Yesterday we went with my parents in search of the perfect pumpkin. Of course, for Emery, that meant finding one that weighs almost as much as he does. “Hey Emery…you might want to choose a smaller one. If you drop that, it’s going to bust right open.”

“Ugh. No, Mom. Ugh. I’ve (ugh) got it. Ugh.”

Stubborn man child.

My daughter decided on a smaller variety. It helped that she could hold it to the side to enable proper “hip sway”. I didn’t know one needed such poise when trampling through a pumpkin patch, but there she is, all dolled up, confidently carrying her pumpkin to the check out stand.

She cracks me up!

So today they remind me (repeatedly!) that I told them I would help them carve their pumpkins after school. We had only gotten as far as the “gutting” part of the process when Emery decided he had, in fact, chosen a pumpkin that was too big. “This is disgusting,” he kept saying. “I have to take ALL OF THIS out???”

But before we knew it, it was time to make the faces. Thankfully they each picked something simple. I would call our first pumpkin carving experience as a family a huge success. They are lighting up our front porch right now!

October got really busy, really fast. My neighborhood had a garage sale the first Saturday of this month. We didn’t get a lot of lookers, or buyers for that matter, but it did motivate me to get rid of bunch of stuff in our basement. I finished going through moving boxes and took some of our old furniture outside and took pictures. I’ve been having a good bit of luck selling on Craigslist. The rest is being given away, because honestly, at some point, I’m just tired of looking at it and if you want to come and get it, you can have it!

Don’t tell my husband I said that. Shhhh….

Next up this month we had appointments. Three for the dentist, 1 orthodontist, and 3 hair cuts. For some reason I thought it would make sense to schedule all of these for the same week. Still not sure why I did that to myself. (Reference “fool” in first paragraph)

But then we got to have some fun going with Jeremy to Lake Guntersville, Alabama for his last FLW fishing tournament of this year. My parents and sister went also, so we got a comfy cabin and hung out together for a week. Jeremy’s dad ended up joining us the last two days, so that was really nice too!

By the time we got home, the fall weather had made it’s way in. Warm sunshine and cool breezes during the day, with sweatshirts being a must at night. Ahhhh, it’s such a welcome change! It’s also my favorite kind of weather to sit out on my porch and read in. I could sit there for hours. Which is probably the only way I was able to finish reading “The Help”. (Loved it, by the way. Can’t wait to see the movie!) I’m also knee deep in Beth Moore’s “Daniel” study. It’s really good too, but gosh, not something I can just sit down and finish quickly each day. Beth has us all over the Bible looking up answers to her questions.

So I guess that just about covers October 2011. I’ll post some pictures of our trip this week and maybe get the Halloween posts up before Thanksgiving. But I’m not making any promises…. :)

The end.

What’s that? You’d like to hear a little more about my summer? Well, okay. But it mostly revolves around being too hot to do anything that doesn’t involve air conditioning or a swimming pool.

Except for this:

I went to Youth Camp for a week with the middle and high schoolers from our church. The above picture is my group of 7th graders. We had morning and evening worship, small group time, games, a ropes course, and nightly “cabin time” for sharing and prayers. I worked the snack bar and made a bazillion ice cream cones and slushies. Savannah went with me and in our free time we cooled off in the wave pool. Because the temperature? It must have been 1,864 degrees in the hills of Tennessee!

Meanwhile, my parents let Emery stay with them. Apparently he had no problem beating the heat:

You met Lady in my last post, but keeping with the theme of “smothering heat”, here she is with her new hair cut, lounging in the A/C with her new friends:

She’s so stinkin’ cute!

We started a new homeschool year, which has been challenging, mainly because the sibling rivalry has been off the charts! Here is one of Savannah’s recent journal posts:

I attempted to grow tomatoes on my back porch this year. I enthusiastically bought 2 containers, a big bag of soil, and 8 small plants. I watered thoroughly. And after 2 months, this is what I got:

That’s one expensive mater. I figure it cost me about 40 bucks.

Lastly, and probably the most time consuming part of our summer, has been the opening of our new retail store: Anglers Warehouse. After months of remodeling, stocking, inputting, and ordering I am proud to say the doors are officially opened (and so is the web site, with shipping all throughout the United States…hint hint).

So there you have it. Summer 2011. And now I need a cold drink. I’m sweating just typing this.

Well, maybe not exactly. But waking up to a rainy 64 degrees in the middle of a deep south heat wave sure felt like Christmas!

In addition was the fact that we all got to spend hours outside doing what we love most. For one little boy I know, that meant playing in the rain, sprinkling or otherwise, and getting as muddy as possible. And for one little girl I know, it meant coming in and going out, coming in and going out, coming in and going out, depending on how much rain was falling at the moment.

Then there was this other lady. She looks to be in her mid-30′s. She runs about 3 mornings a week. Today though, she sat on her front porch sipping coffee, reading her Bible, and taking pictures. For over 2 hours!

I think that maybe she’s finally figured out that some things in life are a gift. A cool morning in July is to be relished. The laundry piles aren’t going anywhere. And the muddy boots, just don’t matter!

But this sure does.

That’s what we did today. Nothing. Yet look how Emery and I fell out around 5:00 this afternoon. You would have thought we’d been out workin’ the fields or something. In reality, the kids went to an art camp this morning for a few hours while I ran errands. We got home and all put on bathing suits to play in the sprinkler (yes, ALL of us, be glad there isn’t a picture of that!). Then we each had an hour of “room time” where we read books or watched TV or drew pictures, etc.

By then it was after 5 and Emery posed his daily question, “Mom, will you play Apples to Apples with me?”

Now, please know, I play this with them ALL the time, but anytime I refuse I am met with the same response: “Plllleeeeaaasseee? You NEVER play Apples to Apples with meeeeee. I only want to spend tiiiimmmmeee with yooouuuuu.”

We are now accepting boarding passes for your guilt trip.

Geez! Today I told him there was no way I could play. I could barely keep my eyes open! So he crawls up into my lap, followed by Stafford, and takes off his shirt so I can rub his back.

Next think I know, I hear the click of a camera, followed by giggling.

***photo courtesy of Savannah York***

Here’s the new homestead. I feel very blessed to call this place “home”. It’s the perfect size for our family and we couldn’t have hand picked a better location. It’s in the very back of a small subdivision, on a cul de sac, right next to this:

The kids think that it’s their own personal playground but really, it belongs to the neighborhood. Today we took our lunch out to the picnic tables and did our memory work while we ate and played. Some did more playing than eating, but I won’t name any names!

Behind us is nothing but woods. And some type of water by the sounds of all the frogs at night! I haven’t ventured back there yet because water equals snakes and I don’t do snakes!

Other highlights to our move include plenty of sidewalks for walking and riding bikes, as well as being closer to the town of Athens which is where we like to go when we want to spend money. Rafferty’s, The Varsity, Inoko’s, and now my latest fave, Trader Joe’s!

I think we’re really gonna like it here.

Well, we moved in our new house almost a month ago on March 16th. I am finally feeling settled and finding a few minutes to myself here and there. I even found time to read an incredible book last week called “Heaven is for Real” about a little boys’ real life brush with death and subsequent experience in heaven.

The “to do list” captured above is the only thing left that’s keeping me up at night. Thank God it’s down to only one page! If it weren’t for all my responsibilities NOT LISTED on the list, I’d already be done with that sucker.

But I suppose we’ve all heard it asked, “What’s the best way to eat an elephant?”

“One bite at a time.”

So that’s what I’ll do. One day at a time, one hour at a time. And I’ll try not to let the heart palpitations be any indicator of my stress level. Breathe in, breathe out. Oooommmmm….

Q: Hi Jodi! It’s been a long time since your last blog post. What have you been up to?

A: Hi readers! I’m sorry I haven’t kept up to date on my posting like I promised. I received a bit of bad news recently.

Q: Oh really? Can you tell us about it?

A: Well, it’s kind of a long story, but the bottom line is, we’re moving again.

Q: What??? You just restored your home after a devastating fire. Didn’t you just move back over Christmas?

A: Yes. That’s right.

Q: I don’t mean to pry, but that’s a little odd.

A: Imagine how I feel telling people about it.

Q: Did you have any idea this was a possibility?

A: If I did, do you think I would have purchased an entire house full of new furniture, only to have to move it all again?

Q: Hey! Who’s asking the questions?

A: I’m sorry. Go on…

Q: So you are house hunting then. I’m curious. Your husband hasn’t had steady income since the economy went bust 2 years ago, how are you planning to get a loan for a new home?

A: I’m relying solely on my good looks. I figure we’ll be renting.

Q: It’s nice to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor. Is that how you’re coping?

A: Well, that, and I repress a lot of my feelings. I am also considering taking up drinking.

Q: How soon do you have to move?

A: (fingers in her ears) Lalalalalalalalala….I can’t hear you…Lalalalalalalalala…

Q: Maybe we should change subjects. Are you still homeschooling?

A: Yes. I cram 4 hours a day in around looking for a place to live, helping my husband start up a new company, preparing our taxes, and just the regular little ole household chores. I’m pretty sure my kids will be Rhodes Scholars with the education they’re getting.

Q: You sound so confident.

A: Alcohol does that to me.

Q: Well, unfortunately we are out of time. Jodi, do you have anything else you’d like to say to your last, few, faithful readers?

A: Pray y’all. Just pray. If I don’t get some sense of order in my life soon, I will have to change the title of this blog to “Fruit Loop”, and I’m not sure if they’ll let me post from the looney bin.

…your kids ask “Where are the sleds?” and they are referring to heavy duty trash bags.

…grocery stores sell out of milk and bread at the very mention of flurries.

…schools cancel before the first snowflake makes an appearance.

…any ice forms, you will be stuck at home until the sun comes back out or the temperature gets above freezing, whichever comes first.

(And as of today, we are going on 4 days of being snowed/iced in. Can I say again how glad I am to be back HOME!)

We’ve been having some really cold weather here in Georgia. Considering that anything below 50 degrees constitutes earmuffs, scarves, and wool hats, these mind numbing days in the teens are enough to freeze the heartiest of souls.

After a couple of days staying indoors it became obvious that the natives were becoming restless. They wanted to go outside. In their pajamas.

A brief discussion followed about dressing in cold weather. They ran upstairs and quickly got dressed with long pants, sweaters, socks (YES you HAVE to wear SOCKS), shoes and winter coats. I was in charge of finding the scarves, hats and gloves.

In our house, scarves, hats and gloves are used mainly for playing dress up and not so much for warming purposes. Now where had I seen them last??? I know they are around here somewhere!

I searched and searched and finally found 1 scarf, 1 pair of gloves and 2 hats. Good enough I suppose.

They ran outside, bundled up, talking about all the things they planned to do. Almost a full two minutes later, they were back inside. “Mom! Do you know how cold it is out there? It’s FREEZING!”

I’d call them a couple of wimps but the truth is, after nearly 20 years in the south, I’m just as wimpy! Now, just how long is it until Spring anyways???