Pare a Pear with a Pair of Scissors

The other day I was all depressed and down on myself because I didn't have any fall decorations.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I have a pumpkin wreath on the front porch, a couple of mums in the front flower bed (which sat there for like 2 weeks before I finally planted them) and three small pumpkins strategically scattered along the porch steps.  And I didn't even do the strategic scattering of the pumpkins.  Ben did, because I bought the pumpkins and left them in the trunk of the car where he found them several days later and proceeded to strategically scatter them.  He did a very nice job.

Pumpkins and mums, that's all I've got.  Oh, I had a bowl of candy corn.  That lasted about a day because Ben and I have no self-discipline when it comes to sweets.  None at all.  Its why I'm chubby.  I admit it.  Anyway, no scarecrows, no brightly colored leaf garland, no quaint wooden bowls filled with Indian corn and gourds.  No berry swags or pine cone wreaths or fall-themed serving dishes and table linens.  I don't even have leaf-shaped napkin rings, can you believe it?  I was really depressed about it.  Felt like I was somehow failing as a housewife and mother because I had not yet iced any pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies, created any outdoor lighting out of elaborately carved pumpkins, or hollwed out a pumpkin and planted flowers in it.  All things I would really like to do, by the way.  So I spent an hour online looking up fall decorating ideas and got even more depressed.

Well, I said to myself, I'm not going to spend the money on fall decorations, and even if I felt like I could spend the money its too far to drive into town for any of that stuff today.  Maybe next week I'll do some of that cutesy creative stuff in between naps and changing diapers and laundry and grocery shopping and getting supper on the table and kids bathed and in bed on time.  And spending time with my husband, friends and family, going to church and playing with my children.  Oh, and sometimes I sleep and shower, too.  If there's time.  Of course, I said to myself, of course you will get to hollow out miniature pumkins and make taper candle holders out of them.  But right now you have things to do.

I turned my attention to the more immediate problem of dealing with the bushels of pears we had recently picked from our heavily laden pear tree.  I had pears spilling out of baskets on the little table in the living room and bowls overflowing with pears on the kitchen table.  I settled Benaiah in his bouncy seat, made sure Patience wasn't destroying anything, pulled a chair up to kitchen table and started peeling pears.  Again.  I've peeled a lot of pears lately.  The result has been 25 jars of pear butter and 6 pear pies. 

I peeled pears, talked to Patience and Benaiah, peeled more pears and thought about how I wished my house was decorated for fall.  Then a knock came at the door.  I wiped my hands and went to see who was there.  It was my friend Martha, dropping by to pick something up.  As I went to get if for her I made a remark about peeling all these pears.

She stopped and looked around.

"Oh!"  she said.  "I thought you had them there for decoration!"

Perhaps I shouldn't worry so much about fall decorations.  Sometimes life has a way of decorating itself.