Try, Try Again

So lately I've been caught up thinking about my own parenting skills. I know that we're our own toughest critic but seriously, sometimes I really do need a little criticism. I know I'm not expected to be Mother Theresa or anything and I can honestly say I don't seem to be as reckless a "mother" as Britney Spears but an occasional personal reflection can't hurt.

Sometimes I fool myself into thinking I'm a rather patient person and life's little trials are like water off a duck's back to me. Then Henry takes his sandals off (after I've specifically asked him not to) when we're literally 10 seconds away from the store and I go just short of berserk! Seriously, how hard is it to just take two seconds and put his sandals back on? Calm down!

Another big one for me, as a mother, is the ongoing debate of, "Am I selfish?" Just last week for example, I was exhausted from the moment I woke up one day and looked so forward to taking a nap when the kids went down. Of course Ruby napped early and wrecked my plans, so I put Henry down for his nap, planted Ruby next to me on my bed to watch Baby Einsteins and I slowly drifted off to sleep. I awoke 10 (???) minutes later to find Ruby asleep face down on the bed with her little butt straight up in the air. Poor thing -- she was tired after all! The worst part is, I tried to move her to be more comfortable and saw that she had little circle marks all over her face from falling asleep on the remote control! Now if that doesn't make you feel like a selfish, neglectful parent, I don't know what does!

I'd like to think that I am able to overcome certain challenges and that I'm only becoming better and better as life goes on but at this rate, I might need to have 89 children so I can finally raise one right! I'm so relieved that the Lord is more patient and unselfish with me than I am with my own kids because I would certainly not have the patience to try and teach someone over and over and OVER again how to do things right. So I guess all I can do is try, try again -- hopefully one day it will come out sort of right.

Weekend Fun

This weekend we decided to test out Ruby's girl scout skills -- we went camping! We love being surrounded by mountains again. We were talking about how lucky we are to live in a place like this with close canyons/mountains to enjoy. We are definitely Mountain (Wo)men up here. So on Friday we drove up Hyalite canyon and set up our tents in a cute little campground with a natural spring that actually came up out of the ground right next to our firepit! Henry's favorite part of this trip however, was learning how to go to the bathroom in the great outdoors. I have to say, he got too comfortable too fast at his newfound freedom.

Some friends in the ward came up to make s'mores over the fire but like pretty much all of the west, there's a serious fire restriction in place so we weren't able to make them. There went my dessert! Does anybody else feel panicked when food is not readily available when you "need" it? I seriously do. I was too embarrassed to ask for a few sticks of the Hershey bar though so unfortunately I went without dessert that night. What a tragedy of epic proportions -- whatever would my love handles do?

Anyway, we don't have a 4-man tent so we had to divide ranks -- Scott took Henry in one tent and of course my little partner was my automatic roommie in the other. As I was laying in our tent getting Ruby to sleep I could hear Scott in their tent helping Henry get ready for bed and I hear him say, "Okay, get in your sleeping bag .... No, FEET first." After finally getting Henry situated in his sleeping bag so he wouldn't suffocate with his head down in the bottom, Scott propped himself up on his elbow and started reading his book. Oh the naivete, thinking he could read and Henry would just drift peacefully off to sleep! Scott said Henry took one look at him and then propped himself up on his own little elbow and started looking at the book. Scott said, "Oh, you think you're going to read?" "Uh huh." "Oh okay, what is the book talking about?" And Henry's reply is, "Um .... TREES!" A boy truly after his father's heart.

So the night was as good as it could have been with two little ones. The next morning after a hearty breakfast of oatmeal (that Scott packed) and Hostess Donuts (that I bought at the gas station on our way out of town -- come on, like oatmeal is going to hold me over), we took down our little camp and headed farther up the canyon for a little hike up to some waterfalls. As I said, Henry got a little too comfortable with relieving himself outside because at one point he just dropped "trou" (is that supposed to be short for trousers?) in the middle of the path. As people were coming around the corner, we quickly whisked him off to water a tree on the side of the path.

Anyway, it was just a short overnighter but I think it was a success. The hike was about 2.5 miles and Henry did really well. He sure loves hiking! We all had a great time.