On Friday my little Girl A (11 year old) was getting ready to spend the night in Farmington with friends so that she could participate in the clogging competition. (She won first with her team and second on the freestyle!!).
My little boy K (12 year old) was getting ready for camping with the scouts, gathering up all of his needed materials (he's such a responsible guy). He was really excited at the opportunity to go out camping with the guys.
Then, he got a call, scout camp was cancelled!! (Even if the leaders said they were going rain or shine... there was a purported food poisoning illness of one of the leaders).
So as he walked home with his back pack and sleeping bag in hand I glanced upon his down hearted countenance and out of the generosity of my mommy heart told him that we could put up the tent and sleep outside (and build a fire in the fire pit as well!!).
So he perked up and set about clearing the yard for a tent. Then he helped me with a few things and went inside to get the tent out from under the stairs. We got it rolled out and I was sitting on the ground surrounded by tent poles when... it started a light sprinkle.
K told me to put on my hood, so I put on my hood. We sorted poles, trying to figure out the mystery of the different pole lengths, the poles for the rain fly, the poles for the tent. We fitted each together repeatedly, made piles, looked at the instructions... then finally figured out the tent pole mystery and got them put together.
Then we tried sliding them through their designated slots on top of the tent, as we slid them they fell apart, so we had to keep fitting them together. Luckily for us it had stopped raining, unluckily for us there were no steaks to peg the tent down, so all of the tent pole business was in vain.
I kept remembering how guys hesitate to set up random tents, like my Dad and husband, I know they wouldn't have started the tent project. They would have shaken their heads at me, but I wanted to cheer K up.
Unfortunately K, was down-hearted again... couldn't we walk to the store? (Nope no tent pegs at the stores nearby)
Couldn't we use sticks? Nope, not going to work.
So I went inside to clean up a bit, and watched him out the window in the back, leaning up against the fence... the tent sprawled on the ground. Then he had an idea, I could see it strike his little mind and I could soon hear the front door open and shut.
"Mommy?" He called out to me, "Yeah?" I asked cautiously. "Can I walk to the store to buy some marshmallows and can we start a fire in the fire pit?" I grinned at him, of course we can.
He got excited and finagled some change out of his little brother (who just lost a tooth) and I had to reassure S of replacement for his money. K went off to the store and came back shortly with his marshmallows.
Then as I was busy inside he was out setting up the camp fire... he ran in to get me and got a good roaring fire going.
The smell of the camp smoke immediately brought to my mind nights sitting around the fire at our family reunions, singing "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes," "Grandma's feather bed," ol' timey songs, patriotic songs... and watching the flames flicker in their broad lapping dances towards the heavens.
The crackling and popping of wood, changing places to avoid the smoke. Smoke that reminds of the scent of the Phoenix, the death of the old and the birth of the new.
The kids roasted their marshmallows, and looked at me funny as I was singing songs that they didn't know. We watched as the wood filtered down into coals, glowing embers in between charred logs.
I had a sudden burst of inspiration for dinner, Scout dinners. So we ran inside to wrap up potatoes in foil, and some cut up potatoes with carrots, onions and meat in other foil wrapped packages as well. The kids hurriedly ran out to place their packages on the coals.
I followed them shortly afterwards and got a shovel to scrape the coals up around the foil packages to cook them evenly. This took a bit of work, to gather the coals up, move the packages about, positioning them so that they were evenly surrounded.
I finally got them positioned and sat down to watch over the dinners in the charred smoking little fire pit. Sam finally came home and came in the back, amused at our little project (luckily he didn't mention the tent). Then he went in the house to talk to people from his island on-line.
I felt that our dinners had probably cooked enough so I had K run in the house for some pot holders and plates. We dug around in the coals with the shovel and dug out our dinners carefully picking them out with the shovel and placing them on the plates (along with a few ashes).
After finding all of the dinners and potatoes, we brought our bounty inside to clean up the plates and say a little prayer over the food. A few ashes scattered as we opened the packages, but I assured the kids that a little ash is good for you (which is true I think ;p) and we dug in to one of the most delicious dinners that I've ate in a long time.
Except it was a little awkward for me because R was sitting on my lap whining about something (I believe she had a tummy ache). Finally we all finished, K was being extra helpful, clearing away what I told him to and even washing the counters and the outside of the fridge.
SO that my friends was my Friday night. Here are a few pictures. :D
(Luckily for me we didn't get the tent set up, because it ended up raining pretty good and my nose got cold, even in the house!!)
My little boy K (12 year old) was getting ready for camping with the scouts, gathering up all of his needed materials (he's such a responsible guy). He was really excited at the opportunity to go out camping with the guys.
Then, he got a call, scout camp was cancelled!! (Even if the leaders said they were going rain or shine... there was a purported food poisoning illness of one of the leaders).
So as he walked home with his back pack and sleeping bag in hand I glanced upon his down hearted countenance and out of the generosity of my mommy heart told him that we could put up the tent and sleep outside (and build a fire in the fire pit as well!!).
So he perked up and set about clearing the yard for a tent. Then he helped me with a few things and went inside to get the tent out from under the stairs. We got it rolled out and I was sitting on the ground surrounded by tent poles when... it started a light sprinkle.
K told me to put on my hood, so I put on my hood. We sorted poles, trying to figure out the mystery of the different pole lengths, the poles for the rain fly, the poles for the tent. We fitted each together repeatedly, made piles, looked at the instructions... then finally figured out the tent pole mystery and got them put together.
Then we tried sliding them through their designated slots on top of the tent, as we slid them they fell apart, so we had to keep fitting them together. Luckily for us it had stopped raining, unluckily for us there were no steaks to peg the tent down, so all of the tent pole business was in vain.
I kept remembering how guys hesitate to set up random tents, like my Dad and husband, I know they wouldn't have started the tent project. They would have shaken their heads at me, but I wanted to cheer K up.
Unfortunately K, was down-hearted again... couldn't we walk to the store? (Nope no tent pegs at the stores nearby)
Couldn't we use sticks? Nope, not going to work.
So I went inside to clean up a bit, and watched him out the window in the back, leaning up against the fence... the tent sprawled on the ground. Then he had an idea, I could see it strike his little mind and I could soon hear the front door open and shut.
"Mommy?" He called out to me, "Yeah?" I asked cautiously. "Can I walk to the store to buy some marshmallows and can we start a fire in the fire pit?" I grinned at him, of course we can.
He got excited and finagled some change out of his little brother (who just lost a tooth) and I had to reassure S of replacement for his money. K went off to the store and came back shortly with his marshmallows.
Then as I was busy inside he was out setting up the camp fire... he ran in to get me and got a good roaring fire going.
The smell of the camp smoke immediately brought to my mind nights sitting around the fire at our family reunions, singing "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes," "Grandma's feather bed," ol' timey songs, patriotic songs... and watching the flames flicker in their broad lapping dances towards the heavens.
The crackling and popping of wood, changing places to avoid the smoke. Smoke that reminds of the scent of the Phoenix, the death of the old and the birth of the new.
The kids roasted their marshmallows, and looked at me funny as I was singing songs that they didn't know. We watched as the wood filtered down into coals, glowing embers in between charred logs.
I had a sudden burst of inspiration for dinner, Scout dinners. So we ran inside to wrap up potatoes in foil, and some cut up potatoes with carrots, onions and meat in other foil wrapped packages as well. The kids hurriedly ran out to place their packages on the coals.
I followed them shortly afterwards and got a shovel to scrape the coals up around the foil packages to cook them evenly. This took a bit of work, to gather the coals up, move the packages about, positioning them so that they were evenly surrounded.
I finally got them positioned and sat down to watch over the dinners in the charred smoking little fire pit. Sam finally came home and came in the back, amused at our little project (luckily he didn't mention the tent). Then he went in the house to talk to people from his island on-line.
I felt that our dinners had probably cooked enough so I had K run in the house for some pot holders and plates. We dug around in the coals with the shovel and dug out our dinners carefully picking them out with the shovel and placing them on the plates (along with a few ashes).
After finding all of the dinners and potatoes, we brought our bounty inside to clean up the plates and say a little prayer over the food. A few ashes scattered as we opened the packages, but I assured the kids that a little ash is good for you (which is true I think ;p) and we dug in to one of the most delicious dinners that I've ate in a long time.
Except it was a little awkward for me because R was sitting on my lap whining about something (I believe she had a tummy ache). Finally we all finished, K was being extra helpful, clearing away what I told him to and even washing the counters and the outside of the fridge.
SO that my friends was my Friday night. Here are a few pictures. :D
(Luckily for me we didn't get the tent set up, because it ended up raining pretty good and my nose got cold, even in the house!!)
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