Pumpkins and Patience

Since October was almost over, I decided last Wednesday that it was time to take the kids to get some pumpkins. I had hoped this would be a family event with the traditional wagon ride out to the fields to choose a pumpkin, but that didn't work out. So instead, I packed the kids into the van and we drove to a place here in town where the yard is full of pumpkins. Blair fell asleep on the way, so she stayed in the van while Ian and Brynn ran around a chose pumpkins. And so my lesson in patience began:

I want this one.....no, this one....can I have this one?.....no, I DON'T want THAT one...

When we were FINALLY done choosing pumpkins (there were no tears, but several growled "that is the LAST one") we loaded them into the van and headed for home. I guess I needed more work on that lesson.
For the next two days, I practiced my next lesson in patience:
"Mom, can we carve our pumpkins now?"
"Mom, I wanna do my jack 'o lantern now!"

"PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEEE???"

I guess I still need more work.

On Friday we finally had time to do the pumpkin carving thing. I gave Brynnie markers and her own table, and she joyfully colored away.

Ian watched with great excitement as I cut into the top off of his pumpkin. He looked inside, and then looked at me with a skeptical face. I handed him a spoon and told him to scoop out the inside until it was clean. Clearly, this was not what he had envisioned:

"I don't like to get slimy, you do it."

I did okay with this one. "No, I'm not gonna do your pumpkin, you do it!" He took a few tentative scoops.

"Will you help me with the seeds? I'm tired out."

I still maintained my cool. "Ian, you can do it. I'll help you when all the seeds are out." He worked for a while and actually made some progress. There were some more requests for help, and a few more rejections. He started getting whiny, and I started getting annoyed. Finally:

"Mommy, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want it to be compost!"

I will admit to losing my cool. Comments like: "I did not buy you a pumpkin just so you......" and "You better do it or else....." were uttered in a tone that was louder then absolutely necessary and not very patient at all. The tears that didn't fall on Wednesday did fall on Friday.

I failed that test.

Thankfully I can retake it every day this week (month, year, decade).

And, if I hadn't blogged about it, I could show you this picture and you'd think we had a perfectly wonderful, patience filled time.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, you, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23