Yesterday started out a little rough. And ended, well...with a choice to be happy that worked :).
Chapter 1-Getting Ready for
Church and....Scout Camp.
I knew that we had just the morning to
get everything ready for NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training
from the BSA). I knew that it would take 6-7 hours to get there and
the Q-dawg was planning on driving the Goob over.
What I didn't know was that he was
supposed to be there at 10 am.
I had
skimmed through the paperwork, but in my defense, it was a little
obscure. When I was reading it over more carefully that morning, I
saw it. Sigh. I will do my best, I thought. The thought from my
Amish book floated through my head: “I freaked out once. It didn't
help.” Well, I have “freaked out” way
more than once (try most of my life whenever something went wrong)
and lately have been not doing it as much and I definitely like the
non-freak out version better. You realistically get the same amount
of work done (sometimes more from being coherent and not rabid) and
you don't have to sop up emotional spills that are created in the
wake of insane rage.
So.
I took a deep breath, rotated the camp laundry he had started the
night before, and wrote some quick letters to Avot and Lek.
And
then I looked for my cell phone to text the course directors (who
have been fabulous
to work with so far.
Couldn't
find it. Of course.
My
cell phone and I have a long-distance relationship.
Moving
forward.
I
got out the paper work, woke up my darling sleeping scouter, and we
started racing to the finish line!
I
informed the other kids of the situation and they were awesome. Hava
got breakfast on the table. Pipalicious helped get church stuff
ready. (The Spirit had been warning me all week to get my Sharing
time stuff ready for Primary, hinting that I would not have any
time Sunday morning and seeking to prevent the chaos that would
happen with my usual procrastination. Whew! Glad I followed that
prompting...the
night before.
:) Better late than never!) Chugger-dude got himself ready and then
helped gather up scout stuff and cleaned up the table. Liliputian
also grabbed a quick shower and got the stuff for the little boys all
ready. I did paper-work and packed and made lunches and dinner for
the adventurers. Liliputian and Chugger-dude were invited and
accepted the invitation to join Q-dawg on his was was to be an almost
14 hour journey to and fro camp, including “orientation” when
they got there.
We
had quick texts to our amazing local scout leaders to borrow a
back-packing pack, mess kit and scout pants. (Hopefully they fit.)
All in all, other than being moment to moment, it went smoothly. The
Spirit was there and the kids asked where they could help or were
willing to help. And most importantly, I was calm.
Now,
I wanted to jot this down because it is not the usual occurrence.
Normally I am borderline hysterical and the kids sense it and that
puts them on edge. It was just crazy.
I
did start to lose it just a bit when we got to church where we met up
with Q-dawg who had been at meetings since 6:30 am. The arrangements
for driving had left Pipalicious and younger with me doing time on
the bench for Sacrament meeting and asking the little ones to wait
there wasn't such a success. In fact, my dear little transitionally
challenged Spooner was finally over the edge after a morning of
frantic-ness, which included getting dressed on the way to church in
the van. We had even let him take his entire little laundry basket
full of cars with him (including his little bowl of dry cereal) into
the van so he must have sensed the underlying emotion of the
situation, which is never a good thing for my little trigger of
emotion. Spooner had decided that he did not want to stay on the
bench while I took care of last minute things with Q-dawg and nor did
he want to come with me. Not sure what the other option that he was
looking for was (probably just Mom sitting there with him?) but it
wasn't happening in that split moment. Sorry kid.
So
I ended up dragging a breaking-down, sobbing kid out the nearest exit
to fore-go talking to all the wonderful people in our ward in my need
to hurry and get out to Q-dawg. (I do like to talk :).) Sigh.
Q-dawg
was inside taking care of stuff and my determination to remain calm
was slipping. I did a last minute check in the van to make sure they
had transferred all the “stuff” for the trip to the car and found
the brown paper sack that had not only snacks but directions. That
would be important, right :)?
Whew.
They were off!
Chapter
2-Church
I
will keep it brief and summarize it in a few sentences:
--For
Sacrament Meeting I had flashbacks to when I had five kids
5-years-old and younger and Q-dawg on the stand. Just imagine
cheerios all
over.
--During
Primary, we had a cool
simulation suggested by a friend and I had the kids smashing nice
plates to re-create the pioneers sacrifice to build temples.
Unfortunately, the smashing tore through the plastic shower curtain I
had brought to keep it contained and glass got out from my
“contained” space. Oh well! The kids seemed to enjoy it (I am
sure it was memorable!), we talked about what we would sacrifice to
go to the temple and got some pretty profound answers, and
it seemed to vaccuum up before anyone got hurt :). (So
much for a short re-cap of church.)
Papaya
and Spooner, the terrors of Primary, were pretty decent with only 10
or so escapes from his chair for the latter and only one time in the
hall by the former that was pretty short. They are getting better
and so are we at figuring out how to help them...or just endure until
they grow out of it :).
--I
had a very long talk with someone after church that I am still
thinking about. I think it might have been good in some ways
but...we'll see.
Chapter
3-Finishing...strong?
We
came home, ate like locusts (devouring whatever we could find), and I
stole a 20 minute nap while the kids were somewhat quiet. Papaya
passed out into a nap after riding through the whole emotion of the
day pretty well. Spooner is pretty content on his bed and will ask,
“Time to wake up?” most often before getting out of bed. He is
so cute! I woke up to seeing his little foot sticking out over the
side of his bunk this morning as he sprawled out under his frog
blanket covers. I really do love so much about our sleeping
arrangements right now, with the little ones so close. They grow too
fast.
After
my nap, we played Book Lovers Memory (fun version!) and then we tried
to watch a movie. Unfortunately, our internet isn't working and none
of our working computers has a working drive that reads our movies.
(Not sure what happened there.) So we ended up splitting up into
playing and cleaning up the kitchen. Papaya loves the “soap/scrub”
wand that we recently purchased from the store and got busy with
washing while Pipalicious cleaned off the table and Hava started
rinsing. I took a deep breath and joined the fun, anticipating a
clean kitchen after tackling the mound of dishes. I did the initial
scrub, passed it to Papaya for soaping and final scrub and then Hava
finished it off for us! It ended up being quite fun.
Binks
had fallen asleep for a brief 30 minutes and woke up just as we were
finished up dishes. The girls were so great at trying to help him. I
was having a pity party and was having a hard time dealing with his
screaming. So much noise and unpredictability and things just
going...well, off. I guess it finally caught up with me. I left the
room and the darlings tried to calm the baby. Hava is so
sweet at taking him when he is inconsolable and loves that little
guy. I took a few moments, finally stepped outside of my little
self-centered world of expectations and asked for him back...with a
smile. Hava had been watching my face intently, waiting for the
sullen-ness, resentment, or frustration that so often mars our
interchange when I take the screaming baby from him. (Yes, it
happens more than I care to think about.) But the Spirit helped me
see the beautiful, striving little girl that was giving so much to
help me and the baby. I was able to look into those beautiful brown
eyes and see her questioning gaze and reassure her with my love and
gratitude for her with my own expression. You know, just seeing her
beauty and sweetness swell within her as she took a deep breath and
handed him to me (still screaming) will help me keep my cool in the
future, I suspect. Wonderful girl.
I
help him for a while, got him to eat some dinner while I finished up
the dishes and then Papaya, with all her swagger, offered to take him
outside. I wish I could capture that little ball of fire. Her
swagger, her exaggerated lip-pursing as she leans down into Binks
face and makes baby noises. The way she calls out, “Mommy! Baby
Zsa wants to come
outside with me”
all dramatic-like while making faces with him to make him smile and
stumble after her in glee. Love that girl.
She
took him out, who weighs about half of what she does, and graciously
also welcomed Spooner out there. Yes. The three little ones, out
playing together in the back yard.
I
hurriedly started up some zucchini chocolate cake (super yummy) while
listening for them. (A friend had dropped by a box of the most
beautiful, tender zucchini I have ever seen. Got to use them up,
right :)?) I heard screaming occasionally outside but when I sent
Pipalicious outside to check on them, she said it was from delight as
they slid down the slide. So cute! Pipalicious and Hava were
playing Battleship (a MAAC thrift-store treasure for 50 cents!!) and
exploring different versions. I finished up the cake, got it in the
oven, grabbed a water bottle and book and went outside to join the
little ones.
Papaya
was just lifting Binks onto the tramp. Good timing, Mom!
It
was delightful to watch them play on the tramp. I finished most of my
large container of water but did no reading but instead enjoyed
watching Binks try to bounce and Spooner get at kick out of bouncing
him down. Sooooooo
adorable. Lots of laughing. Good times.
Bedtime
came later, with family scripture study and prayer over the phone
with our travellers, who had successfully dropped off the Goob for
another week of awesomeness. We ate up the cake and did
bedtime/clean-up stuff until we passed out, Papaya and I (the
nap-takers) being the last. Binks dropped off in my arms while I
walked around and planned and schemed with Miss Jackie about our
upcoming week.
A
good day.
I
woke a bit when Q-dawg got home after 11 pm and we drifted off to
sleep.
Then
the alarm went off at 12:00 midnight.
“Did
you set that?” Q-dawg asked sleepily as he stumbled back into bed.
“No,”
I yawned. “I think it was just automatically set from when
Liliputian set it.”
“Uh-huh,”
he replied. “I bet you wanted us to all start celebrating your
birthday from the very beginning.”
“You
caught me. Let's start the party now.” Yawn. Oblivion.
