Friday, August 25, 2017

7 Quick Takes about Hardcore Camping, Perfectionism in the Attic, and a Really Twisted Thing to Sell at the Grocery Store

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


We made it back alive from our last camping trip of the season. I thought I'd been on disastrous camping trips before, but never ones where we had to flee in terror in the middle of the night.

Yes, you heard me.

We knew to expect rain on our last night, but we didn't anticipate the sheer volume of it, pummeling the tent for hours and hours.

And then there was thunder. It didn't sound very close, but it was still scary enough for us to wake up the kids and run to the car at 2 AM. What to do next? It was a long drive to the nearest motel and we were supposed to leave in the morning, anyway.

So when the thunder stopped, Phillip and my friend's husband grabbed our filthy, waterlogged camping gear, stuffed it in our cars, and we peeled out of there at 3:53 in the morning.

My phone was lost in the mad dash to the car. The rain shelter we'd set up had collapsed under the weight of all the rain and a bunch of our stuff was soaked and destroyed. And our daughter got poison ivy on her face.

It wasn't the best trip.

I did at least find my phone in the car the next morning, though, where I guess it fell out of my pocket. So that's something!

2


The 3-year-old was so confused after our middle-of-the-night departure from camping. His internal clock was all messed up.

When he woke up from his afternoon nap that first day home, he thought it was morning. He requested breakfast and flipped out when we tried to explain it was actually late afternoon.

In the end we gave up trying to reason with him and just served him breakfast, which only made him more bewildered and upset when it got dark just a few hours later.

3


Camping wasn't a disaster the entire time, though. Things started out well.

Immediately on arrival, the kids looked for a way to make the site welcoming and homey:

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
Need a welcome mat but you're in the woods? Charcoal, meet rock.

We went with some friends who have 5 kids, each one the exact same age and gender as our oldest 5. Camping with 15 people is so much fun, but it must've looked pretty strange to anyone driving past.

Between all three parked cars, one big tent, four small tents, and a movie theater's worth of camping chairs, our campsite was a regular shantytown.

4


I forgot to get toilet paper at the store, so I was running back and asked Phillip if he wanted me to get anything for him. He asked for kefir, a hipster yogurt drink (more on his food snobbery here.)

I was smiling to myself just thinking about what kind of weird party the cashier would think I was having when I showed up at the register with TP and kefir, but Phillip ended up stopping at the store on his way home from work and buying the kefir himself.

Oh, well, there's always next week to play "stump the cashier."

5


Last week we had to move everything out of the attic so we could insulate it, and this week we've slowly been putting it back. But we're trying to do it in a more organized fashion this time, starting with all the out-of-season kids' clothes we're storing up there.

My favorite thing so far has been installing a coat rack at the end for all the coats and snowpants (only half are pictured here because at the time we couldn't find the box with the other half).

It looks like a department store. I guess it pretty much is. (Come on down! We have all sizes and genders!)

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}
This is so beautiful. Sometimes I want to go up there just to stare at it.

This is the finish product, though. The first time Phillip put up the coat rack, he didn't use a level and it was slightly crooked, which drove me crazy. Even though, as he pointed out, it was in the attic and it didn't matter and no one would ever, ever see it.

Saying that he didn't want to redo the whole thing is an understatement.

A helpful tip, ladies: I've learned that when making a crazy request of your husband, prefacing it with "just humor me" is effective.

Anyway, Phillip humored me, and now the coat rack is perfectly straight. It's gorgeous, right?

6


We ran out of baking powder, so the next time I was at the grocery store I made sure to run by the baking aisle and throw some in my cart.

I didn't even notice until Phillip saw it in the cupboard at home and said, "You know that's baking soda, right?"

WHAT KIND OF EVIL PERSON PUTS BAKING SODA IN A CANISTER?

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}

Everyone knows that baking soda belongs in a yellow box. Everyone!

You can't just randomly start messing with societal constants like that. If people can't believe that baking soda goes in a box and baking powder goes in a can, what can they believe in? This is how empires fall.

7


As I type this, it occurs to me that I've spent most of the week either at the grocery store or CVS, but I guess that's the kind of wild life you say "yes" to when you decide to have a bunch of kids.

And all I can say is: thank goodness for the toy cars at CVS.

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?  {posted @ Unremarkable Files}

My 3-year-old actually likes waiting in line for our prescriptions because he gets to play with all of these.

Scratch that, I don't even think he knows they have lines or prescriptions at CVS. To him, CVS is just a fun place I take him every couple of days to play with cars. Whatever I'm doing there in the meantime is completely irrelevant.

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12 comments:

Lyndsay said...

Ok. That baking soda canister is messed up! We should write a letter!
So sorry about your camping trip. :( Glad you found your phone!

Ann-Marie Ulczynski said...

What the heck with the baking soda? That's just wrong! Sorry about your camping trip. Finding the humor in it helps though. I keep telling myself that because we are prepping for a hurricane.

Jenny said...

3 year olds are something else. Lol the threenager has been happening at our house for the last several months and I'm hoping that we are seeing an end to it!

Michelle said...

Baking soda in a can is just WRONG. And thank you so much for reminding me why I never go camping.

The Lady Okie said...

#2 is cracking me up! We went camping all the time growing up, so I have lots of fond memories! One time we unknowingly set our tent on top of a giant ant hill and all woke up to ants EVERYWHERE. That was fun.

Rachel said...

We got flooded out of our tent while camping once and ended up in the car for the rest of the night. I'm not a huge fan of camping...perhaps overdosed on it growing up...

Jenny Evans said...

Did you make it through?

Jenny Evans said...

My pleasure. It seems that these are the only kind of camping trips we have now. It all went so smoothly before!

Jenny Evans said...

That might be what my kids say when they grow up.

Jenny Evans said...

Maybe there's a reason we don't regularly sleep outside...

PurpleSlob said...

Baking soda in a CAN???? The sky is falling!! We need to start a letter writing campaign immediately! Mobilize ALL the Moms!! Call our Senators!!
I'm not losing America because the Davis company is twisted!!

Terra Heck said...

Glad the camping adventure wasn't a total bust! I love to tent camp but have had several experiences like yours where it rains like crazy and stuff gets ruined. I like the look of the coat rack. Very pretty.