Yucky, Yucky, No Like Pumpkin...

Last Sunday was the designated pumpkin day. Bob had brought home a large pumpkin from the hardware store (of all places!), and the girls were incredibly fascinated by it. They have been reading stories of pumpkins and seeing all kinds of decorative displays, so this was their cup of tea. They watched with gross interest as we pulled out the slimy seeds, and they weren't too sure that they would really be edible. We salted and roasted the seeds, and three little girls were hooked. I cut the pumpkin into large chunks and baked them for pies and cookies later. While I was pureeing the pumpkin meat, Joanna told me, "yucky, yucky, no like pumpkin." I told her that yes she would like the pumpkin, but she was not convinced. Monday night I baked pumpkin cookies, and she could not believe that the yummy cookies came from the yucky ole' pumpkin.

Ruthie has started to bring home little books to read to me. She is great at sounding out the letters, but when it comes to saying the word, we get something like ba-ah-tah (bat) - "um, ball". I am convinced that part of this is stubbornness. For instance, when you go over a word such as `have,' and you repeatedly spell it and say it out loud and then say, `what did I just say?,' and she says, "I dunno, I can't read," I become a little agitated! Danny used to do this to me all the time, and this is so reminiscent of 25 or so years ago. I remember feeling as if he would never learn his colors. One day I walked into the church nursery in time to hear him telling a nursery worker all the colors. I was so thrilled - he had finally gotten the idea! I picked up a red toy only to have him tell me that it was green. To have never met each other and not even be genetically related, Danny and Ruthie are two peas from the same pod!

Like all of you, I can't believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner - less than two weeks away. And, of course, we all know how quickly Christmas comes on the heels of Thanksgiving. When I changed my little counter bar to count down for Christmas, I didn't realize how quickly it would count down. Somehow seeing it in action is beginning to cause me a little panic. When you have out of state and out of country packages to mail, you know you better kick things into gear! I have a few things in mind for the girls and possibly a few ideas for Nathan, but absolutely no ideas for Sam. (Gifts sent to Korea must be small and lightweight.) For the guy who has always been so hard to shop for, things have gotten even more difficult.-sigh- Buying for Kenzie will be a first this year, but shopping for another woman should not be too difficult. The big question is whether she will be in Korea or Texas by Christmas time, and that puts forth the question of little gifts or larger gifts. Oh, such dilemmas!