Any Tool Can Be the Right Tool!
In 2006 I shared my pumpkin carving odyssey. We don't "do" Halloween. Never have. I'd never carved pumpkins.....an activity that is simply not on the top 10 list of fall activities in Liberia or Bislig. Year after year I watched my online friend Emily carve wonderful pumpkins and tell the story of how Christians are like pumpkins. In 2006 Mike was deployed. We were trying to keep old traditions and tweak things a bit too; it helped with our lonliness. We carved our first Jesus pumpkin, I read the poem that is sent around this time of the year. We loved it. A new tradition was born.
In 2007 we fine tuned the object lesson and had a great time with our new fall carving tradition. Mike did shock us all by cutting the tops off our pumpkins with a reciporcating saw.
Here we are in 2008. I thought we'd fine tuned the lesson, learned how to carve pumpkins....in other words established a tradition. We waited for an afternoon when all that live here would be home and could participate.
Someone got a bit carried away with bringing in pumpkins ::snort::
None of were too alarmed when the saw came out this year. 
Then we scooped out the insides. Mike disappeared.
Poor Zander had about as much as he could handle with his sensory issues on this one. The insides for some reason made him throw up, then the noise drove him over the top. Oops.
Yuck - sin can be sticky and messy too.
The kids began carving. I went to find Mike. He was in the garage mumbling about router bits. Huh? Oh well...guess he doesn't want to participate. He must have a pressing project.
Jared offers helpful advice to Jamin - the master carver.
WHY do I hear the Air Compressor? Jared's face was priceless.....
as Mike entered the room with an air compressor and a router bit thingy.
Did I mention noise earlier?
Jamin comments, "Then what? God takes a buzz saw to you?"
I laughed until I cried when Nolan said, "Dad is this how YOU carved pumpkins when you were a boy?" ::snort:: They KNOW *I* didn't carve pumpkins when I was young. I guess he wondered if Mom had really messed up the past two years.
We did make memories. ::snort:: ::gasp::
While Mike cleaned up the power tools, I let the younger ones carve the last pumpkin the "old fashioned" way.
None of the photos show the pumpkin flinging around the room and covering Nolan and Mike's pants. It certainly wasn't the afternoon I imagined....cool weather outside, cider and cookies inside, children and parents visiting and carving a Jesus pumpkin. It was more like Waltons meet Nightmare on Elm Street.... We had fun. It certainly is uniquely us. I love our pumpkins with the name of Jesus shining brightly in the dark. LOVE IT!
A fun addition this year (besides the growing list of power tools) was looking through the blog at photos from years' past. WOW - the children have sure grown since the first time we did this. Josiah had graduated, moved into his own apartment and is 1/2 way through his Sophomore year of College. Jamin is a Senior and making plans for next year. Jared has made the most drastic changes; well Stacia probably has that one. It was fun to look back via the blog....though it does bring up that age-old, "how do you back up the blog" question. Hmmm....I better put that on my "to do" list....for after PWOC Conference.
We ended the evening playing Apples to Apples and watching a Bob Hope movie.
©2008 D.R.G.
