Camping With Daddy/Housework With Mommy

John decided awhile ago that he wanted to take Johnny camping. I used to camp with my family a lot as a kid, but have decided that I prefer sleeping indoors, bathing in a non-public bathroom, and eating food from the refrigerator rather than a cooler. The last time we went camping together was about five years ago. We camped at the beach on Assateague Island in September, which was fun because it was still warm enough to swim, but not so warm that the mosquitoes and horse flies were unbearable. We have a funny picture of my brother-in-law, Mark, playing his accordion for some ponies that came to stand around our campsite; when the ponies started passing gas, and we realized we didn't bring a shovel, Mark's friend, Sean, got out his bagpipes and tried to scare them away. These ponies are so used to human presence that they didn't budge, but luck was on our side and they wandered off without leaving us any piles.

About a month after that trip, we camped on Skyline Drive in Virginia. It was much colder, my 20+ year old sleeping bag was about as warm as a bedsheet, you had to pay to take a shower, and John, his brother, Eric, and Eric's friend Gary disappeared hiking for hours, leaving me to light the fire on my own and then cut up half frozen steak for beef stew in the dark. My Girl Scout skills did not fail me, and I had an awesome fire roaring by the time they got back, as well as a pot full of yummy, thick, beefy stew, but I was frozen to the bone and reeked of campfire smoke.

So when John said "Let's take the kids camping!" I said, "Erm....let's not." I figure one of these days I'll have to go because it will make him happy, but it wasn't going to be this time.

Our weekends have been busy, and the camp grounds were getting ready to close for the winter, so John took off today and tomorrow and took Johnny to camp in Washington County in Western Maryland. At first, Johnny didn't want to go and kept saying, "Mommy and Maureen go to camping. I'll stay home with Daddy." When he got up this morning and saw all the gear ready to go, he changed his mind and hustled his father through breakfast. "Come ON, Dad, I want to go to camping!"

They set off around noon, and Maureen went down for a nap at the same time, so I used my time by myself to tackle some cleaning projects I've been meaning to do that are difficult with short people under foot.

I cleaned the entire master bathroom, top to bottom, including:
--filling the jacuzzi tub with water and a couple of scoops of Oxiclean, running the jets, then draining, rinsing and wiping the surface.
--I scrubbed the blinds in there last week, so today I cleaned the window and treated the woodwork around it.
--took apart the light fixtures, cleaned them and put them back.
--vacuumed the lint out of the vents.
--scrubbed every surface of the walls and doors.
--treated all the wood baseboards and door frames.
--scrubbed the shower floor, doors and walls, then sprayed the inside with bleach cleaner to kill the mildew that I can't seem to banish for good.
--cleaned the mirrors, outside of shower doors and switch plates.
--swept and scrubbed the floor.
--I cleaned out the etagere' above the toilet a couple of weeks ago, so today I sprayed it down with cleaner and wiped it, then refolded and restacked all the towels.
--cleaned sink and toilet.
--emptied and disinfected the trash can.
--put out all fresh towels.

At that point, Maureen woke up, so I fed her, then put her in her Exersaucer while I cleaned the laundry room, which involved sweeping and scrubbing the floor, wiping down the washing machine and dryer, cleaning lint off the cleaning supplies on the shelf in there, and using the vacuum attachment to suck lint off the walls. I cleaned out the medicine cabinet in there last week, so it just needed to be wiped. Our dryer vents into a receptacle on the back of the machine with water in it, a pretty common set up for row homes, but it creates a lot of lint.

Then we went on a nice walk along the water and popped into Safeway for an emergency bag of cat litter.

When we got back, Maureen was sleepy again, so she had a snack, then took another nap. While she slept, I folded and put away two loads of laundry and treated the woodwork in the hallway upstairs, then ate a sandwich while I watched a movie, and mopped the downstairs floor. After Maureen went down for the night, I sorted some of Johnny's toys into their proper bins, cleaned the kitchen, and watched the rest of my movie. I was planning on cleaning out some desk drawers and maybe John's closet, but that may have to wait because it's getting late.

John called and Johnny is having a good time. He seemed to catch onto the idea of staying away from the camp fire quickly, and ate a piece of hot dog for the first time. (In my defence, they are 97% fat free Hebrew National hot dogs.) He didn't want to sleep in the tent at first and wanted to come home, but it was already dark and breaking camp at night would have been difficult. He got over it. He went to sleep. John said it's cold, but I sent enough blankets and sweatpants that they should be fine. And if not, the van has heat. If I survived the mountains in my super-thin sleeping bag, they should be toasty warm on a queen-sized air mattress with two fleece blankets and sleeping bags with actual padding in them.

They will be home tomorrow, and until then, I have plenty of projects to keep me busy. I told John that next year Maureen will be two, so he can take both of them camping and I'll stay home in civilization.