Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Don't Like The Heat?

...get out of the kitchen.
And I did!

The Man is at Boy Scout Camp this week (about 30 miles away). While there is staff on site, each Troop also needs parents to stay in the camp at night and be available during the day. And they need it 3 deep.
Since the shop will be closing and Tuesday's are a light day, I volunteered to be one of the parents out there today, closed for the day. Will volunteered for nights Thursday and Friday.

I was somewhat dreading it - heat, mosquitos, gnats, dust and tween boys.

I. Was. Wrong.

It was the best thing I could have done! All my frustrations and burdens of work and home seemed to evaporate away for the day.

To begin the day with a sunrise like this:






Who could not have a good day. I arrived at 6:45 this morning to a quiet camp that was quickly replaced with groggy boys heading off to breakfast and then on to their activities.





At breakfast, I sat at the same table as The Man, but at the other end. I did not want to hover and crowd. Not a minute after I sat down, The Man saw me, picked up his tray and came down and sat across the table.

Wow! Another great heart touching moment in the morning. I followed him around all day!

I walked . . .


he pedaled . . .



and canoed





We swatted flying pest, skipped over poison ivy, ducked spiders . . .


There were bows and arrows
even me . . .
Photo taken by The Man

Walked some more . . .
As I followed The Man and this scout onto the bridge,
I heard, "man I wish they had not killed that cotton mouth"
Me: "why"
The boys: "he was fun to play with"
Me: "a cotton mouth????" Now I am choosing to believe (especially since it is dead and the issue is void) it was just a little old harmless water snake. And I am choosing to believe that their idea of playing with it was throwing sticks off the bridge at the snake 15 feet below. But I have to say, it was the comment of the day!
psst . . . no snakes in the above picture.
It was a great day. In the midst of all this, I finished a book I had won from Mocha with Linda . I found something I had written in a notebook (one that I grabbed to write out some blogs). Then I realized mid afternoon that something was missing. Stress, besides that little bit induced by bug buzzing. No Frustration - I had not thought once about the three offspring at home so graciously loving their version of the life of riley(ooops, a little sarcasm snuck in).
THIS was an unknown mini break. Tomorrow is family night and I am looking forward to that and then have agreed to cover for one of the other parents Friday night. Aren't life's surprises great?
Now there is more from today, but I thought this layer of the day was long enough for one post, soooo, I will post some more later!



5 comments:

Jane In The Jungle said...

Awwwww so glad it was fun and de-stressing for you!

Gayle said...

What a great day that sounds like. I'm glad you got to have a stress-free good time!

Cheffie-Mom said...

Oh, how wonderful! Thank you for sharing your experience!! My son, Kyle is gone camping for 3 weeks!

Finding Pam said...

I know you really enjoyed that day! I enjoyed your photos and the scenery is beautiful.

This stress will be over soon and you can get back to your wonderful family

Happy fourth of July,
Pam

Tina said...

GREAT pictures and it looks like alot of fun!

Stopping by because you appeared in Blogher profile today...

Have a great weekend!