Attempt is the key word here. It hasn’t really worked out. I tried, but other people keep interrupting and making demands on my time, and it is hard to get away and steal a moment or two.
I had high hopes for today, but they were shot down by a 13-year-old who thinks she wants to play volleyball. It is strange the things that will interfere.
Officially, my children do not go back to school until Wednesday, Sept. 8. Unofficially, two of the four children are currently on school grounds engaged in school activities. My other two children are probably still sleeping or at least barefoot and planning to soon head into the lake for a nice relaxing swim. I was planning at being lakeside as well, but volleyball interfered and instead I am using the woefully limited power of the wifi at my local public library.
The fling, you see, was an attempt to get one last vacation in before school starts. We pulled our camper into the campground yesterday, and we flirted with the idea of setting up an official camp. There were two problems: one, we weren’t quite next to my in-laws, and there would be a closer spot opening up today; and two, the people camping next to us had claimed about 6 feet of our campsite. It wasn’t all our temporary neighors’ fault. A few trees on our campsite sort of create an unofficial border that makes them think it isn’t ours. This left us without room to even spread out our checkered-flag rug. And if we planned to put out our awning, we’d never be able to use our own campfire.
We didn’t complain though because we only needed a place to park for one night until the better spot, closer to our in-laws opened up. Today, my husband is at work, and I am at the library, and my father-in-law gets the wonderful job of hooking up our trailer and moving it two spots down.
So, our family is camping. Sort of. The oldest child has band camp three days this week. She has to be there from 8 to 3 every day. The youngest daughter wanted to do volleyball, which is why she and I are here today. But she just called, and she has not yet had a physical (I should have known), so she can’t do anything. I am definitely still in summer mode.
Tomorrow, classes start at Ferris, so I will be driving down to teach, and I will be gone pretty much all day. I will do it again Thursday, which is the day when all of the children should be able to stay at the campground.
And this weekend? A holiday weekend when all of us should be able to rest and relax? Three of the children are working both Saturday and Sunday, and one is working Friday too. And by Monday, we’ll pack it all up and head back home.
Despite the time struggles, we will find a way to enjoy ourselves. There will definitely be s’mores and time spent around the campfire and that will be enough. Next year, we need to remember that even though school doesn’t start until after Labor Day, the school may have other plans for our children.
Hopefully in a month or so it will cool enough here that we can take the boys camping. We didn’t have much fun this summer and I feel bad about it.