Mother/Son Camp

This weekend Goober and I spent the weekend at a Mother/Son Camp at one of the Pine Cove Camps. We had signed up for it last April and I was a little on edge about it. Some of the anxiety was caused by Goober's refusal to look us in the eye and tell us the truth here lately. Its like talking to a wall, a literal wall because you can tell him not to lie, you can spank him for lying, you can show him how lying hurts others and causes relationships to deteriorate...but that wall, just like Goober will not change. His counselor has also been speaking to him about the damage he is doing and I had him write down scripture about lying and God's view of it. Its AN AWFUL cycle though..2 weeks of what we think is great behavior just to find out the lies that have been going on later. Its sad, thats the biggest emotion, grief over his lack of wanting to be honest. With that said, my boy did deserve some one on one time but the lies had created some tension between  us.

On top of our sins (mine and his) the weather was COLD and RAINY.....I hate both of those things. Ask my husband. I become a BEAST when I am either Cold, Wet without wanting to be or Hungry. However, I gave myself my pep talk that I also use right before a half or full marathon.

"Give this your all, leave no amount of energy unspent, its only a small chunk of  your life and you don't want any regrets at the end". This sounds dramatic but in order to keep myself accountable I had also told Goober that he was making our schedule and I wasn't going to say NO to him all weekend. "insert dramatic theme music"

Sooooo, we played HARD. 

As requested I played in the  mom/son dodgeball game and lost. I let him give me a makeover with hairspray and clips. I RAN across camp to the cafeteria in the dark holding his hand because he wanted to be first to get ice cream at 10:30 at night. I signed up for The Gauntlet..not the low ropes course but the HIGH ONE...I was proud of myself for being the only mom to do it...but I also was not going to let my pre-teen boy down! I ziplined through the woods while acting like I was running in the air. I played 8 games of tetherball and all but broke every blood vessel in my hand and have rope burns going down my whole right arm....BUT WE WON! I rode horses through streams, trails and meadows (i am a tad bit scared of horses after being thrown off one when I was younger).

 I competed in Pitch Black Attack....which is an ALL BOY SPORT. We started at 9:30, dressed in all black and camo. We had 4 checkpoints all over camp to get tooo...and the posse couldn't catch us. If they did we had to be creative and figure out how to convince them we weren't campers. So I let Goober take the lead and he had us army crawling through the woods, darting  behind trees and then we got caught. So what did he tell the posse?...He dropped to his knees and started snorting like a pig. So what did I do? I dropped to my knees (remember the cold and rain?...) So I dropped to my hands and knees in the mud and snorted...the posse then said "oh are you special pigs? and Goober whispered "mom do tricks". So I begin to do donkey kicks and break dance moves all while on my hands and knees in the mud and snorting. The posse (once they stopped laughing) gave us creative points and sent us on our way. Goober was so proud of us for coming in 4th that he offered to show the whole camp how we had out smarted the posse. My throat hurt so bad from snorting!!!!

The best part was I also said Yes to making a craft with Goober. We had to choose one word to describe each other and paint it. I chose merciful for Goober..he has always shown undeserved grace and mercy to everyone around him...to his birthmom, foster parents, siblings, mom's boyfriends and most of all Adam and I. Unexpected he chose Faithful for me and when one of the counselors asked why  he said "because she believes and loves God"....I cried. The other great things I said yes to was boy style worship which included LOTS of jumping during songs and then screaming at the top of my lungs "More Jesus, More Sweat"...and "Salvation, Perspiration"...over and over. I also learned a lot about how I should be raising Goober and we both came out of the weekend with a new saying "We are on the same team"....thats something boys need to know from their moms. That we may not "get" them or it may seem like we can relate to them but in the end we are on THEIR TEAM!!!

I can't wait to go back to Tween/Mom camp and take my other two to these camps. It was really great and such a great way to spend my weekend.......however, I did get under 3 blankets and take a LOONNNGG nap when I got home.

I'll post pictures later...my computer is dying and the charger has wires poking out which I assume means its broken :) 

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