When we lived in Virginia I experienced my first real pumpkin farm.  It had the wagon ride up to the patch.  It had cider and bluegrass.  The drive there was under a canopy of red and yellow trees that intertwined above us.  There were no blow up contraptions.  There was fresh jams and pies.   It made every other Fall time in my life pale in comparison.   In fact, I was ruined for nearly every pumpkin farm after that.  Charlotte came in a close second when it came to beauty and ingenuity at their pumpkin farm.  They had giant slides made from silos and this weird goat run that went up a story high.  They also had rocking chairs.  No bluegrass or cider press, but the rest was pretty wonderful.  

Washington was also quite beautiful, even if it didn't compare to the lofty heights of expectations from Virginia.  It did have a fair amount of hay and a wagon ride.  The farm was pretty even if packed so tight we could hardly get through it.  It was also always damp.  Boo.  But still passable.  

My first year in Henderson I wanted to cry.  There wasn't any pumpkin farm that I could find that first year.  They did have a 'pumpkin patch' in the Walmart parking lot.  It had 10 blow up monstrosities and a bunch of over priced pumpkins in a giant pile on the cement.  I can't tell you how depressed I was.  The second year there I searched until I finally found a farm.  It was an hour away but I thought it would be worth it.  We drove up the dirt path in 100 degree weather.  We joined the million people walking up another dirt path, past a few hay bales and voila, we reached a sad, dusty field of pumpkins.  We were melting in the heat.  The surviving pumpkins were again, overpriced but hardy. We grabbed a few, trudged back to our car and blasted the AC.  After that we found that the train by Lake Mead had a fun ride and $5 pumpkins you could purchase after you got back.  That became our Vegas tradition.  Not quite the pumpkin farm, but better than the other two options.

So, when I found out we were moving to Georgia, you better believe that the first thing I started to look up was pumpkin farms.  And, I found them.  As in, more than one!  The kids were happy to make it to one of them, but I was the most determined and excited.    We ended up choosing Jaemor Farms.  No.  It wasn't Virginia...but it was very beautiful.  AND a real farm.  It had a great corn maze, silly games and beautiful views.  Oh.  And a HUGE pumpkin patch.  I'm gonna say...totally worth the cross-country move.  

The View.

Corn Maze

Games

The apple cannon.

Slide

Little train ride.

Group photo.

The Pumpkin Patch.

Austin is posing as a pumpkin in the picture.  You can't really see him since he is doing such a great job.  His orange shirt was a perfect match.

Emmett trying to be a pumpkin.

I realized that Alaina and Emmett were our star models for the day.  Jason was always on the run.  Ethan, despite being so photogenic, managed to be rather moody the whole day.  Austin was busy acting like a pumpkin for most my photo ops.  No matter.  I take what I can get.

So.  It's a good one.  No bluegrass or cider press, but the search isn't over yet.  We still had a lovely time (most of us) and managed to get some great pumpkins to carve.

I was preparing a lesson for church and it was focused on the importance of being kind to yourself and seeing yourself the way God sees you.  Instead of mentally comparing our talents, marriages, families, bodies etc to our friends, family or media figures, we need to see ourselves the way we see our own children.  We see their beauty, talents, strengths, weakness and potential.  We look at the people we love with such different eyes than we look at ourselves.  

This got me curious at just how my children saw me as a Mom.  And a little scared.  Children don't see their parents in quite the forgiving light that we see them.  So, I dared to ask them to take my camera and pose me in the way that they thought of me.  

I prepped them by saying things like, "When I think about my Mom, I imagine her baking bread/orange rolls etc.  I think of her doing her family history.  I see her pulling people together and helping them shine with whatever talents they have."  

While this is all true, I was secretly hoping that it would inspire the kids to be nice to me.  Yeah...it didn't work.  (I also had them pick out my outfit, which happened to be pajamas.)  I asked them if I should comb my hair and they declined.  I told them I could put on make-up (maybe I begged a little) but they also decided against makeup.  Mean little children.

This is what they came up with.

Ethan went first.  He wanted me to be turning off the TV and telling them to do chores.

Just as I feared.  Not the best look for me.

Austin wanted me to be on my bed reading a book.

This made me laugh since I can't remember the last time I even picked up a book to read it.  I do often dream of down-time where I could do just that, however.

Alaina put me in the kitchen, cleaning up and cooking. (to get my action shots, I just continued what I was doing before this experiment... making my salsa and cleaning up.)  Laina knows me well.  These are her pictures:

Jason.  My sweetest child.  :)  When I asked how he saw his mama, he said, "Loving me."  He didn't hold the camera but directed Alaina to hold it while he and I were 'being loving.'

When I finally asked Emmett what he imagined me doing, he had his answer ready.  "Wiping my bottom."  Silly boy.  I tried to explain the game in lots of different ways, hoping he'd change his mind, but if you know Emmett even a little bit, you'll know how stubborn the child is.  So I gave up and we took this picture. 

After pushing him a bit more, he also added, "I see you cooking with me.  I'm your little chef."  That was more like it, so we took a couple of those pictures too.

Emmett took this picture himself.  It's a good reminder just how little people see the world.

So.  I have to admit, during this experiment, and even more so later while I was going through the pictures, I felt a little down.  My kids don't see me as a put-together woman.  They don't see me as an talented individual or intelligent thinker.  They see me as a crazy-haired, sometimes grumpy, maid, comforter, cook and bottom wiper.  Kinda like a German nanny.  

I sighed as I looked at myself, seen through my children's eyes.  I couldn't help but thinking of Instagram for a minute.  Picture perfect moments of my friends and even myself as we carefully pose the frame to include only what we want others to see.  Then I looked again at these pictures.  It's true that they aren't very glamorous, but when I thought about it, they were pretty spot on to our reality.  

These are the things I do everyday for my kids.  I sacrifice the shower.  I discipline, cook and clean.  I dream of relaxing and reading books but I really do spend a lot of time reading books to my children.  So, a book in my hand isn't as rare as I first thought (just insert a teen novel or children's book)  And I really do spend a good portion of my time tending to the basics needs of my kids' personal hygiene.  (Just how many hours have I spent wiping my childrens' bums, I'll never know.)  

I also spend all my time loving those 5 kids of mine.  If we aren't physically hugging, I'm worrying or fretting over them.  I'm taking them to practice and getting them ready for school.  I'm signing papers and organizing schedules.   I do look a little crazy for the majority of the time and I do admit to spending more time in my pajamas than is probably healthy.  However, there is a lot of love behind each of these pictures.  I'm sure as my children grow, their vision of me will also grow and change.  (If I think back to what I thought of my Mom as a kid, I still saw her baking, but I also imagine her on the extra-long corded phone, chatting away and getting mad at us when the house was a disaster.)  

For now, I'm just fine being seen as the one who spends her time providing nourishment for my kids' bellies, stories for their imaginations, cleanliness for their bodies and home and love for their hearts.  Being a Mom doesn't need to be pretty to be a beautiful thing.

Emmett and I went into Atlanta to visit the zoo.  We had a lot of fun walking around and checking out all of the exhibits.

He wanted to go onto the carousal, and took his time before deciding to ride the Cheetah.  He was so excited to be on it, unfortunately, when the music started the up and down of the carousal freaked him out.  The most mild of all rides and Emmett couldn't handle it.  I took one picture of him before I realized I was torturing him.

Immediately after that, I took him down and we found a stationary chair.  Immediately, he decided that he now loved the carousal.  

He was so pleased, in fact, we went a couple more times.

Emmett loved the zoo.  My favorite part was this cool turtle.  I've never seen a turtle just hangin' out before.  He's so chill.

I love Mommy - Son dates like this.