Okay, that title is an oxymoron I know. It should probably read when men do stuff. *giggle* But I can’t help myself, especially after the fantastic shares and stories my husband had on his return camping trip with the boy.

The visuals in my head are swimming with material for a post. First you have to picture the right framework: it wasn’t just my husband taking my son for an overnight camp out, it was a group of dads taking out their sons for an overnight camp out. My husband doesn’t camp. His idea of camping has the word Marriott in the mere definition. We own minimal camp gear and what we do own has seen little to no action and it’s likely that (as with the few power tools we own) I am the only one who has a frame of reference for how to use said gear.

You know you’re off to a good start when the location for the event is determined hours before, thus allowing ample time for people to plan accordingly. While men complain about women’s obsessions with needing to know details and planning I never hear them complain when they’re enjoying the spoils.

I have to diverge here to share a few fundamentals of differences between men and women. What better way to do that than by pictures. So for kicks and giggles I’ll post a few.

I have to point out that this is more than the obvious visual differences. The woman will have an entirely separate list of items, assignments and planning needs. It is not the all in one shot man’s approach.

Here we have the element of food and serving a group. The left is the result of a woman’s planning the right the side of the man’s.

My husband reports the dinner part of the camp as being a success. Of course it’s hard to go wrong with a Subway sandwich as opposed to the typical raw/burnt tinfoil dinner. The breakfast sounded pretty comical to me. A few dozen dough nuts and breakfast burritos. My husband took a mountain of tortillas and I’m sure other food assignments made their way around. He spoke of one who talked about the fantastic deal on 400 pieces of bacon (hence the picture of bacon above). Unfortunately, cooking preparations didn’t begin until everyone was ready to eat. Surprisingly the boys grew restless while the cooks tried to speed fry 400 slices of bacon on the highest camp stove setting possible. We’re back to the raw/burnt style. My husband stuck with a half a dough nut. You can imagine how well the waiting was going with a bunch of boys running the spectrum of ages from 4-15 years old. One father, on taking note of the dilemma, came up with a short term solution which my husband described as a stroke of brilliance. He suddenly asked who wanted to go see a dead skunk he’d discovered on a morning hike. This resulted in a much needed 15 minute window of time for the frantic cooks.

The entertainment sounds interesting. Apparently there was an outdoor movie set up which is quite ironic to me given the stress of the “roughing it” memos prior to the event. And of course the water balloon and egg launch from a sling shot sending the ammunition into the general wilderness area. The point of course being to see how far you can launch stuff, which we all know is critical. The young boys entertained themselves seeing what would burn in the fire through experimentation of course. I think a shoe or two may have been lost but at least the tents and bedding were spared. I won’t even go to the area of the ceremonial fire extinguishing because I’m a woman and not supposed to know about those things. And I’ll spare the other moms I know the details of hearing how many father’s came around asking if anyone had seen their son. All in all a good man outing.

Of course the only thing that really matters is that our son had a fantastic time and he and dad both made it home safe and sound. When I went to the car to carry his sleeping body into the house he roused just long enough to start excitedly telling me about the rocket they made that shot into the air before closing his eyes again. Mission accomplished. Thanks dad.

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Well, we found out that giving up the TV wasn’t hard at all. The idea of giving it up was much harder than the application. It’s been two weeks now and although we knew it before we really get now how much the kids just love being with you and doing whatever you will do with them. Some new time fillers have included, playing games, reading, looking at maps, planting a garden and flowers, playing catch & Frisbee, arts and crafts, watching the kids play outside and even doing household chores together, which believe it or not ended up being a bit hit! Mom and dad have recently been inspired to come up with some other themes and topics that can involve learning and playing together with the kids and we’re excited about that. More on that later, but today I’ll share how sore I am.

Saturday we picked up bikes for mom and dad. We’ve talked about it for a while now but somehow never got around to getting it done. So Friday we headed to the bike shop to pick some out and Saturday morning we picked them up.

What’s crazy is that it doesn’t feel like I was on the bike for very long the first day. It was just fun to ride around the neighborhood with the kids. When we came in late morning to cool off a little, Taylor sat by his dad on the stairs and said, “I love riding my bike with my parents.” It felt good to know we’d just created a great memory for him.

I’m more aware of good memories after my daughter’s parent teacher conference on Friday. Her teacher told me how happy she is and how much she loves her life and her family. She said, “She already has so many wonderful memories and experiences and she’s only 9.” (Of course, if Cid had been there she’d readily corrected her that she’s ten now and that’s a double digit number so technically she’s mostly a teen already. *snicker*) It warmed my heart to hear her teacher tell me how much of me she sees reflected in her, how she knows the difference between right and wrong and she tries hard to make the right choices every day. I walked away feeling great and hearing the words of her loving her life and family and having so many wonderful memories etched in my heart.

We went out to ride again when Cidnie got home from a birthday party and quickly found most of the neighborhood kids in tow with us. Again, it didn’t feel like we were out that long and it was just fun to be riding with the kids. But apparently it was longer than I thought because the next day we went for a late afternoon stroll with the kids and EVERYTHING talked to me…my backside let me know right where the seat had been, my legs informed me of how much I’d used them the previous day and my lower back just plain complained! But the smile on the faces of my kids was worth every bit of it. I’m sure that I’ll look back and find other benefits from it as well.

It really is amazing what better things you can do with your time when you make the decision to just do it. Are we missing TV? Not one bit. Bring on the sore muscles, smiling faces and fantastic family memories.

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