Camping

We went camping. Yup - tents, sunscreen, canned food - the whole camping experience. We spent two nights in the desert with 4 other families. The children were in heaven. Do you have any idea how many rocks and how much sand are in a desert. Enough that even if the one year olds eat as much as they want and the two year olds throw sand in everyone's food at each meal, there is still enough for the three year olds to build impressive pyramids. I had a great time. I got to talk to other mothers and fathers while we prepared food. I didn't have to do any laundry or even really change their clothes (what's the point?). K played with the other children. R crawled around scraping dried morsels of food off the mats we were sitting on. O helped build the fires and shade. At night we sat around the campfire worrying some child was going to trip head first into the flames. I found the big dipper and the little dipper. I counted all the different shrubs and insects there were in the seemingly empty landscape. Most of all I relaxed. I watched how the shadows of our tents changed with the sun's movement. I listened to the children's crying and laughter, the insects buzzing and the crackles of the fire without the distractions of cell phones, radios, televisions or telephones. I didn't look at myself in the mirror even once. I felt great.