You know it's getting chilly when...

...the temperature in the house dips below what the A/C is set at overnight...

...when Bruce gets his Grandma-socks out for the first time this season...
(The kids refer to any socks made by my mom as "Grandma socks"!)

...when David starts wearing clothes again (instead of his summer 'uniform' of shorts and no shirt)...

...and when the cat gets cuddly!

Autumn is here!

Good bye, snaggletooth...

...hello, precious pumpkin-smile!

The next generation is knitting...

Abigail told me first thing this morning that she wanted to learn to knit by herself today...she could hardly wait for school to be over so that she could start.  I cast on some stitches for her, and then after a quick reminder of how to do a knit stitch (she has often held the needles with me while I knit), she wanted me to please go away so she could knit by herself...she wanted to figure it out for herself and she didn't want be seen not yet being proficient at it.  (She gets that gene from a person in my lineage who shall here remain nameless!)  I sneaked in a few pictures, though...here she is with her "concentrating" face.

Several years ago now, my mom asked one of our PTs whether it was out of the realm of reality to expect Abigail to be able to knit (due to her CP).  There are quite a few things that we've had to just wait and see if Abigail can manage it, and I don't think she's wanted to do something yet that she hasn't been able to figure out a way to make it work.  It sure didn't slow her down today...I think she will find her own knitting-rhythm just fine!  (Thank you, Lord!)

She knitted for a little while and then went on happily to something else.

We only have one little problem.  She has informed me that she is knitting a sweater for herself.  Hmmm...

My adorable snaggletooth

That tooth is so close to coming out that it's hanging by one corner...!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

Abigail wants her hair to be cut shorter.

Can you see why my stomach clenches whenever I think of cutting off her long, silky, beautiful, honey-gold hair?!

20%?!

Didja notice our progress bar to the right -- we've already made it through 20% of our school year (hooray for us)!  And so the days fly quickly by...another reason to grab every precious, fleeting moment that I can to spend with my babies!

Fall day...farmer's market...family...food...fun...

(...sorry, couldn't help myself.  I'm up way too late!)

Most Saturdays in our family are spent at home, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and peaceful all-togetherness that doesn't happen during the week.  This Saturday, though, the kids and I went on an adventure!  The kids have both been learning about money in math class, so when I found out that our little downtown (Canton, GA) hosts a farmer's market every Saturday morning, inspiration hit for a great field trip.  I explained the premise to each of the kids (we would each have $5 with which to buy everything we would need to make dinner and a dessert), and off we went.

Here they are in the gazebo in the town square after they carefully chose their fresh vegetables...

While we were sitting there, I noticed City Hall...it was down a side street I'd never noticed before.  A discussion of local government ensued, so when we left, we drove down there so we could see City Hall up close...

Lo and behold, what should be next to City Hall but a playground?!  Of course, we made an unscheduled stop to enjoy it.

This monument (below) is dedicated on this side to the Canton men who fought in the World Wars.  The other side is dedicated to the Canton men and boys who fought in The War Between the States.

On a side note, look at this wonderful grip -- a miraculous feat for our precious girl!

From there, we went on to the library.  When David finds a particularly enthralling book, he just plops down right where he is and loses himself in it!

We made a quick stop at Kroger to buy our meat and a couple of extra ingredients.  In the meantime, David had come up with a very specific meal plan, but he had to be a little flexible with his potato choices in order to stay in budget.   He chose well, though, so we made it under budget with a few cents to spare, and the kids were SO excited!  When we got home, we were all chilled and tired (it was a cool day -- high 60s with a chilly breeze and on-and-off sprinkles), so we all got into warm, comfy clothes to enjoy some hot chocolate and our books.

 

On another side note, whenever we get home from the library, the backpack barely gets into the house before its precious contents are dumped out for better choosing.  The kids are usually lying in the midst of them, and silence reigns for a good long time!

After our down time, the kids helped to make apple muffins (with the fresh apples they'd bought) for our dessert...

They both helped with various aspects of preparing the dinner, too.  They decided to have (so David related the plan to me:) "beef that is steak, cut up into little pieces and cooked with little potatoes and the long kind of carrots that aren't already short, all cooked together in the pan".  They also bought fresh corn on the cob.  The meal turned out wonderfully and the kids were so pleased to be the purveyors of such a fine spread!!!  We had such a fun day together.

Deer and our dears

The kids thoroughly enjoyed watching a doe and her fawn one early morning this past week.  They crept out onto the deck and watched, exclaiming repeatedly over how cute the deer was.

We thought that watching the kids watch the deer was even more fun than watching the deer itself!

A 'new' living room...the cat's perspective

What to do when your people take away your familiar furniture and replace it with something...(insert indignant sniff)...different?!

Hide on it...

Stand on it and look fierce...

Sit on it and look cute...

Take a nap on it...

I guess I'll let them keep it.

A 'new' living room

We recently bought new (to us!) living room furniture.  Friday after school and piano lessons, we borrowed our friends' truck to haul the furniture from down near the city up to our house.  We left with the truck in beautiful sunny weather and promptly drove into the midst of a downpour...

Thankfully, we drove out of it, and it stayed clear the whole time we were hauling the furniture out of the apartment, down a short flight of stairs, and up into the truck...and the whole time we were loading up, tarping, and tying it all down...and we only hit a light sprinkle on the way home.  Although it was evident as we neared home that there had been some significant rain while we were gone, it was clear by the time we were coming through.  This was a huge answer to prayer, since I really, really didn't want to test our tarping job...especially since the couches are ivory-ish, and, despite my best scrubbing efforts, there was residual red Georgia dirt all over the tarp...!

I forgot to take pictures while we were loading up, but here we are at home, getting ready to unload two couches and a twin mattress.  (Can you say 'Ma and Pa Kettle'?!)

First we had to divest the living room of its current furniture (which my brother Caleb laid claim to long ago -- he says it's the most comfortable couch he's ever been on...we're glad it's going to someone who loves it).  It was really nice to have a son old enough to be some real help...I'm stronger than I look, but a whole day of loading, unloading, and carrying large pieces of furniture was starting to take its toll on my poor fingers! (Note one of my favorite uses for our mechanic's creeper!)

Then we had to carry all the new stuff up the hill, up the sidewalk (which is also uphill), up onto the porch, and in the house.  After the whole day's worth of moving all this furniture, I have no desire to move any furniture again any time soon!

But it was worth all of the effort...

 

 

Pampered Chef party...food and friends

My friend Valerie is a Pampered Chef consultant...Thursday night I had a PC party at our house.  Due to various circumstances, not many people were able to come...but those of us who were there had fun!  And of course, the food was a nice perk, too. :)

It was fun to set my first autumn-y table of the season...

This is something I've wanted to try for a couple of years now and was thrilled to finally do 'for real'...

This was the main course of the evening...Loaded Baked Potato Chowder.  YUM!

Tiaras and teeth

Abigail has a new (used) tiara...her first non-plastic one.

And I quote: "Oh, I'm so happy to be Daddy's real princess...that was my wish!"

After much ado, David finally lost tooth #5 tonight (top front).  Is this not the most adorable jack-o-lantern smile you've ever seen?!

Flooding in Georgia

In the six years we've lived here, I've never seen this kind of flooding in our immediate area.  Abigail had an OT appointment today, and I took my camera along to catch some pictures along the way.  If you've never been here, it may not seem as dramatic to you, but anyone familiar with our area will recognize that our small streams have been replaced with raging rivers...

Horse pastures have become lakes...

Driveways, pillars, and gates are rapidly disappearing...

...and some roads are disappearing, too!  This was the worst spot we saw today.  We were supposed to drive through here...but of course we turned around and took an alternate route...after I took a few pictures!

This still-picture of the waterfall doesn't come even remotely close to capturing the power of the water here.  It was literally roaring, and the water was churning, spraying, and foaming...it was magnificent and a little frightening!  There's no way any civilian vehicle stupid enough to try could have withstood its force.

Notice the submerged fence across the middle of the pasture...

The kids and I have had many great opportunities to discuss man's helplessness in the face of flooding, and God's power over even that...and to talk about how we aren't at all worried that the whole earth will be flooded, because God promised that it wouldn't happen again and that's that!  It has been pretty amazing to see.  And in case you're concerned, our house is located in such a way that it would be pretty impossible to have flooding issues...for which we are very grateful!  In the meantime, we're enjoying the show from our high-and-dry house!

Noah's Ark comes to mind...

...and we're forecasted to keep getting rain through Wednesday...!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Sold!

This weekend RaDora and I had a garage sale here...despite very rainy weather, it was successful.  Clutter went home with others who deemed it treasure, we collected some money in place of our clutter, the leftovers have been carted off to Goodwill, and the garage has been restored to its usual state.  Do we look completely tired out in this picture David took for us while we were tallying up?!  (...the answer is 'yes', because we were and we are!) 

Besides the manual labor involved in a garage sale, we're also tired out because we stayed up wayyyyyy too late last night playing Settlers of Catan.  Bruce and I had never played it before, but we loved it!  Good friends, junk food, a fun game, lots of laughs...the very-late night was definitely worth it.  

Once in a while. :)