If you're wondering where this title is leading..............I've made history again! I've done the unthinkable in "my" history - I read a book. No, not that I don't read, or am incapable of, I've just never found a niche in picking up a good read and emerging my self for hours. I never liked reading as a child when it was required in elementary school for book reports. I did learn to tolerate the feat in college when my grades and money (well, half being my parents' money) depended on it. As a parent, though, I do enjoy getting new perspectives on parenting. At a recent second hand sale this past weekend, I picked up this book for fifty cents figuring if I got anything out of it, it was worth the buy. Later did I realize it was a parenting book with scriptural references (did I mention it had me in tears laughing at some excerpts?). The title of the book is "You Can't Spank a Kid in a Snowsuit" by Bruce Howard. You can find it used on http://www.amazon.com/ for a penny! It is a bit older (1994) but is a great "pick-me-up." I read it in a day and a half (while feeding Jackson) and I'm sure you avid readers could accomplish the task in a couple hours. Here's just an excerpt from the book:
After listening to his six year old explain that his brother made him pick a lock on the family vehicle (and in so doing broke the lock)
"Frustration began to build. I went on to ask one of those amazingly dumb questions that parents have asked since the beginning of time and will go on asking for generations to come. 'Why did you do that?' If you're smiling right now, it's because you've been there. You too have asked this dumb question. It's dumb because there is no real answer, and it wouldn't do a bit of good even if there was. It's just that in the face of the absurd and irrational, we have a deep longing to somehow make sense out of a senseless situation. We need to know why these things happen................................Further reflection on this throughout the remainder of the evening helped me understand something of how my heavenly Father feels when I come to him, confessing my mistakes. All too often I have someone else to blame, like Adam in Genesis 3, who said, 'It's that woman you gave me.' Or like Eve: 'It's that serpent's fault.'.............................I know how I felt when my son tried to duck his responsibility. I also know how i felt when I saw and understood his genuine remorse for his mistake. It did turn out to be one of those golden teachable moments that you read about in parenting books. It was, however, my heavenly Father who did the teaching, and in the end, it was I who was instructed."
Did I learn from this lesson?
Apparently NOT! Last night we picked pumpkins from a local patch and Lucas "discovered" the insides of one (not on purpose and NOT with his hand - did I mention it was a ROTTEN pumpkin?). After arriving home and changing his clothes, I asked him the inevitable, "Why did you put your foot on that pumpkin?" His reply was, "I wanted to stand on it like dad had been doing." Maybe DAD needs to do the learning................I asked Tim if this was true. Tim's reply was, "Yes, I was going around the patch stepping/crushing rotten pumpkins every so often." I guess we all learned from that situation :) 
Here are a few more of the evening gathering pumpkins - ENJOY!!!
Reece finding just the right pumpkin.
Can Reece pull a load of 71 pounds of pumpkins? And, if you look closely you can see the rotten pumpkin just to the right of Reece's head that Lucas submerged his shoe in :)
Just me and the boys
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