from 100 to 60...

The chance of precipitation where we're camping this weekend is down to 60%. Why I am sitting here blogging instead of rustling up some extra tarps is beyond me, yet just about right.

Yesterday, we took a trip to the small city with the last of the thrift store bags. These contained previous treasures of mine, and everything in me wanted to rip the bags open and hug those Fisher-Price Little People buildings. I held on to them for years, the girls had these shelves in their closet, and complained that they didn't want toys on them anymore. I had more of an affinity for the toys than they ever did. But less is more, and as I long for a cleaner and less cluttered house, I have to say my goodbyes.

We then went to Walmart to get MORE stuff. A few bins for the camping stuff, fuel for the camp stove, decaf coffee, some heavy cream, bananas.

(the people ahead of us didn't have masks on, tsk tsk, ha. I don't really care. I do think it's wise to keep a bit of distance from people, but they didn't get THAT memo either. The girl came right up to me and handed me a bag of Cheetos, asked me to put it back on the shelf behind me for her. What was I supposed to do, she was like 14 years old, tell her, "Get back! Get away from me!")

Going for just a weekend is a pain in the rear, you need so much stuff, and it seems like once you set it all up, it's time to take it all back down. Add in the rain, and ugh. But, that's just one side of the story. There will be fun! Ben and Ashley and Anya and Elise are going, Emily, Abigail and Mariel are going, Margaret and Adrian and Wulf are going, and Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, Camille, cousin Danielle, and cousin William are going, with Paul and I. There will be s'mores and hot dogs cooked over the fire, there will be volleyball and there will be coffee, in my old-fashioned coffee pot.

The pups are very excited to go camping. They LOVE going bye-bye. Yesterday afternoon, they went to the vet. You park and call, and the tech comes and gets the dog, then the vet calls to discuss treatments, shots, ect. Well Little Miss Sunny-Pants didn't want to go with the nice vet tech. No sir, she wouldn't budgeroo. We had to push while she pulled, then Miss Char had to get out and walk towards the building, finally Sunny got out and wagged her way in, so shyly. She did fine though. Then Suri's turn, she wagged her whole body and went in like a champ.

Last night's dinner: the girls played a little Master Chef, with pizza dough. They made garlic knots, a ham and pineapple pizza, a pepperoni, and a barbecue chicken pizza. I cooked up some bacon and eggs, and a keto peanut butter mug cake. Paul had some leftover chicken and left with the kayak to fish on Duck Lake.

I have so many odds and ends to remember today, my head is overflowing. I do have lists though. Sometimes when I'm packing for something like this, and we NEED so many things (tongs, foil, clothesline, dishwashing liquid, vitamins, hairbrush, extra socks, dog treats, a tie out rope for pups, their dishes, water jug, pancake syrup, rain jackets...), I think of Little House in the Big Woods, when they left their entire life in the woods behind to find a new place to live, and all their possessions fit in that wagon, and there's no mention of it bottoming out.

Interesting occurrence: I am an optimistic person by nature. I don't generally get weighed down by the cares of life, and I try to see the other side of every story. News stories tend to fear monger, and I take them with a grain of salt. But lately, I think I've reached the saturation point of bad, depressing news. This virus, it keeps on going. The economy, the violence and the blaming and the victim mentality and the total trashing of monuments and statues has hit me, hurt me, taken my optimism down a few notches. But I'm super thankful that I have a hope, a heavenly promise, and that I won't be absolutely layed out by all of this, but FEELING it so much has been good for me, because I feel like I have much more mercy on people, and I wish I could just hug and comfort people and tell them to look up, and cast their cares on Him, because His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

Does that make sense?

Here's the thing: being tempted and giving in to temptation are two different things. We are not animals, and we do NOT have to give in. God gives grace to the humble, and when we ask for help, He will give it. Being tempted and seeing our tendencies and our weaknesses is such a good thing, keeps us humble, and reminds us that we are no better than anyone else! If every single person on this earth focused on their own sin, and stopped pointing the finger, the whole world would be peaceful, instantly.

Anyway, today is going to be a busy one, I am making a pasta salad to bring with us. I just put it into a few gallon sized baggies, we're super fancy. I leave so much for the last minute, we'll be scurrying around today for sure! But what fun! I'm glad the NY state parks are opened up for camping, and now we can legally gather in groups of 25, so we won't be harassed if we gather in one campsite for a fire...(we have three sites).

So have a wonderful weekend!