They Bring Out the Best in Me

Something I never expected to hear my premie say:

"I'm gonna go brush my teeth and shave." (deep sigh on my part)

Now our my weekend happenings:

The boys did security at Images art festival this weekend. It's the big fundraiser for their Boy Scout Troop. They get to campout, stay up all night on patrol and in the day it's trash duty. This is our 3rd year doing this and the first year Steve couldn't be there, so naturally my self-doubt in parenting set in.

Night #1 wasn't bad but night #2 I dropped in to drop off a sweatshirt, yes it gets cold by the river in 50 degree weather, and left feeling absolutely horrible. Both boys tired and hungry asked to come home, Justin with tears in his eyes. I so badly wanted to say yes, SO BADLY! I mean what kind of mom leaves her half crying babies with a bunch of strangers 2 miles from home.

OK, so typing that even makes me shake my head at myself. Half crying? Babies? Strangers? 2 miles?- heck they were so close they could yell my name and I'm sure I'd wake right up.

So anyway I did leave with those horrible parent feelings, and ya know what? I came right home and di what any good mother would do, I picked a fight with Steve. When all else fails and you feel bad as a mom go right to your husband and tell him all he is and has done wrong. After all he's the dad, shouldn't he be down there camping out? I know you're sick and sneezing and coughing and living behind a computer screen typing 14 page papers with a pile of tissues by your side living on 4 hours of sleep; but YOU ARE THE DAD OF BOYS!

I am so thankful to have a man who does not care to fight and is well educated in living with a crazy female and knows just the right things to say so I come around.

Darn the counselor in him!

So after waking up this morning with a strong feeling that I should march right down to pick my babies up and bring them home, I don't. Instead I make one last half-hearted attempt to fight (what's up with me?) before sippin' on my coffee and showing up at the festival to see 2 happy, somewhat well rested children who have full bellies and happy faces.

I'm now feeling better about my parenting ability (and not as itching to fight, hmmm...). They're home and showered, clean sheets await them and in 1 hour from now there precious little heads will rest soundly in the other room.

This mountainous road called parenting is tiring I tell you, tire. ing.

~Michelle

Artist Michelle Mardis gave my boys this and this as a thank you for all they did over the weekend.

Saturdays With My Boys

*update at bottom

So I took the advice of Janeen and didn't use my free time last night to clean. Ok so I did do my floors but I spent the rest of my time relaxing. It was wonderful. Thank you blogging friend for speaking up rather quickly!!

Of course there was the small fact that I had to run the sleeping bag, left in the dryer to the campout last night, luckily only 20 minutes away. Other than that I really enjoyed the time I had with no one around but me the dog and the cats. Even this morning was pleasant with no one to cook breakfast for, let me say that again I DID NOT HAVE TO COOK FOR ANYONE THIS MORNING!! I did however forget to turn off hubs and my alarms so I was up early and then had a surprise 8am visit from a family member who I will leave unnamed.

Call me crazy and guess where I went today--
I went to the camp out.

Crazy?

Crazy about my boys!!
After all this is not just any campout but the spring camporee!
And we're the reigning champs!
The troop to beat!
Top dog.
The big boys in the neighborhood.
So I made my way to the campout and this is what greeted me as I entered our troops campsite.
"Permission to enter?"



Pretty impressive huh?
This was all done by tweenage and teenage boys.
On their own.
With 40 lashings and a whole bunch of trees that they carry around to make cool things like this gateway out of.
My original plan was to leave around mid-afternoon and come home to prepare the office for my dad's visit this weekend only I was having too much fun, and hubs tent and airmatress is comfy and a great place to read, so I stayed through dinner.
Which was fabulous.
And cooked by the boys.
And cleaned up by the boys.
Did I mention why I love scouting??

I did get some more cool footage of the boys and I got to hike, yes hiking here in Florida is pretty much walking in the woods, but I'll take it! I am so thankful for this wonderful land God has given us and the sunshine and the nice weather!

To sum it up today was a blast and I'm reminded of how much I like my kids, and I think how much they like me, I think. I'm thankful for the unique bond God has given my boys and I- I'm reminded of His grace in my life through my children. I'm reminded of how important my time with them is, it's short and one day there will be no camporees, no gateways to brag about and no little boys to kiss goodbye (yes they both kissed their mama goodbye, in public, with their friends around), so until then I will enjoy every single minutes I can.

update: the boys finished in second place or as someone quoted Dale Earnhardt we got first loser. They understood everything except why the judges gave them a 7 out of 10 on the "kid built" portion of that awesome gateway you saw above? No adult helped build it, and it was the only gateway that 5 teenage boys could climb on at the same time.

One young scout said it best when he said "some troops would die to finish 2nd place, we're just use to first place, we'll be back in the fall!" they are all so sweet and good 2nd place finishers too!