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Growing pumpkins
Here's what I want to know: What happened to these little pumpkins?
October 1999, Alexandria, Virginia
Seriously, where did they go?
Because, back then, we would take this kind of fall weekend and go on a hayride. We would pick out pumpkins and take long moseying walks. We'd stomp through the leaves and then pick them up and look at their veins and make crayon rubbings of them. Maybe someone would throw a tantrum, maybe not. But life had a bountiful, easy quality; what we lacked in emotional regulation we made up for in time.
Those squishy cheeks. The little buttons I helped fasten. The chirpy, high voices. The feathery gosling hair.
It's enough to make a gal's womb ache.
This weekend is beautiful--I know this because I have seen a lot of it through the car windows as I shuttle people hither and yon. A small sampling of activities: Last night G and Sam went to the ward campout in New Hampshire and the girls had a high school football game. Today Maddy is off early on a seminary field trip to Vermont and Lauren is taking her final SATs. After picking up everyone, they come home for a bit and then all have plans tonight in various places.
Where's the justice? Just when they get so interesting and potty-trained (okay, that was a while ago) and hilarious and can make their own sandwiches, they are almost suddenly scarce around here. It's true what they say: the (early) days are long but the (later) years are short.
In the meantime, I guess I'll head to Costco. They do, after all, still manage to eat quite a bit around here.
p.s. I'm totally going to make them recreate that photo sometime soon. Humor a mama, kids.
. . .
Listen: Ashokan Farewell ~ The Civil War documentary
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Reader Comments (10)
I am so with you. On Friday nights and Saturday I have to keep recounting in my head where the kids are, who needs to be picked up when. And then there is the waiting...until midnight...making sure they get home safely. It's all strangely disconnected, and, well, disconcerting. I don't like it much.
sigh + sob.
I miss my pumpkins too.
I was shut up all day in a RS craft fair I inherited.
I was just saying to B how we used to do things like this on beautiful Fall Saturdays and how I miss them.
I'm glad I did have the foresight to live in the moment then, so I didn't miss out on those dear memories, they are crisp and clear in my mind and heart.
ps- I love this song. My cousin, EF, played this at my grandpa's funeral with tears streaming down her face. It was beautiful.
I love that picture! And ohhhhhhh. . . I do want to see the re-creation of that one:) You have beautiful children, Annie -- they are all so GOOD. You have done well, as parents.
you made me teary too.
1999 doesn't sound like that long ago. but then i look at that picture and think of hwo grown your kids are now, and it makes 1999 seem like a bygone era.
which, i suppose, it may be. does a decade count as an era???
Oh my! Look at those squishy cheeks! Where DID those babies go?
I've been feeling the same about mine, and we're still all pretty much in the nest. It goes so fast. Love this post. You tender mama, you.
I remember that picture...I"m having similar nostalgia this weekend as mine were off doing their own things this weekend too. I did manage to make them go to the pumpkin patch Friday night with me and go on a hay ride and I actually thought about that pumpkin patch day in the picture. {sigh}
I love this photo! Those were the days. When I think of your children I think of them as they are in the picture. It is hard to believe they have actually grown up and are doing activities like taking the SAT!
So sweet. Mine pumpkins are still relatively little, but I feel that I am quickly becoming one of the little old ladies who sighs and says, "Oh, enjoy them while they're young!!"
Annie, That is exactlly how I remember your kids! I pulled out a very similar picture of my kids (possibly even taken at the same time/place) and I just can't believe how quickly the time has gone. Zach was taking the PSAT on Saturday & I can't bring myself to believe that he's going to be gone in 2 years... I want to go to the pumpkin patch and relive it. Only problem is that in AZ it's like 100 degrees and the pumpkins start to smell after the first day in the patch. And it's not really a patch, it's a parking lot with a couple of bales of hay and lots of stinky pumpkins! I miss those days in VA!