It’s hard to believe that we will be entering the last week of summer vacation in two days.

I plan to have a little ‘team meeting’ with my boys this week so we can go over some house/school rules and discuss what our expectations are of one another. For example, I expect the boys to focus and work with excellence until they finish their daily school work. I expect them to treat me with respect and honor me as their mother and teacher (no arguing, complaining, back talk, etc.) In return, I will give them my undivided attention during school time. I will not answer my phone, get up to do chores, or get on the computer during school time.

I hope this next week will be fun and relaxing. We’ll probably go to the pool a few times…or maybe everyday. We may go to a dollar movie or have a picnic in the park. The great thing is, when you homeschool, you can do all of these things during the “school year” as well! However, I feel that the key to our success this year will be routine and consistency. I need to go ahead and send my letter of intent to the school board and fill out our attendance sheets for the first semester. I didn’t do a very good job with that last year. In fact, I sent in about six months of attendance sheets in April and I have yet to fax May’s. Good thing our county is overwhelmed with more important things than sending a truancy officer to my front door for my last month’s attendance sheet!

ahh, the foster kids are here; gotta go!!

~audrey

This morning I hit the ground running, knowing we had nothing on the agenda. I had some croissants left over from when we had chicken salad the other day. I decided to cut them in half, spread nutella in the middle and close it back up. It was just as good as any chocolate croissant I’ve ever eaten at a cafe. Yum!

Since I’ve been on a roll lately with keeping the house clean, laundry folded and put away as soon as it comes out of the dryer, dishes where they belong, blah, blah, blah, I decided to pick something big on my “Deep Cleaning/Re-Organizing” to-do list. My bathroom has been half finished for over a year. The color no longer tickles my fancy and I’m ready for a change; all the way to the finish preferably. I’ve decided to repaint my bathroom the same color as my kitchen, which is just a subtle blue/gray. It is light, but not baby nursery light. I’ll definitely take before and afters. I’m doing it right this time; 100%. I took down every single thing that could be removed from the walls. I wiped the walls down with a wet cloth, spackled all holes and imperfections, pulled off a few remaining remnants of the 40 year old wallpaper that was removed when we moved in four and a half years ago. Now I’ll have to wait, likely all weekend, before I can actually paint. I may, in the meantime, paint the vanity while I wait. The vanity is small, with two small drawers and four cabinets. I think a coat of white, high gloss paint and some simple new hardware would really spruce the thing up.

I’ve also decided to let the boys help me throw around some ideas to revamp their room. As I’ve said before, I’m really tired of the sand color throughout the living room, hallway, and boys’ room, so I’m going to start changing it, a little at a time. I have no idea what I’m going to do in the boys’ room, but I’d like them to help me decide and we’ll repaint and choose new window treatments.

We’re keeping someone else’s foster children tomorrow, tomorrow night, and until after church on Sunday. My boys are spending the night with my in-laws so the sleeping arrangements for the foster children will be simplified. As a result, I won’t get anything more done on the house until next week. But thankfully, we have another wide open week, so I foresee lots of creativity and productivity!

Pictures to come!

Have a great weekend!!

~audrey

We did not end up getting the two little foster children. We did however get another call yesterday with a placement of three: ages 2, 4, and 7. But we decided to stick with our “only under five” rule, so we said no. I think we’d be more open to consider a five or six year old if the oldest is a girl, but there are just too many risks as the foster boys get older (pertaining to sexual abuse unfortunately); we have to protect our children first.

I had the opportunity to bring lunch to a friend yesterday who just had her second child. His name is Isaiah and he’s so tiny and precious. I made chicken salad on croissants, fruit salad, and cookies. The best part was, I made a lot of everything so my kids and I could eat the same thing. I haven’t made chicken salad in a while, it was delicious and refreshing to eat by the pool after swimming lessons yesterday.

Today was the last day of swimming lessons. We came right home at 1:30, the kids ate lunch, and Owen went to bed. I got to work immediately on knocking a few things off of my Deep Cleaning/Re-Organizing to-do list. It was WONDERFUL!

I spent about an hour completely cleaning out and reorganizing my closet and Josh’s closet. Thank goodness, we have “his and hers” closets. They aren’t walk-ins, but they are both double door closets and it sure beats having to share! They look SOOooo much better now. I smile when I open the doors. :)

I also cleaned out our coat closet, which still had afghans and winter coats in it. I found an empty rubbermaid bin and stored it all away for at least the next three months before having to pull them back out again. Believe it or not, every single one of my twenty-one rubbermaid bins is FULL! If I find anything else that needs to be stored, I’m going to have to buy a new bin! The main reason there are so many is because we have several bins full of miscellaneous sized boy and girl clothes, never knowing what foster children we’ll have and what they’ll need. The excess really drives me nuts!

I’m about to head over to Heather‘s house and help her finish cleaning her empty house and load up the camper. She and her six kids leave tomorrow in a big Chevy Express with a 30 foot camper in tow. Final destination: Washington, where they’ll welcome home Jason, who has been in Iraq for over 15 months.

I cannot imagine.

Please pray for Heather and her children as they travel over the next two weeks. They’ll make stops along the way to see friends and family, but it’s still unnerving being the only adult, traveling alone with six children, no man to help you out if you were to have any difficulties along the way. My kids and I are committed to praying for them every single day until they reach Washington. Will you join us?

Can you believe it will be August next week?? When does school start in your area? Our public schools go back ONE week from Monday!! That is just crazy to me! I’m really looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to our co-op starting up on August 24th. I love walking through the stores right now as their aisles are lined with school supplies. Walmart has some of the best deals on the necessities; crayons, pencils, notebook paper, folders, etc. I could stroll the school supply aisles for hours. I don’t know why it’s so nostalgic.

Tomorrow is Friday! Smile!

~audrey

The book club is meeting at my house tonight.  I’m making chicken salad on croissants.  Thankfully, it’s also Sam Bailey’s birthday today, so the big boys are going out with Sam and Mr.Stephen for some birthday fun this morning.  That will give me just the time I need to clean the house for this evening.

I attended a Welcome Tea last night at Kelli’s house.  It was for new moms entering Classical Conversations this year.  CC is our homeschool co-op that helps us give our children a classical education at home.  If you homeschool or have young children and have never been introduced to the classical model, I highly recommend you read Leigh Bortins new book The Core.  However I must warn you, you’ll have a hard time putting your kids in public school after reading it.  Excellent book.  Even if you have children in public schools, it is a great tool to help you strengthen your children’s education at home or during the summer.

I got a call yesterday afternoon from our agency.  I should get one more call this morning to let me know if we’ll be getting two new foster babies.  Only two this time.  A little girl and a little boy.  She couldn’t remember if they were 2 and 1 or 3 and 1, but either way, it seems like they would be a great fit!  It was still up in the air yesterday afternoon when I got the call, so they may not be coming.  I’ll keep you posted.

Have a great day!  Make a list of things you’d like to get done and see how many things you can cross off the list by the end of the day.  I actually made a HUGE list of deep cleaning and re-organizing tasks that I’d like to complete before school gets in full swing.  I’ll share the list with you later and let you know how the progress is going.

~audrey