This was the last year for all 3 of the Middles to attend Royal Family Kids Camp. My husband and I debated and debated if I would take the week off of work and if we would do something special. I felt very guilty about taking time off of work. Being self-employed means that I am never really "off duty." Being self-employed in my field with me being the only employee means that I really am on call 24/7. My job is important to me and I am reluctant to not be available. However, at the last minute I did decide to take the week off. It helped that Monday was a federal holiday so it messed up my work schedule anyway:)
We went back and forth on what to do. Originally I had wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise. However, not only did I not get to my goal weight for our agreement on when we could go on the cruise, my husband feels that the kids are too young to go that far away yet:( Then we talked about taking a couple of days to go fishing a couple of hours away and stay in a cabin. Buddy did not want to go anywhere overnight so we considered going with just JJ. Then we decided to just stay home and take a day trip. It is not like we ever get to have respite from the kiddos. We don't have grandparents/family nearby so it was a big deal to think about the possibilities with the kids gone. In the end, it was nice to just be home:)
The day before the kiddos left we did some fun things together including going for a walk to the cemetery. The flags were all up and we had good discussions about the meaning of Memorial Day, thinking about the soldiers and families who have sacrificed for our freedoms, etc. Of course, having 3 kids on bikes for a mile each way (Faith and I walked) when the street was busier than usual with others going to the cemetery about gave me a heart attack, but we all got home safely (thanks to drivers who were paying attention). We ordered pizza for supper and got packed up.
Monday morning I fed the Middles and my husband took them to the drop off site for camp. Then he continued on the Menards (see why I did not go with? lol!!) The van gave him trouble and then sat in a shop for the next 3 days and cost us the money we saved by not going to a cabin for a couple of days... I told my husband it is time for a new van - a 15 passenger this time to accommodate all of the junk we haul on trips. He is not on board😛
I spent the day doing deep cleaning of closets and other areas of the house. I have misplaced my itouch and really hoped to find it. I never did 😡. It was so quiet in the house. JJ played by himself well and it left me to be productive.
Tuesday - the times of the day that I dislike the most are when the kids wake up and bedtime. If you have a child with ADHD in your house you will understand. When they wake up in the morning (which is early) there are no medications in their body. They are wired. Waking up to slamming doors and other kids yelling "get out of my room!" is not the best way to start the day. We had 4 glorious mornings of no conflict. I got to sleep in until 8 or 9 each morning. I didn't dread the morning. It was good:) Tuesday I kept trying to keep the pace of Monday but my family started to give me grief about my grandiose plans and telling me that I was on vacation - so I should relax. It rubbed me a bit wrong but I gave up by evening and just went with it. I cannot even begin to express to you how wonderful it was to not have bedtime insanity for 4 days. Again, ADHD medications are no longer working by bedtime which makes the lack of self-control of emotions and impulsivity really frustrating. The day time can usually go pretty well - ADHD medications are a wonderful wonderful invention. But they haven't made any yet that work 24/7 as they are stimulants and if they were in therapeutic levels in the blood stream 24/7 the person would not sleep. Which is already an issue anyway.
Ok, moving on. When we reflected on the week my husband and I both agreed that the best part of the week was no fighting upon waking or bedtime. Hear that for what it is...
Tuesday night the 6 of us went to pizza and a movie. It was a very nice time:)
Wednesday 4 of us (it was so fun to spend time with Beautiful this week!) got up and drove 2 hours to an art museum. We had never been to one before so thought it would be nice to get it off of our bucket list while we had 3 less children to worry about breaking things. As it turned out, it was a good thing they weren't there as I got to see first hand about the debate of "is it art or is it porn?" JJ has not let us forget his impressions of the museum - it being the first thing he told his siblings about when they got in the van after camp and him now referring to it as "the naked place." We have decided, as a family, that we must not understand art and have no interest in checking out another art museum... We also went to Cabelas (to make the other 3 adults happy;) I stayed in the car (the van was in the shop so we were squished into the car) with JJ (because we had to carry him out of the museum during a temper tantrum - unfortunately it wasn't the first time we have had to do that and won't be the last - and I was not going into another public setting with him until he calmed down). After a long time we finally went in. My husband had gone in for 1 large purchase. When I got in there he was finishing the transaction. I was handed the receipt to fold it up...and realized that he actually made two large purchases. All I could do at that point was laugh. He put up with the museum. I got to put up with the purchases;) It is a good thing that Cabelas is so far away that we rarely go there lol!
Thursday I decided that I was going to...do nothing. I did force myself to a couple of hours of paperwork, but the rest of the time I just engaged in my most favorite past time of all - reading. I read 3 or 4 books that day. I really, really like to read:) That night I got a phone call out of the blue from the prior foster parents of Superman and Faith. They were attending a softball game for one of their adopted daughters and wanted to see if they could see the kids. They haven't seen them for a long time. Maybe 6 years? So I went down to see them with pictures of the kids, and we made plans to get together later this summer so the kids can see them again. Superman and Faith were only with them for 3 months but they actually remember them and think of them as special people. It is hard for them when JJ gets to have written contact with his birth mom, and Grace used to go visit her grandparents. Since Superman and Faith will never get to have contact with their bio family this foster family is their "before" family to them so we try to stay in touch with Christmas letters, etc.
Friday - I stayed up until 2 Thursday night reading knowing that I wouldn't be able to do it again for a long time lol! Then we slept until 8 (I only ever get 6 hours of sleep so that was normal) and trying to finish up paperwork and odds and ends before the kiddos came back.
When we picked them up Faith came out of the cabin and started sobbing so hard she couldn't speak. I got her in the van then Grace came out clearly having cried but able to talk. Then Superman came out with a smile. Apparently the girls had such a great time they did not want to leave their friends (and Superman handles emotion better than the girls - but he was sad too). It is so special for them to have people totally devoted to them for a week (there is 1 leader for 2 kids) and the entire time being just fun with no chores or responsibilities. It is hard to leave that. I love what Royal Family Kids Camp stands for and how they are run. We are considering sending JJ next year. Superman and Grace aged out of the program this year and next year only Faith and JJ are eligible. It is a great program and I know it is hard for them to come back to reality (doesn't everyone have a hard time coming back from vacation?). However, we braced for the transition and it went really well. The kids got along, we got all of their things sorted and washed and put away, and we were surprised by how well it was going. But... let me just say that the bedtime was about 100x worse than usual.
But that is reality. And we are back to that now...stay-cation is over;)
Next post? We have implemented "Summer Boot Camp!"
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