We went camping this last weekend with a few of our friends and I have had some time to reflect on everything. Some of it was good, others was not so good! I learned a few things!
1. I must always have some Benadryl on hand for Micah. I had some in my camper, but when we went to my parents' for the evening, we sat outside and his eyes got swollen and red! Matt left to go get some Benadryl for him, but by the time he got back, Micah looked better. I also need to know how much to give him! The bottle he brought back was for 6-11 year olds and distinctly said not to give to kids under 2! Well, Micah is under 2. I might call his allergist tomorrow and see what I can give him when we are out camping or even outside all day. I would love to know what he is allergic to!
2. As for camping, I cannot sit around all day and do nothing. We went camping with two other families and they loved just sitting at the campsite all day, which is totally FINE, but it's just not for me. I need to get up once in awhile and go for a walk and go explore. I cannot sit in one place or talk to the same people for an extended period of time. I often found myself sneaking off into my camper for some "me" time. I also would take Micah all by myself to the playground just to "do something." I love going for walks, so I did some of that too. Luckily, we had quite a bit to do this weekend, so I didn't feel like I had to sit there all day with everybody.
3. Which should take priority? Small group or family? I am going to vent a little bit here. We are part of a small group through our church, which meets on Sunday nights. (This is who we were camping with this last weekend) Often we have family events on Sunday nights. Matt and I are always torn on where we should put our priority. Our church wants you to make a commitment to a small group (and even make you sign a commitment form), but I feel that family should come before small group. (Wouldn't you too??). We are committed to small group, but when family events come up, we think those should take priority.
We had a small group social planned for Saturday night, but then earlier in the week, my mom let me know we were going to get together on Saturday night for Mother's Day. I knew what I had to do- family first! But honestly, not every one in our small group thinks that family should come first. They have the thought that small group is their "family" (they don't get along with their real family) and that group needs to be a priority. They have even made comments to us in the past about how we skip small group for family events! I was honestly hesitant to tell our leaders that we were not going to be there!! I told them about lunch time on Saturday and I could tell they weren't happy. That night before we left, they even asked us in Matt or any of the kids were going to stay behind at the campsite. NOPE! Family first!
4. Speaking of small group, I am glad we left and did not stay for the social. This was a church social event, but when we got back, the six adults were playing a very adult game that was very inappropriate for a church sponsored event!!! Matt and I could not believe what was going on! This game was full of cuss words and just very bad. We couldn't believe that the leaders of our small group were participating in this game. (Yes, I know we are all sinners and all do bad things, but this was doing something sinful very willingly!!) Matt was out by where they were playing the game for awhile (not participating) and could hardly believe his ears. He had never heard these people talk like this before! He kept thinking of the Bible verse that says we are supposed to keep our thoughts clean and pure. Not many pure thoughts going on around that table!! Matt said he actually felt uncomfortable sitting there listening to it all, but he didn't quite know how to get up and leave without being rude. I would have just got up and left!!
5. After we got back, Megan ran off to be with her friends. There were five other middle school girls there and obviously they had been hanging out all night. I was in the camper putting Micah to bed when Megan burst through the door just crying her little heart out!! She couldn't tell me fast enough what had happened! They were in another camper and they were all playing a game very nicely together. Then some of the girls decided to show them some dance moves from dance team (which she said were inappropriate) and then they all went into a camper bedroom and shut the door on her. She could then hear them talking about HER behind the closed door!! She ended up leaving the camper because she was just standing there all by herself! One of them involved in this was her BEST FREIND!! It didn't help that she was extremely tired, but I just reassured her that she did the right thing! She left the situation. I told her whatever they were talking about was something that she didn't need to be a part of anyway! I then told her that this is what middle school is like! But she doesn't deal with this on a daily basis, so it kind of shocked her.
It took us awhile to calm her down and she eventually got a good night's sleep. She saw her friend the next day and they just picked up like nothing happened, which is good, but if she only knew how mad Megan was the night before!!
6. After these two events, I was ready to go home on Sunday. Actually I was ready to go home at 7:30 am! I just wanted to leave because of all this, but Matt said we can't run away from our problems. He is right. We stayed, but I didn't talk to many of our friends Sunday morning. I was still kind of shocked at how the leaders of our small group were acting the night before. These are ones who we are supposed to look up to and be encouraged by in times of need and who should be models of the Christian faith. I just needed time to figure all my thoughts out. (Again, none of us are perfect and we all sin.) We ended up going home about 2.
Next time we are going camping by ourselves!!!
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