Camping chaos

Sooo, I know this blog isn't supposed to be about me - it is supposed to be about Thea, who is amazing, and deserving of much verbage. But, since most of this has already turned into my private pity party, I might as well go for it, right?

This week is kicking my butt and it's only Tuesday. Today, I felt like a pingpong ball zipping between one task and another and doing none of them well. This business of working from home while watching an infant is not for the weak of heart. And now that it's "summer" and Liam doesn't have Raspberry Lane, it is just a little bit harder.
I'm not sure what happened between last month, when I made list after list and managed somehow to perform all the tasks at hand, and this month, when the dust bunnies are collecting and conspiring to revolt from their crannies and take over the world. I think I am running out of steam.

And it is only June.

Last weekend, Matt ran into his 21-day line and had to take a day off, so he took two and a half and the family went camping. It was good fun - we went to the Anchor River and the first night, took over the campground. There were no less than 20 people there the first night - split between adults and kids - oodles of food, and sunshine. It was so fabulous. We sat around the campfire drinking cheap Canadian beer (is there any other kind) and eating smores and enjoying being outside.

This was car camping at its finest - one couple brought a kids play slide and a barbeque, another brought a propane grill. We brought our canopy tent from the farmer's market booth as well as a fold-up table to enhance the kitchen area. One guy who works in construction brought siding scraps for kindling and a power saw to cut wood up with. It was comical for someone who camped for so many years with the less-is-more principles.

I tossed in the towel around midnight and carried Liam, who was sure he was going to sleep on his own in his own little tent all night, to our tent so we wouldn't have to get up in the night when he realized that he was, in fact, all alone. Thea slept very well that night, curled in my down sleeping bag the way babies are not supposed to be curled. I didn't. Between trying to make sure she wasn't over-curled and the fact that she had most of the sleeping bag, I might have gotten five cold hours. I was almost the first one up - one friend who had too much to drink the night before was up a few minutes earlier, muttering about a crow that had serenaded us rather loudly minutes before.

The second day was a little cooler, sprinkling, and people crawled out of their tents slowly. We ate oodles of pancakes and bacon and by noon, were one of two families left staying the second night.

But still, it was delightful to be away from everything - from computers, phones, and the neverending list of things I need to do. I slept better the second night, and we didn't make it home until 5 the next day. It was funny - I was thinking how much I would look forward to a hot shower and being at home, but once we got there, it felt weird - almost unnatural - like I didn't belong inside.

And then Monday started, with Thea pulling an all-night cry-fest, perhaps wishing she had that sleeping bag back, with a big pile of smoky laundry added to it, and a fridge full of nothing, and bills to pay, and Liam starting a new preschool for the summer without his favorite coat (Mom, I look stupid) and his favorite pirate hat (Now I look even more stupid) and Matt unable to find a hairbrush at 7 a.m.

And now, it is Tuesday, and things are not improving, though I am typing all this whining on an awesome new computer, which I finally have all set up and wow, does it zip.

It all seems like a mountain of stuff, this life, and right now I've got to stop myself from thinking about anything other than tonight - maybe tomorrow - because if I do I'll freak out. Seriously.