The Scampering Horse

My younger brother John went by himself to Alaska for 10 days. That is vacation. I recently went camping in Utah with my husband and four children. That is a family experience.  We camped. So, I am not one of those people that doesn't like camping because they don't like the outdoors. I spent two summers during college backpacking and hiking, and living in a tent in northern New Mexico. I camped with my family when I was a girl, and being outside is like being alive to me. It pains me to say it. Pains me to my core, but the truth is...I don't like camping as a mom. I know, I feel like Voldemort saying an unforgivable curse.  I don't like it because it is a lot of work, and I guess I am lazy in my soul. Camping required planning. Planning and follow-through. My worst qualities. I have to plan meals, buy the food, bring all the stuff to prepare it, then clean it up. Then I have to set up the tent, and then sleep in that dang thing with all of my wigg...

Cast: Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman Indiana Jones Ceasar the Ape King Brutus the Ape I arrived at my lovely theater slightly early. So...I was able to hear the music to the credits before seeing the movie. Holy dramatic and intense music. Very intense. Sometimes drama makes me giggle. So, I giggled through the credits of the movie I was about to watch. Then there were the previews. I won't be watching the cartoon plane forest fire one. In this new dawn, there has been a worldwide epidemic that has killed all humans who aren't genetically immune to a deadly virus. The vast and rapid death toll has led to the breakdown of societal structures. The original virus was created by humans, and tested on apes as a treatment to alzheimers in a laboratory. We meet the apes first. They all know sign language, and they read and write English. Their society is a happy one where the kids all go to Orangutan school and learn not to kill other apes. The males hunt for deer in the woods, ...

Getting ready for church is pretty exciting. And by exciting, I mean stressful. I usually sleep in, waking up at 7 or 8. Kind of depressing that sleeping in until a normal wakeup time is sleeping in, nonetheless, it is. Somehow that extra hour or two of sleeping for me puts me behind.  Panic. Must clean the children so I can get them dressed. I have decided the best way to bathe the children is to put them in and out of the shower one after the other. Bathing them on Saturday causes them to play in the dirt or smear ketchup all over their faces and they are dirty again, so it has to be Sunday morning if I want clean children for church. It also has to be AFTER they eat breakfast. After.  Then I get them dressed. This seems like a simple task, but somehow it isn't. My 2nd child is never happy with the dress I've found for her.  She has an alternative, but somehow it is too short even though I just bought it last month. We argue about it. We both hold our g...