Skip to main content

weekend camping… sort of.

shane has been bugging us about setting up the tent in the backyard since the first nice day of the spring. we finally ran out of excuses this weekend and spent saturday night sleeping outside. we even built a fire in our fire pit so it could feel more like real camping. we neglected to put it away today, which has wound us up with a bonus night in the tent. oh yay. well, the kids are excited about it. dave and i are less so, probably because we’re old fogies and are actually aware of the fact that it gets darn cold at night still. that and how our nifty air mattress has a leak and is somewhat less than cushiony by morning. oh well, the sacrifices we make.

it was, indeed, a beautiful weekend. dave got all productive this weekend and cleared out massive amounts of CRAP from our yard. there’s been this patch of CRAP (for lack of a better word to describe it) on the west side of the house, kind of going down the hill toward the road, since we moved in almost 2 years ago. we inherited it from, i assume, the previous residents, but i suppose it could have been there even longer than that. at any rate, it was all grown over with ivy and weeds, but we could tell that there was a bunch of old wood and other stuff under it. so dave finally decided that it was time to deal with it. i should have taken pictures of the CRAP that was in there because it was really odd to find on a hillside in our yard. there was one of those funky swings made out of a cut-apart tire along with it’s rope, and this other ENORMOUS rope that was wrapped around a piece of rotten wood. this rope was seriously about 3 inches thick. there was a lot of other wood and sticks in there, but most of it was falling apart. as luck would have it, our neighbors were making a trip to the dump today, so we threw that stuff in their truck and now it’s out of our hair (or yard). so now we have a vacant hillside to figure out what to do with. the kids still have a big pack of wildflower seeds that was in their easter basket, so i might have them plant those there.

what else? oh yeah, saturday afternoon brought my miraculous trip to costco. it was miraculous because i spend less than $100 and i didn’t think that was possible! i bought diapers, bread, frozen chicken strips, a jug of honey, batteries and 4 gallons of milk and spent $89.

well, i guess i had better go clean up my house so i can go freeze in my tent. woo hoo! it is SO coming down tomorrow.

Comments

  1. It is so fun for the kids to camp outside...I take my hat off to you and Dave for venturing out with them. Nice One!

    And...Costco shop for under $100..I still want to see that receipt ;D

    Lets hope the nice weather lasts and more happy family days can be spent out in that cozy comfy tent...LOL!
    Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

all comments are moderated. unkind comments will be deleted.

you may like...

boxed in.

so i’m feeling a little bit stifled right now. when i took over responsibility for shane’s education, i knew i was making a big time/lifestyle commitment. i also figured that layla and eventually, micah would be involved in this endeavor. i knew that i was stepping out into a great unknown, having never completely done this sort of thing before. it was an experiment. in general, this experiment has gone well. not entirely as planned, but well, nonetheless. i mean really, when you’re dealing with kids (or other human beings, for that matter) what does go as planned. but at this point, i have to say that homeschooling is NOT my favorite thing. it’s not that i can’t do it. it’s not that shane isn’t learning. it’s not that i’m excessively overwhelmed or that i feel like i’m failing. it’s not any of that. the best thing i can figure out is that i feel ‘boxed in’. i feel like my time and opportunities are so limited for all of us. it’s not just about shane, and with layla and micah so mu...

vacations stink… and why i can’t grocery shop

so tuesday, i managed to dig around in my hat a little more and discovered a rabbit named papa john.  essentially, i shuffled the week again, and had our friday pizza on tuesday.  and, in actuality it’s something that was going to happen anyway because we were so excited about having the new papa john’s open up, but realized that we were not going to be home on friday (date night!!!).  SO, that was my excuse. anyway, yesterday, i finally HAD to go.  i had been wondering if it was really so bad, or if it was just one of those things that i was building up in my head as awful and making it worse and worse every time i procrastinated longer. i had to head to redmond, so i figured i’d go to the bella bottega qfc, rather than my usual stop at safeway.  that was my first mistake.  no, actually, that was my last mistake.  the first was not doing it sooner, the second was taking all 3 kids with me.  if it is possible to make grocery shopping with 3 ki...

progress…

wash lindsey’s sleeping bags and return. set up tent to air and sweep out all the dirt. pick raspberries. check pool, add water. get skimmer for pool. clean up stuff in backyard. clean out cooler and return to mom and dad. clean bathrooms. catch up on laundry. (well, mostly. just have one load left to fold and put away.) fold and put away the pile of sheets that has been in my room for weeks. :) sweep and mop dining room and kitchen floor. plan meals and grocery shop for the week. costco run. put away all camping stuff in a somewhat orderly fashion. vacuum rug in garage. put away doll house in garage and stash toys. clean mom and dad’s on thursday. return pei’s lantern. work on mom’s shawl. get shane’s bike. pick up library books. i put #15 and #16 in blue because they’re done, but i didn’t do them. last night after dinner, i took shane and layla with me to cold stone to get a little birthday tre...

instafriday

it’s friday again!!! and that means: layla, still sick, but enjoying some brady bunch episodes in the recliner, with a cat, and a… tent? no idea. this warms my heart! checking out our family history via project life… circa 2007. LOVE! what I spent my sunday evening tackling: done! thank goodness. micah’s “hooked”! hahaha! a quick visit to the library. dinner: meatloaf, green beans, and very pretty roasted potatoes. I got this awesome little bundle at the store that had yukon golds, red, and purple potatoes. purple potatoes are SO fun! I tossed them with some olive oil, salt and pepper, thyme, oregano, a little rosemary, and a bunch of garlic! so yummy. the meatloaf was good, too! operation: pick out cheesy, cheapo valentines. yes, I live in yuppy-ville. if you call 1-888-dog-waste, you can PAY someone to scoop your dog poop for you.I wonder if shane knows about this… empty peanut butter jar = very happy dog. yes, that’s my 5 year old, excitedly tromping in to preschool with...

snifflesniffle, coughcough, ACHOOOOO!!!

ugh. we’ve been hit. first cold of the fall. micah started it a couple days ago. yesterday my throat felt a little scratchy, and by dinner time, I had to declare myself officially SICK. I passed out on the couch last night while dave was watching the giants game, and when I woke up, I made some announcement about how much my throat hurt, and he said, ‘yeah, me too’. so he’s down. and then shane woke up this morning not feeling well. LAYLA, however, is just fine. believe it or not, my child who picks up cold viruses like a magnet is the only one without a cold right now. I’m completely flabbergasted by this, but I’m certainly not holding my breath. I am really kind of astonished by the fact that she hasn’t gotten sick yet. school started over a month ago and, given her track record, I kind of expected to have to call her in sick the second day. but no. she’s been FINE. hopefully it’ll stay that way… maybe the school environment has kicked her immune system into hyperdrive or s...