How To Make Your Mother Proud

I'm a homemaker. I find great joy in making a house into a comfortable home for my family.

I even like doing things that might be considered domestic drudgery by some, or lost arts by others.

Once I took the plunge into motherhood, a whole new world of homemaking bliss opened up for me. Holiday decorating became an outward and visible sign of our happy home.

And that was any holiday! All holidays! Even holidays that failed to make the cut in homes without small children became hugely important, down to the last detail. Less domestic drudgery, more focus on lost arts.

Halloween is the perfect holiday for artistic homemakers. The gross eyeball cupcakes . . . candy corn and candy apples . . . cornstalk and hay bale arrangements . . . creepy cobwebs . . . carved Jack-O-Lanterns . . . and costumes!

I must confess that I really threw myself into making Halloween costumes! I've always loved sewing and, if I'd had a little girl, I probably would have turned out cute little smocked dresses by the dozens. But that was not meant to be.

I had a boy. You don't sew clothes for boys. Boys don't care what they wear. There is no twirling or posing when little boys get a new outfit. They require nothing more than Oshkosh overalls, knit shirts and lots of stain remover. Boring!

Except for Halloween - even little boys like dressing-up on Halloween!

The first costume I made was a blue crayon. My little Blue Crayon was so cute in his blue felt crayon wrapper, with a mop of blond hair peeking out from under his little pointed blue crayon hat.

I'm not sure what came next . . . the Tube of Toothpaste, complete with giant homemade toothbrush, Robin Hood, Where's Waldo, Ninja Turtle, Vampire or the Wizard.

All those costumes are still in a closet upstairs, just hanging out and waiting for future little Halloween revelers. (No, not yet.)

But it looks like the holiday decorating torch has already been taken up by my now-grown-up Blue Crayon and his wife, the Nurse.

And I'm guessing they both had a hand in carving the pumpkins in this photo that popped up in my email last week. I like that - shared domestic responsibility for making a happy home. Someone raised those kids right!


Just look at the craftsmanship. The creative genius. The careful attention to detail. Note the the proper odd number of pumpkins,in a variety of sizes and random arrangement. A holiday decorators dream. Halloween pumpkin perfection! Proof that all those years of homey holiday hocus-pocus were not wasted on the Blue Crayon!

Who knew that one day a Blue Crayon, a Nurse, and a personalized pumpkin would make a mother so proud? Priceless, just priceless. I love you both to pieces.

PUMPKIN BREAD
3 large eggs
1 can pumpkin
2/3 cup water
1 cup oil
3 ½ cups sugar
3 ½ cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 ½ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until fluffy; add pumpkin and stir well. Stir in water, oil and sugar. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Gradually add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture. Pour batter into loaf pans and bake for 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out of pans and continue to cool; wrap in foil and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature to slice and serve.

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