Sunday, August 23, 2009

Fish Slappers Make Great Campers

Vacation has ended with a return to pure Bedlam. Before I fully emerse myself in the insanity of life I need to attend to a few house keeping chores…

I’m sending a big thank you to Teachermommy at Diapersanddragons for giving me my first blog award on Boardinginbedlam. TM gave me the “Your blog is bloody brilliant” award. Suposedly there is something dirty in this very British award, but for the life of me I cannot see it. I do appreciate her thoughtfulness, even if it is dirty. Maybe I appreciate her thoughtfulness because it is dirty. I’ll have to think about that.

While I was reclining in the great outdoors of central Wisconsin during monsoon season, Cristina at Home Spun Juggling posted last week’s Blog Carnival. She included my post titled “Breaking the Mirror,” which I believe may be responsible for my garnering a couple of new readers. Maybe they just became new commenters. I enjoyed hearing from Aileen and Bleu. I hope to hear from you again soon. Thank you, Cristina, for including my post in the blog carnival. Head over to Home Spun Juggling if you want to read some interesting home school blogs.

Vacation was interesting. We headed northeast in an over-stuffed Sienna to central Wisconsin for five days worth of camping at Camp LuWiSoMo near Wild Rose, Wisconsin. It was a pleasant journey, notable only for the Boss and Major Havoc slapping one another with gummy fish while re-enacting a scene from Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie, and the following conversation between Captain Chaos and the Boss:

CC: Where are we going?

TB: You know where we are going.

CC: We’re going camping.

Mom: That’s right, we’re going camping.

CC: I don’t want to go camping.

Mom: You don’t?

CC: No.

Mom: Where do you want to go?

CC: I want to go to Nineveh and be mean!

The kids were well behaved in the car. Tater’s Bladder didn’t kick in until the return trip. General Mayhem’s Boy Scout experience was invaluable in helping me get the camp site set and the tent erected when we arrived after the sun set last Monday night. The kid is good. All three children were safe and well behaved around the camp fire, and they enjoyed the tent until Thursday morning when all efforts at remaining dry during a substantial thunderstorm failed and water began to pool on the floor. Vacation was saved when my in-laws generously invited us to stay with them in their lake-side home nearby. It was a pleasant visit.

General Mayhem took advantage of the opportunity to earn his Horsemanship merit badge with the Boy Scout Camp Napowan horsemanship merit badge counselor, who happened to work at Camp LuWiSoMo. He scored 103% on his written test and demonstrated that an urban kid can ride a horse around a couple of barrels. His dad learned that Benadryl will tame the nastiest of horse allergies, preventing his eyes from swelling to the size of water buffalo, and allowing him the privilege of watching his son demonstrating his urban riding skills. Dad took advantage of Benadryl’s chemically induced drowsiness to demonstrate that the most effective method for dealing with said sleepiness is to take a two hour nap. Twice. Ah, vacation!

We spent today unpacking, cleaning the van, doing laundry, and finding the lawn underneath the jungle in our back yard. Tomorrow morning we start our homeschooling year. The Boss and I look forward to this first day of school every year, as it is the day that we get to sing the First Day of School! song. There really is no melody for the First Day of School! song. It is whatever comes to mind at the moment. The key to the song (and there really isn’t one of those, either) is energy, enthusiasm, and drums. Big, loud drums played at the foot of the bed of unsuspecting, sleeping fools children. Pot lids make great cymbals. It really is rewarding when presented with the opportunity of a child’s total and complete trust in their parent’s ability to protect them to violate that trust with a heart-stopping cacophony of mismatched melodies guaranteed to leave them wide-eyed and breathing heavily as they fall from their beds and cower on the floor in a quivering, whimpering puddle of student. We take satisfaction where we can find it.

How’s that for an advertisement for homechooling?

8 comments:

Kellie said...

Glad you're back! Re-enjoyed the older posts last week.

We may have to adopt your first day ritual...sounds fun!!!

CrossView said...

I love the wake-up call idea! We often say that we had kids just to torture them. Nice to know we're not the only ones to realize the benefits!

Glad you had a good time and glad you're back!

After my last couple of weeks, I want to go with CC to Ninevah. Want me to take her off your hands for a bit? We'll come back refreshed after being "mean" for awhile. ;o)

Unknown said...

CV, if you enjoy energetic little girls, you'll enjoy a day with Captain Chaos!

Teacher Mommy said...

Hope your first day is going well and the drums had their desired effect! I don't start back with students until the 8th, so I still have the luxury of vacation time...how's that for an advertisement for public schooling? ;P

Glad you appreciate the award! FYI, "bloody" is considered a dirty word in Britain, but I have no idea why either. I'm sure there's a story there that would bring joy to my English-language-lover's heart. Maybe I should look it up.

In fact, I'm going to go do that right now.

Teacher Mommy said...

Found it! That was easy. Makes sense. Apparently it is derived from "Christ's blood" and was therefore considered sacriligious once upon a time--now just a dirty word over there. If you want to check it out more in depth, go here: http://current.com/items/89624120_bloody-now-a-bad-word.htm but be warned that there are other words used there that we consider "dirty" as well. Not for the easily offended.

Michelle said...

Interesting on "bloody". I know alot of Canadians who also use it. I sometimes resort to it, probably because I grew up so close to the border.

Glad your back adn that you had a great time. Sorry about the rain, that always happens when tent camping-which is why we purchased a camper-well not the only reason. Who wants to live in a tent for four months, yuck!

Enjoy your first day!! look forward to hearing about it!

Kathleen said...

Way to go, General Mayhem!

Hope the cacophonous awakening and the subsequent First Day went well!

Autumn said...

You actually have the nerve to post that you got a 2 hour nap...TWICE! GAH! I may boycott lol

And in regards to the "song", my 2 year old would say "You meanie"