Toothpaste in the sink on the mirror, on the wall   A forgotten trail of toys, Littered down the hall   Half of a sandwich, 4 days old Left in a lunchbox,  covered with mold   Backpacks and shoes, dropped by the door Clothes never seeing inside of a drawer   Clean bathroom towels, in short supply Wet bathroom towels were not hung to dry   Fingerprint smudges all over the glass Dirty hands touching it, each time they pass...

“I’m sure there will be many stories that come out of this trip. Even if it rains on us, bears eat our food, and we come back with ticks and a horrible case of poison ivy….it will make a great blog post, right?” 1. It rained on us, a lot. 2. No bears, but raccoons tried to eat our food. 3. We came back with 1 tick…so far. 4. Thankfully, no poison ivy. It was quite an adventure, and the weekend didn’t disappoint as far as stories go. We came back with so many great stories. I think that may be the point of camping after all. So that the next time you camp, you can say, “remember the last time when…….” Here is what we will remember. Going camping takes a lot of preparation. You have to think about every little detail, every thing you will need while you are gone from clothing down to dish soap. The frustrating thing is, you need all of that weather you are going for one night, or one week. We packed more food than we needed, and were on our way. FYI…it’s important to have a few empty bottles with tight fitting lids in the car when traveling a long distance…especially when traveling with boys. I’m just saying. We arrived at Juniper Springs Campground at around 5 pm. It had been clear on the entire hour and thirty minute drive, until the last 20 min when it started raining. Of course it did. When I pulled up to check in, I tried not to read into it when the ranger asked me what other adults where with me. None, I said. You are by yourself with the kids? When I said yes, she gave me a long...

I spoke to a friend today who found out she is about to have her third boy. Welcome to the club, I told her. The boys club that is. I don’t think you are officially in the club with just two boys, even though they can be a handful. It’s that third boy that seems to send a mother over the edge. How will I handle three boys?  I am but one. I have only two hands. Two eyes. There are only two of us. Three boys will….out number us…outsmart us….out….everything us. Trust me. I know. As a mother of two boys, you are up to your eyeballs in trucks, legos, rocks, dirt, frogs, bugs, more dirt. You dream of pink, bows, dolls, dresses, ballet classes. It all seems so…fairytale like. Sure, you have those people who tell you, “Oh, you got the easy ones. Girls are so much harder to raise.”  And you want to say, yeah, but I bet they are quieter…and cleaner. You love your boys…there is no doubt about that, but when you get pregnant for the third time, you convince yourself that this pregnancy feels different. You just know it in your heart of hearts that it is a girl. God wouldn’t give you three boys, would he? God can be so funny sometimes. What’s funny though, is that third boy, was exactly what I needed. He was the sweetest, snuggliest  baby, and to this day is the sweetest, snuggliest boy. I think that tends to happen a lot. I think telling her that, reassured my friend. I also told her about all the other perks of having three boys. I’s a great money saver because you can hand down all their clothes. They can also share toys, rooms...