Some bullet-points on camping

I’m not particularly fond of camping.  I’ve gone camping lots of times, and it’s kind of okay, and maybe even a little bit fun the first night, but after that I’m ready to go home.  In no particular order, here are a few of the things I really dislike about camping:

• Coffee.  More accurately, the extreme shortage of decent coffee in less than copious quantities.  Some people love “cowboy coffee” – I am not one of those people.  However, when my survival (and others’) is in question, I will chew the coffee if I have to.
• Lack of a temperature-controlled environment.  I dislike being damp and sticky, as if moss is growing on my back almost as much as I dislike losing feeling in my fingers and toes.
• Spiders.  Other bugs I can usually handle.  Spiders?  Not so much.
• The underside of those picnic tables – concrete or wood, doesn’t matter.  It’s difficult to know what might be lurking there unless I look, but once I look, I regret it.  See “Spiders” above.
• Walking in the dark to find a bathroom.  Did I mention spiders already?

But on the other hand, there are several things I kind of like about camping: 

• Family time.  Uninterrupted by electronics.
• Campfires.  Everything about them.  Especially gooey marshmallows on sticks and the way my clothes smell like campfire for days afterward.
• Sleeping in a tent is sort of cool, unless it’s raining.
• Exploring.  Especially exploring through the eyes of my kiddos.  What wonders they behold.
• Hiking.  I used to hate it, but then I was either a smoker, or overweight.  Now, I am neither.  It’s difficult, and sometimes there are spiders, but I enjoy hiking a lot more now.

Here’s what I’ve learned on a recent Girl Scout “camping” trip:

• Not everyone has camping skills.  Even with as few opportunities to camp as I’ve had, I have far more camping skills than a good many people.   This isn’t a negative thing, exactly.  I guess I’ve camped out more than I thought.
• I know how to make foil pockets for cooking individual meals over a fire and also possess the ability to teach others how to make their own foil pockets.
• I don’t want to lead, but get so frustrated when witnessing others fumbling around with something that seems simple and logical to me.  Again, this isn’t a negative thing, exactly.
• Camping without my family is no fun at all.  Camping with virtual strangers is even less fun.
• Gaggling, giggling, gabbing girls.  Yikes.  Like, this is just so annoying!  Like, every time I come across a, like, gaggle of these giggling girls I want to, like, smack a couple of them into silence.  (Please, reign your troops in and get them to take a breath occasionally?)
• It is absolutely true that one strong, knowledgeable leader can make or break the entire experience.
• Camp names must be given to you by someone else; you cannot choose your own.
• Sleeping in a room with 18 girls and 6 adults is a challenge in so many ways.
• I don’t think I’m cut out for Girl Scouts.  I tried to be a Brownie Scout when I was 6.  I went to exactly two meetings and quit.  Didn’t like it then; don’t like it now.  However, I will do my very best not to color my daughter’s experience with my negativity.

TTFN
JMS

Observations and such

The gray and charcoal colored, dense nap, industrial carpet in my office is in desperate need of being vacuumed.  I could do it.  I know where the machine is.  I don't want to interrupt folks trying to work.

***

Girl-child woke up happy this morning.  Apparently the cheerfulness was directly related to a much-anticipated field trip.  She should have a field trip every day, if it means she's going to wake up with a smile on her face.  (Note to self: Coffee is, unfortunately, still not an option for her.  She’s only 8.)

***

I have a bright orange, squishy, stress-relief ball on my desk.  It has a black smiley face wearing sunglasses printed on it.  While I appreciate the squishiness, and the stress-relieving qualities it possesses, I am slightly put off by the smiley face.  It taunts me.  It seems in direct opposition to the purpose of the object itself.

***

Did you know the word "that" is overused?  I've been consciously aware of my own personal overuse of this particular word and have been making a concerted effort to eliminate it, except where absolutely necessary.  Trust me…it's not as easy as it sounds.

***

Many people spent the last months complaining about the cold and lamenting a lack of warm weather.  The cold doesn't bother me much, unless I'm cold when I should be warm.  (This makes sense, if you think about it.)  During the winter months I'm usually okay.  Spring is a wonderful time of awakening and greening and chirping birds and new life and growth.  It's quickly becoming one of my favorite times of year.  I've always been fond of autumn.  I still am fond of autumn.  I don't think spring will ever overshadow my love of autumn, but it's running a very close second right now.  Here's the problem, though.  This year, spring flew by too quickly.  Granted, technically we're still in spring, calendar-wise, but now we're dealing with eighty degree days and frankly, I'm just not ready for that kind of heat yet.  I will take the cooler, dryer weather over the heat and humidity any day.

***

I have officially lost twenty six pounds.  Not really an observation so much as a fact, I suppose, but one I'm glad to be able to share.  I still have just over seventeen pounds to go in order to reach my goal weight, but this is big.  This is huge.  No, I was.  Now I'm…not.  Or, at least, I'm getting there.  And that's a good thing. 

TTFN
JMS

The What If Game

I've never been one for games.  Not really.  I’ve enjoyed a good game of Solitaire on occasion.  I think crossword puzzles are jolly good fun.  I like Monopoly, as long as I don’t have to be the banker and I can use either the shoe or the dog.  Jenga is fun with multiple people and with two stacks of bricks on top of one another, both on an exploding base.  I've enjoyed a few rousing games of Cards Against Humanity (I will not apologize!  I have never laughed harder!  It's good to be rude, occasionally, and among trusted friends!).  I've never been one for sports, to play them or to watch them, though I enjoy men’s college basketball.  Golf, tennis and baseball are, to me, like watching paint dry.  But there is one game I hate, loathe and despise.  My children, especially boy-child, like to play this game often.  It is called The What If Game.

Here’s how it works:

• What if I didn't brush my teeth?
• What if I just picked out my clothes in the morning?
• What if the sky wasn't blue?
• What if I just read for ten more minutes?
• What if that cloud over there was over our heads right now and we were the only ones getting rained on?
• What if I slept with my feet where my head usually is?
• What if I didn't do my homework?

Alright, I know.  Those are probably not the greatest examples, but I think you get the picture.  What if this?  What if that?  And this game has no rules, per se.  Mostly, in the mind of boy-child, the point of The What If Game is to extend an argument or not do what he has been asked to do. 

So, What If I just walked away and didn't play the game? 

“MO-OM!  CAN I FINISH WHAT I WAS SAYING? 
YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!!!!”

(Oh, the humanity!)  Usually, at this point, there are tears already on the verge of spilling.  I understand he’s frustrated.  I truly do.  The problem here is he tends to talk so much at home without getting to the point, I tend find myself drifting to other things in my head rather than listening to him with 100% of my attention.  This is my failure, too, I know.  Eventually, I have to ask him to please stop, take a breath for goodness sake, and to simply do what I've asked him to do.  This is the point where The What If Game begins, extending his not-complying-with-mom’s-edict, culminating in “MO-OM! CAN I FINISH WHAT I WAS SAYING?” when I simply walk away, refusing to argue anymore.

The What If Game is endless and always (always) leaves all players frustrated and upset.  It’s a worthless, unproductive waste of time and I loathe it.  A much more creative, pleasant and surprising game for all involved is The Yes Ma’am/Sir Game.  I think we could save a lot of time playing this game instead of that game.

TTFN
JMS

A small job well done

I whined a lot yesterday, didn't I?  I guess I should feel the need to apologize, but I'm not going to.  Well…okay, I guess maybe I will – just a teensy bit – because I certainly wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable and decide never to return.  It felt good, though, to get those feelings off my chest.  Thank you for allowing me to vent.

***

My girl-child had some trouble with her homework the other night.  It wasn't as if she couldn't do the work, she simply didn't want to do the work.  Apparently it was different than her regular homework and she chose to complain about it (speaking of whining) rather than doing the work.  She wanted to go outside to play.  She was hungry.  She wanted to watch television.   She was just humming a song, mo-om!  Sheesh!  She had to use the bathroom probably more times than was really necessary.  There were tears.  She was a mess!

Meanwhile (recall my previous post about anger management issues) I was doing laundry and trying to figure out supper and from her all I continued to hear was grumbling.  I mentioned I was making a concerted effort to speak kindly, or at least politely, and my patience was being tried – but I pushed through it and managed not to holler at her.  

Then I decided to paint my toes.  (My toes said they wanted to be blue, so they are now blue.)  I figured I could flop on the bed, toes in the air, and “help” girl-child with her homework.   Which is exactly what I did.

At this point, she'd been “doing” her homework for well over an hour, when typically she can fly through it in twenty minutes or less.  This kind of delay is very unusual for her so I figured there was something more going on than her just not wanting to do the work, but really – I think she was bored with it.  Somehow, I managed to con her into to not only finishing the first page of her math homework but the second page as well.  There was giggling involved…so I guess whatever I did was successful.

So, not only did I find a tiny spark of happiness in painting my toenails blue, but I found a small flame of joy when girl-child responded positively to my assistance.  Unfortunately, there was no television and no outside, because by the time she'd finished her work and eaten her supper, it was already very close to bedtime.  But she went to bed happy, which made me happy.  I guess I need to consider it a small job well done.

TTFN
JMS