Drea Wood

Category Archives: family

Gathering thoughts – What is next?

Written on 05/06/2013 by Dreawood in family, ministry, random, struggles

It seems like its been ages since I actually posted a blog post with some real thought put into it. :)
The move and the birth of our 4th, among other things…. seem to have pushed the ability to blog away. Which is fine. There are seasons where this happens….

Our life right now is so busy and full of adjustments still.

Travis’ job is hard.

Between dealing with high risk situations, drugs, suicides, death and very late nights… not to mention the incredible amt of material he is having to learn and memorize with this new job… his ability to pour into us right now is difficult… which I am understanding about… but its never easy either. Hoping that all levels out soon. He realizes it, so that is always good. Its just learning to find new balance that takes time.

Between that, we are still unpacking boxes… finishing up the cleaning of our former home…

and at the same time organizing my business… which is so busy right now (Thankful but overwhelmed)….

Home schooling is on HOLD for a few weeks… as we figure things out and we have hopes of starting our new year in schooling this year earlier, July probably… so that we can take off some time this fall for a vacation…. maybe.

The transition into our new home has gone smoothly, I think… but we also greatly miss our former neighbors and as of now our new neighbors aren’t exactly “lovely….” – Lets just say, we will not be close and I am thankful their house is listed for sale. Enough said? :) Kay. You want to “love” those type of people and pray for their soul… but at the same time, it sure is hard… and a big part of you just wants them gone. Lets pray for their soul and a quick sale? ;-)

Travis and I will be graduating from the program we are in at our church.

I had debated if I should put it out there, what this program actually is… and after much thought I am totally convinced HIDING it any longer is pointless. I believe in being an open book and what we go through will ultimately in the end hopefully bless others and be a tool in ministry.

As many of you know, who have followed this blog for the last few years… you know that my husband resigned as Senior Pastor at our former church, West End Baptist in NE NC. You can read his resignation HERE.

He was asked to leave the church… for no real “biblical” reason… To elaborate he had deacons telling him they wish he didnt wear jeans… they wish he didn’t preach messages that “offended” people…. and that any problem ultimately was “HIS FAULT” even things that were not even related to what he did. Yea, it was pretty sad.

We found out later the church had a history of firing their pastors every few years… and while we do not know all the background information regarding all the situations before us… we do know that the reasoning for them wanting Travis’ gone, was not right… and I believe firmly they are reaping what they sow because of it. Which breaks our heart at the same time because we truly love and miss many of the people there…..

That being said. What seemed like such a BAD thing at the time… being kicked to the curb and left to find a way out… was in the end a great blessing.

We got into a program called City of Refuge at First Baptist Church Woodstock…. close to Atlanta, GA.

Lets just say… 100′s of Pastors apply every year… and for 2011 we were one of the last families chosen for that year… and I believe at the time they only had 9 families in the program. So to get in is huge…. at least for us it was.

They basically provided us a home… a refuge… a safe place… counsel…. community…. and the ability to be real… genuine and vulnerable for the 1st time EVER…. and as a Pastor and Pastors wife this was huge.

Here is a snippet off the church website that sums up what City of Refuge is:

Pastor Johnny observed, ” Christians are sometimes the worst about shooting their own wounded and then leaving them in the field to bleed to death.” He wanted the Body at First Woodstock to be different. He envisioned a ministry that would enable hurting ministers and their families to find hope and healing and so the City of Refuge Ministry was born.

To often in ministry the Pastor and his family are held to such high esteem, that you cant be real… at least that is how many churches make it… you have to uphold this “image” of perfection and strength… that being genuine to the people can be difficult. As a Pastors wife I felt very alone…. even though every sunday I was surrounded by people… I did not feel at home and I did not feel I was able to be myself…. even though I was in ways…. but in many ways I was not.

I hated the way we had to dress…. and how ritualistic our worship felt…. I felt trapped at times in our church… and what people found important drove me nuts….

Any how… we are all imperfect people with our own “stuff” – but one thing I wish those in the church would realize… especially these older baptist churches… is that their Pastor and his wife…. and their kids… are “normal” and “wounded” people too….

City of Refuge has changed our lives.

We are so thankful for it.

Our time in the program is drawing to an end soon…

I am going to miss it!!

… but at the same time I am so thankful for the journey through it… and thankful we are able to stay here for hopefully a very long time ;-) – but then again, you never know!

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A hike

Written on 03/09/2013 by Dreawood in babywearing, family

This weekend has been just beautiful!
I got to say, if weather stayed this way, depression would be much less HAHA… just saying! :-D

We enjoyed one of Travis’ off days this week, by taking a hike. A 3.3 mile hike with our boys… and we had a great time. I wish we had gone sooner, so we could have spent more time there before it got dark.

Here are a few photos from our time…

The vest I am wearing is the new BOBA Fleece Vest in gray. I love it!
Under the vest I am using the new BOBA Air Carrier. It also is amazing.

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Ignorance can be Bliss… or can it?

Written on 03/05/2013 by Dreawood in eco-friendly, family, food

One thing that for some time I have heard about is the term GMO. I am sure many of you have heard this term as well.

Here is a quick mini-over view of what it is….

My brother the other night sent me an article on GMO’s… and even though I knew GMO’s were a no no…. I will admit… I have been putting off educating myself on what it all involved, because I honestly didn’t want “anything else” to deal with. I already felt as if we lived pretty healthy lives… but deep down I knew my ignorance to what GMO’s involved, was not benefitting our family… and so I began to research things more heavily.

The research out there bringing to light the affects of GMO is scary honestly… and one thing that just made me cringe, was the fact that almost every single baby formula on the market had GMO in it. For a mother who was unable to nurse, this is crushing to hear… and I felt trapped… all I knew was that I had to do something… and even if it couldn’t be fixed in one day, I would take the proper steps to fix it in time.

I have since switched Reed’s formula to a GMO free organic brand… it cost A LOT more than most formula’s in main stream stores… but you know what.. its worth it. We budget for luxuries, cell phone, and shopping for new clothes… we can budget for Non-GMO foods for our infant and children.

The Organic Formula is the 1st step… but I plan to look into making my own baby formula from raw goat milk…. and am just praying for the proper guidance and wisdom through others here who are much more educated in this than I am. Thankful to be in an area that has these resources available for us….

Today I went through our pantry and cleared it out… there is work to be done… and I want to get it done and work hard to bring real food and goodness into my family.

Some day’s I wish I didn’t have the conviction to learn about these things. It honestly would be so much easier to remain ignorant to the truth…. and do as I please, eat what I want… and rely on modern conveniences…. but the truth is right there… and I think it is important to be aware…. and work hard.

One thing I began watching tonight is Genetic Roulette. I had found it on a website but also someone on my facebook mentioned my needing to watch this documentary. I found it on Amazon Insta-view and for $2.99 you can watch it (and keep it for a week). It is well worth the $2.99 and I encourage anyone out there interested in learning more about GMO’s to watch it!

Here is a link to it on amazon. We stream it from our Wii… but you could easily watch it via a laptop or ipad.

This may open up a can of worms :) – hopefully not… Im really not wanting to offend or start anything… I am just spreading the news of what I am learning and changes I am going to make.

This evening I even went out and began the process of buying better choices of foods for my family…. and like I said above, while I did make steps to do this before… it wasn’t consistent…

I hope to post more as I learn and grow in this area…. just wanted to put my thoughts out there tonight while it was on my mind.

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A simply sweet Valentines

Written on 02/14/2013 by Dreawood in caleb, family, Owen, Reed, Taite

This morning I picked up my camera for once :) – rather than my iphone. I wanted to cook our boys a nice big breakfast to celebrate Valentines Day. While we aren’t huge on “the whole buying stuff toys and candy” aspect of the day… I do think its sweet to express our love to each other. Having a day to do that, beyond normal days :) – is fun.

So this morning I cooked up a huge breakfast!

Serving eggs, nitrate free uncured bacon (oh man I love bacon), cinnamon rolls, whole grain buttermilk waffles w/ chocolate chips of course (because valentines day has to have chocolate!)… chocolate milk (for the boys, a treat!) and of course good company.

Caleb helped me cook up the meal….

Taite and Caleb helped set the table.

Daddy and Reed slept in while we did the cooking…

Owen begged for milk early :)

and…. well, we just had a great sweet time together. Thankful for my beautiful family and feel so blessed to have them all with me today.

I decided to capture a few details from the morning… just for fun :) – its the small details that I will enjoy looking back on and remembering…

Hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Morning as well.

Cooking a big meal always results in a mess btw ;-)

Note: TO those curious if I ate :) – I am still on my 8 day challenge… so I did not get to enjoy most of the food hha…. id id however have some bacon since it was protein, although not lean ;-) – and I had my 8 day shake as well… I am not in the least bit hungry with the shake … so its fine. One thing I have learned over this cleansing period is to say no to foods I typically would eat way to much off ;-) – and man am I good at chugging shakes! haha… downed mine this morning in seconds!

& we so need a new family photo ;-) – love the one we have up right now but lil’ Reed needs to be included. Hoping to plan that this spring.

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Babywearing and BB’s

Written on 02/08/2013 by Dreawood in babywearing, caleb, family, Owen, Reed, Taite

A few days ago, Travis and I decided to take the kiddos out to a nearby park and natural trail/creek area, to enjoy the mid 60 degree weather we had that day. After lots of cold and rain… it was a must!

This park is about 20 minutes from our home … but well worth the drive. It has the most amazing trails and just a very quiet area for the boys to play. I love it.

While there we enjoyed the play ground, time with friends, the boys got in the creek. In fact Owen got down to his underwear!! was not planned ;-) – but he didnt want his pants on since they got wet… so since it was just us and a few friends, we didn’t mind.

We also brought some cans and Travis taught the boys how to shoot with his BB gun. They loved it. Was a lot of fun. I use to shoot with a BB gun all the time growing up. I have lots of great memories doing that with my dad and brother.

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