Every week in my life is so full! Last week we had two wedding receptions of a friend and then a cousin’s son, a family reunion, a birthday dinner and party for Cowboy, saying goodbye to my brother and his family leaving for Virginia, my son leaving for college, a carnival sponsored by our orthodontist (which I now regret going to) and then I took my younger children camping without my husband. Whew! That was all on top of the usual shopping, fixing food, cleaning up, reading, nursing, weeding, chores, etc.

One of my kids wet the bed last night so we spent this morning moving the bulky futon mattress to get the cover off to wash, and then while we were at it we cleaned out from under the bed and it was hard work. My kids are such pack rats. Having 4 boys in the same room, and keeping it clean, all these years has been such a challenge. We threw away a bag of junk and made a box to give away. Hopefully that is just a start. I can see that if they didn’t have so much stuff, it wouldn’t get so messy. We have so much more to purge! I am also ready to get rid of these bunk beds and have them sleep on the floor so we don’t have this junk trap of  “under the bed.” We had so much fighting and bossing around. I am still working on getting the older ones not to discipline or boss the younger ones. We all felt so cranky! I finally told them we should stop and say a prayer and ask for help from God in being harmonious.

Some of the families in the commonwealth school we participate in like to go camping every August.  (you too can have a commonwealth school, it’s the only kind of school that is owned by parents, see http://lemimentortraining.com/School_Alternatives.php) I’ve always wanted to go but it has never worked out until this year. Two years ago I was pregnant (and I don’t like to camp when pregnant, call me a baby, but I just hate having to waddle to an outhouse two or three times during the night) and last year we had my Sudweeks family reunion the same week. This week we had to get our son off to college and then I had my finishing school class to teach on Friday so I said we could go after I was done teaching on Friday and just spend one night.

My husband wanted to stay home and work so it was just me and the middles and the littles because Valor is off to college and Virtue wanted to go to bed early. I was kind of hoping the middles would forget about it but fat chance of that. Honor, my second son, rose to the occasion as the man of the family and brought it up that morning, reminding me. He and Venture, my third son, put all the camping gear in the car and pitched the tent after we got there.I never did get the directions from my friends via their cell phones so I had to Google the directions and then just hope they were still there.

I had to do some fast thinking of what to do for our meals that would be doable with the limited camping gear we have, without going to the store. I settled on beef stew for dinner and plain old fruit for breakfast. I was sooo glad I went through my promise and took them even though it was hard to pack and then unpack after only one night of camping. The unpacking went a lot more slowly than the packing.  Hopefully next year we will spend the whole four days.

It felt so good to see the beautiful mountains and the lake. It was also fun to watch the kids play with few toys. My daughter asked to have the baby wipe I used on her face to play with. I also enjoyed chatting with the other moms. I saw a very cool item that I want for camping! My friends the Lake family had this thing called a Zodi extreme hot water heater. http://zodi.com/Consumer/zodiextremeshower.html It’s this container with a valve and hose. You can heat water right in it in the fire or use the portable stand and fuel source that comes with it. You then let the water out through the hose so you have hot water for dishes or for a shower. I do love being in the outdoors enjoying untouched by man nature but I am not so pure about camping that I don’t want fancy camping gear. It’s fun to dream build and expand my vision even when camping.