due 2 weeks apart from each other. I am thankful for all the beautiful outfits, sleepers, socks, bottles, blankets, etc. that were given to Natalie. I'm thankful for the time Susan and I had together today. I am thankful for the time that Audrey and I got to spend together on the way to and from my moms. I'm thankful for the strength and energy God gave me to get through this day. I'm thankful for the two twenty minute breaks that I was able to lay down and rest. I'm thankful for movie night with the boys. I am thankful for the all the kicks and movement I'm feeling in my belly. Last but not least, I'm very thankful for God's goodness, grace, mercy and love.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 21

2011-11-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

"Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good!

For his mercy (goodness and love) endures forever."

Psalm 107:1 NIV (parenthesis mine)

Today I am thankful for Sam's sweet spirit and love for the twins. I am thankful for Drew's calm demeanor and sweet, ready smile. I choose to be thankful for Ben's strong will because I know that one day it will be a benefit and not a liability, as it is now. I am thankful for godly wisdom. I am thankful for godly and encouraging friends. I am thankful for the Lord's strength that gets me through each day. And I am thankful for the Truth that always leads me back to God.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 22

2011-11-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Ever since I wrote the post on Psalm 100, verse 4 has hung around in my heart and won't leave.

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.

Be thankful to him and bless his name"

Ps. 100:4

When I first began growing in my relationship with the Lord I read this verse and others like it and considered thanksgiving and praise to be synonymous, but they're not. As I read verse 4, I began to see this verse as if it were a picture. I saw thanksgiving as a gate or entry way and praise to be the Holy Place and no longer were thanksgiving and praise the same. Thanksgiving is thanking God for what he has done and praise is glorifying or praising God for who he is. It's no wonder thanksgiving comes first. We recognize God's goodness and the faithfulness of his name as we thank him for what he has done for us.

A time for thanks...

Today I'm thankful for who God is. I'm thankful that he's the same yesterday, today and forever. I'm thankful for his love, which is unfailing. I'm thankful for his truth and that he reveals himself to us through his word (the truth). I'm thankful for the peace that we have in him. He's so good, especially when things around us don't appear to be so good.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 23

2011-11-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for my husband (and for the fact that he works close to our house because I may or may not have locked myself out of the house...again). I'm also thankful for the sweet little girl who's growing inside of me and for the five others God has so graciously placed in my care. I'm very thankful that I'm not bed ridden and that at 29 weeks pregnant I can still keep up with the twins (especially when they run with full speed out of the front door and I have to chase them across the street into the neighbors yard, which happens several times a day). I'm thankful for the break I got today from our normal routine and the time I got to spend with a sweet friend. I'm thankful for my home group and the child care provided so I could get a child-less break and hang out with other adults. And I'm thankful for my family and their support, especially my parents.

Ashley

A Thankful Countdown...Day 24

2011-11-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations."

~Psalm 100

I memorized this passage of scripture at the feet of Mrs. Hammond when I was in kindergarten. Each student received a lolly pop when we learned the scripture. I worked so hard to learn it because I really wanted her approval...and that lolly pop. It's always been on my list of favorites.

Verse four is probably my favorite because we are invited to enter into God's presence and the offering we bring is thanksgiving and praise.

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him and bless is name."

~Psalm 100:4

I am certain that thanksgiving and praise should come before all else. It focuses our vision on him and gets our heart right before we start pouring our hearts out to him.

Will you join me in practicing this today? And while we're at it, let's get our kids involved in this sweet invitation.

Ashley

P.S. Here are some pictures of my kids celebrating fall. They had so much fun!!

Sam as Captain America

Susan as a Spanish princess

Jonathan as Green Lantern

Drew as Thing One...in a "thing" kind of mood. This is his "I'm going to throw myself down on the ground and not do what you say" pose.

Ben as Thing Two

The Fab Five

A Thankful Countdown...Day 25

2011-10-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, the Lord has been speaking to me about thankfulness. As I sat down to spend some time with Him the other night, a portion of a song that I haven't heard in YEARS came to mind. "A thankful heart prepares the way for You, my God." It's so true. When we fix our eyes on Jesus by being thankful, we can better focus on God. I wrote the song portion down in my journal and as I looked at it, this next thought came to mind. "Thanksgiving comes just before Christmas, preparing our hearts to focus on the birth of Jesus."

I decided that I want to spend more time focusing on thankfulness, so I'm committing to blog about what the Lord speaks to my heart each day until Thanksgiving Day or just stop by and list things I'm specifically thankful for on that day. I'm interested in seeing how it will change me and my heart attitude and prepare me to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Ashley

P.S. Just a little something random to share.

A change of heart.

2011-10-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening I was whining and complaining to myself about how I tired I was and how I didn't feel like doing anything. I knew Stephen would be home in 30 minutes, so I needed to get up and start getting dinner ready so I could leave as soon as he got home. I sat in front of the computer chanting to myself, "I need to get up. I need to get up." It's actually the mantra I've been chanting to myself for the past 2 weeks, since my iron has been low and I kept forgetting to get my meds filled. As I got up from my chair, Drew and Ben, who up until that moment had been playing quietly in the backyard, came to the window and began fussing to come inside. Jonathan, also at that moment, came to the door with two hands full of stickers from where he grabbed a cactus. {Sigh!} I immediately began thinking, "How is dinner going to get done before Stephen comes home?" "Should I cancel my plans and stay home?" "What am I going to do with the twins to keep them busy while I cook and take care of Joanthan?" "How am I going to get all these stickers out of Jonathan's hands?" "I don't want Stephen to have do this while he has all the kids by himself!" So I took a deep breath, sat Jonathan down at the table and brought Drew and Ben inside and strapped them in their highchairs to watch Mickey Mouse on the computer. Then I took a couple of minutes to start dinner and from there I went back and forth from the kitchen to Jonathan, pricking and cooking, pricking and cooking. As I was standing in the kitchen at one point, I looked out at Jonathan and began smiling. I thought about recent tragedies that have occurred here lately. A father lost his life in a horrible shooting, 2 children were killed in a car accident, a two year old little girl is at home on hospice and her parents and waiting for the Lord to take her home and a friends' two year old son lost his battle with heart disease. It didn't take long for me to stop complaining and begin thanking God for the twins, for dirty little hands to hold and prick cactus stickers out of, for a husband who would soon be home and take over so I could get out for a little while, for a father who loves his children and would be fine without me. My spirits immediately lifted, my attitude changed and I began to feel better physically.

The Lord has been speaking to me quite a bit lately about praise and thankfulness. I've been so focused on myself and it's only when I choose to speak praise and thanksgiving (there's always something to be thankful for) that my head is lifted and I can see the light of God's goodness, mercy and grace.

Ashley

Satisfied

2011-10-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

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 ishis 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 menearer to Himself.

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

~audrey

Weekends are for...

2011-10-14T14:16:00.001-07:00

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 allweekend 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

2011-10-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

As Audrey said in her post, it's been a while. I wish that life would just stop long enough for me to catch up sometimes, but it doesn't. I instead have to depend on God to give me the time, strength and patience each day to do what needs to be done and be ok with what I did or didn't get done. Life has been overwhelming, to say the least, with 5 kids (including twin BOYS who are every bit of the word boy), homework, homeschooling, housework, pregnancy, etc.

I'm currently in the middle of reading two books. Actually, I'm not reading them at the same time, but I put one down for a little while because I need something a little different, but I will pick it up again soon. Anyway, both contain morsels of encouragement that are helping me through this season of life and I want to share one of them with you today. I'll try to come back and share another with you tomorrow, but we'll just have to wait and see:).

The first is from Emily P. Freeman's book, Grace for the Good Girl. If you're not familiar with Emily, she is the author of the blog, Chatting at the Sky, and her sister is the author of the blog, the Nesting Place. Emily writes, "Good Mom makes breakfast and smiles a lot. Good Mom always remembers to notice, compliment, and encourage. She is fun and funny. She plays dolls with pleasure and even makes suggestions for pretend scenarios to make the play go longer. Her patience is limitless and she never raises her voice. She wakes up early every morning and spends time with Jesus. She is consistent and kind. She makes cookies from scratch. She plays outside even when it's really hot. She builds forts with blankets in the living room. Her house is always clean, her produce is always fresh, and she has a garden with flowers and vegetables. She can sing. She makes puppets out of socks. Her kids never watch TV because they are totally satisfied to listen to the riveting, captivating stories that their Good Mom makes up. Every night. And then there's me."

That last line is my favorite because I am so not that mom either. If I could make a list of each item and accomplish one a day, I'd be doing good. Jonathan asked for a spoonfull of Nutella for breakfast yesterday and I said yes. I sometimes just don't feel like saying anything nice to or about my kids because they've ticked me off. And sometimes if one child is hitting the others, I give the kids permission to hit that child back the next time ~~she~~ that child even touches them. Sometimes I'm sarcastic rather than funny. Sometimes I'd rather throw the doll or toy across the room and check facebook on my iphone rather than watch their plays. I often struggle with spending time with Jesus because somedays I just don't know where to start. I may be consistent today, but tomorrow I may not be. Sometimes I just want to shove a kid out of the way as I make my way through my small house. I hate the heat and get annoyed with all the neighborhood kids that play in our yard. My house is rarely clean. If my pantry is bare, we eat out, which happens a few times a week. I don't make sock puppets, but then again, my kids don't ask me to. The twins probably watch more TV than the big kids because they wear me out and buckling them in their high chairs in front of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse trumps chasing after them and cleaning up their messes on most days (like the cups of hot coffee and chocolate milk that Drew poured on himself in a matter of less than 10 hours a part from each other).

Of course I'm not always like that, but that statement, and then there's me, gave me so much freedom and reminded me to stop taking myself so seriously. I honestly hope it does the same for you! I hope you read it over and over until it sinks in and changes your life. I hope your mask falls off and that you get tears in your eyes as you read it. I hope you're set free to thrive in this season of life instead of strive.

Ashley

It's Been a Little While

2011-10-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

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

The Little Table That Could

2011-09-24T18:19:00.001-07:00

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

Crafty

2011-09-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

Building Classically

2011-09-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

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

Fall

2011-09-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

I got excited about Fall as soon as Sept. 1st arrived, but with weather like today's, I'm even more excited. Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons. I love Fall weather, but it's all the festivities that make it exciting too! I love experiencing all the excitement through the eyes of my 5 children. There's such a sweetness this time of year that prepares our hearts for Christmas. Sigh...I hope the temps continue to drop so that we can spend more time outside together. I love going for long walks with my family and taking pictures of them enjoying God's creation and the beauty of the season. What do you enjoy most about Fall?
Ashley

One Word...Adoption

2011-09-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

If you had to choose one word to describe yourself, your family or the current season of your life, what would it be?

For me and my family it would probably be "faith", because ours is being stretched right now and we're learning to rely on God more than before. Have you thought of yours?

For the months of September through October, I will be offering 2 themed mini sessions. This particular mini session is called "One Word." Get creative with that one word and paint some letters, write it on a little chalk board, find one pre-made, etc. and bring it to your shoot. Let's create some fun and great pictures!

WAIT!! There's MORE! 100% of the proceeds from the session fee will go to support my best friend and her family as they raise money to adopt a sweet baby girl from Africa. You can follow their adoption story on her blog.

The Wilkerson's. {Josh, Audrey, Joshua, Jesse and Owen}

Here are the details:
A mini session fee is $50 and is 30 minutes long. It only includes one family with no clothing changes. Most mini sessions are all scheduled back to back on one particular day, but for now mine do not work that way. Please contact me at ashley.reallifephotography@gmail.com to schedule your mini session.

Please keep in mind that photos are viewed online shortly after the shoot and prints are ordered separately after the viewing. Print prices can be found on my website under pricing and payment.

Ashley

A question...

2011-09-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

I'm asking a question over on facebook and on my photography blog. Please take a minute to hop over and answer if you don't mind. If you answer on facebook, please be sure to "like" my page first. Thanks!

Ashley

If you could use one word to describe yourself, your family or the current season of your life, what would it be? Feel free to explain why.

Here are some answers from facebook friends:

"Expectant" -Audrey

Thankful" -Cindy

"Blessable" -Amanda

"Waiting" -Rachel

"Faith" -Ashley

Sick and Thankful

2011-08-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

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

Best Cookies I've Ever Made

2011-08-24T07:16:00.001-07:00

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

For Ali

2011-08-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

I get to Sam's first soccer game on Tuesday, fully intending to take a load of pictures of him, and what do you know...a lady with a baby shows up and I end up taking more of the baby than I do of my son! It wasn't just any lady, though. Her name is Ali and she's a friend. Her son and Sam play on the same team. This is the first time I've seen sweet Caroline. She's so stinkin' cute. I couldn't resist. So here ya go, Ali. I wanted you to see these. I'll try to remember to put them on a CD for you.

Ashley

Their First Game

2011-08-20T15:14:00.001-07:00

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

One Hour Later

2011-08-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

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

We Need Your Help

2011-08-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to be real here. Every penny we've raised/earned/saved so far (almost $5,000!) 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

A Real Good Laugh

2011-08-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

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?"

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

Real Quick

2011-08-15T06:16:00.001-07:00

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

A sweet moment

2011-08-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

It's moments like these that I snuggle way down deep

underneath the covers of motherhood and breathe in the

sweet fragrance of these moments that soften such a hard

job.

Ashley

Back To School and other updates

2011-08-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

First Day

2011-08-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

Susan and Jonathan started school this morning.

They were both so excited. Susan missed her friends so much this summer and couldn't wait to see them. Jonathan was just ready to go the same school as Sam and Susan did last year.

Jonathan did so well. There were no tears or difficult goodbyes, which made it easy for me handle his first day of pre-school and being away from me.

On a different note, I just wanted to share a song that I've started my day with for the past few days. It's getting me through a time of faith testing and reminds me of who God is. I need that so much right now. (click the song title below to listen.)

Ashley

You Are More-Hillsong

on the day i called, you answered me
& the hope in my soul increased
i lift my hands & turn my eyes
to the God who heals my heart
and gives me peace.

you are more than my words could ever say,
you are Lord over all, over all my days
i will see this season through,
i will fix my eyes on You, only You

i worship You & lift You high
God forever let Your name be glorified
i will lift my voice & sing Your name
for You gave Your life to cleanse my sin
& took away my shame

hallelujah, the earth will sing
may Your name be glorified

A Beautiful Experience

2011-08-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot a multi-cultural worship service called The Bridge Sunday night.

There was such a spirit of majesty and celebration present as we mixed our worship and music styles to worship one Lord.

The bridge comprised of three area churches, each with a different ethnicity, which were predominantly Caucasian, African American and Hispanic.

Indian and Korean ethnicities were also represented.

When I shoot a worship event, something spiritual happens.

My spirit and creative side collide and worship occurs in a way that I don't usually experience. It's when I know for sure that I'm doing what I was made and called to do. There's something about capturing people worshiping God that just moves me.

It makes me happy and I am inspired to stop after I take that shot and to sing, pray or lift my hands. It's a beautiful experience...a blessing to my soul to be a part of. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have gone if I wasn't asked to shoot it.

More of these events are being planned for the near future and the photos taken from this one will be considered being used for advertisement. My prayer is that the spirit of The Bridge will be conveyed to those who view the pictures so others will be inspired to be apart of bridging the gap between all the ethnicities in our area...and beyond.

Ashley

A little bit of this. A little bit of that.

2011-07-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

It's finally Friday! After dinner we're going to pack the kids in the car and go...well, I'm really not sure, but we'll think of something. I'd like to to the lake because I have camping fever. It'll be a few weeks before we go camping, though, but we sure are having fun planning and talking to the kids about it. Tonight it would be fun to just go to the lake and play in the water. (We ended up going to Target to buy a birthday present for a birthday party we're going to tomorrow.)

I just finished reading Deuteronomy and am heading over to Isaiah for a while. Yeah, it'll be a while because it's 66 chapters long. After that I plan on reading Jeremiah. I loved Deuteronomy and the consistent message that God blesses obedience. I've seen the fruit of that simple truth in my own life, yet I still struggle with obedience in certain areas of my life.

I'm not sure if I told you or not, but I'll be homeschooling Sam this year using an online school. God made it very clear to us that this is the path we are to take for him this year and I'm (getting) excited. His enrollment is finally approved and his boxes of goodies are on the way. The nice thing is that we don't have to pay for any of it. This is a blessing on our really tight budget. Susan and Jonathan will continue at the private school Susan's attended since she was in pre-school. Jonathan will have her former pre-k teacher and I'm so excited. His going to school is bitter sweet for me. It's been the two of us for 2 years. I've enjoyed being with him so much. He's different when the older two aren't around (less aggressive, sweeter and more obedient) and I've missed that this summer. My nose is starting to hurt and I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it. I do look forward to the special time with Sam, though. He's different when he's away from Susan and Jonathan, as well. It's been a hard summer with him, but I'm expecting the best.

That's enough of my rambling for now. I'm really hoping that I can get back into blogging, since we'll soon be getting back into our routine. I've missed the outlet. By the way...here's a couple of pictures of the twins to send you off with.

Have a great weekend.

Ashley

Birthday Week

2011-07-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends. I stopped by for a few minutes while I have a few minutes. Sam turned 8 yesterday. I can't believe that #1 is 8! He's had a great week. I say week and not day because, while his actual birthday was uneventful, he's been showered all week long with other birthday stuff. On Monday, as we usually do for everyone in my family, we had our traditional family birthday celebration for him at my mom and dad's. On Tuesday, he was able to take a friend and get lunch out, watch a movie and get ice cream. On Wednesday, we all serenaded him with "Happy Birthday," tickled him and told him something we all liked about him. We did that first thing to start his day off with a bang. Today, Stephen took him out to spend his birthday money, which he got from his aunt and uncle. He chose to buy a Swiss army knife with it, something he's already been using for about 6 months to whittle sticks. I'm so glad it turned out well for him. He's so grateful for it all and that makes me happy.

Happy Birthday, Sam! Year 7 was another great year for you. You matured and had some great experiences. My favorite and most memorable was when you accepted Jesus into your heart and were baptized. You obviously understood the decision you were making and were so incredibly happy. I see something special, different and unique in you. We all do. God has set you apart from all the other girls and boys your age and has a special plan and purpose for you. We are here to help you discover it and to live full force for the Lord. May God continue to bless and preserve you, sweet Sam! I love you!

Love,

Mommysamodi
-Ashley

Juice Fast-Day 3

2011-07-23T08:16:00.001-07:00

After watching the documentaries, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and "Food Matters", Josh and I decided to embark on a 10-day juice fast. On a perfect day we consume four 16 oz. servings of juice and lots of water. The juice is mainly the recipe given in the documentary:

Mean Green Juice

1 bunch kale

4 stalks of celery

1 cucumber

2 granny smith aples

½ a lemon

ginger root

Surprisingly, it's not bad. We also bought a few bottles of Green Machine by Naked Juice. It contains apple, banana, kiwi, mango, broccoli, spinach, spirulina, chlorella, blue green algae, and garlic. It is actually delicious!

We're planning on trying a homemade V8 juice for lunch. We found a good recipe on food.com. The documentary also inspired us to make sure we're not taking the easy way out in regards to what we feed our children. Overall, our kids eat very well. They'll eat salad, Jesse and Owen like sushi, they always eat their veggies, and consume at least two servings of raw fruits and veggies each day. However, as we make a few changes around here in efforts to get our bodies to optimum health, we're going to shoot for 51% raw on a daily basis even when the fast is over. Breakfast will likely consist of a smoothie or raw fruit. This morning the boys had a smoothie made of:

2 cups of spinach

1 banana

1/2 cup blueberries

8 strawberries

This recipe was enough for them to have about 8-10 oz. each. The best part is, they know the spinach is in there and that it's very good for them whereas before I would try to hide it.

Lunch will likely be a salad, veggies with homemade hummus, fresh juice, or maybe even another smoothie. And dinner will be cooked. I'm already looking forward to trying a chicken marsala recipe I found recently but plan to substitute the chicken for portobello mushrooms. We're not aiming for perfection, but we do believe that God created our bodies to be able to heal itself when being nourished properly.

Food Matters was an excellent educational documentary. I highly encourage you to watch both, but Food Matters really opened our eyes to which foods and vitamins best assist in the healing process of different diseases and ailments. Watch it! They're both "watch now" movies on Netflix if you're a member.

I started the fast Thursday at lunch and Josh joined me Friday morning. This afternoon will start day three for me and I'm feeling great. Yesterday was tough. I wanted real food and I was very tired in the afternoon. Thankfully, I haven't been drinking caffeine for several months so I haven't had to deal with caffeine withdrawals which I hear are pretty rough. I was able to take a three hour nap yesterday afternoon and was good as new for the rest of the day.

I'd really like to read the book "Made To Crave" while in the midst of this fast. I've heard it's excellent and really deals with our addiction to food. It's so sad to think about how addicted we are to food. I even got sad last night when I thought about waking up Saturday morning and not making a big breakfast for my family. I can practically smell those homemade buttermilk biscuits. But instead, I woke up, made a large pitcher of our green juice, prepared the boys' smoothies, and poured Pinesol in all the sinks and toilets. Time to put this energy to good use!

I look forward to recording our progress throughout the rest of this fast. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I look very forward to my first meal when it's over. I hear days four and five get a lot better. We'll see!

~audrey

Growing Up

2011-07-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

Children in Augusta will go back to school in two and a half weeks. Where has the summer gone? We've done a whole lot of nothing and it still seems to have flown by. Owen will be in pre-k, Jesse will be in second grade, and Joshua will be in third grade.

As I sit here typing, I can hear Jesse in the midst of his guitar lesson in the living room. His passion for music, worship, and playing his guitar fill me with joy. Aside from one season of t-ball when Joshua was four, the boys haven't participated in team sports up to this point. There just hasn't been time. I think one of the worst things families can do today is make themselves too busy. Too busy to gather around the table to eat dinner together, too busy to talk about everyone's day, too busy to read aloud a few chapters of a good book before bed. That said, we've decided to let the boys play soccer this fall. We knew if we signed them up with the Family Y, they'd be on the same team. The season lasts three months. I think the teamwork and competition along with being outside for something they truly enjoy will be so good for them. How appropriate that they're team is called The Bandits!

I have found myself really "enjoying the moment" lately. A few weeks ago, the boys and I went up to the lake for a few hours and we were the only ones at this particular beach. As the boys played in the water, I relaxed into my beach chair, face to the sun, and took a few slow, deep breaths, thanking God for the beauty of His creation that I have the privilege of enjoying on a daily basis.

Just the other day, my friend Teresa and I were planning to take the boys to the lake again and I told her we needed to plan a day trip to the beach. She said, "Let's go tomorrow!" Just like that, I cleaned out the car, ran up to the store at 10:30pm to buy snacks and sunscreen, and packed the beach bag for a long day of fun in the sun. Joshua and Jesse have only been to the beach once and it was four years ago. This would be Owen's first trip to the ocean. I was so very excited to surprise them Monday morning with our spontaneous change of plans.

We headed out at 8:30am, arrived at Folly Beach just before lunch, played all day, and packed up to head home a little before 7:00pm.

We stopped to get gas and a Chick-fil-a milkshake along with a bathroom break, and arrived back home a little after 10:00pm. It was absolutely perfect. I sure hope that the boys look back on our spontaneous trips to the beach with sweet remembrance as they get older. There's no place we'd rather be than with each other. We will surely be making more trips to the ocean in the near future; next time with hubby as well!

I don't want to miss a single moment of my children growing up. I look so forward to watching them with their baby sister. They can hardly wait for the day when she's snuggled up with us for story time before bed. Just last night Jesse prayed, "Lord, protect Zoe and send someone to love and comfort her until we can bring her home very soon." They pray for her each and every night as we cradle her in our hearts until we can hold her in our arms.

God is so good. I just can't say it enough.

~audrey

My New Friend SAM

2011-07-13T06:26:00.001-07:00

I haven't felt like myself lately. I wake up tired and achy, I'm unmotivated to do the everyday things that once brought me joy and fulfillment, and I haven't had a period since April. I guess my hormones could be messed up; or maybe my thyroid levels are off. I just have't felt right. It's not a feeling of depression, just a severe case of blah. I haven't even had the energy to dry my hair and put make-up on. Isn't that crazy!? I've never felt like this before. I've taken a few pregnancy tests over the past few months just to make sure and they're all negative.

My mom and aunts have always taught me to try everything natural first and if it doesn't provide relief, then go to the doctor. So, I picked up a month's supply of SAM-e; a natural supplement. In case you're not familiar with SAM-e, here is what I found online:

In a nutshell, SAM-e helps other molecules in the brain do their jobs making you feel like your normal self. When SAM-e levels run low, those other molecules can’t do their jobs as effectively, and you can feel out of sorts from a mood standpoint. SAM-e also plays a critical role in cartilage formation and has been used to treat fibromyalgia patients.

Imagine my surprise when I started to notice a tremendous difference within just 48 hours of starting the supplement. I got my house clean, and I mean really clean (with a big smile on my face), I wake up with energy, and I've lost almost five pounds in the last week. I think the weight loss has been a result of having more energy. As I keep myself busy with good things around the house, I don't eat until I'm really hungry, and even then my body doesn't seem to be craving the bad things that once made me feel better (temporarily of course).

Yesterday I woke up at 6:00am without an alarm clock. I made the boys' breakfast and realized I had a few hours before we were suppose to meet some friends at the pool, so I decided to paint my bathroom. Just like that, I got out my supplies and had two coats of paint on the walls before 10:30am.

To top it all off, the severe pain I've experienced in my left knee for the past several months is almost gone. The anti-inflammatory that the doctor had given me left me feeling sluggish and drugged. I stopped taking it the day before I started SAM-e and my knee began hurting again in less than 24 hours. However, within two days of starting SAM-e, I noticed a significant decrease in my knee pain. I'm sure the pain will be less and less as I continue to lose weight. I once read that every pound of weight you lose takes four pounds of pressure off your joints. I believe it!

Lastly, I'll update soon on the adoption progress. Things are moving along at a nice pace now. We're getting fingerprinted this week and will begin our home study in the next week or two. We have many balls on the court at the moment as we try to get several things accomplished simultaneously in order to have our dossier ready to be sent to Immigration and Ethiopia by the time our home study is complete.

I'll write more on that later.

Happy-super-hot-Wednesday!

~audrey

Another Day, Another Adventure

2011-07-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

So I told you a couple of days ago that there were more Drew Naptime Adventures. Well, here's another. I put him down for his nap in the pack and play the other day. I knew he would get out and play, but as long as I got a little nap I didn't care. After nap time I had Susan check on him and she couldn't find him. I walked into their room and didn't see him anywhere, so I climbed up the ladder to her loft bed (which, by the way is missing its bottom rung so the babies can't climb up) and found Drew sacked out in her bed. He'd pulled a toy school bus over, stood on it and helped himself up. No, he can't get down and doesn't even try. He cries until someone comes gets him. That night I was tired and didn't feel like running back and forth a million times to his room to put him back into his bed, so I beat him at his own game and put him in Susan's bed. He went right to sleep, as he has for the past few nights. Before we go to bed, Stephen and I always pull him out and put him back in his bed. I woke up a little after midnight last night to Drew crying...loudly. I asked Stephen, who was in the den on his computer, what was wrong and evidently Drew woke up and tried to get back into Susan's bed, but kept getting stuck on the ladder. He finally put him back in bed with Susan and all was well.

I can't think about the next thing that Drew's going to figure out how to do. I just take it one day at a time. It's so much easier that way. By the way, did I tell you about my chandelier above my dining room table? No? I'll have to do that next time!

Ashley

My very smart little boy.

2011-07-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

Drew is super smart! I call him "my little techy" because he's all into gadgets and figuring stuff out. He's good at it and he's patient, too. With that said, we must constantly be 5 steps ahead of him to a.) keep him safe and b.) to avoid destruction and chaos. Oh, I should mention that he's super fast too (like when he snuck out of the house while I was getting something for a neighbor and I was back in the house with the door shut before I realized he was gone). Everyday is a new day and I never know what I'm going to have to outsmart him on.

Last week I decided to move Drew to the pack and play during nap time because Ben can't get out of the crib, but he can get out of the pack and play. If Ben is in the p&p, he'll usually climb into the crib and ~~jump on, hit and bite~~ wake up Drew. Drew can get out of both but he'll just turn on the lamp, look at books and play quietly, so having him in the p&p was the lesser of two evils. On this particular day, I had just gotten up from a short nap and went to check on the boys. I heard Drew playing quietly in his room, so I just let him continue. A while later I went to see what Drew was doing and I found this:

After he got out of his p&p, he turned it over on its side. After playing, he crawled up in it with his Pooh Bear and went fast to sleep.

Stay tuned for another one of Drew's nap time adventures. Yes, there's more!

Ashley

All I Want for Christmas

2011-06-28T06:24:00.001-07:00

Christmas is already six months away. School will be starting before we know it and suddenly we'll all be stumbling around saying, "I can't believe Christmas is only four months away!"
As we work hard to get our dossier to Ethiopia before the courts close in mid-August for six weeks. That being said, I'm praying for the best Christmas gift ever (apart from the birth of Christ, of course!): our referral!!! If we're able to get our dossier to Ethiopia before the courts close, there is a very good chance we will know who our daughter is by Christmas. For those of you who may be wondering about all of this adoption lingo, the dossier is basically just a collection of documents about your family, finances, home, etc that will pass through all the right hands in Ethiopia before you receive your referral. The referral actually refers to YOUR child. When your name makes it to the top of the waiting list with your agency/orphanage you are matched with a baby in the orphanage. You then receive the long-awaited email with your baby's picture, story, and medical history (all that is available). You then 'accept' your referral and begin the long wait to receive travel dates to appear before the Ethiopian court where, if all proper documents are present, your referral becomes your child, legally. I can hardly believe that day is potentially as close as it is. Sometimes this still feels like a sweet dream. Sometimes it still feels like it's so far away. I know that one day we will look back on this process and hardly remember life before Zoe.

We still have $5,000 to raise before our dossier can be sent to Ethiopia, so please be praying for that money to come in. Please share our fundraisers with your friends and family. Don't forget about our puzzle fundraiser! We still have many unnamed puzzle pieces. And of course our Bows for Life, which have been a great success. If you'd like to host a party, you will receive one free bow of your choice for every $20 spent by your shoppers. The average bow party raises between $150-$200...so that is 7-10 free bows for the hostess!

And lastly, there is still one week left to order a "Bringing Home Baby Zoe" t-shirt before we place our first order. $25 for adults and $20 for infants and children.

~audrey

Worship

2011-06-22T10:14:00.001-07:00

We spent the last week in Nashville, TN at Worship Encounter 2011. It is a small, intimate conference for worship leaders and their teams. There are always an incredible number of "big name" people in the music/worship industry there to teach the mentor sessions and make themselves available to us. It was a sweet time of refreshing. Many times, it is a chance to leave our everyday cares behind and get alone with God, focusing only on Him while allowing Him to breathe life back into our battered sails. Let's just face it: life is tough. It's hard enough on a really great day to stay wholly focused on Him; on speaking life and living in thanksgiving. When the hard times come, we can often feel swept away by the waves of our circumstances. But there's such hope!

God doesn't ask us to stay five steps ahead. He doesn't expect, nor often allow, us to know what lies ahead. Nowhere in the Bible are we told to seek His will. 2 Chronicles 7:14 tells us to humble ourselves, pray, and seek His face. When we seek His face, we will know His will. 2 Peter 1:3 says, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

Remember always, that worship is not about music, it is a lifestyle. Everything I do is an act of worship to my heavenly Father. Everything I do should bring glory (great honor, praise, and distinction) to Him.
I hope that encourages you.

~audrey

Adoption Yard Sale #1

2011-06-12T19:24:00.001-07:00

Our first yard sale for Zoe was a great success! We didn't send out emails for item donations or ask lots of people to help. We simply wanted to get our feet wet and make a little money for Zoe. Well boy oh boy did ya'll surprise us! So many people called me the day before the sale and asked to drop items off to be sold. Then Kelli came over for several hours to help me sort, run errands, and pick up the goodies from Panera Bread. We were blown away with how much food Panera gave us! We received half of their unsold bakery items (pastries, desserts, breads, bagels, etc!) and a local church received the other half. Even half was THREE large trash bags full! We took them home, individually wrapped/bagged each one (there were over 200+ items!) and put them out the morning of the sale. When we got home from Panera and Walmart, it was already after 9:00pm. Ali surprised us and came by around 9:15pm to help us finish sorting through the breads and kids' clothes. It was so fun sitting on the kitchen floor talking and laughing. I can't thank you ladies enough for all of your help! Ali is due to deliver baby Caroline one week from tomorrow and we are so excited about her arrival!

Josh and I got to bed a little after midnight on Friday night. We set the alarm clock for 5:30am which came far too quickly. We got everything set out and somewhat organized by 6:45am when the first shoppers showed up. It was a long hot day filled with visits from friends, my sweet sister-in-law brought us coffee around 7:30, and Kelli came back to help around 8:30am. It was a great day and we ended up making just under $700 for Zoe! We were worn out and a little sunburned, but elated with God's goodness.
Thank you for your prayers. We're $700 closer to our sweet baby Zoe!

~audrey

Adoption Yard Sale

2011-06-09T19:02:00.001-07:00

Our first ever Adoption Yard Sale is a little over 24 hours away and I'm so excited and a little overwhelmed. We didn't want to kill ourselves with the first one so we didn't really ask for donations. We were so excited at how many people offered to donate items or their time to help us prepare. Tomorrow is going to be busy but I think we can pull it off. A local coffee shop donated all of their unsold pastries and breads for us to sell Saturday morning, I have lots of bows made to set up a Bows for Life table, we'll have furniture, lots of kids' clothes, home decor, appliances, electronics, etc. Jesse even asked if he could sell his Nintendo DS for $50. I expected him to ask to keep the money, so I asked him, "Do you want to sell your DS for Zoe?" and he surprised me with, "OF COURSE! AND MAYBE SOMEONE WILL BUY MY GAMES TOO!" I sure hope it sells. He'll be thrilled.

I had better get off the computer so I can continue making my to-do list for tomorrow and get in bed at a reasonable hour. Please be praying for BIG success Saturday.
WE'RE COMING BABY ZOE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

~audrey

Bow for Life headed for Iraq

2011-06-06T10:33:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, my father is currently working in a military hospital in Iraq. He called me the other day with a heart-breaking story of tragedy, loss, and hope.

There is an Iraqi family who live in the United States but recently traveled to Iraq to visit family. Mom, Dad, and three sisters (ages 3, 6, and 10) flew into Jordan where they rented a car and headed to meet their grandparents, whom the girls had never met. On the way to their grandparents, the family was in a horrific car accident. The father and six year old daughter were killed, the mother suffered multiple injuries including a fractured pelvis, ruptured spleen, and lacerated liver. The three year old suffered a major head injury which required emergency brain surgery. Thankfully, the ten year old only suffered a slight fracture of her collarbone. They were initially treated in the city of Ramadi, where the accident occurred, but were then transferred via helicopter to Balad, where my father met them at the hospital. The mother is slowly recovering from her injuries and surgeries. The three year old is awake, talking, and eating, but is currently unable to move her left side. The ten year old has assumed the role of mother and is graciously taking care of her little sister while their mother is unable.

After sharing their story with me, we thought it would be a great idea to send the girls a package including some Bows for Life. What better use for our bows than to brighten the lives of two innocent little girls struck by such terrible tragedy. The three year old had her head shaved before surgery so we sent some headbands in the package as well. It is my hope that this small token of love and care will put a smile on their faces and assure them that there are many people half way around the world praying for their family as they heal and put the pieces of their life back together again.

Of course, for privacy, we are unable to share their names, but I'm hoping to share a few censored pictures once they receive their package. Please pray for this family as they continue to recover, grieve, and travel back to the states. Pray for the three year old, that feeling and movement will return to her left side and she'll experience complete healing. I will keep you posted as I receive updated information.

~audrey

Bows for Life t-shirts!!

2011-06-06T07:29:00.001-07:00

Now taking pre-orders for our new Bows for Life t-shirts!! They will be sold in ladies fit (not "fitted"), infant, toddler, and youth sizes. We will take pre-orders from now until June 30th and will place the order on July 1st. Individual shirts will continue to be sold on our website after the first initial pre-order. To pre-order, simply click the "donate" button and pay through Paypal or by credit/debit card. Adult shirts are $25 and youth and children sizes are $20. Don't forget to make note of what size(s) you need. Please pass this link along to anyone who might want a t-shirt while also helping us bring home baby Zoe!

I think Josh did a great job designing this shirt! Every infant, child, and youth shirt ordered will also receive a matching pink hair bow from Bows for Life.

Will you help us spread the word?

~audrey

Last Month

2011-06-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Last month I found out I was pregnant on Mother's Day and spent the rest of the month feeling sick and exhausted. Inspite of my health, however, life moved on at a rather fast pace. To be honest, it was hard for me to keep up, but I did... one.day.at.a.time.

Sam graduated from the 2nd grade. He'll be completing the third grade from home through an online program that Stephen and I found, liked, prayed about and felt that we should use. He's always wanted to homeschool and we feel that now is the time. He also joined a swim team for the first time ever. This is the first sport he's participated in so I was anxious to see how he'd do. I'm so proud of him!

Susan graduated from kindergarten.

She also moved up to the older kids program at our church, which consists of first through fifth graders.

This time is special to me because Stephen and I get the kids their own big kid Bible when they graduate into VKids. I've yet to get one for her, but when I do I'll post pictures!

Jonathan...well, there's never a lack of anything to share about that kid. He keeps us in stitches and very busy. For example, he was doing a "triple whip" off the couch when Drew pushed a chair in front of him just as he landed on the floor. There were lots of blood and tears! He bit straight through his lip. We didn't rush off to the hospital because there was nothing they could do, but we put pressure on it with an ice cold, soft sponge (that we keep in the freezer and thaw out with water when needed) and gave him a popsicle, which made everything better.

Last month I took this adorable picture of Drew and my Mom at Susan's graduation.

Last month I took this sweet picture of Ben. He was playing in his bed when he should have been sleeping. But I can't blame him for not being able to sleep...

The big kids were in the twins beds playing with them. I wouldn't be able to sleep either.

But I didn't mind because they were enjoying each other and having fun.

Last month is over now and we're on into June. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up this month so that I don't have to do another post like this one. I usually miss something when I have to play catch up!

Enjoy your summer.

Ashley

Agency News

2011-06-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

We've had parent practicum and training from 9am-4pm this week for Classical Conversations, so it has completely flown by and wiped me out. I'm pooped!

However, I was sitting in training this afternoon and saw the agency's number come up on my phone. Of course I couldn't answer it but I sure was excited to get out of there and call her back.

We had a nice long conversation and I was able to ask a lot of questions. In a nut shell, we'll be able to work on our dossier and home study simultaneously and should be in Africa picking up our baby girl in about 9 months! The average wait time for a referral in our agency is only 3-6 months and you travel 2-3 months after you receive your referral. I am jumping for joy!

The ball is finally rolling. It's feeling more and more real with each phone call and piece of paper signed and notarized.

God is so good and I am so thankful that we were cautious and prayerful before making a final decision on an agency.

~audrey

2011-06-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends! I am finally back from my 3 week vacation to the land of BLAH, which is where I've been since I found out we're expecting Bailey baby #6. The first week was spent getting off some medication and the remainder has been spent dealing with regular morning sickness. Not fun!

School has been out for almost 2 weeks now, so our summer activities are well under way. Susan attended Symphony Camp last week and is in tumbling and cheer on Thursday's. She goes with my cousin who is a coach and loves every minute of it. She's really good at it! Sam is on a local swim team. This is the first time he's ever done anything like this, but has risen to the challenge. I was hoping that it would cause him to be self motivated and it has. He's not a strong or fast swimmer by any means, but I am so proud of his determination and hard work. He knows he's not the fastest and that he has to work really hard, but he's pushing himself and I'm so very proud of him! I was looking through some pictures online from Tuesday's meet and found a picture of my guy out of the many that were posted. It wasn't his face that I recognized, but the drawing on his back that caught my attention and made me smile. Had I not seen the drawing, I wouldn't have known it was him. He chose to have a fly drawn on his back and to be called "The Fly Guy." The Fly Guy is a character from a book that we used to read together when he was in the first grade. I love that he remembered it and wanted to use it. It's little things like these that make up memories that will last forever.

With the news of another Bailey on the way, we've once again found ourselves researching the possibility of moving. There are so many things that have to fall into place before we can take this step. We have found a house that we love, but before we can do anything we must sell our current house. Months ago, the Lord told me he would sell it for us and I continue to believe that, but when I don't have my glasses of faith on, it's hard to see how this is going to happen. So...please pray that He will bring a buyer and that it will be quick.

Hope you're enjoying your summer!

Ashley

It's WHAT month?

2011-05-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is June 1st. Besides the fact that half the year has already disappeared, I took a glance at June's schedule of events and realized that I will likely wake up in a few days and it will already be July. I mean, we have three jam-packed days of practicum this week, VBS next week, adoption yard sale next weekend, Nashville worship conference the week after that, and Owen and Jesse's birthdays and parties within a week of that....then it's July! It's all good because my Daddy comes home from Iraq in July, but it also means the '11-'12 school year will be less than a month away.

Okay, now is when I slow down. I've really been enjoying my boys lately. I mean really! We sleep in a little later than usual, make waffles for breakfast at 10am, and hang around in our jammies and fold giant mountains of laundry while watching Old Yeller . We had already been out and about this morning and were just settling back in when one of the boys said,
"Can we, maybe, go to the library sometime this week?"

My response, "How about right now! Get your shoes on."

We had fun at the downtown library, which is nice and spacious and never crowded, we ate lunch with Josh, and now we're watching a movie with our sheets and pillows piled up in the living room and the blackout curtains pulled closed. I just might take a little nap.

This summer will not fly by for a lack of rest and relaxation. We will enjoy our slower schedule. We'll speak life to one another. We'll have spontaneous trips to Nana's and eat dessert before our meals. We'll play in the sprinkler and spend some days at the lake. It's going to be a great summer and it's only just begun.

~audrey

All Sufficient Grace

2011-05-26T05:25:00.000-07:00

"But He said to me “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me." 2 Corin. 12:9

Yesterday was my birthday and if I can just be honest, life has been straight up exhausting lately. I've been overwhelmed and tired and it's been written all over my face twenty-four hours a day. Isn't it incredible how God knows exactly what we need, exactly when we need it?

Monday was my last day keeping the twins. We will miss those sweet girls, but God's timing couldn't have been better. I woke up Tuesday morning and felt like a weight had been lifted from me. I loved keeping the girls; they were wonderful and well behaved, but there's just something about keeping someone else's children in your home forty hours a week that takes a toll on you. My housework wasn't getting done, there were days when we didn't get all of our school work done, meals weren't always on the table at dinner time, and I was constantly exhausted. I still wake up at the same time in the morning, but I feel like I've gotten an extra two or three hours of sleep. It's amazing! I feel like my joy has been restored; I feel like ME again. It is precious to spend my days with my boys, just the four of us.

My birthday was wonderful and relaxing. I slept in until 8:00am, the boys and I got some school work done and then got ready to go downtown and eat lunch with Josh. After lunch, the boys swam in the little pool in the backyard and I surprised them with a movie at the dollar theater in the early afternoon. Last night was our last Wednesday night church for the summer. The kids had a pizza party and an inflatable water slide and the adults ate dinner together and reflected on the past year. I had the opportunity to give an update on Zoe and our adoption process, as well as mention our adoption yard sale coming up in about two and a half weeks. I was given a few cards from friends and we headed home. When I got home, there was a birthday gift on my front porch from my friend Tara (THANKS friend, you know I love it!), and Josh had set up the dining room table with my gifts from him. He gave me a big, beautiful orchid in a fabulous pink container and this:

This necklace is a glass pendant with the shape of Africa made out of words like, "Zoe, Ethiopia, love, joy, peace, and Emaye (the Amharic word for 'mother')...in my favorite color. I love it!!

Then I realized I hadn't opened the cards given to me at church. I squealed like a little kid when Starbucks gift cards fell out of two of them! Oh, the simple things in life...like a good, over-priced cup of coffee that I didn't have to make...or pay for.

I'm thankful for another year of life. I am blessed beyond description with friends and family that love me and add to my life in immeasurable ways.

I will leave you with this:

~audrey

Paper Pregnant

2011-05-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

I've often heard, in adoption circles, the term paper pregnant. I think it's quite cute. After all, in a physical pregnancy everyone around you sees your physical changes and there is no doubt that you are indeed expecting a baby. However, with an adoption, there are no physical signs to tell the world that you, too, are expecting a baby. I've seen cute, little shirts that say "Paper pregnant", with a little stork under the text.

Anyways, all that to say that we are officially paper pregnant! After much prayer, going back and forth and back again, we settled on a different agency than originally planned. Without going into too much detail, we changed agencies based on their pregnancy policies. We have no intention whatsoever of becoming pregnant while in the process of adopting, but we wanted assurance that if God had other plans, we would not be forced to put our adoption on hold or lose any money we'd put in thus far. Our new agency fits our preferences perfectly. Not only that, our new agency has a more reasonable fee schedule and is a smaller agency than the first, which means our wait for baby Zoe will likely be significantly smaller than originally expected (an average of three to six months for a referral!).

Please continue to share our story with others and pass along the links to our puzzle fundraiser and Bows for Life! You can share these links on your facebook or blog as well. We changed the date of our first adoption yard sale to Saturday, June 11th at our home. Please be praying for abundant provision! Thank you as always for your continued support and encouragement. I enjoy keeping you all up-to-date on the progress.

Bless you!

~audrey

Blessing Upon Blessing

2011-05-20T13:02:00.001-07:00

Last night I had the privilege of attending a mom's night out of sorts. My dear friend Sharon hosted a gathering at her house with the purpose being to learn how to do their daughters' hair. Ali, who is great with child (sweet Caroline is due very soon!) came to teach. Ali has three sisters and is expecting her third daughter so she was armed with great tips. I thought it was such a great idea! Of course I do not have any daughters (yet!) but I do have hair accessories in the form ofBows for Life! She graciously invited me to bring my bows and share our adoption story with the hopes that we could raise more money for Zoe.

There were about eight of us altogether and I ended up bringing home almost $120 for our adoption! They were incredibly sweet, generous women and I look forward to seeing some of them again soon at our Parent Practicum in a few weeks. It just thrills me to have to come home and make more bows because so many of the ones I'd already made have sold.

God is so good and His grace and provision continue to bless us beyond measure. Somehow, going through this adoption, knowing we're depending 100% on His provision, brings an extra measure of joy as I do my weekly jobs that contribute to our family financially. Whether it be watching other children, keeping the nursery at church, or cleaning an office; blessing upon blessing.

May I never lose sight of the One who owns it all.

Thank you Sharon and Ali. You're both precious to me!

~audrey

Excellence

2011-05-16T09:13:00.001-07:00

It's the end of the academic school year and this is a time when I like to re-evaluate. What worked this year, what needs to be changed, what did we do well and in what areas did we fall short?
I have a lot of irons in the fire at the moment and I don't feel like I'm doing any of them with excellence. I have decided to meditate on Philippians 4:8 for the rest of this month while I pray and seek the Lord on how to do all of my tasks with excellence.

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Here is how the dictionary defines the words in this verse:

true: exact or accurate
honorable: in accordance with or characterized by principles of honor; honesty, fairness, integrity in ones beliefs
just: guided by truth, reason, justice, and fairness
pure: free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind
lovely: delightful; exquisitely beautiful
commendable: present, mention, or praise as worthy of confidence, notice
excellent: possessing outstanding quality or superior merit

How different would your life be if you weighed each action and decision you make upon the standards of Philippians 4:8? Mine would look very different indeed. As I strive for excellence so my heavenly Father can gain glory from my day to day life, even the things I find mundane, I pray that this verse, which is hidden in my heart, will set the bar for which everything is weighed upon.

music.
movies.
conversation.
child training.
teaching.
discipline.
my every thought.

~audrey

Simplify

2011-05-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

You would think after having kids for eight+ years, I would be prepared enough to have dinner on the table Wednesday nights before we have to leave for church....but no.

I sat in the nursery last night, starving, knowing I would be feeding my family dinner around 9pm. Oops. I'd love to tell you it was just a busy day and we lost track of time, but that would not be the whole truth. This happens almost every week.....or if we're lucky and leave the house in time, we can drive thru somewhere and order off of the dollar menu and drink water when we get to church.

So I've decided to simplify this part of our life for right now. From now on, we will have the same thing every Wednesday night. I haven't completely decided on the options yet. I'd like to have two or three things that we rotate on Wednesday nights. Like frozen pizza, corn dogs, or tacos. If I can have the meat already cooked before Wednesdays, tacos would be the healthiest option. I'm also making a lunch schedule to post in the kitchen. We will have a different sandwich/lunch item assigned to each day of the week and it will not change. Here's what I have so far:

Mondays: hot dogs and pear slices

Tuesdays: pb&j with applesauce

Wednesdays: macaroni and cheese and oranges

Thursdays: grilled cheese and bananas

Fridays: peanut butter toast, pretzels, and peaches

I've come to realize that I could be getting a lot more accomplished if I'd get back to better planning and consistent delegating. My boys (thank you, Lord!) are old enough to do so many things around the house. Make their beds, strip the beds, sort and put away clean laundry, put dirty laundry in their proper bins in the laundry room, care for the chickens, water the garden, sweep, wipe counters and tables, wash dishes, load and unload the dishwasher, vacuum, dust, and of course bathe themselves and dress themselves. Yeah, I'm sure after that list, you're looking up the child labor laws for the state of Georgia. But the fact is, children aren't required to do much anymore. Adults write them off as "just being kids" and don't expect or require them to lift a finger outside of school, and even there the responsibility never seems to placed on the child themselves. As a homeschooling family, it takes the whole village (family) to keep this house running. I have a unique opportunity to give my children hands-on training for being a servant to our neighbors and the elderly, how to minister through preparing meals for others or taking care of other children while their parents work. I can teach them the value of days' work and a godly work ethic. These are things we're striving to instill in our boys as they learn and grow into godly young men who desire nothing more than to hear the Father and obey.

I heard the boys talking yesterday about high school and college. Joshua (8) said, I'll graduate from high school in ten years, then I'll go to college, and then I'll get married. Jesse (6) was quick to respond, Not me. I'm going to wait for God to show me who my wife is suppose to be; instead of trying to find her myself.

Who are these boys and what did they do with my children?!

Any who, that was a rabbit trail.

Keep it simple. That is my motto for the month of May as we try to ~~catch up on~~ finish our school work and slip into a summer routine that works for all of us.

Jumping jellyfish! It's already Thursday!! Woo-hoo!!!

~audrey

YouTube Education

2011-05-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

I must say, you can learn to do just about ANYTHING on YouTube! Here's my newest-learned skill: t-shirt appliques!

I have three fabrics for women's and girls' Africa shirts, two fabric choices for boys'/men's Africa shirts, and only one choice so far for the kids' "Adoption Rocks" shirt. Once I get inexpensive t-shirts ordered, I'll sell them for $15 each. For now, anyone who would like to provide their own shirt (Target makes great quality plain short-sleeved tees) I can add the applique for $5 (Africa) and $8 for "Adoption Rocks" (cutting out those letters just might kill me!).

~audrey

To Be Chosen

2011-05-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

As Josh and I were finishing the first stage of our paperwork for the adoption agency, we got to the section where you can get pretty specific in regards to 'what kind of child' you're willing to adopt. Special needs, age limits....and how many.

After working with a foster agency that specializes in keeping sibling groups together, we were able to see first hand, the impact it has on the children. We've heard countless stories of families arriving at the orphanage to pick up their baby and they notice a four or five year old (or even older) crying in the background. Then they learn that their precious baby is the last of that child's siblings to get adopted; no one has ever chosen him/her and now they will be alone. What if no one cared that you had been born? What if no one saw your first smile or encouraged your first steps? What if you never felt a mother's love or a father's embrace? What if you longed for a family that never came and hoped for a home that lived only in your dreams? All over the world orphans are waiting...hoping...praying that there will be one special family that finds delight and great joy in welcoming them into their family.

It was an easy decision for us to make. When we go to Ethiopia, we will bring home not one, but two babies. Our agency has a strict birth order policy, so the oldest child we bring home will be no less than ten months younger than Owen (our youngest). Our new babies will be between 2 months and 3 years old. When I told Joshua (our eight year old) about our decision he said, "I know!"

I asked him how he could already know since Josh and I just made the decision. He went on to tell me about a conversation he and Jesse had a while back. It went something like this:

Jesse: "Do you think Zoe has a brother or sister already?"

Joshua: "I don't know. Maybe."

Jesse: "What will happen if she does?"

Joshua: "I think we should adopt them too!"

Jesse: "Yeah, definitely!"

Apparently they assumed we'd feel the same way. How precious is that? I have so enjoyed seeing my children's hearts through this process. I love watching them with the children we keep during the week. They love to hold the 15 month old we keep two days a week. Sometimes they just stare at him in their arms and say, I bet Zoe will be just like him, but a girl...and brown.

melt.my.heart.

Foster parenting had its ups and downs, but I would never change the impact it had on my children's hearts for the plight of orphans. Not many children my kids' ages have a chance to witness poverty and neglect and truly grasp what it means to be an orphan. I didn't realize the impact it had on their hearts until we started the adoption process. It blesses me daily. They have such passion, and cry out to God so sincerely. There's no doubt in their minds that God will provide every penny we need to get to their siblings on the other side of the ocean. They pray for their safety and their health and their hearts.

Our life is not about us--how can You use us Lord--to love Your children...where ever, when ever, how ever...our life--it's all Yours.

~audrey

Mark Your Calendars

2011-05-09T18:28:00.001-07:00

After an exciting report from another friend adopting from Ethiopia, we've finally set a date for our first Adoption Yard Sale!! The sale will be June 4, 2011 from 7:30am-2:00pm. We're hoping to use the parking lot of Augusta Christian Schools located on Baston Road in Martinez, but I'll post definite info when I hear back from my mother-in-law.

We had a wonderful Mother's day weekend. Josh's family came over Saturday night and I made breakfast for dinner. It was delicious (if I do say so myself) and my mom came to town Sunday. We had lunch at Macaroni grill and Joshua (my 8yr old) took me out for coffee with his own money later that evening. It was very sweet.

On Saturday night I was making a list of things I'd like to get done around the house. The list was basically a pipe dream, but then it dawned on me: My mother LOVES to clean my house. So I text her and asked if she'd be willing to stay Monday and help me with my house. She jumped on it with delight.

I wish so badly I had taken some before pictures. First thing this morning, my mom and the boys started on their room while I worked in the school room/soon-to-be Zoe's room. My Bows for Life supplies have totally taken over my house. A few weeks ago there were literally bows and ribbon and glue and hardware in every room of the house. Since then, I've confined it to the school room where I've set up a work table, but it was still pretty messy and hard to work around. I went through the boys' desks, cleaned out the organizational drawers and dresser drawers to make room for my ribbon, yarn, and supplies, and threw away lots of trash, broken crayons, and pens that don't write.

I literally felt a weight lifted from me as I walked through the house and smelled furniture polish, and noticed that there were no more random socks or toys or petrified pieces of food on the outskirts of each room. I cleared every single pile of stuff in every room. Bills that needed to be paid, papers to file, little things that needed a home....all done. The only thing that didn't get finished today was my bedroom, but I think I'll get to that tomorrow during nap time. Mom, I can't thank you enough! You are such a blessing to me.

For mother's day, Josh and the boys gave me a fuchsia plant.

This plant is incredible. My husband is typically not a good gift giver. However, the designer in him makes for a great appreciation of beauty and attention to detail. So when he saw this plant with it's unusual flower-within-a-flower bloom, he had found my gift! I love it. I enjoy gifts that keep on giving and I hope to keep it alive for a long time.

And lastly, I've been wanting to brighten up our bedroom a little bit. The walls are painted slate blue with brown and cream accents throughout the room. We had a cream quilt with brown shams and bed skirt but the quilt has seen better days after five years on our bed and many, many times through the washing machine. I found this one at Marshall's and couldn't believe my eyes when I was actually able to find two king size shams that matched (for those of you who enjoy Marshall's, Ross, and TJMaxx, you know that's a rare thing!). It was super cheap and I had a feeling the blue amidst the bright green would match my walls just fine. The icing on the cake was when Josh walked in from work and said, "Finally, some color in here. I like it!"

It's May 9th and we're preparing to send our paperwork to the agency in the next week or so. I don't have any doubt, with the success of Bows for Life, our MEGA yard sale coming up, and summer bonuses right around the corner, we'll meet our $8,000 goal within 90 days. God is so good and each and every day I fall more in love with my little girl half way around the world.

We're coming Zoe! We love you and pray for you each and every day. Every baby and little girl makes us think of you and long for the day when you'll be in our arms. Your big brothers can hardly wait to squeeze you and give you kisses and teach you how to climb trees and dig really big holes. Daddy's eyes tear up when he sees a father with his daughter, knowing what a precious relationship he will have with you. We pray for your health and protection. We pray God is surrounding you with people who will love you in our absence and show you the JOY of the Lord. Your name means life, promised by God. We rejoice in your life and cannot wait for the day when we will finally be together. I love you to the moon and back.

~Mommy

Extra, Extra, Read all about it!

2011-05-04T05:29:00.001-07:00

**Please Check out our NEW Bows for Life page!! My wonderfully, amazing husband created an order form....no more having to type out your orders. Now you can get very specific with the click of the mouse. :) If you have any questions, feel free to contact me! Would you consider linking our Bows for Life page to your facebook or blog?**

Get your Bows For Life Today Order Now!

Adoption is the gift of life. Each and every child that has ever been adopted or is available for adoption is alive because their birth mother chose life. I am so grateful to those women who make a selfless choice and give their child a chance at life. My husband chose our daughter's first name and it happens to mean LIFE as well. Zoe Ameris means "Life, Promised by God."

As a result, we've named this fundraiser Bows for Life. All of these bows are made with grosgrain ribbon. I use alligator clips lined with 3/8" coordinating grosgrain ribbon. Most of the clips are only partially lined; meaning the top half of the clip, where the bow attaches to the clip is lined, but the bottom half (the part that goes into the hair) is unlined. I am more than happy to make your bow exactly how you prefer.

We will be selling these a few different ways. You can host a Bows for Life party at your home or church and I can come and share our story and have all of my bows available for immediate purchase. You can contact me with your order and address, add $2-$5 for shipping (depending on the size of your order) and pay through the donate button on the right; your bows would arrive to your door in about a week (depending on your order). And lastly, for my local people, you're more than welcome to schedule a time to come by and shop right out of my home. All I ask is that you give me 24 hours notice so I can vacuum and light a scented candle before you arrive! If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to contact me. If you don't see a color you're looking for, just let me know and I can probably get it within a few days.

If you choose to order online please include the following in your order:

1. ribbon color

2. bow size (itty-bitty, small, medium, or large)

3. what color ribbon you want your clip lined with

4. whether or not you want your bow to have the "tails" or not (see the difference between the medium and large bows in the collage)

5. whether or not you'd like the center with or without a knot. The itty-bitty bows look best with the knot in the center because the bow itself is so little (again, see the difference between the medium and large bows in the collage).

Most of the mini clips are about one inch in diameter.

Fabric Applique Options:

Sequin Heart: hot pink, light pink, red, white

Sequin Flower: fuscia, red, white, blue, purple (**I am currently out of the blue and white sequin flowers**)

Butterfly: yellow, light pink, hot pink, blue, green

Scottie Dog: light pink, light blue, cream

Denim Daisy

Strawberry

Itty-Bitty Bow Ribbon Options:

(3/8" ribbon; bow is 1 1/2"-2" wide)

white, ivory, light pink, pink, hot pink, lemon, yellow, gold, orange, red, light orchid, grape, light blue, turquoise, porcelain blue, cancun green, apple green, brown, black, cupcakes, earth tone flowers, orange polka dots, jewel tone dots, yellow polka dots, earth tone dots, red polka dots, red stitched (shown), blue stitched, light blue, navy, lime with pink stitching, parrot green, brown with multi-colored polka dots, black stitched

Small Bow Ribbon Options:

bow is 2 1/2"-3" wide

(5/8" ribbon)

blue with brown dots, red, light purple, dark purple, brown, mudpie, teal, island blue, light blue, emerald, lime green, giraffe, hot pink, orange, pink/orange flowers,

(7/8" ribbon)

blue/multi stripes, brown zebra, black zebra, white, blue floral

Medium and Large Bow Ribbon Options:

(1 1/2" ribbon; medium bow is 3 1/2"-4" wide and large bows are 4 1/2"-5" wide)

Solids:

white

black

light pink

hot pink

yellow

lime green

red

light blue

teal

Polka Dots:

brown with small multicolored dots

cream with green and blue dots

cream with earth tone dots

hot pink with green, brown, and light pink dots

pale purple with pastel dots

Animal Prints:

brown and cream giraffe

black and white zebra

Other:

pink camouflage

Light pink with mod flowers in pink, brown, and green

Black with cream, purple, and lime green flowers

Red with big retro-looking flowers in cream, cobalt blue, deep orange and rich yellow

Cream with multi-colored graphic flowers and leaves

Green and pink paisley

(not all of the ribbon is shown in the pictures)

I can add any of the fabric appliques from the mini clips or the resin appliques seen below to any medium bow.

Here are all four sizes for comparison:

These hand-sewn fabric and crochet flowers are attached to an alligator clip. I can use just about any fabric. You can even provide the fabric if you'd like. I'd need about 12"x4" of fabric for each flower.

Please share this link with all of your friends who have daughters, granddaughters, and nieces. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Zoe's adoption fund.

**All of the ribbon and appliques are subject to change if I run out at any time and/or am unable to reorder. I will try to update this page as soon as possible if this ever happens.**

Blessings,

audrey

Temptation

2011-05-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

The kids are asleep and I have nothing to do...atleast nothing that I want to do. I figured this would be a great time to blog. I closed my eyes, breathed in deeply and asked the Lord to tell me what to share. Wanna know what came to mind? Temptation. Yes. Temptation. I really don't want to write about this subject because it could get long and I'd really just rather not focus on it anymore than I have to, but here I go.

I've tried to give up Starbuck's and coffee for the longest time because it has become an idol and has taken up a place in my life that only God should fill. In all honesty I am addicted to it and it is an incredibly hard habit to break. Go ahead! Laugh at me, roll your eyes, or think that I am being dramatic, but the truth of the matter is that this is real and it's become sin. Thankfully the Lord has placed a couple of women in my life recently who have experienced the same thing or are currently going through the same thing, so I don't feel crazy anymore. I've tried to stop so many times and have realized that I've been trying to quit my way, instead of God's way. I was reading my Bible one night and came across a passage in Mark that struck me. In chapter 9 the disciples were trying to drive a demon out of a boy, but could not. Jesus simply spoke and the evil spirit left. When the disciples asked why the couldn't drive it out, Jesus responded, "This kind can come out only by prayer." The disciples' lack of prayer indicated they had forgotten that their power over the demonic spirits was from Jesus. I am so blessed to be able to have God's very words within my reach. They are "living and active" and "sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12)," yet I rarely use them as my weapons with which to fight.

A few weeks later I decided to read the book of James. I was once again reminded of my sin and the fact that God wanted me to face it head on. I realized that on the other side were abundant blessings that would be birthed out of this struggle. It made me thankful for the trials and temptations and all the more eager to be free.

"Blessed is the man who endures temptation..." James 1:12

"But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." James 1:14

"Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." James 1:16

I LOVE THIS ONE:
"But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." James 1:25

I realize now that in order to remain focused, I must constantly fill my mind with these scriptures and not let them out of my site. I am so vulnerable to temptation, especially when I've allowed coffee and Starbuck's to soothe and comfort me for so long. When I have a craving I try to remember to ask God to satisfy me with his love. I've doubted for so long, unconsciously, that he could be as good as coffee, but He's so much more and he wants to show me that. Wow!

Ashley

2011 Spring Garden- week 4

2011-05-03T06:58:00.003-07:00

sugar snap peas

squash

pumpkin

baby pumpkin!

potatoes

onions, garlic, shallots

mixed lettuce

kale

green beans

cucumbers

corn

carrots

bibb lettuce

beets

five squash already starting

I am completely and utterly amazed at the difference good soil makes! Why didn't I do this three years ago!?

~audrey

Fun with the Fam

2011-05-03T06:08:00.001-07:00

We packed up and headed to North Carolina over the weekend to see my brother and sister-in-law. The live in a sweet old town just over the state line. Everything was green and blooming (including my allergies). The main reason they invited us to come visit this particular weekend was an event called The Merry-Go-Round Festival. Shelby, North Carolina has a fantastic park and last weekend they hosted this festival. Five dollars at the gate was your ticket to endless fair rides, the carousel, the train, and live music and entertainment. The food was fabulous as well! My brother also recently leased some farm land, not far from his house.

Thanks Donald and Laura, for a great weekend! We love ya'll!

Jesse, Aunt Laura, and the goats

My brother, Donald

"the girls"

in front of the big red barn

Daddy and Owen

Owen and Old MacDonald

I didn't think the boys would go through with the 'bungee jumping'....boy was I wrong!

On the train ride around the park

~audrey

I love my kids!

2011-05-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

I love my kids! They're all so different, yet each is like eachother in one way or another. Have I ever told you that I have 5 strong willed kids? I promise I do. None of mine are the laid back, passive type. The closest we've gotten is Drew, but he can still be just as stubborn as the others. It's never been super duper easy for Stephen and me. Susan, Jonathan and Drew were sweet and calm as babies but, they were (or are) into EVERYTHING as a toddler and required constant attention. They were and still are super sneaky. You have to be extra careful with the sneaky ones! Sam and Ben were difficult babies and toddlers. Of course Ben is still there. They were/are clingy and hard to please. Sam is now a dream, most of the time, so I'm holding out hope for Ben. I wish I could say that my kids are super obedient, but they're not. It's an issue we pray with them about often. We instill in them from the get-go that they are commanded by God to honor their father and their mother and one way of doing that is through obedience. Though I have wished in the past for easy kids who quickly do what their parents say and never give them a hard time, I'm now ok with my lot. It's made me a better person and has developed character in me I would only dream of before. Trust me, I'm well aware that I am no where near to where I need or want to be, but I'm closer and I'm thankful for what the Lord's done in me through my kids.

Sam...The comic who loves to make people laugh! He has a unique sense of humor to say the least.

Susan...Our compassionate and servant-hearted child. I pray a lot that her inner beauty will be more valuable to her than her outer beauty.

Jonathan...Our funny guy with wonderful manners and a sweet, sweet spirit.

Drew...Gentle and patient with a mischievous side to him.

Ben...Our little stick of dynamite. He loves to cuddle, hug and relate to others. I can definitely see him being a people person.

Lord, I'm so thankful for each of my children. Thank you for their differences and their challenges. Thank you for daily loving me through them. Please continue to give us wisdom to guide them in your ways. May "the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of your glory and grace."

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Ashley

Steady Working

2011-04-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

I've been playing catch up over at real.life.photography. I've had some great sessions this spring and would like to invite you to hop over and check them out. Here's a taste of what you'll see:

More photos from the wedding I shot in March,

my play date with Miss E.

and family fun with my dear friends and neighbors, the Fields.

Feel free to leave comments. I enjoy reading them!

Ashley

Signs of Summer

2011-04-28T19:00:00.001-07:00

I got so excited when I heard the happy tunes of the ice cream truck in our neighborhood the other day. The kids had never seen an ice cream truck before and Stephen and I both beamed with excitement as we clamored for money, not really knowing how much it is now days. We've been here for almost 4 years and this is the first time we've gotten a visit from the ice cream man. We all look forward to the many more visits from the ice cream man. I think we're going to have to pull from our savings to afford him, though. Just kidding...sort of!

Ashley

A Quick Update

2011-04-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest, I'm barely above water right now.

I am now keeping a third child two days a week. He's a young toddler and fits in wonderfully. But no matter how you slice it, six kids is a full house so it's pretty busy around here Monday thru Friday. I'm trying to fill all of my Bows for Life orders in a timely fashion, clean my house once in a while, put dinner on the table more than just a few nights a week, school the boys, prepare for my mom to come tomorrow and for our family to leave Friday to go visit my brother and his wife for the weekend.

Somewhere in there, I have to go to Weight Watchers, cut the boys' hair, pack, and arrange for someone to take care of the chickens on Saturday while we're gone....oh, and make two desserts for our co-op's closing ceremonies tomorrow night.

The bad part is I've been staying up so late trying to get these things done, that when I finally get a couple of hours in the afternoon to be productive, all I manage to do is take a nap.

It'll be over soon. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

I lost one pound last week. But hey, a loss is a loss.

We paid off our van and another credit card this month! For the first time in nine years, we have no car payment...and never intend to ever again!

God is good. His mercies are new every morning!

Bless you!

~audrey

My Little Model

2011-04-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

One thing that Susan and I enjoy doing together is taking pictures...that is me taking pictures of her. It's a fun thing that we like to do and she's a natural in front of the camera. When I get a new prop I like to try it out with her before I use it with a client.

I was in Target the other day when I found an adorable table cloth that looked like the perfect picnic blanket. I was immediately flooded with all kinds of cute photo ideas. I really wanted that table cloth, but the cloth version was $12.99. I wasn't going to pay that much. After another look, I saw the vinyl version for $4.99. I snagged it up and shared my ideas with Susan. She was all over it! The next day she asked me constantly when we were going to take pictures. I waited until all the boys were pre-occupied then we made our way outside.

She had so much fun collecting her favorite stuffed animals and having a tea party with them. I could tell she was in her element and these shots capture that.

Target also has a great selection of pinwheels in the dollar section right now. I love pinwheels. I'm not sure why, but I do. My kids do too. The twins like riding with the windows down and letting them spin.

I think they make for fun and colorful props!

Ashley

4/15 Publix Trip

2011-04-15T16:10:00.001-07:00

As gas prices continue to soar, we've been looking for ways to trim our monthly budget. Our grocery budget is one of the most obvious. For our family of five (plus feeding the twins I babysit five days a week), we have a monthly grocery budget of $400. I've been experimenting lately with buying my fruit in bulk at Sam's club along with our chicken. The rest is usually from Walmart, which I despise, but often feel like I don't have much of a choice because of my budget constraints. However, as I've mentioned before, my favorite place to shop sales and coupons is Publix. They have excellent buy one get one free deals every week and they double all coupons up to $.50, which means a $.50 coupon is worth $1! The above picture is my bounty from today's trip. I absolutely love it when my dishwasher tabs are on sale because I can always find a coupon and get them for under $3.00/box. Normally, they are $7/box and today I got them for $2.95 each! Without the sale and coupons, I would've paid $14 for two boxes and instead only spent $5.90! Here is what I got:

3 boxes of cake mix

2 boxes of brownie mix

2 boxes of English muffins

2 boxes of dishwasher detergent tabs

2 boxes of Long Grain and Wild Rice

8 cups of yogurt (these were FREE with coupons!)

1 bag of Fig Newtons

2 packages of instant mashed potatoes

2 boxes of Ritz Munchable crackers

1 box Quaker chewy granola bars

1 box of pasta

1 can of PAM olive oil

My total before coupons and sales: $60.63

Total out of pocket: $24.36

Slowing Down

2011-04-15T13:42:00.001-07:00

Today we began OPERATION GET ALONG. A friend gave me the idea last night and I put it into action first thing this morning. Yesterday I had a tearful meltdown after a long, stressful day. I am so drained from my children's attitudes of ungratefulness and discontent. I'm exhausted from hearing 'I'm bored' and 'Who's going to play with me?'. I grew up with one sibling and he's three years younger than me. We had an amazing childhood. No toy boxes, no video games, just the outdoors, each other, and a wild imagination that took us anywhere we wanted to go.

I'm dissatisfied with how little my children read and the fact that they never choose reading out of a short list of options. The solution? First thing this morning, I pulled a large, empty rubbermaid container out of the garage and filled it with all of their toys, LEGOs, balls, blocks, video games, and anything else that wasn't a writing utensil or a book. Their room doesn't contain a single toy any more. Their canvas toy bins were replaced with good books and suddenly their options are quite simple. Not surprisingly, they spent almost all day outside playing quite well together. I'm trying very hard not to intervene at every slight disagreement. I want them to learn to be peacemakers and to do so without an adult forcing reconciliation. Of course this takes great heart training while they're young, but they're already equipped, they simply need lots of practice.

As I watch my children grow and the reality of how fast time passes by really sinks in, I do everything in my power to slow it down. With all my might I try to choose my battles wisely. When sweet Owen wants to play in the tub for an hour every afternoon (instead of napping), I let him. Just this afternoon he came inside with a bug in his hand and said, "Momma, this is my buddy. He's black and orange, and orange is my favorite color. I'm going to put him in my pocket." I simply smiled and said okay. I will undoubtedly find his little buddy in the washing machine in a few days.

My heart longs for another baby so much that I often could swear I feel flutters in my womb, knowing good and well I am not pregnant. Knowing of the millions of orphans around the world, my heart aches for this long road before me. I can't get her into my arms fast enough. His timing is perfect and His peace will pass my understanding.

I think back to the moment in which I found out I was pregnant with each of the boys. Especially with Owen, how I'd longed for over a year to be pregnant again. The ovulation tests, the temperature taking, and the months and months of negative tests and overwhelming sadness. I simply can't imagine the anguish some of you have experienced after years and years of infertility; many of whom have still never experienced motherhood.

And so I remove all of the obstacles that I possibly can that cause our lives to move at the speed of light. I sit and read with my children, I lay down with them at night and run my fingers through their hair as we say prayers and they tell me all about their day and their hopes of what tomorrow might hold. Each night they pray for baby Zoe, that God would keep her safe and healthy and that she might come home very soon. They pray for provision so we can go to her as fast as possible. Joshua will likely be ten years old when she finally comes home. It's hard to fathom.

As we slow down and live life right here in the moment, I thank God for my three precious children and I pray for those still to come. I pray for His timing and I seek His face.

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 127:3-5

I hope your weekend is aflame with God's glory.

~audrey

Tidbits

2011-04-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

I am so tired and exhausted! It was great to have Stephen and the kids home last week, but it was crazy! I felt out of control and discombobulated as Stephen spent the first few days of spring break pent up in Susan and the babies room building her a loft bed. That meant that they couldn't sleep in their room for a couple of days and that there was no place for the babies to play without climbing on tables and getting into the dishwasher. The good part is that we spent a lot more time outside and Susan now has an awesome new bed. I'll post pictures later.

Spring break here means the Masters. I've worked with caterers and Audrey as she's cleaned over the past few years, but had no plans to work this year. However, my neighbor came over on Tuesday and invited me to help her clean the kitchen of a house that was being rented out for the Masters. I decided to go and earned $300 for 2 and 1/2 hours of cleaning! It was totally worth the hard work!

Ben is sick....again. He has double ear infections and is meaner than the Grinch! He screamed at the top of his lungs most of the 40 min. trip to my mom and dad's house yesterday. There was no crying or tears, just loud, obnoxious screaming! I took him to the Doctor this morning to find out that his ears are full of fluid...I knew that though. I clean up puddles of mucus daily and smell it every time I hold him. I have found it on his clothes, in his bed and even on his seat belt strap. The ped. gave him drops and said he should be good by Friday. Oh how I hope so!!! He's demanding enough without being sick. This face says it all!

Yep. This is what I have to deal with all.day.long. He does have his sweet moments, though.

Ben loves putting hats and other things on his head...like underwear and washcloths. I think I need to frame this series of pictures to remind me that he does have a sweet side!

Please pray for this little guy. Please pray for me. The Dr. said that he should be better by Friday. I hope so, because Stephen will be busy with a basketball camp all weekend and it would be nice to have my sweet baby back.

Ashley

Breathing Room

2011-04-11T09:25:00.001-07:00

Aaahhhhhh.
Last week flew by and now it's Monday and I have absolutely nothing planned that would require me to leave the house today. Jesse came down with a fever Saturday night and it continued yesterday, so I sent Joshua on the field trip to the Bell School with another family. Today I've been busy cleaning, catching up on laundry, and making bread.
I made it to the grocery store on Saturday before I headed to my last night of work. I was armed with coupons and ended up getting $75 in groceries for a little over $30. Some of what I got included: (2) Freschetta Pizzas, (4) cans of tuna, (2) boxes of Mueller pasta, (2) bags of pretzels (a great WW snack!), (2) boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats cereal, (4) bags of Green Giant frozen veggies, (2) boxes of Banana Babies (another great WW treat), a 24-pack of granola bars, and a large bottle of olive oil. Then I went to Sam's Club and got lots of chicken, a big container of organic spinach for our smoothies, oranges, a gigantic tub of peanut butter, a 5 lb. container of honey (for our bread recipe), two large packages of yeast (again for bread), two huge cans of fruit, and a huge can of mushrooms. My total between Publix and Sam's was $90! That stuff will last us for quite a while. Josh picked up another case of mason jars so I could divide the fruit and mushrooms into smaller containers and preserve or freeze them.

I love wearing long dresses and skirts in the summer. I am not a shorts girl. I don't feel comfortable in shorts, so I usually prefer capris, skirts, or dresses. I can get my skirts and dresses for between $10-$15 at Marshall's and Ross' but I thought it would be fun to try and make a long skirt if I could find fabric that was cheap enough to be worth my time and effort. Indeed I did. I found two different fabrics at Joann's for $2.50 and $3.50/yard. I got two yards of each. One is cotton and the other is knit. Once I got home, I realized the pattern on the cotton fabric was a little too busy for a skirt, but would be perfect for place mats and cloth napkins! Looks like my mom may be getting cloth napkins for Mother's Day. :) I'm hoping to cut out the knit fabric today and get started. I don't have a pattern, so it should be interesting!
Lastly, I went to Weight Watchers to weigh-in on Saturday and was told that they couldn't officially record my weight because it had only been five days since I joined. Haha! I thought if I waited all the way until next Saturday, they would consider me having skipped a week. I guess I was wrong. However, she wrote my weight and a big smiley face on a sticky note and stuck it on my chart because I was already down 4.2 lbs! I'm looking forward to weighing in officially this coming Saturday.
The new system has been wonderful! The other day I had a plate full of food (six slices of turkey, 24 pretzels, and a handful of grapes) and it was only 4 points!! I'm allowed 33 points a day! Today I plan to sit down and make a list of all the convenient foods I normally have available and figure out how many points they are per serving so I don't have to think too much about it while I'm at home.

Happy Monday!
Garden pics to come later.

~audrey

Masters Week

2011-04-08T06:45:00.001-07:00

This week is always crazy in Augusta. The weather has been absolutely beautiful and I've gotten home from work by 9:00pm each night! I can't believe there are only two nights left and it will all be over. I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to normal on Monday.

We have a field trip scheduled for Monday to The Bell School. It is an old 1912 one room school house and the children visiting are given a one hundred year old experience. My boys will wear plain white shirts and dark pants along with suspenders. Their lunches will be transferred into old metal pails when we arrive and they'll be taught just like the children were one hundred years ago. There's even a spelling bee at the end of the day. I'm looking forward to it.

Tomorrow is my first weigh-in. Usually, I do really great the first week of any diet. I lose 4 or 5 pounds and then level off in the coming weeks. Tomorrow's weigh in should be interesting. I know I've lost weight, I just don't know how much. It's been very hard this week, working with a personal chef each night and having plenty of food left over to taste and bring home. I've been pretty good though. I go to work each night with points left over and when I do choose to taste the food, I do it very sparingly. Last night I had a small bowl of mashed potatoes when I got home; probably less than one cup. I said no to the fried chicken and pineapple upside down cake! Today I will be very precise and drink lots of water so I can weigh in tomorrow with confidence.

I'll let you know the outcome of week one sometime tomorrow.

Happy Friday!!!

~audrey

I'm a Weight Watcher (again.)

2011-04-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

After only one day working in the garden, I was in excruciating pain in my lower back and legs. I didn't even go to church yesterday because I didn't sleep the night before due to my back hurting so badly.

Today I decided, enough is enough. I got online, bought a monthly pass to Weight Watchers for only $19.95 and went up the street to weigh-in. Let's just say I'm still well over 200 lbs. But not for long. I'm really excited about the new PointsPlus program. I lost 60 lbs. using Weight Watchers seven years ago and a lot has changed since then. For starters, all fruit is free now. Fruit does not use any of your points. And, the new system allows you more points than before so it is easier to recover from a high point meal and still have points left for dinner. For example, today I didn't eat breakfast so I took the kids to Chickfila after the park. Even after my lunch, I still have 16 points left for dinner. That is fantastic! I will probably go to the Saturday morning meetings from now on, so I'll have to weigh in again in five days. It's just more motivation to do really, really well this first week.

Once I reach my first goal, a loss of 5%, I'll post a before picture with stats and goals. Today as I saw my weight on paper, I asked myself, why is it I pray about everything else in my life but not about my weight. I plan on bathing this entire process in prayer. I pray that I will exercise the fruits of the Spirit and that self-control will keep me on track and down the road to optimal health for myself and my family. Girlfriends, hold me accountable. Ask me how much I've lost and how I'm doing. Because apparently it not only takes a village to raise a child, but also to keep a girl on a diet!

~audrey

2011 Spring Garden

2011-04-02T18:23:00.001-07:00

Today was the day I'd been waiting for since the very first spring-like day weeks ago. I got all of my sprouted seeds lined up, several trips to the local nursery for more compost, and prepared to get good and dirty.

As I've said in previous posts, this will be my first year going Square Foot Garden Method 100%. I'm really looking forward to a good crop and many, many mornings in the garden, watering, pruning, tending, and eventually harvesting. I borrowed the Homesteading for Beginners dvds and they have been so much fun to watch with Josh and the boys. Everything from gardening and preserving to raising and BUTCHERING chickens.

I was surprised at just how much time it took me to get everything just right in my garden beds. First I had to make sure my Mel's Mix was properly combined, then I had to take one load at a time from the tarp where I mixed the soil to each bed until they were full. Then Josh had to put nails in each bed so I could use twine to make my square foot grids. From there it was a piece of cake, although I was already exhausted at this point. The sun was beating down on me all day and although I had long sleeves and long pants on, I still managed to get a little sun. I put all of my plants and seeds in the ground and gave it all a good watering. I even let the boys get a few pots for their own little herb gardens. I am so excited to see how this year turns out compared to previous years and different methods. I will be doing my weekly and monthly pictures as soon as there's progress from the seeds.

After I put the re-bar in the ground and set up my wagon cover for extra protection. (I have to go get the plastic cover tomorrow.)

~audrey

Dismount Stress with Gratitude

2011-04-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

I thoroughly enjoy Ann Voskamp's writing at A Holy Experience. Every one of her posts leave me encouraged and challenged. Challenged to be a better wife, daughter, mother, friend, and child of the most high king. A while back she wrote a 10 Point Manifesto for Joyful Parenting. It is hanging in my kitchen and I remembered one of the lines this morning as my kids went particularly crazy and were not getting along....before we even ate breakfast.

4. "Today, when stress mounts, I pray to dismount it with gratitude. My stress management plan will be intervention with verbal thanks. I can only feel one feeling at a time, and I choose to give thanks at all times. Fight feeling with feeling!"

Parenting is a daily challenge. Will I take the shortcut and choose discipline for the purpose of changing their immediate behavior, or will I take the high road and train their hearts toward love and godly character which doesn't necessarily require much raising of the hand or voice? I think we will have a free day today. The house is in a bit of disarray and the boys need to go outside and run free for a while. School may or may not happen today, but there's always tomorrow and tomorrow we will have sunshine and Daddy. The boys love Saturdays because Daddy is home with us all day, uninterrupted.

So today I am dismounting the rising stress level in this testosterhome with gratitude and grace words. I am thankful beyond words for my three precious sons. I am thankful that His mercies are new every morning; even for me. I am grateful for a washing machine, dishwasher, and cleaning supplies that will leave my home clean and inviting when Daddy comes home this evening. I am thankful that my husband has a job and that I was able to go to the grocery store this morning and fill our cupboards with food, knowing there are people all around me losing their homes, jobs, and livelihood. Thank you, Lord, for grace beyond measure.

~audrey

Blown Away

2011-03-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

I've had a few new bow orders come in so I've been checking my paypal account daily. We haven't had any money come in for about three weeks now, so I haven't been expecting anything, just a few payments for the bows. The other night I realized I hadn't checked my account in over a week so I signed in and was shocked to see a $100 donation from my best friend from high school, thanking us for allowing them to be a part of this journey. What an incredible blessing!

Then, I've had three bow orders placed over the last 48 hours, so I signed on Paypal again just a few minutes ago and I'm pretty sure the blood drained out of my face altogether. There was a donation made in the amount of EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! A friend from high school who also has a heart for adoption chose to bless us with a portion of their tax return. I seriously sat here with goosebumps and tears streaming down my cheeks. I can't even begin to put into words how much that lifted my spirits. I'm on cloud nine. Over and over again, whether it's $10 for a puzzle piece or $800, I'm blown away at the generosity of others; of God's children who see the big picture and share our heart for orphans and as a result use their donations as the hands and feet of Jesus. Thank you just doesn't quite capture it.

God Story #4

three down, twenty-one to go (thousand, that is)

Bless you, bless you, bless you,

~audrey

Funny Faces

2011-03-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Ashley

Dance, Dance, Dance!

2011-03-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

Susan, my second born and only daughter, is my dancer. She loves anything to do with dancing. In fact, the first word she said as a baby was "Dada". Her second word...dance. I'm not joking! I recently downloaded some new songs onto my ipod and the kids have been taking turns listening to it. She had free reign of the ipod on Monday when she was home sick, so she listened and danced to her favorite song over and over. I had fun watching her.

I'm currently learning how to create a stop-motion video for a project I'm working on. I thought it would be fun to do one with her dancing to her song. Unfortunately, because the day was overcast, I didn't have great light and the flash would freeze up on me, but I got some great shots of her! I plan on using these as art for her bedroom.

Ashley

That's a Wrap

2011-03-29T12:15:00.001-07:00

We did it. We survived our second year of classical home education. Today was our last day of co-op until August. We had a fantastic year and I look forward to the fall already.
Next week is the Masters Golf Tournament here, as well as spring break. It is the only week of the year that I work like a dog (outside my home). I'll have six children, be changing a few beds in a rental house, and will work for a caterer for five nights....while trying to maintain a clean house, preparing three meals a day, and helping Josh finish the addition so the appraiser can come next Friday. It's going to take a lot of espresso to get me through the week.
However, I get a little giddy thinking about one week from Friday when Masters week will be wrapping up, the addition will be complete and I will sit on the floor in my new living room and take a deep breath of relief and victory.
Even though we continue schooling year round (sorry boys!), I feel like tomorrow is the first day of summer! No more Monday prep work (presentations, diaper bags, lunch boxes, snacks), no more Tuesday exhaustion, and no more Wednesday crack down (when we drill, drill, drill all that we learned the day before at co-op). I'm so excited to get together with these incredible moms throughout the summer and share ideas with where to go from here. We practically have another whole "school year" between now and the time we go back in August. It's about 20 weeks. That's a lot of review, and catch-up, and time to focus on fun things like music and sports.
One thing I'm looking forward to most is my garden. I plan on spending a lot of time in the dirt on Saturday! I'll have pictures for sure.

Enjoy your week!

~audrey

Overwhelmed

2011-03-28T19:51:00.001-07:00

We've been under a bit of a crazy time crunch with getting our addition completed so we can refinance our house in April. You see, we started this addition on the back of our home two years ago this month. Josh is doing all of the work himself and we vowed to pay for the entire thing with cash (no debt). It is a 400 sqft. addition which will be our new family room so we can turn our current living room into our gym/school room and reclaim our spare bedroom for Zoe. However, about six months into the renovation, we went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and got on the fast track to getting completely out of debt. As a result, we put the entire home renovation plan on the back burner. Needless to say, we're finally finishing the addition and are hoping to refi to a much lower interest rate next month which will allow us to put more money away each month for Zoe's adoption.

I feel like as soon as the addition is finished, we close on the refinance, and finish up co-op for this school year, I'll finally be able to breathe and start planning some bigger fundraisers. We will certainly be doing a big yard sale sometime in April, I have three Bows for Life parties planned for next month, and we'll be getting six new chicks soon, so when they start laying, we'll be able to sell the extra eggs as well. Bet you've never seen a sign that reads: "Selling Fresh Eggs for our Adoption" Haha!

Our friends, the Digsbys, are in China RIGHT NOW and had their little girl placed in their arms just 24 hours ago. I can hardly wait to meet her and kiss her sweet face, knowing all the miracles that occurred on their 467 day journey to China. I cannot wait for our day to come, when I post our Gotcha Day video at Hannah's Hope orphanage with sweet, little Zoe in our arms at last. Oh I can't even begin to imagine what that day will be like.

I can't thank you enough for all that continue to donate, buy puzzle pieces and bows, and send notes of encouragement and prayer. God has blessed Josh and me with the most incredibly amazing friends and family and we love you more than you'll ever know.

~audrey

A New Day

2011-03-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

It's so wonderful to sit down in the still and quiet of my little home and have time to write...and breathe. We're going on day 10 of sickness in our house, but Ben is well and all is right in the world. For the first time in a week he woke up this morning with no green river of snot flowing from his cute little nose. HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU, JESUS! (I came home from seeing a movie with Audrey on Saturday night and decided that it was time for this to end so I prayed over him and he was 90% better the next morning. That's what I'm talking about!) I wish I could say, though, that he's back to his normal, sweet self, but that's not the case. I was fixing Susan's hair this morning and Ben was whining for me to pick him up. When he realized it was her fault that I couldn't pick him up he turned and began pushing her to get her away from me. Yeah...so sweet! Anyway, Susan woke up with a 101 fever, head ache and tummy ache last night. I kept her home from school today because of the fever, but just saw her doing cartwheels across the den floor, so I guess she's ok other than that. We've been blessed to not have anything other than colds and fevers this winter. I can handle the snot and fussies a whole lot better than poop and vomit!

Until tomorrow, I hope!

Ashley

2011-03-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

This has been one doozie of a week! Actually the last two have been crazy, but this one has been the worst by far! Last week I was overwhelmed with trying to edit wedding pictures, keep my family my priority, duties at church and keep up with house work because if I don't I'll regret it for weeks. Well, add 5 sick kids on top of all that. The pollen totally kicked our rear ends last weekend. It took about three days for the older four to get adjusted, but Mr. Ben can't seem to shake it. He's my most clingy and whiney child even when he's not sick. It's bad, I tell you! I think today was the worst day. He followed me around the house fussing and whining all morning, except for when he was napping . THANK YOU, GOD, FOR NAP TIMES!!!! He didn't crack a smile until lunch time. That was honestly like the sun coming out on a stormy day! Goodness, that child!

I put some pictures from a wedding that I recently shot up on my blog last week. You can visit real.life.photography's blog to see them. I was in the middle of writing a post about it to put up here when I got called away and forgot to come back and finish it up. I plan on putting more up, but that will probably be sometime next week. I had several shoots back to back to back to back, etc. for several weeks and I'm so happy to finally have a break! In fact, I haven't picked up my camera since the wedding! I do have something new that will be unveiled probably a few weeks before Mother's Day. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to share it with you!

Enjoy your weekend!

Ashley

South East Homeschool Convention

2011-03-23T19:05:00.001-07:00

We are wrapping up our third year of homeschooling, which is really quite hard to believe. It has gone by so quickly and to be quite honest sometimes I sit back and am amazed at how much we've accomplished in the past three years, with it rarely ever feeling like school.

It's such a joy to watch my children live, learn, and grow right before my eyes each and every day. They're finally at an age where accountability is expected of them and I'm going to start printing their own Student Planners from the computer so they can be responsible for making sure each of their lessons and tasks are completed each day. They're looking forward to that big kid responsibility....we'll see how long the excitement lasts!

I had the privilege of attending the South East Homeschool Convention in Greenville, SC last weekend. There were a few of us who simply couldn't get away for the full three days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) so we went up on Friday afternoon. I don't know about you, but often times, the car ride is one of my favorite parts of the trip. Just being able to converse and laugh with your girlfriends is so refreshing. We arrived at the convention center around 5:30pm and still had a few hours before the Tim Hawkins concert began.

I guess I should preface this with the fact that this was my very first homeschool convention. I had no idea what to expect. It far surpassed anything I could've pictured in my mind. I could've spent a week walking through all of the booths and browsing through books and curriculum. I was in homeschool heaven! There were five or six session times throughout the day in which you could choose from 8-10 speakers on various topics and sit in on an hour long session. These sessions ranged from academic lectures to parenting and beyond. The cool thing was, many of the families attending the convention were literally there as a family; mom, dad, and five or six kiddos. It was fun to watch, but also fun to relax knowing our husbands were two hours away taking care of ours. Thanks babe!!

I was able to purchase all of our curriculum for the summer and fall while saving money I would've had to spend on shipping. One of the greatest things about Classical Conversations in the early years is that you really don't have a whole lot of consumable products to purchase semester after semester and year after year. Most of my resources can be checked out from the library or borrowed from friends. The only things I needed were new math workbooks for the fall and our cycle three memory work resources since this will be our first time going through cycle three with CC.

I also purchased the first two books in the Explode the Code series for Owen. He's only three and a half, but he lovesworkbooks and he actually sat at the table with me Monday morning and completed six pages on the letter F. Then when we finished I turned back to the letter "f" on the page and said, "Now what letter is this Owen?" and he smiled and said, "Number!" As I said, he's only three and a half. Ha!
We ended our little weekend getaway with a big dinner at Applebee's with seven of the ladies from our area who rode separately but all attended the convention. We had great laughs and shared some of the highlights from the convention. It was a fantastic weekend and I look forward to going again next year. Kelli, I wish we had taken a few pictures!

~audrey

Whatcha Doin' Lord?

2011-03-21T12:41:00.001-07:00

It seems we're just destined to have two babies in the next year or two.

First it was the call last Tuesday about the girl who is half way through her pregnancy with a little girl and is giving her baby up for adoption....found out she's already picked a family for her baby, but we were going to say YES if she offered her baby to us....all while still pursuing Zoe in Africa.

Then I got a call from our foster agency this morning. Keep in mind, I submitted my resignation almost a month ago! My case worker said that my (former) boss insisted that she call us with this foster-to-adopt placement.

First let me back track a little...

...Ten months ago, I was sitting around the pool and I got a call from the agency about a preemie, a one, and a two year old. The preemie was nine weeks early and still in the NICU. He would be released from the NICU into our custody. These children were from a different county a few hours away and the final decision was made to keep them where they were because the preemie was simply too fragile to travel back and forth for weekly visitation. I was devastated. I really wanted those children. For some reason, losing that placement felt like a miscarriage. There were about five days from the time they told me we'd be getting them until I was told that they were indeed not coming. I'd had five days to prepare and plan, tell our family, and get very excited. I cried off and on for two days. I still remember their names...

Imagine my absolute shock when just this morning my case worker said she was told to call me and inform me that there is a placement of three children, ages 10 months, two, and three from said county who are now eligible for adoption out of the foster system. The two year old is slightly behind developmentally due to a mild special need, but other than that, all three children are healthy and normal.

Then she told me their names.

It was them.

Deep breath.

I called Josh and gave him everything I'd been told. Much to my shock, instead of a resounding, "Are you insane??" He simply asked me to call her back and ask for a few more details while we prayed and considered the possibility of saying yes.

After talking back and forth between Josh and our case worker, we decided we simply do not have space for six permanent children at this time, and saying yes to three foster-to-adopt children would mean saying no to Zoe and we're not going to do that unless we hear the Lord clearly say so. The baby has been in a separate foster home from his older two siblings since he was born, so we did however, tell the agency that if they end up having to keep them separated in order to find a permanent home, we'd be more than willing to take the baby. Of course it would be terrible to keep them separated forever, but I know we'd be highly encouraged to keep up sibling visitation, to which we'd happily comply. The chances of this happening are very slim, because they'll likely search and search until they can find a family who can take all three. I'm praying they find that and the family is perfect for these three children.

But it sure does leave me wondering what in the world God is up to.

Two babies placed right at my fingertips within six days of each other?

We're willing Lord, bring it on!

As always, I'll keep you posted.

~audrey

Such Fabulous News!

2011-03-17T17:12:00.001-07:00

You know, the entire time I've been reading about the bad news regarding Ethiopia and their inter country adoptions and cuts of 90%, blah, blah, blah, I never ever felt like we were suppose to go anywhere else. I never felt the Lord release us from Ethiopia. And just today, I got this fantastic news:

Ordinary Hero Blog: Encouraging ET News Plus...Give Away And Online Au...: "There is some encouraging news coming out regarding ET adoptions...The Joint Council posted... Since announcement, the Department of State ..."

Just click on the link to read the full post. We WILL still be pursuing Ethiopia with all our hearts and cannot wait to continue on with the process of bringing Zoe home!

This news just makes my heart skip a beat. God is so good.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you!! John 14:18

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm off to the homeschool convention in Greenville tomorrow; SO excited!!

~audrey

Redeeming the Time and Secret Smoothies

2011-03-17T07:42:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about this for a while now and I really hope it speaks to someone out there.

I often get convicted of my poor use of time at home. Yes, I homeschool but my children are young so that doesn't really take but about two or three hours of my day. The fact that I am home pretty much all day, every day, means there is absolutely no excuse for having three or four loads of clean laundry piled on my bed when Josh gets home at 5:30 or 6:00pm. There's no excuse for dust that I could write my name in on my living room furniture. Or how about a nasty kitchen floor that desperately needs mopping but I just can't seem to get it done until the weekend?? It would be one thing if I had a baby (or two) that required much of my attention, but I don't. My children are at a wonderful stage in life where they are very much self-sufficient in day-to-day tasks and even complete several chores of their own in a daily and weekly basis.

I began to think about how we (stay-at-home moms) can get all bent out of shape because our husbands don't do much around the house, or we constantly have to remind them about the trash, or "could you please put your laundry IN the laundry basket"?? Then I thought about Josh's job and the amount of stress he is often under due to deadlines and increasing work loads. I imagine him coming home from a nine hour day at the office and saying, "Hey babe, I really need you to respond to these client emails for me and wrap up this project from earlier in the week." My response would likely be, "Are you crazy? You're at work 40-50 hours a week. Why can't you get it done in that amount of time at the office? What do you do all day? Watch a movie? Check your facebook? Blog? Play outside with your friends?" Of course this is a huge exaggeration but there are certainly days when I do those things. I wonder if my husband ever gets tired of seeing laundry baskets in our room, or digging through them in the morning to find clean jeans or socks? Because the reality is, it doesn't take me that long to complete my laundry chores. If I do laundry two days a week and finish it to completion, it's not a huge task. Or, what if I began waking up a little earlier so I can do some of the mundane things like clean mirrors, counter tops, or dust before anyone else wakes up....and it would take me all of five or ten minutes.

On Monday I decided to stretch myself a bit. I wanted to see just how much I could get done if I simply went from one task to the next without stopping to read or sit at the computer. It was amazing how much I accomplished. It's Thursday, but here is what I can remember:

*made four loaves of bread, which should last us for three to four weeks.

*changed the sheets on the boys beds

*two and a half hours of school work with the boys including a sweet devotional time and presentation preparation for Tuesday.

*put nursery reminders in the mail

*Sam's Club for fruit and Tractor Supply for oyster shells for the chickens

*cleaned out the chicken coop (yuck.)

*put dinner in the crock pot (southern living slow cooker meatloaf....Yum!)

*managed to tidy every room in the house before Josh got home.

It was wonderful. And I think about the many things I'd like to do today:

*clean out the fridge and freezer

*clean out the pantry in the kitchen

*laundry (yep, it never ends does it??)

*once again, clean out the chicken coop

*change the sheets on my bed

*straighten the book shelves in the office

That's not too much for one day at home! And the advantage of Thursdays are that Josh has worship rehearsal at church tonight so I have all the way to 9pm to get the house looking (and smelling!) spiffy!

So that's my little challenge for you stay-at-home moms. What are you doing with your time; each and every minute? Is our use of time honoring to God? Does it give Him glory and praise for the privilege of staying home with our children? Just a few thoughts.

________________________________________________________________________________________

I've been making these sneaky little smoothies for my kids for about two weeks now and I'm thrilled that they have never walked in on my making them or the cat would be out of the bag!! As I tried to think of ways to get more whole food nutrition into their diet, a friend suggested green smoothies. I laughed as I tried to picture my kids sipping green goop out of a straw with a smile on their faces. Ha! But, she said if I'd just add a small handful of blueberries, the smoothie would always be purple and never green. It works! They request these smoothies each and every day and so far they've gone through two large boxes of spinach in about ten days. Raw. In their smoothies! Here was yesterday's smoothie. There is no recipe. Simply add what you have. Frozen blueberries are great because they make the whole smoothie cold and turn the green into purple.

First, I fill the blender half way up with spinach.

Then I start adding fruit. Bananas first:

Then frozen strawberries:

Blueberries:

And finally some crushed pineapple:

The finished masterpiece, loaded with nutrition! Mommy gets the small glass of whatever is left after I pour the kids' cups.

Give it a try!

~audrey

Strawberries and Kiwi

2011-03-16T05:51:00.001-07:00

Someone told me that dehydrated kiwi tastes kind of like sour candy so I headed over to Sam's Club and picked up a small box of kiwi.

I washed, peeled, halved, and sliced and then spread them out on my drying sheets to be placed in the dehydrator. The worms will love the peels!

Ten hours later (at 130 degrees), here is the finished product and sour they definitely are! They would also be a nice addition to any salad.

We are suppose to have gorgeous weather for at least the next ten days, with the only chance of rain being in eight days. I'm going to head over to the nursery after breakfast to pick up my soil ingredients and get my twenty strawberry plants in the ground. Also, several of the seeds I started are not doing well after being moved to small pots for more room to grow, so I'm going to have to start more seeds today, with four weeks left until our last average frost date.

Happy Wednesday!

~audrey