After staying safe and healthy at home for five months, I decided to plan a change of scenery for our family. Our summer flights were cancelled, so I had the idea to squeeze our family of four into a twenty four foot camper and hit the road for nine days. We needed a change of pace. We needed to get out of our house. We needed space?
Whoopsie. That detail may have been lost on me.
Anyway, our camping trip was delightful. Of course, there were meltdowns and frustrations, but there was also adventure and rest. The scenery, the mountain air, and being unplugged were all incredibly refreshing. It made me incredibly happy to watch my children explore and entertain themselves with every rock, stick, fallen tree and pine cone they could find. I sat in a hammock and read a book. I paddled out into the middle of a turquoise blue lake. I watched my husband, in all his glory, build fire after fire, watching and tending to its every need. I held on tight as my husband drove an over-sized vehicle on the side of steep mountain ravines and gasped at the wide open valley below. We didn’t think about school once and we forgot the coronavirus existed. It was glorious.
Now, we are home and life feels mundane and exasperating again. I am tripping over dirty socks and shoes dropped immediately outside the shoe closet. There are no streams to throw rocks in and no fallen trees to balance upon. Our fast internet connection and phones cause distractions and replace a hammock and a book. School is just around the corner and the anxiety of Covid–19 is obvious. My children are fighting more now than before we left for our trip.
I am annoyed, frustrated and inpatient.
My children are bored, hot, and lost.
My husband is stressed, distant, and busy.
So, I asked and answered the following two questions...
How can I bring the peace of camping into our daily lives?
Walk away from the daily messes to focus on the daily joys.
Plan time in my day for rest and restoration.
Simplify meals and use less dishes.
Skip a bath.
Eat more s’mores.
What in my daily life am I grateful for that I may not have had while camping?
A spacious home with a bedroom for each person to work out meltdowns in private.
Internet to keep connected with family and to quickly find a location on a map.
Sanitized flushing toilets that don't require a hike to access.
Hot shower and running water.
Vegetables at every meal
A coffee pot
Although our camping adventure is behind us, I am grateful for our memories and for our
Costco sized stash of s’mores ingredients left in our pantry.
