You’re Really Good at This

I used to love carving pumpkins.   But I got over it.   Initially it was carving pumpkins in the typical, old-fashioned way where you make up some pattern on your own, mostly a variation on the standard Jack-o-Lantern style and carving it rather inexpertly.  

Then the pumpkin patterns on paper started to come out.   I collected the books over a number of years, each booklet coming with another set of the carving-specific tools that made making more intricate patterns much easier to do well.   Only I didn’t do them well.   I think this was largely due to a lack of patience on my part.   I would do the bit where you make punctures around the permitter of the pattern areas to be cut out and then I’d cut out one section, taking my time, and then realize I had a lot longer to go time-wise before I was done.  

So I’d hurry and the results weren’t ever that great.   Once there was a candle in a dark night in the pumpkin though my lack of precision was mostly unnoticeable.   But each year I got less and less interested in carving pumpkins—even though I continued to collect pattern books and printed patterns online.

I changed my interests to roasting the pumpkin seeds, collecting the castoffs from the gutting of our families pumpkins and preparing them for salt (lots of salt) and/or other seasonings.   This worked well because around about the time my interest in carving pumpkins was waning, I met my husband, who is an expert in making the most detailed and challenging pattern look perfect when he’s complete.

This season my husband and son decided to carve something my son wanted to carve—a Creeper from Minecraft.   This is about one of the most simple patterns and my husband most likely free-handed it.   After they had collected the seeds and my husband was helping my son carve I heard my son say to him, “dad, you’re really good at this.”   And he’s right, dad is.  

So my plan now is to just do the seed roasting, a holiday activity I can eat, which I prefer, and let dad do the carving for our family for Halloween.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has decided nudity is bad I think.   The other morning I’d just gotten out of the shower and had to come into the kitchen to tell the children something.   My son told me, “from now on mommy, before you come out here you have to put your pants on and your shirt on.   I do not want you naked.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was asked me, “do you know why I like my sandwich with mustard?  Because when I eat it it tastes good.”   Sound reasoning, I told her.