Martin Family Adventure

I'm changing my name to a 4-letter word

As much as I love being home on the weekends, I'm not-so-secretly wishing that we were away on one of our Meadowbrook weekends. Things tend to be more mellow and calm when we're away from everything. Life seems simple when we're camping. When we're at Meadowbrook, that also means that I'm teaching a class with adults so I can have adult conversations. 

I must be getting older because I long for peaceful moments. As I told my therapist, I'm used to having almost 10 months out of the year to myself during the day so the summer is always overwhelming to my senses. I used to feel selfish and bad about wanting those days back, but I don't anymore. Going through therapy has taught me that my reality is MY reality and mine alone. We all handle things differently and I'm okay with how I handle it. If other people don't like it, it's their issue and not mine. 

When I was in my early teens, my parents got our family wrapped up in a fringe Christian cult (look up "Christian patriarchy" on google and you'll discover the ridiculousness of it all). It was constantly pounded into women that if you didn't homeschool your kids, you don't love them. If you're a mom and you work outside the home, you don't love your kids. If you're a mom and you want to be by yourself for some moments of peace and recharging your energy, then you don't love your kids. If you're a mom and can't wait for your kids to be back in school, first off, you don't love your kids because you send them to school and secondly, you don't love them because you WANT them to be back in school. And by the way, these moms are considered selfish, too. 

Ya know what? I want all of those things and I still love my kids. Immensely. More than the people who claim that I don't love them will ever know. And believe me, I'm a better mom to my kids because they go to school, because I work (though I work from home because I like being my own boss), because I like peace and quiet to myself, because I like to recharge myself so I'm not a zombie and can actually show my kids love, because I'm counting down the days till my kids are back in school (we all thrive on the structure of the school year). 

If that makes me selfish, then so be it. But let me tell you something. If it weren't for all of those things, I wouldn't be emotionally, physically and mentally available to my kids. It's because I love my kids that I do all of those things and I'm able to show that love to them because of it and they know that I love them. 

So, I must be getting old. Noise bothers me more than it used to, I crave peace, the hot weather isn't my favorite thing in the whole world (I MUST be getting old because I used to hate winter and now I'm longer for cooler weather in the middle of my favorite season of the year), and people getting too close to my invisible "3-foot personal space bubble" gives me a touch of anxiety.

Constantly being asked to do things, look for things, having a whistle blown in my ear, listening to the dogs with their squeaky toys, seeing my son trying to cut an acidophilus pill he needed to take with a bread knife, hearing my daughter telling her brother to "shut up" for the zillionth time......all while hearing, "MOM!" I thought of changing my name to a 4-letter word. Something like "F*ck you." This would mean that my kids would not be able to call to me any more since that kind of language is supposedly unacceptable in our house. I say "supposedly" because my son (12 years old and autistic and who didn't take his Concerta this morning) feels this is completely appropriate and acceptable language. I realized that changing my name to a 4-letter word wouldn't work because Zach would still be calling for me. 

This is my reality. Want to challenge it? I'll trade houses with you for a week, but I guarantee that after one hour, you'll be begging for your old life back and you just might have a little more respect for how I show my kids love. 

And ya know what? I wouldn't change it for anything.

Summer weekend adventures at Meadowbrook

During the summer, I teach a handful of weekend classes at the Fletcher Farm School for the Arts & Crafts. We've been going down as a family since 2002. In 2003, we started camping out in the summer time, so for the past 8 years, my kids have looked forward to the summers down there. It's a special time for them. They get to spend the whole weekend with David and have uninterrupted time with him. There's no yard work or house work to distract him. It's just a lazy summer weekend when David and the kids can play in the fields, the river and creeks, the lake down the road and its waterfall. He takes the kids to the park and plays tennis with Girly. Zach spends his time catching crickets and katydids. The three of them come to the art school at noon time and we share a lunch under the trees near the little pond at the top of the hill.

Even though I teach on those weekends, they feel like lazy summer weekends. There's nothing to distract me when I come back to the camp site at the end of the day. No computer, no cable. There's not even electricity or running water where we camp (unless you consider the nearby creeks "running water"). There's a pit toilet nearby, but that's as fancy as it gets. It's almost-primitive camping at its best. We love that there's no one else near us. The dogs can run around and so can the kids, without worrying about bothering anyone else. We get the tent set up, David gets a fire going and we cook over the open fire. The s'mores ingredients come out after dinner and the kids look through the hedgerow to find the perfect stick for their marshmallows. Good times, for sure. 

A few weeks ago, the kids noticed that there were berries growing in the hedge row. Lots and lots of wild raspberries. 

The kids each grabbed a bowl and started picking. Soon enough, Zach left his bowl and ate everything he picked. Girly ate some while she picked but she wanted to share some with David. Zach isn't so fond of sharing food. 

This is what I get when I ask for a picture of the boy-child. He gets it from his father. I get the same kind of response from David. I joke that it's the tainted Amish blood that runs in his family. My poor kids got the shallow end of the gene pool from both of us. Poor things. 

Girly has taken over the job of making the "big bed" in our tent. Over all these years, she's watched me do it long enough that she knows exactly how to set it up. We're camping purists and don't bring an air mattress. Instead, we bring about every blanket, comforter and quilt we own and make our own mattress. David and I sleep in the middle and the kids are on either side of us. Add in the 3 dogs and we're quite cozy for the night. This tent has served us well over the past 10 years. I think it still has a few more years left in it, but the kids are anxious to have tents of their own soon. David and I are anxious for that, too. *wink*

I love waking up to this sunny scenery from our tent door in the morning. Meadowbrook holds a special place in our heart. Even the woman that owns the property knows that particular spot is the "Martin's spot." I let her know a week ahead that we're on our way and she makes sure that there's a little sign tacked to the picnic table that says, "Reserved for the Martins." It makes my heart smile everytime I see that sign when we arrive. 

Snowmobile Adventure

After a quick January thaw, we got some snow Friday night and Saturday morning. We had a little bit yesterday, as well, but not as much as we would have liked. We've had some sick people in the house and we've been bumming around all weekend, but after a while, it gets old to just sit around recouping, so we thought it would be fun to get out for some fresh air and a little bit of activity. We weren't out long, but it was a lot of fun and good for the soul. 

David took the snowmobile out in the afternoon and we were all counting down the minutes until we went out. The kids were really excited because they knew I was going to try out the sled that David ties to the back of the snowmobile. I find it so adorable that the kids love to see David and I do things that they love to do.  They get more excited about us doing the fun things they love than they do about themselves doing those same things (I hope that made as much sense to you as it did in my head). 

I think I had the most fun. After all, I'm the one that made the most noise!! Okay, that's only because as I was being pulled backward on the sled, I was getting snow in my pants!

Girly loves to go fast. She's just like her dad. Always looking for the next big thrill. While I like to be adventurous, I tend to go overboard with making sure everyone else is safe, too. Yes, that's me you hear on the video below telling Zach over and over to make sure that he stays out of the way.