TUESDAY, JULY 18 (Day 3)

TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2017

Day 3

 

It has been a very productive, coordinated, fun, exciting, and totally DRAINING day. I had given Grampy a heads up and told him that if we made it through until Wednesday morning we would be coasting the rest of the week. I knew he actually didn’t have a clue what I exactly meant by that, but he found out quickly. Although yesterday was Water Day and a couple of hours were spent at the pool and at the splash pad, that still did not take into account there were 12 hours left in the day to play either water games or some inside games.

 

On top of yesterday, today was Game Day. I will admit that every single year, Game Day is the hardest day for me. It wears me out quickly. It is a fast paced day with one game after another, and the kids are in high gear every minute. The rest of the week the activities are varied and not packed tightly one on top of the other. I guess after today I sort of expected Grampy to wrap his loving arms around me and tell me what an amazing Nana I am. I thought he would tell me how impressed he was and how fun Nana Camp is. LOL – Every time we had a chance to stop and glance at each other today he was usually shaking his head about something or muttering something or the other. Usually Grampy heads off to work each morning with a huge smile on his face and we do not see him again until after work. (I totally understand that smile.) Therefore, this is the first year he has had a true reality check of the day-to-day activities that take place while he usually is at work.

 

It is about 11 p.m. now and the kids are still full force in the den. Grampy just came in the bedroom and sat down in his recliner. I just stopped typing and looked over at him. I am relieved. A huge smile broke out on his face. He told me that the kids are growing up fast and that he thinks they are not near as loud as they have been in some past camps. I told him I was a tad worried about him today. I asked him if this was all a bit too much for him. He assured me he is fine, just tired. As we are sitting here talking the kids have all just burst out laughing so loud in the den it is crazy. Grampy and I both burst out laughing ourselves and agreed that it’s worth it to hear that laughter. These are times they won’t soon forget. This camp is about them all being together and being with us. We could take one at a time and probably spend more quality time with each of them, but doing that is easier said than done.

 

I started their day by encouraging the finicky eaters to try my French toast. Some tried it and some didn’t.  Abbie and Noah told me several times that they loved it.  After I finished cleaning up all the dishes and had the kitchen back in order Noah came up to me and told me he would love more of that wonderful French toast. He convinced me he actually did like it.

 

After breakfast we changed a bit of the schedule around and left to go clean the church building. I feel taking them to help clean the building is a great teaching experience for them. Carter said he couldn’t believe we had been cleaning the building for right at 18 years. Well I can believe it. I have lived it. We started when Paige, Brooke, and Ben were so young. We divided up the chores and they all had a specific job to do. We had to go back and redo a few things behind them, but that is a learning part of growing up. Some today thought it was fun and I am sure some others probably thought they didn’t come to Nana Camp to work. LOL – We will be going back once again after mid-week service. They were a big help to us cleaning the building.

 

 
 

 

 I hope they come to camp for lots of reasons. Every time we can get a chance to teach them something good we do it. They need a respect for every job that any person does. They need to know that helping Grampy and I clean the building is something they should do because they love us, and not because we tell them to do it. We think they are the greatest kids ever, but we want them to be kids that are respectful of others and kids that live their life to glorify God.

 

Lunch was chips and sandwiches. We had bought the very small bottles of water for the refrigerator. I found out quickly that when we have the regular size water bottles they leave them a third or half full and we end up being far too wasteful.  Grampy told me today that they had already gone through over 150 of the bottles. It seems a little crazy to me, but they drink the bottled water much more than drinking it from the refrigerator or from the faucet. They all need to drink more and this is one way I have found to accomplish that. It is definitely a little more money, but worth it to me just for them to consume more water.

 

 

 

Dinner was chicken nuggets from Chick Fila, macaroni, corn on the cob, blueberries, and salad. Grampy went and picked up 90 nuggets from Chick Fila. They were all consumed within about ten minutes. It is rare to find one thing that all of them like, but chicken nuggets falls right into that category.

 

We played some very fun games today. I tried to find new ones that we had not played before. We played word switch, marshmallow drop, guess who, cotton ball caper, pool noodle toss, Oreo lick, chocolate stacks, BeanBoozled, toss across, and more. I think I had as much fun as the kids did.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I remember a couple of years ago that Paige and Brooke had noticed from the pictures I sent them of Nana Camp that their kids were wearing the same clothes over and over almost everyday. When they asked me if I realized that my response was, “Read my lips. No, I didn’t notice and no I don’t care, and does it really matter as long as their clothes were clean everyday?” I do not realize what they have on. I have other things going on in my mind, although that is something I need to be mindful of.

 

I let the laundry pile up on me from yesterday. I usually keep up with it, but after 9 beach towels, and about 9 others towels from Water Day and 9 other towels from baths, my laundry stack was a little absurd. I don’t think the kids look forward to “laundry call” and the reason probably is because clothes are ALWAYS left that nobody claims. They are called back at least twice to go through clothes again. Finally, I USUALLY find the owner of the clothing. 

 

While I am typing, (it is now 11:45 p.m. and things have toned down tremendously in the den) Grampy is sitting here laughing his head off harder than any of the kids have been doing. He is listening online to a video of the Comedy Barn again. Well if that gives him pleasure I will go purchase him as many of those as he would like.

 

 

Grampy and I have made it through the two most active days. We have made it through spills, commode overload and being stopped up at least three times, wet floors in the sunroom, den, and hallways, extremely loud squealing, sticky floors where we still haven’t figured out the substance, and completely drenched bathroom mats. (I did have a talk about drying off in the shower or in the tub at least some before stepping out.) We have made it just great. Are we tired? (Does it rain?) Of course we are tired? Are the kids tired? I think they are worn out every night. They play hard all day. We do try to have some soft time everyday. My definition of soft is time to just sit and not do anything. In my opinion we do not have as much of that as we need to. Perhaps tomorrow there will be more time to just relax, and time to rest. Life passes us by too quickly. We need to live everyday as though it is the last, because it certainly could be. I thank the Lord for this day.