Life Apart

A milestone. The girl left for youth camp this weekend.

I gave myself months to mentally prepare for my eleven year old to leave the family for forty-eight hours, and though you might label me with "overbearing" or "helicopter" I beg to differ. Sure, I'm overbearing in certain areas, like manners. But you might be surprised how much freedom I give my children. I will not list the freedoms for you as you might be tempted to turn me into the police, so trust me. I am, however, used to her presence.  Sure, I wondered if she would act as foolishly as I did at that age or if the other campers would treat her well, but overall my hesitation with camp was that I just like having her around. Anyway, it's a milestone. And it's a big one for the Saavedras.

When I posted on social media that I was screaming in my head, "NOOOOO!!! Don't go!!!" But saying out loud, "Have a great time, Honey." I had many women commiserate with that mother's heart and I appreciate that. I had a few others assure me she would be fine and she was in good hands and blah blah blah. People, I know that. I was not worried about her. I just missed her! Which, if you know me and Kaeley, means we're working in the right direction!

Well, she's back. 

As expected, she had a blast with her girlfriends, ate way too much junk food (next time she goes to camp I'm prepping her with a week of vegetables), worshiped loudly, and listened well. It was a good experience. And it was good to have her back.

I will say that true to parenting I missed her and I was still late in picking her up! Rookie! But that was just poetic in my opinion.

The same evening that Kaeley left Nathan went to my parents' house for a sleepover. For some reason I pictured that next morning as a peaceful one. Half my children were gone, right? That practically spelled vacation. And then Simon woke up. Simon lost half of his audience/entertainment and I was a sitting duck, just me and my wood burning... and... my son who talked his way through half a workbook (and it was a big workbook). Alynna was a bit off too. She was like a diamond who had lost her luster. She came back to life once Nathan was back home, but she missed Kaeley a lot.

Also this weekend Simon caught a cold. Brad and I had a church function to attend, so we cancelled the planned Children's Ministry and plugged him into the iPad with us in the meeting. I will have you notice the name tag he wrote himself. He sat through a two and a half hour meeting drawing a happy Flash, watching Netflix, and playing the iPad. There was lots of coughing and sneezing in between activities and who can forget right in the middle of the meeting when he burst out laughing that Mickey Mouse had captured the giant?