Speaking of marshmallows...

...we were at it again yesterday:



The three of us went to Zach's mom and step-father's camp for the day, and Mango came with us too. Ginger is currently up at my family's camp getting some exercise, R&R, alone time, as well as plenty of attention. Rather than the 'family dog', they have both (Mango and Ginger) have become like the 'extended family dogs' and I am not complaining. My sister actually requested that Mango join them at camp, but my mom turned down my appeal for them to take both dogs so I sent them off with only Ginger.

Mango was supposed (or at least that was my plan) to go up with her 'Godfather' (Jamie) when he joined the rest of them today, but he ended up going a day early and we were still at the other camp, so Mango missed her boat, so to speak. My plan kind of back-fired because I thought well if I don't have my mom here to help out this week then at least she can take the dogs off my hands and it'll make my week a little easier. Now I've got an even more attention-hungry Mango on my hands. I actually feel kind of bad for her because the entire two weeks that she was up at my mom's, I at least let the two dogs visit and sniff each other every couple of days. It's gonna be Thursday before either Mango or I see our moms.

Anyway, I digress. The other camp I am talking about.

Mango didn't want to get her feet wet to
retrieve the ball.

But she almost went in for that duck!
Here she is skidding to a stop.

So we gave her a little help getting in.
She didn't really like that much, and
came right back out.

Then we had some beer. Here are the beer snobs,
below is the beer-snob beer.

We hung out by the water too, and later
on Jacob went in with Nana and Grandpa
Richard...that must have been after the
beer cuz boy was that water freezing!

Now here we are at home and the week is not bad so far. The end of last week was hard because I was feeling so overwhelmed, and sometimes it's difficult to navigate the way down from that kind of feeling. I get into such a mode of taking care of all the little things that never seem to end, and a person can't just turn that mode off. There has to be a clean break at some point. I guess that's what yesterday was. I rushed around all morning making preparations, and then we got to the lake it was lake there was nothing else I could do. I was in a place where I had no obligations, there was no housework to be done, no to-do list to work away at.

Jacob slept for a long time so I got to hang out by myself on the dock with nothing but my journal and a book of poetry. Not even my camera! Something shifted and when we got home I was so pleasant with Jacob. Even today, through each one of Jacob's fits (though there were few) I was calm and loving with him; that gentle parent I feared had left me is still in there somewhere! Before bed we did some fun crafts together and then he agreeably went upstairs. That was important because it was like a little test. The prior three nights we watched the Gilmore Girls at night and bedtime slowly got pushed back. Two nights in a row Jacob fell asleep on the couch with the TV on! That signaled to me that we were slipping. I've gotta crack the whip on our new routine again. So I'm hoping that's what this week will be...I'll ease through the week with this sleep-enabled, new perspective. Then when the weekend comes we're going back up to Camp and we'll be right on track to enjoy our few days there. I can do this...