The Holidays Begin

The holidays have begun with a bang. I have made cookies and ghost cupcakes for two children to take to school. I can't seem to get out of the kitchen. Even after my day with the girls' cooking was winding down, I had to prepare a meal for 40 to 50 men at church today. I am looking forward to some down time. I have to make desert for a covered dish lunch at church this Sunday as well. At least I have chosen something easy to make.

Last Saturday was the Fall Festival for my oldest daughter and tomorrow is her character book parade at school. Tuesday, along with one of the other moms, I made a class scarecrow to display at my youngest daughter's Fall Festival which was held today. There were pony rides, games, a pumpkin patch, story time, and other things to entertain the children with. It seems to be nonstop. This is why the title of this blog is called "Hanging on to Busy Girls".

To continue on with the "busyness", this Saturday is also our annual "It's Spooky To Be Hungry" food drive. I will be on my feet all day sorting and boxing canned goods and other items. I will be making preparations all day tomorrow in order for sorting day to go smoothly. We will be delivering the food to our local food bank on Sunday after our covered dish lunch at church.

I am already looking ahead to Thanksgiving and our trip home to Alabama to visit family. My husband and I will also be attending my 20th high school reunion while we are there. Then, of course, I should stay geared up for the Christmas holidays. There will be nonstop cooking and parties for the whole month of December.

In addition to all this stuff, my husband and I will be doing weekly workouts (Saturday and Sunday) in preparation for our upcoming GPA (World) bench press competition. I have even lined up a gym to work out at while we are in the Mobile area for Thanksgiving. That will be our last chance to work out before the competition. We have also decided to take pledges for the combined weight that we press. All proceeds from the pledges will go to the Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry where we will be delivering the food collected from the food drive. The bench meet will be the first weekend of December 2010. If you would like to follow our progress, visit www.strongerthanhunger.tumblr.com. You may contact us there to make a pledge. All pledges are tax deductible.

My husband should be home from his men's meeting in a few minutes. I can't wait until he comes home. As tired as we both can be, seeing his smiling face always seems to instill a calm in my otherwise hectic day, week, month, and so on. I love when he walks in the door.

Family Camping

We are all about new adventures. This past weekend, we decided that camping, tent style, would be the adventure to undertake. Since this was our first camping trip as a family, it took a while to get prepared for the trip. After spending a month or so purchasing and gathering all the necessary tools for camping, I had to pack it all up. I tried to organize and categorize everything. I am sure there was way too much planning involved. My thought is you can never be prepared enough when it's going to be 40 degrees at night and there will be a 2 year old in the camp site.

So, Friday, the day before we set out on our adventure, I worked all day to pack the car just right so that everything fit in. I had everything placed just right and there wasn't any room left. All that needed to be packed last minute were the coolers and the fire wood on the back of our Expedition on the "trailer hitch".

Early on Saturday morning, we got up and got dressed. One last good shower before our stay in the wilderness. I didn't wake the girls until the last minute.

As usual, the last minute packing always turns aggravating. Inevitably, Dad gets irritated with the way I have packed things forgetting that he didn't have to do it himself. In his words, "There is no way this is going to work". It always works out. It is amazing how that happens.

We had a good trip up to the "top" of the state to our camp site. We ate breakfast on the way up because we wanted to go ahead and get on the road. The girls had fun looking at all the scenery as we entered and drove through the mountains. The leaves were just beginning to change into the wonderful fall colors. I imagined how beautiful the mountains would be when the fall colors were in full bloom.

As we entered the "first come, first served" campground, we prayed for a good camp site. We found a nice site - sort of - off to itself that was right next to the "bath house". This is very, very, very important when you have a toddler potty training. We made good use of it. The "bath house" was nothing more than a permanent porta-potty. It was a block house with a nonflushable toilet. I had the "bath house" stench in my nose for two days after we left the place. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to have something available although I was prepared to have our own "toilet room/shower".

We set up our tent and a few other items and decided to take a break for a few minutes and walk around. As we walked back up from the river, I heard a "Hey there!"call from a lady at the site next to the river. It turns out the family was another family from our church. Ms. Tori from the nursery was there with her family. We had no idea that we would see anyone we knew in such a remote area. Her family has been camping there for 14 years.

I was thrilled to have access to fresh water there. There was a manual hand pump where we gathered water for cleaning dishes, cooking, and other uses.

We enjoyed the sound of the water running down the rock-filled river on the campground. It minimized some of the other campground noises.

The days were nice with warm temperatures and the nights were cold but we rested well. We snuggled in our sleeping bags and this was a special treat for the girls. They fell asleep quickly because it had been a long day.

It was a nice trip but I seemed to be cooking all the time. Most of the meals we had needed some cooking preparation. We soon learned a few tricks and how to time getting food prepared so that it stayed warm.

We let the girls do a little fishing but the fish were not interested in us. We were watching the trout swimming around and laughing at us. There is nothing more frustrating than dragging a hook over a fish and it just ignores it. We had hoped to have fish for supper one evening. Oh, well, maybe next time.

After returning home, we have decided to look into a camper of some sort. My back really likes the idea because it was not to happy about all the bending and stooping I had to do.

The consensus is that we will do more camping and do a little more exploration and no matter the "home" we are in, be it tent, camper, or our permanent home, I am always happy to be in it with my family and I love it when Daddy walks through the door.