Hello, friends. If I tried to explain to you the level of chaos in which we’ve been living since we last spoke, I couldn’t do it justice. I won’t even attempt it. Apparently, the further into a renovation you get, the more out of control your life becomes. I guess the good thing is the paint fumes seem to dull your senses to it all. If you ever find yourself debating if you should renovate your house or buy another one, I suggest you buy every time. I know you’re as tired of hearing me tell you how my life has been hijacked by this project as I am tired of telling it. The good news is that, within a week, our home will be/should be completely finished. As of this past weekend, our things are all moved back in and we just have to get stuff put back into place. There’s a small punch list we have to work on before we can completely reclaim our privacy and put an end to the steady stream of workers with whom we’ve been sharing our home. While I’ll miss seeing them at our doorstep at 7:30 a.m. each morning, I’ll get over it quickly. My wit and my rope had both reached their ends, so this conclusion couldn’t have come at a better time. 

Meanwhile, Carson has accepted a job in Mobile, Alabama and so, while we were busy moving back into our house this weekend, he drove in from Starkville with his truck loaded down with all of his crapola from college and dumped it off on his way to find a place to live in Mobile. So. Much. Stuff. You can imagine I was thrilled when he found an apartment he can move into Wednesday, so we’ll move him south in a couple of days. This week has been devoted to getting everything sorted and ready for that. Did I mention Mobile is possibly the hottest and most humid place on the planet? Heat exhaustion always makes for the best moving days. I counted and, between our two kids, this will be the 11th time we’ve moved a child. I don’t recall a single one of those that didn’t take place in the broiling heat. Y’all know I don’t do this heat thing well and this summer has gotten off to a serious start down here. It’s not playing around and I detest it with all my heart. 

All through this, Davis has been bringing home buckets of vegetables from his garden. He decided this would be a good year for a garden expansion. Gardens are rude in that they rarely ask what your schedule looks like or what’s convenient for you. No, they just have a knack for producing at the worst possible times. This year, it certainly did not disappoint. On Friday, we had a plumber, two tile guys, a painter, and our contractor- all in the house. Carson drives up and starts unloading his mess. Davis drives up with 5-gallon buckets of green beans, squash, and blueberries. 

My head began to throb and I was starting to feel stressed and I had to slap myself. These are all good things. No, they’re all wonderful things. Our home has a facelift. Carson found a good job quickly. We have plenty of food to eat. My goodness. God is good. Just breathe and say thank you, Joni. 

When I come back, I shall never mention the word, renovation, on here again. We’ll pretend like this whole thing never happened and go back to life as it was before we had this interruption. This long, drawn out, dusty, fume-filled, seemingly endless interruption. Remember, kids- Do. Not. Ever. Renovate. Your. House. Friends don’t let friends renovate. 

I’ll be back next week and we’ll talk about something. I don’t know what yet. Anything but the R word. 

I’ve been missing this! 

JONI