Not posting kind of makes it look like the blog is on my Don’t Want To Do List, but I assure you that is not the case.
It’s just that I don’t have much going on. I mean I have regular things- like I took my kiddos to the zoo, I did all my church visits, I went out front and worked on the flower beds (still just making them bigger, which I have discovered I like more than planting and actual gardening. I wonder what that says about me that I would rather dig up grass than plant…. maybe I should stop wondering where Miss 3 gets her destructive behavior….) I even got around to the laundry. Notice I am not mentioning the bathrooms or the vacuuming.
But I don’t have anything hilarious or super remarkable happening. Maybe I will after this weekend. We’re going camping and this time we’re not going to my in-laws backyard. We are leaving the area. Going to an actual campground.
With a river and dirt and sticks and pine cones and what-am-I-going-to-do-with-all-my-girls-especially-Miss 1-mosquitoes.
I just need to remember to relax. 99% of what my girls do will not actually be naughty or need any interference from me. I will need to breathe deep and let it go.
I will need to remember the Parable of the Tripping Dog.
Once My Dear Husband and I were watching old family videos. His family had gone on vacation to the beach. One of his little brothers (Brother #1) found a big, long piece of seaweed and was swinging it around and around like a rope. He was using it to trip tiny little Brother #2. And he was laughing and calling it “The Tripping Dog.”
My in-laws didn’t run over and spank him and jump up and down yelling while pulling their hair out and take it away. They filmed it. (I suspect it was my dad-in-law who filmed it, not my mom-in-law, but nevertheless, they filmed it.)
Ever since I saw that, I have been trying to relax and let a lot of things go, realizing that so very many things the girls do, do not need my ‘helicopter’ interference.
So, tomorrow when I am watching my girls do whatever they are going to do with pine cones, sticks, dirt, and Miss 1, I will be smiling and chanting to myself: Just remember the tripping dog. Just remember the tripping dog.
Happy Camping! (I hope)
