the nitty gritty of motherhood 29 Jun 2007 06:56 pm
Whew….and it’s not quite over yet…
Getting two kids off to camp is not quite as easy as I thought it would be. Health form fiascoes…one camp didn’t send one at all, leaving no time to get a doctor’s sig, and the other has sat at the ped’s office for 3 weeks, only to be faxed today after a few phone calls. Of course the laundry was behind…I hadn’t looked at the dress code for my daughter’s camp and had to make last mintute adjustments without going to the store. I’m telling you…for someone out there, there’s a business selling prepacked luggage for kids: bug spray (non-aresol), sunblock, underwear (that they probably won’t change all week), socks (that will probably get left at camp), bedding, towels, outfits that meet code, look cute (for the girls), yet are not “too nice” and can be hiked in, flashlights (and batteries), stamps and postcards (so the parent’s can imagine their kids will write but…..).
Whilst doing the above, stupid songs from one’s own camp experience will stick to your brain like glue. I spent too much time feeling angsty about my first camp year: Lake Ellen with my cousin Gina (who comments here), when I was my daughter’s age. All I remember is that more than once I got separated from my group and ended up in different classes than the one I was supposed to be in. The kind old man who ran the woodshop didn’t mind having me around, and rather than return me to my group, made multiple wooden cars with me all week long.
Somewhere in there I went to the clerk of the court to get a new driver’s license but will have to go back Monday, assuming I can find my birth certificate. I salvaged 15 pallets from the recycling center, which I finally found, and actually recycled my paper, glass, and plastic for the first time in a year (we don’t have one at our dump). Got some web work done, strained the ginger ale and Kvass (’nother post, ‘nother day). Made for a crazy day. Oh, and we’ve had violent thunder storms that aren’t done yet; guess the notorious “spring storms” for this area, which also make our insurance premiums high, finally got around to visiting our skies.
I ramble because I procrastinate. My kiddos are going away for their first week long sleep-away camps. Not to the same place; a decision I’ve questioned hourly since making it. I’m excited for them and anticipatory of the quiet week we’ll have here and at the same time wishing the clock would tick a little slower. It can’t have been that long since my own 9-year old toes swam in that cold lake…since that Wednesday afternoon when we lifted him up and saw we had a boy…since we laid her on a pillow for him to see and he stared in awe at his purple-as-a-grape princess sister. We’ve had every safety conversation one can have before hand; they are packed and ready to assult me with what will, no-doubt, be some rank laundry 8 days from now. Kids Grow. This is good.
on 30 Jun 2007 at 8:44 am 1.gina said …
Girl, we sure have parallel lives! My kids are leaving for Lake Ellen tomorrow, but are on a fishing trip till tonight- so I will be doing some fast laundry very late tonight so they’ll have enough clothes for the next week, plus their sleeping bags will be all smelly- maybe I’ll just hang those on the line to freshen them, depending on how smokey they are. It sure is alot of work! Does their camps have a website? Lake Ellen posts pictures on theirs during the week for the parents- which is nice and we can email the kids anytime too- they just can’t email back:-( This is Katia’s second time and Tyler’s 3rd or 4th. Katia summed it up pretty good. She said that she really likes how much more she learns about God at camp-that she learns more than she does at Sunday school. It’s still hard to see them off.
on 30 Jun 2007 at 10:22 am 2.Kyra said …
Funny how we parents go through the same growing pain as our children…When we stop bathing them nightly, the first time they cross a road by themselves, when we let the ride a bike our of our site for the first time, the first time they get on a school bus, the first time they walk/ride over to a friend’s house without us, that first week they are away at camp…
And it only gets harder…I am facing the driving demon now….I want them to push forward and embrace their growing maturity….on the other hand I am not old enough to have a child that drives.
Nope. Just can’t get that to register in my mind.
Oh and as a side note….the camp thing..I found that gallon size ziploc bag are really great…I would store a pair of undies, socks, shirt and shorts with a description of each listed on the front. They only had to grab and go to the shower, and I usually got most things home as they returned all to the bag and checked it off, tossed it back into the suitcase to bring home.
I also had a laminated card with the list of other things that did not go into clothing bags that they could check off as they repacked. In fact….I think it is still in one of my suitcases downstairs….~sigh
on 30 Jun 2007 at 4:10 pm 3.bannergranny said …
Wow reading this sure brought back alot of memories…my own first year and others as a camper, then sending you and Erin off…I didn’t not remember about the woodshop and cars though…I wonder if you told me…..hmmmm maybe “Mom doesn’t always find out after all.” Sounds like Kyra has a capitol idea with the ziplock bags thing.
on 30 Jun 2007 at 6:21 pm 4.Mimi said …
Godspeed to the campers!