I got home and packed us up and we went and dropped JJ off at camp for his 2 nights. The cabin leader had familiarity with Apraxia and JJ went with his best Bud - we felt that God was working to put people around JJ to help him be successful. Ten months ago was the first time that he willingly left our side to go do something by himself. Before that he had been without a family member twice (with babysitters and that didn't go well). But 10 months ago he agreed to go to AWANA where he knew his siblings were in the building and it was at our church where he was familiar. Wednesday he actually went to a new location with strangers. My husband and I had decided to camp at the camp so that the cabin leader could get us if we were needed since JJ still doesn't put himself to sleep, sleep through the night, and has emotional outbursts. But, praise the Lord, we did not get contacted! None of the kids knew that we were going to be at the camp. It was a "we are only here if the cabin leader needs us" kind of plan. I was pretty anxious before he left about how he would do, but more importantly, how the people around him would handle... well... "him."
But we didn't get a call! That means that my husband and I had 41 hours ALONE! No interrupted conversations. We were able to talk about real topics without me losing my train of thought due to kids needing something from me. Or arguing...
Sleep. Sleep was a really big bonus. Being able to fall asleep when I wanted without having to wait for a 6 year old to fall asleep first sometime between 11 and 12 p.m.
Sleep without having to put kids who didn't want to go to bed through a bedtime routine while they were yelling and cranky and stalling.
Yeah, peaceful sleep was the highlight;)
Well, sort of peaceful. Wednesday when we dropped the kids off we went to the chiropractor since I hadn't been there in awhile, was having pain, and we were only 10 minutes away. I woke up Thursday morning in a lot of pain. It was a pretty painful day. We spent the day in the nearest town with a Sam's Club shopping. We have been so busy that we haven't been able to get our bulk shopping done and were out of a lot of essentials (like toilet paper - not a good essential to run out of lol!) Usually Sam's is over an hour away so we don't get there more than every 4+ weeks. It was nice to shop and not have to rush due to kids fighting.
But...after I realized the amount of money we spent at our 4 stops I wish we would have had kids fighting to get us out of the stores sooner lol! It is all good:) We got JJ's birthday present. Normally I remember that whole pesky birthday present thing about 2 days (or less) before a birthday and have to hurry to order from Amazon Prime. This time we got it done with 3 weeks to spare lol!
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As this was our first time camping, we talked a lot about if we would like to do it again. We tent camped ONCE when we only had 2 kids. That won't happen again. I am on the fence if I would like to camp (in a camper) again. My idea of being outside is having the shades open, possibly the windows open (which we can't do much of with our kids with allergies), and going for a walk and being able to get right back inside! So, camping? I don't think I liked the actual "camping" as much as I liked being alone with my husband without interruptions, without internet or wifi (we don't have smart phones), without my messy house or piles of paperwork calling to me saying "get it done already!!" Having a home office is a blessing...and it is not a blessing... The work is never done and it is never shut away. I did have to field quite a few work issues but at least I was able to do that via text since I didn't have enough cell signal to make phone calls.
So, camping as a way to really get away without distractions. Yes! But...honestly that means getting away without our children lol! If they were with I am pretty sure I would lose my mind.
My husband and I played a lot of games like we used to back before we had kids. We loved to play cribbage...and we played a lot of cribbage the last couple of days. I lost more than I won...as usual... I lost at Ticket to Ride. I did win 10 Days in Africa. So there is that;)
I think we will need to keep the cribbage board out and play more often. We really liked that.
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We got the kids picked up this morning (after another last minute chiropractor appointment that I hope helps me not having pain shooting down my arm anymore). The kids were all stinky, smelly, and made lots of friends so didn't want to come home. Except Grace. Grace says she is never going to camp again.
Grace was mad at Faith because she was "mean" all week. Faith let us know that Grace found minnows so grabbed Faith's water bottle to put the minnows in (what else would one do with minnows???!!! OF COURSE you would put them in a water bottle!!!) until she could retrieve her own water bottle to store them in. No, the minnows DID NOT come home us! We always ask for the girls to be separated at camp but they never do. Last year we put Faith in horse camp to keep the girls away from each other but did not do that this year. I suppose it is possible that they will like each other...one day...
The kids all took 1 single shower all week "because our cabin leader doesn't like showers." Ummm, yeah... I can remember that Beautiful loved camp week so she didn't have to take a shower all week, and would shower on the last day just so we wouldn't know she was a mess the rest of the week lol! I love the stories she tells now that she is out of the house and doesn't have to worry about getting in trouble anymore lol!
Superman has a hoarse voice from all of the yelling and carrying on that he does. I swear that he is going to be a sports announcer with all of the talking, play by plays, and excitement about the action that he gets into...
JJ... JJ latched himself onto a bunch of older boys who seem to have taken him under their wing and become kind of "protectors." We watched them all together for awhile and they all treated him well. I don't know exactly how he attached himself to them (he is used to being around older kids, being the youngest in our crew), but it seems to have gone well. Boys were even coming up to him and hugging him or giving him "secret handshakes" good-bye. He says he wants to go back next year. If we can make that happen, YAY!!!
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You may be wondering, what happened to our other kid? The other one who lives with us? The 17 year old hermit who won't leave the house? Well, he LOVED having the entire house to himself without any siblings lol! I know that we are very, VERY blessed that we can trust our 17 year old son to be home alone for 2 days and know that he won't do anything he shouldn't do (except play video games all night long;) We bought him a new video game right before we left, took the curfew off of the TV just for him (don't worry, all of my very strict parental controls on the TV are still in place. He doesn't like to watch TV anyway), Beautiful and her husband checked up on him (and took him to Men's Bible Study), and he was quite content.
We had to laugh as Beautiful and Buddy called and texted us. Often. Frequently even. It was nice to know that we were missed;)
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So now we are washing 4 kids worth of clothes/bedding. Faith fell asleep after her emotional outburst about her sister. Grace calmed down after her emotional outburst about everyone being mean and is now picking sweetcorn with my husband. Superman is just laid out on the couch. And JJ has had me holding him non-stop for 3 hours (thankfully my husband sorted all of the laundry and is washing that) and won't let me out of his sight. Back to reality...with a side of cribbage mixed in;) I am already considering where we might get to go next time the kids head to camp. Maybe we can venture further away from them than 300 yards lol!
I will leave you with this picture. It is one of my favorites from when the Middles came. We had only had Superman and Faith for 2 weeks when Beautiful came back from camp and, as usual, crashed on the couch for hours and hours - the 2 year olds just did not understand why she would not play with them! Up, Nana! Up!! You can see just how excited that Beautiful was to have 3 toddlers in the house...ummmm...loving on her;)
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