Ooooooooklahoma, where the wind goes rolling down the plains
Ooooooooklahoma, where the red dirt leaves your clothes with stains…
Or, something like that. I’m not FROM there, so it wasn’t required learning in my school.
Anyway, we just got back from Oklahoma, and today is the, oh, third or fourth day of laundry, and no kidding… there is a small pile of red dirt in front of my washer. Those kids got SO dirty! I can’t imagine how.
Maybe it’s because they played in the dirt or red, muddy water all day, every day, for a week. Two of the boys actually ran out of underwear, because, since they have never in their lives bathed every day of a whole week, we didn’t pack enough. That’s a first.
We were at camp, and had worship services every night of the week, so each child had to be showered, scrubbed, and checked for ticks before 7 pm. Every day. Yes, I said ticks, and there were plenty of them. And, since wonderful mommy forgot to put sunscreen on two newly-flat-topped heads that hadn’t seen sun in months, I got the privilege of making them cry as I scoured the red dirt clumps off their sunburned scalps. Wheee!
Camp was a lot of fun, though, even with the week of recovery we’re currently having. We met a ton of new friends, heard some wonderful preaching, and just had fun, even in the 100+ degree weather.
I do wish Honey had been able to go with us, and I fully realized his absence when I had to pull the camper all the way myself, and take care of all the grimy stuff all week. I actually unclogged the camper toilet THREE times (Never forget that you can’t use Charmin in a camp toilet!!), which is much more involved than just using a plunger. I don’t even do toilets at HOME! I also had to do all the tent set-up, the camper hooking-up, packing-up, and any other -upping that was required. It was exhausting. Honey counted something like 20 bruises on my body when I got home, and he had a good laugh at the fact that I had my behind handed to me by the CAMPER. I’m just glad he enjoyed it so much. He sure got to enjoy a nice, quiet week at home, with nothing to do but relax. He needed that.
Jake got to attend the teen Bible studies and ‘dorm talks’ that kept him up until 1 am most nights, so he felt pretty special, being only 12. The dorm talks were studies/talks about issues important to Christian teens, like purity, ladies, pornography, etc. I was glad to see them hitting the hard subjects that are real problems for kids.
It was also a rare opportunity to see many teenage girls who exhibited beauty and femininity, in a world where it holds so little value anymore. Their long, lovely locks, modest and feminine clothing, and under-made smiling faces were very reassuring to me, as a mother of three young men who will be looking for godly spouses one day.
Jake made an angst-ridden comment (don’t tell him you read this!) like, “WHY can’t I be about 6 years older?!?”
I laughed and said, “Look around, honey. All these young ladies were once the little 8 & 10 year-olds you see running around now. Those little ‘kids’ will grow up to be beautiful young women, as well.”
That seemed to make him happy. I don’t guess he’d thought of it that way before. He thought he had totally missed the boat, lol!
Levi and Luke, I’m sure, didn’t notice any little ladies. They spent their time climbing on the fort, excavating in the sand pile, wallowing in the creek, fishing on the pond, throwing water balloons, and finding any way possible to stay as far away from one another as they could, so I would have to walk ALL over camp looking for them when it was time to eat or do an activity. I definitely put some miles on my tired feet! It was nice to let them run free, though, and not worry too much about where they were. There were plenty of adults around to keep them out of trouble, for the most part.
I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with the hard-working ladies who fed the masses three times a day. My favorite part was serving salad or vegetables and seeing how many of those pizza-loving teens I could guilt into taking greens. It was something like 3 in 10. I think, next year, I’ll do a study to see what the real numbers are, just for fun. That would be a good statistics/health/sociology project for the boys. They probably won’t find it nearly as interesting as I do, lol.
Since we were about one-fourth of the way through our 60-day gluten elimination diet, we had to take a few of our own foods with us. The ladies in the kitchen were UBER-helpful, and tried to set food aside for us that we could eat, so we only had to make our own meals a couple times. There was also a grand selection of salads and veggies at each meal, so we didn’t have to miss out on everything.
We had a super-long trip home, thanks to a flat tire on the camper about 45 minutes into the journey. A blessed driver pulled up beside us and flagged me down in OK City, where I pulled over into a parking lot. Apparently, it had been flat for a while, because it was completely shredded.
I knew I could get it started, hoping some big man would see our efforts and come finish the job. That never happened. Jake and I changed the tire in 107 degree heat while the other boys fought in the car. Fun! We did have one older gentleman come over and explain that he would help, but just had back surgery. He alone saved the reputation of Oklahomans.
We were done in 45 minutes and on the short road to Discount Tire, where we purchased five new tires. It’s always a good idea to make sure you aren’t sporting 11 year-old tires on your trailer before you set off on a 1000 mile road trip. I am so thankful to God that it didn’t cause an accident, that I had the strength to loosen the lug nuts, and that it happened in the city, where I could get new tires. I’m also thankful for the guy at Discount that gave us a free tire, and for the driver that alerted me. I have no thanks for all the people that drove by and ignored our need for help. Well, our perceived need for help. Obviously, we were perfectly capable of doing it alone, and that’s nice to know! In a few more years, the BOYS will be doing those things, while I watch.
Now we are recuperating, washing, and trying to keep our house clean. It went on the market almost two weeks ago, and we’re hoping it will sell quickly. It’s too hard to keep show-ready all the time!
After that, we’ll see! Our plans are kind of up in the air right now, so we’ll spend the summer trying to be flexible, schooling, and hopefully, swimming. We’re waiting to hear some news about changes at Honey’s job, so we’re kind of in limbo until we get word. That’s a hard place to be… unsure, hanging around waiting.
We’re starting an all-star baseball tournament this weekend, so I’m expecting to be at the ball park many nights for the next two weeks. None of our boys is playing, but since I’m on the board, I get the privilege of helping out. I have actually missed baseball, so I’m not too upset about that. I’m sure it will be a long two weeks, though!
Other than that, no commitments for a while. That’s kind of a nice feeling!
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