I bet I peaked your interest with a title like that, huh? 

Last night was my sister-in-law’s senior recital.  She is about to graduate from college with a degree in Vocal Performance (I think that’s the degree?).  We were so glad to finally make it to one of her recitals and she did an amazing job. 

Jesse was very excited, can you tell?

I spent over half the night in the foyer and outside with the boys, but all in all, everything was great.  My other sis-in-law, her husband, and their daughter, Lucy, were there as well and it was wonderful to see them. 

Beautiful Lucy. She'll be two on Thanksgiving.

 My mother-in-law did an awesome job decorating for the reception and the food was fantastic.  I swear I’ve learned more from her about cooking, baking, and being a hostess, in eight years of marriage, than all my years of watching the Food Network and HGTV; she’s awesome. 

The boys really did do a great job behaving, using their manners, and obeying when we had to reign them in.  At 9:00pm, the night was almost over.  We were all full of finger foods, tired, and ready to get on the road for our two and a half hour drive home.  I was still sitting down when Owen walked over to me and put his head in my lap with his face straight toward my stomach.  When he lifted his head, I realized he had spit his carrots out all over my shirt.  Lovely. 

This face should have been my warning for what was to come!

I stood up to wipe the cud off my shirt…just in time to dodge the puke.  Yep, that’s right, Owen puked up carrots, grapes, and chocolate, all over the floor, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE FOOD TABLE!!  Anyone want seconds?!?  I was mortified and began piling baby wipes on top of the puke.  Luckily it wasn’t all chunky and colorful like most puke, it was mostly water with a few grape skins and shreds of carrot, so it wasn’t all that obvious what had just happened.  In fact, I was trying to make it look like we had spilled something.  The horrid look on my face probably gave away my plan, but I tried.  HAHA!  Josh had taken Owen to the bathroom to clean him up and then came out of the bathroom with a half naked child.  Yes, by this time, everyone is staring and wondering why the rednecks took their child’s clothes off at this semi-formal reception. I just smiled and said, “Oh, he just had a little too much to eat and made a mess on his shirt.” I could have added, –”if you’d like to see exactly what he ate, you can take a peek under that pile of wipes over there!”–but I didn’t.

I know it looks like he's about to puke again, but he was just coughing.

We gave him a clean shirt in the car and headed home.  Thankfully, all of the boys slept the whole way and we made it home without hitting any deer or getting pulled over by the 246 policemen we passed on those back roads.  Unfortunately, Owen had a fever when we got home.  We’ll see how he’s doing this morning (he’s still asleep right now). 

I cannot believe it will be NOVEMBER in two days!!  This year has FLOWN by!

Have a great weekend!

~audrey

This just happens to be the title of the tenth chapter in my absolute favorite “marriage” book of all time, “Created To Be His Helpmeet.”  I was thinking about this title as I watched 18 Kids and Counting the other night.  As much as people like to make fun of the Duggars (the family from Arkansas with 18 children and one on the way), there really isn’t anything legitimate to criticize.  Most of all, I’m encouraged and inspired by the parents.  Michelle Duggar spoke a little the other night on what their goals are in their parenting.  She purposes to continually smile at her children.  She and her husband have committed to speaking calmly with love, not just to one another, but to their children as well.  Their reactions define them and that is clear in the fruit of their children.  Their children speak kindly to one another and it is obvious that speaking with soft words comes naturally in that family. 

Practice makes permanent.

A few years ago, my washing machine was over-flowing into my kitchen and I had a friend over.  As I heard the water pouring out from the dining room, I ran into the garage, jumped up on top of the washing machine, turned it off, and continued on with our conversation as I cleaned up the mess.  My friend said, “I don’t understand how you are so calm.  Nothing bothers you.”  I wish that were true, but I am thankful she saw that in me that day.  The thing is, I’ve learned through trial and error over the years, life is just too short to get all worked up about things you can’t control.  Just the other night, I was trying to carry too many things in one hand and Joshua’s plastic cup of water slipped out of my hand and splashed water ALL over the kitchen floor and cabinets and broke the cup completely in half.  I just died laughing!!  It was like something out of a funny movie, in slow motion as we watched that cup hit the floor, bust in half, and water bathed half the kitchen.  Joshua helped me wipe some of it up and I looked at him and said, “Well, thats a relief, now we don’t have to wipe these cabinets down next week!”  He just smiled.  I don’t want my kids growing up with the fear of making a little boo-boo like spilling their drink or breaking something by accident.  I love my father dearly and we’re still very close, but he had a bit of a temper when I was a child.  My brother and I would run for the hills in fear of Daddy’s wrath if we made a stupid mistake like spilling our drink or breaking something. 

Do I look at my children’s accidents or misbehavior as “interruptions” or as ”opportunities” to train them?  This is the same in marriage and everday life.  Our reactions define us.  How we think about our circumstances always determines how well we react to them.  Also, what we fill or hearts and minds with will determine what comes out of our mouths when we are squeezed.

Lately, I’ve been trying to consciously keep a smile on my face, even when I don’t feel like it… ESPECIALLY when I don’t feel like it.  It’s amazing how your attitude changes when you have a smile on your face.  You can’t help it.  When my five year old is whining and I can’t get him to quit and he feels like he “can’t help it”, I try to make him smile.  If I can get him to crack a smile, the whining magically disappears.

So, think before you react today.  Try to keep a smile on your face and speak with love on your lips.  If you tend to raise your voice when you’re squeeze, *ahem*, like me, then purpose to speak softly today, no matter what!  Note how the people around you react.  When I speak calmly, with love, to my children, they tend to respond in the same manner.  It’s a miracle!!

It’s Thankful Thursday, so remind yourself throughout the day, of all the many things for which you are thankful!  (that sentence originally ended with “…things you are thankful for!” but a friend reminded me in a blog post the other day that you are not suppose to end a sentence with a preposition.  If I weren’t homeschooling my children, I would have had NO IDEA that “for” is a preposition, but I do know now, so I changed that sentence for Kristy!  Thanks for keeping me on my toes!!)

Haha!

~audrey

You like that? 

I just wasn’t feeling like Wordless Wednesday, so I createdWordy Wednesday. 

Wow, the word “WORD” just turned into one of those words that looks like it’s misspelled because I looked at it and typed it so many times.  Thank goodness for dictionary.com!  HAHA!!

Well, after almost seven years and three kids, we’re just now experiencing our first case of croup.  Owen is the croupy one.  He woke up from his nap yesterday with a 103 fever and a nasty cough that he couldn’t control.  His voice was extremely horse and his breathing looked labored.  Thankfully, this happened about an hour before our pediatrician’s after hours clinic opened, so I called Josh, asked him to come home a little early, and I took Owen to the doctor.  Wouldn’t you know, OUR doctor just happened to be doing the clinic that night.  God is so good.  He took one listen to that cough and confirmed my wondering.  Being the ‘veggie juicing, anti-drugs, natural cures preferring’ mom that I am, I reluctantly took the prescription for oral steroids and left the office having no intention of filling it.  I did end up filling it and Josh picked it up for me, but I didn’t give Owen any last night.  It was a last resort if we had a bad night that I couldn’t handle and if Owen got worse.  My biggest fear was the unknown.  We’d never experienced croup before and I’d heard horror stories of trips to the ER in the middle of the night with blue-faced children that couldn’t breathe!  Thankfully, with a humidifier and prayers from Mommy, Daddy, Joshua, and Jesse, Owen slept through the night!  He still sounds pretty pitiful with his soft, raspy voice and he still woke up with a fever, but all in all, I’m glad I held off on the steroids.

My house is a wreck! The dishwasher is full of clean dishes, the sink is full of dirty dishes, there are dirty clothes in pretty much EVERY room of the house. The floors need to be mopped, the toilets need to be cleaned, laundry needs to be put away, and yesterday’s school work is still spread out all over the kitchen table (yes, we ate in the living room last night! *GASP*!
Now, I’m going to put a movie on for Joshua and Owen so I can clean this pig sty and watch it slowly transform back into my nice, tidy, good-smelling, everything-in-it’s-place, home sweet home. That’s going to take a lot of pine-sol and elbow grease. I better get a move on!

Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!

P.S. Is it bad that I secretly leapt inside when the doctor said we HAD to stay home from church tonight?! More time for cleaning and cuddling!

~audrey