Sugar Spoon Parenting: Mama and her Ducklings Hit the Road...

"Give the child surroundings that allow

for life situations of challenge.

Guide towards challenge.

Give time and space to meet the challenge.

One walks a tightrope, questing.

Shall I guide a little further?

Shall I wait a little longer?

You yourself, adult, are an environment for the child,

a climate to him."

-Ruth Wittig

It was Madelyn who said, "I feel like we should go on a long drive somewhere."

As soon as she proposed it my imagination took off. Yes! That's exactly what we need! A big camping road trip!

Never mind that the longest drive I'd ever done with my kids was 2 hours, and that I didn't even know how to put up a tent.

I was hankering for some good old mama duck time.

You know how it is...I wanted to draw my chicks close...to lead out into the yonder and have those little ducklings line up straight behind me.

Sink or swim, I would be their reference point,

their climate.

That evening I acquired Tom's blessing and by the end of the week we were ready to go.

So I borrowed a tent, sleeping bags, flashlights, hatchet, etc. and we hit the road for 6 days, just me and the 3 kids.

This is our day-by-day adventure...

Monday

We started out soft.....Our first night would be camping out in my brother's backyard in Bashaw.

My confidence was slightly rattled when I pulled up to their house and opened the trunk:

A shower of pots and bowls, food and sleeping bags tumbled out on top of me.

Symbolic of being in over my head?

(My sister-in-law looked out the window and thought, "wow, she sure unpacks fast!")

But it was the perfect place to begin.

Gratefully we filled up on cousin love...

played soccer...

roasted weiners and s'mores,

and took our first stab at setting up a tent.

Which had me second guessing our chances...

Not so sure I can do this alone!

I was still weighing my competence,

and turning around was still an option.

But we zipped up the tent and went to bed.

Suddenly...

Lightning started flashing every few seconds, ominous thunder pounded the sky, and the tent began flapping wildly.

Rain that was definitely not in the forecast spit down and I actually wondered if God was trying to tell me something.

It was like we were in a scary movie reel. Like we were trapped on a sound stage and someone was pressing random sound effect buttons all night long, one by one:

an owl hooting,
a looooong train whistle blaring,
trucks drag-racing,
a random airhorn blowing (why??),
then a cow mooing,
kids playing
and doors slamming well past midnight...

all on a Monday night in Bashaw.

"I don't think I want to go camping," said Bray soberly.

"I miss home!" moaned Maddy.

I barely slept a wink and was more than half way leaning towards cancelling the trip.