squashing perfectionism

so i have a confession to make.

ready?

i did not take my children to a pumpkin patch this year.

gasp!

you read that right.

and it was "Stu's" first halloween and everything! oh well...poor Rosie has missed out on some big "all-American kid" milestones too, being the second child and all the stereotypes that accompany the position, so i guess it's ok that Stu will have some empty spots in his baby book, too.

who am i kidding? none of my three children even have a baby book. and i stopped journaling regularly when M was about 6 months old.

but that's neither here nor there.

so, not that i at all consider it a suitable substitute, but today the girls did get to do some gooey gut scooping out:
i bought a gorgeous butternut squash at Sprouts last weekend with the intention of making Stu's first taste of squash with it, and i finally got around to preparing it today. (incidentally, i was elated to learn we finally got a Sprouts Farmer's Market sort of near us! it opened a week or two ago, i think. it was a fun experience, and we'll definitely go back for our produce. oh, and for the ginger snaps...theirs are SO GOOD, and i SO LOVE a good ginger snap!)

i'm your average Type-A, neat-freak, control-freak, OCD mom, so you can bet i felt really big letting my girls make this mess. i let them go to town. not once did i tell them to be careful or not make such a mess. i sat beside them and made sure there were no injuries, but i was determined to just spectate and soak in the moment. and i was successful.

*****

Rosie can't quite say "scoop" yet, so she kept saying "coop! coop!" as she happily scooped out the goop. she was so proud of herself and the big help she was to me!

for the most part, they are not fans of "goop". M wasn't a fan of pumpkin goop last halloween, and i guess things haven't changed. but she, too, loves to help me and especially loves to cook.

and i wouldn't have ever known it had we not worked on this project together, but my girls love raw butternut squash! they kept asking for piece after piece. "nudda piece, mommy!" is what Rosie kept saying. i can't tell you how happy i am that my children love healthy foods.

*****

as i sat there watching them, i discovered that butternut squash smells a lot like pumpkin! and the goop looks very similar, but the good thing is there's less of it. (i have no idea...maybe they're in the same family?) which is when i finally made the pumpkin connection--we may not have made it to a formal pumpkin patch, but at least the girls got to experience the goopy fun of cleaning one in a roundabout way?

*****

i just got off the phone with a dear friend who was feeling a bit frazzled. she struggles with the same thing as me--being a perfectionist, want-it-all-done-now, neat-freak mom trying to balance it with the unpredictable nature of motherhood. (she as a 3-year-old and a newborn.) and as we commiserated, it occured to me that at the end of the day today, it won't be all the things i DIDN'T get done that i'll be thinking about like i usually do. (my daily to-do lists are always impossible and a sure set-up for failure.) it'll be the freedom and special memory my girls gifted me with at the kitchen table earlier today.

*****

which i guess means we need to make more messes. because those are the days that make me the happiest!