Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

I was stoked to take a delicious pumpkin cake roll swirled with cream cheese to my family in Austin. I had purchased one before and my guests and I loved it. But, not in the case with my Austin crew. There aren’t pumpkin eaters around there, but there sure are a lot of pumpkins. The dad of this household was amped up to decorate and celebrate this time of the year with pumpkins. While Bryson and I were sitting on the patio, I noticed them. Those pumpkins are the focal point everywhere. These photos only start to show the displays all around. Me: "What happens to the pumpkins after Fall?" Bryson: “I take them out to the fields for the animals.” Me: “Just think about the size of the farmland needed to plant pumpkins to sell, especially when they get as big as these!” Bryson: “Why would anybody want to grow pumpkins?” Me: “Somebody’s gotta’ do it!”

I read that it takes an acre to harvest 1,000 pumpkins. At 7 cents a pound for an average 20-pound pumpkin, the gross income would be $1,400. And labor to harvest the pumpkins reduces that by about 50 to 60 percent. Pumpkin growing is certainly not a get-rich-quick scheme! But on the other hand, if you are in the business of bringing joy to those who love to eat pumpkins in whatever form or recipe, and if you love seeing the joy that is received from donning your yards with them like my children do, then you could be a part of spreading joy too.

I titled this blog with that silly nursery rhyme’s title “Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater”. Have you thought about how dark some nursery rhymes are? This one went: “Peter Peter pumpkin eater. Had a wife but couldn’t keep her. Put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well.” Seems it was written from the 13th century when England’s King John caught his wife being a “lady of the night”, killed her and hid her in a pumpkin shell! Yikes! Then there’s Jack and Jill – Jack falls down and breaks his crown. And, London Bridges falling down. And, Humpty Dumpty breaking his crown and on goes the hidden messages of trouble and pain heard by our young ones!

I’m so thankful that we are wiser with the words we speak, the messages we hear and how we purpose to live on the bright side of life and continually speak into our children the goodness and greatness of God who speaks hope, safety, love, peace and protection over them. Those pumpkins in my children’s yard weren’t hidden but displayed to declare the beauty of God’s creation during this Fall Season. This blog is all over the place today, but maybe that’s the point of this blog. To be all over the place creating an atmosphere of thanksgiving, joy, and peace to our world. Our Thanksgiving celebrations are just around the corner, with Christmas close behind. I’m kicking up the matter of being grateful for God’s goodness to us instead of kicking up the matters of controversary and disappointment. I’m kicking up peace on earth, goodwill to men AND women. How about you?