No, I’m not going. Yes, I’m a bit grumpy about it. I’ve wanted to go for two years now but if the dates stay what they are, well, I’ll never be able to go. As you know from yesterday’s post, I’m in the process of packing for camp. It’s a yearly event. Same dates, every year. It’s also an integral part of my faith and, as such, “ditching it” isn’t something that I’m willing to do. And so, I unplug for eleven days while my peers all plan to get together and be super-plugged-in. I’m trying not to be salty. I’m trying to remind myself that my faith and my family are more important than any conference, no matter how awesome.

And it’s true. Camp was always a highlight of my summers while growing up. I made friends as a young child that are now all grown up and attending with their children. Our children are becoming friends. And the cycle is renewing itself. It is my dream that my sons will attend with their children in tow, watching them grow in faith and love with their friends’ children.

This year is set to be even more exciting and special. For the past twenty-seven years of my life, I have been staying in the cottage that my Great-Grandfather built. My Great-Grandmother, still alive and healthier than the lot of us, is the reason the family began attending. The cottage was built in the 60’s and is a huge part of my childhood summer memories. But this year, we bought our own cottage with my parents. Our family has outgrown the old cottage. And so, we’re expanding! It’s a lovely cottage that, albeit, needs some work when camp ends this year. But it’s just perfect. We already went to test it out (Mom and Dad have been getting it ready for this year as I’ve been very busy) and BigBrother approves of the big, screened in porch. It’s also right near the playground. An added bonus.

Faith-wise, many people don’t understand. And that’s okay. While I have a strong faith, it is such a blessing to be able to spend ten days each year concentrating on the relationship I have with my God. (And, you know, parenting and eating yummy food and doing a little relaxing as well.) But it’s the main reason that I won’t just “ditch” the last weekend and fly off to mingle with people that I consider some of my best friends. I’ll think of you all. I’ll miss your comments and e-mails and posts and general awesomeness. And I’ll probably feel a little bit jealous.

But I know I’m choosing the right path for myself and my family. And I’ll continue to do so. So, someone have a blast for me. I look forward to reading your posts when everyone gets home (which is the same time that I get home!).

I got off track.

The packing. I hate it. Loathe it. I’m not great at it. I forget things. Important things. Like toothbrushes. Who forgets toothbrushes? This Mama, that’s who. I’m in a state of panic about camp this year. My Mom assured me that I survived the past two years with BigBrother and will thus be fine. But BigBrother was a) a great sleeper and b) one child. LittleBrother is a) a very light sleeper and b) a second child, thus meaning two. Panic! At the campground!

Off track again. See the panic?

I have most of my clothing packed. And three books that I hope to read while wrangling two children. I’m going to start packing the boys’ clothes today. I would have started yesterday but I had to do laundry. I have more laundry today (whites! We need socks!). Did I mention that we’re cloth diapering while camping because LittleBrother’s bum can’t handle the general ick of chemicals that come with the alternative? Thankfully, washing machines are available. This vacation doesn’t seem all that relaxing right now.

Off track. AGAIN.

My most pressing internal dilemma is what toys to take for the boys. I know how I transport them: via laundry basket! Yes, that was a stroke of genius two years ago. But my rule is that I don’t take more than one laundry basket of toys. But BigBrother needs his bag of Mega Blocks as they are currently his favorite imagination toy (he makes tunnels which he calls tuh-tuh-funnelts and houses and towers and boats andandand). LittleBrother needs some things as well. And as the exersaucer has just been retired (lesigh), I was thinking of taking the music table to keep him entertained but that definitely breaks my laundry basket rule. And one cannot forget the smörgåsbord of books. BigBrother will be emotastic if I don’t bring all three copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar so that he can find one any time he absolutely needs one. But LittleBrother can’t have BigBrother’s paper page books because he eats them so he needs his own books. Which he also eats, by the way. Maybe I need two laundry baskets this year? Which works with the diaper laundry, no? Perhaps I wasn’t off track above? Interesting.

And things like infant ibuprofen (teething), children’s ibuprofen (what if BigBrother gets a fever?), my ibuprofen (can you see the headache forming?), bug spray without DEET (LittleBrother), bug spray with DEET (the rest of us), my Fenugreek because the cycle dips I’m experiencing thanks to the return of my cycle have been big and what if he skips a feeding anyway and oh, crud, I should take the pump as well.

This is so different than how I used to prepare for camp. I was packed a week in advance. I’d live in clothes that I didn’t want to take to camp so that everything was clean and packed and ready. And I had no cares. I didn’t have to make sure three other people had the appropriate things for an eleven day stay. I just worried about me. And I still forgot stuff but I could call home and have my Dad bring them down when he came in the evenings. But who would I call now?

Did I mention that BigBrother, LittleBrother and I all eat different kinds of yogurt? We’re complicated like that, especially when you consider that I don’t have enough room in the cooler in the first place and need to get the yogurt once we are there… and there is twenty minutes from the nearest grocery store that would possibly carry LittleBrother’s yogurt.

And yes, this post was one big procrastination stop. Tomorrow I’m going to whine a bit about the BlogHer conference and my forever-lack-of-attendance. And Wednesday I’ll say goodbye. Hopefully with a picture of a fully packed truck. Either that or a very, very upset FireMom pulling the hair from her head. In fact, I think a picture of both might be a possibility!

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Imagine, if you will, that your trusted babysitter is out with your child. Through no fault of her own, she is in a horrific crash. She dies on impact. Emergency Medical Technicians responding to the crash assume, of course, that the child in the vehicle with the woman is her own. You, the parent, are not notified that your child has been injured, possibly severely, in an automobile accident for hours. Not until someone comes to the hospital to identify the babysitter and says, “That’s not her baby. She doesn’t have kids. I don’t know who she was babysitting!” Precious time has been lost with your child, possibly time during which you could have been making pertinent medical decisions.

This is not meant to scare you out of sending your child in a vehicle with anyone or putting him in a bubble. It is to remind you that Children Have An iDentity (CHAD). The story above is based on a true story of a babysitter, killed in a crash, and the thirteen-month-old child that she was babysitting named, yes, Chad. Because of that, the CHAD program was started. What is it?

It’s a sticker. You fill out the information of the child (full name, birth date, address), parents (names, home and work phone numbers), physician (name and number) and another emergency contact should the parents not be reachable (their relation to the child and phone number). And then you slap it on the carseat. And voila! Above situation is resolved. It doesn’t magically stop accidents from happening. It just lets you be notified sooner so as not to lose that valuable time.

Some minor problems are things like if you have two children in carseats; if they ever switch seats, the wrong name and birthdate will be on the carseat. However, that’s a minor problem; your information will still be the same and you will still be notified. If you’re sharing carseats with family, coworkers or another child-drive-share type situation, it could become confusing. It’s probably best for children to be seated in their own carseat that is known to fit them properly. (That said, your child needs to be in a carseat or booster. Don’t skip this part until your child reaches the proper age and height requirements for your state.)

Contact your local fire department to see if they have CHAD stickers. If they don’t feel free to visit this website (and, more specifically, this file which is a Word Document) and print out six “stickers” at a time. If you don’t have sticker paper at home, consider printing them on regular paper and taping them to the carseat with packaging tape. Be sure to check every so often to make sure that the sticker is in place and legible.

You can’t control other drivers. You can control how quickly information is passed on to emergency responders and, as such, to you. Children Have An iDentity. Remember that and take action before you drive in the car next time.

Some fun things this month, off blog, actually include bloggers! The Fire Family will be spending the day with Judy and family at our local State Park’s beach. (Yes, this post.) I haven’t seen Judy in quite some time and am looking forward to some fun in the sun with my favorite Snarky Librarian. I sure hope Judy’s hair is still pink. BigBrother would absolutely love it!

We have a first birthday party to attend and, strangely, I don’t know what to get this kid. You’d think seeing as how LittleBrother is only four and a half months younger, I’d be in “the know” with what to get him. (Perhaps I should check out WishPot?) My go-to present for any age child is, of course, a book but they’re a book family! I don’t want to get him something he already has at home! Oh, dilemmas.

And then, on either the 16th or the 17th, as we haven’t yet decided which day we are leaving, we are, well, leaving! We’re heading to Hollow Rock as we do every year. Ten days of worship, friends, family, good food and a little peace and quiet. That’s right. Peace and quiet. No telephone. No television (other than a few DVDs standbys, played on the laptop, because we’re not totally stupid). No… yes, you guessed it… INTERNET. I will be taking four or five books as I can usually finish that many, despite parenting, eating, visiting and worshiping, without all the normal distractions of everyday life. During that time, I’ll have a few posts drip down onto the blog and, because I can’t totally disconnect, I’ll be occasionally tweeting from my phone. I’m so excited as we’ve bought a new (to us) cottage this year! FireDad won’t be joining us the entire time but will be down as much as possible.

And then the very next weekend my brother is getting married. And that’s the first weekend in August. My month is all ate up! Which I just realized… my Busy Body Book ends next month. And the new one is out of stock on Amazon! I’ll be lost without it! Here’s hoping its restocked by the 15th or else I won’t be able to order one in time! (I realize it’s available on the merchant’s website but I’m an Amazon Prime member. I relish my free shipping.)

I’ve got one giveaway planned before we head to camp but I haven’t chosen the day or the final product yet. So stay tuned for that!

What are you doing this month?

1. Project365. I did pretty good at keeping up with my photography this month (and editing/uploading in a timely manner). There were only three days when I took pictures of stuff at the last minute because I almost forgot to take a picture for the day. (That’s better than last month!) I’ve also been trying to make sure I have an almost-even-amount of pictures of the boys separately, a handful of them together and other things that aren’t boy-related including a self-portrait or two throughout the month. I succeeded this month. I’m pretty proud. You can always view our Projec365 set on flickr but here is our Monthly Mosaic for June.

2. Reading. The good news is that I am no longer terribly behind on my goal of reading 50 books this year. As of the end of June, I am sitting at 21 books read. That is four books shy of what I should be and I can pick up an extra book here and there to bring myself back up to speed. I’m not worried so you shouldn’t be either. I read some good books this month.

1. The English American by Alison Larkin. (Of note: her website recently changed due to some drama with her domain being stolen! Update your links!) I wrote my full review of this book on the birth parent blog. Briefly: it’s a great read about an adoptee who returns to America after meeting her birth parents. Drama and laughter ensue. I enjoyed the poignant but not-overly-stereotyped view of adoption.

2. Sunday’s at Tiffany’s by James Patterson. I liked this book much more than I thought I would considering it was a far-fetched storyline. In short: small girl has an imaginary friend. As an adult, she meets her imaginary friend again but real this time and they fall in love. Very City of Angels without the angel part. Despite the similarities to the movie (which happens to be high on my list), the book was unique in many ways. I did enjoy it.

3. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. I surprised myself by realized that I’ve never read this book. I’ve watched the movie more times than I could count. And so I was really surprised by how much different the movie was from the book. As usual, of course, I preferred the book to the movie. (I also find it interesting that Angelina Joelie’s character, for which she scored an Oscar, wasn’t as important in the book. She was also given some characteristics and events done by other girls. Interesting.) All in all, I’m glad to have added this to my “to read” list. Finally.

4. Family Tree by Barbara Delinksky. I couldn’t put this book down. It was such an interesting look at family and the issue of race in various groups of our society. In short, two very white looking people give birth to a very non-white child. After the issue of fidelity is argued over and proven, the couple starts to look through the wife’s lineage to find the “culprit” and finds much more than they imagined. FireDad and I had many interesting discussions while reading this book.

I almost finished another book for June but didn’t quite make it. That will be just another book for July! I’m planning on taking quite a few books to camp later this month. As there are no technical distractions (read; no TV and no, gulp, internet), it’s ten days of reading when I’m not chasing children around the cottage. As always, you can view all of my books on my Goodreads list.

3. Weight Loss. I’ve lost two pounds this month. And no, we haven’t yet joined the gym. As we’re going to be gone for the whole second half of July, it didn’t make sense to join just yet. (Yes, we’re kind of cheap.) Thanks to the weather, we haven’t been getting out in the evenings to walk for the last week either. So, I’m pretty proud that I can say that I’ve lost two pounds. I’m hopeful!

I have to go now because LittleBrother is trying to crawl!