Summer Camp, Momma Movie Nights, and the Great Machete Incident of 2017

 

As you may have guessed, I am horribly behind on blogging. But after looking though our pictures over the summer, I realized that there are memories that must be shared, even though belated.

Sweet Boy#3 was a camper for the first time this summer. That meant that all three of our boys went to two weeklong summer camps and it was so amazing to watch them stretch and grow.

There is something about a week without your parents, where you are governed by fun and rambunctious counselors, and get the chance to seek God on your own.

It is amazing to watch my own children thriving on something that Scruffy and I have worked toward for other children for so many years.

So, here for your viewing pleasure are selected photos of our sons, the campers.

During the summer Scruffy does not have any days off and so time with him is a rare commodity.

To help make up for this scarcity, I do a Momma Movie Night with each of our boys. First, I purchase a movie that I think they will love.

Second, I let them choose a drink and a treat our of our Star Wars cookbook.

Thirdly, I bake and or blend the treats.

Fourth, I wake up the boy in question at some horrendous hour like 3:00 am or 5:00 am or maybe midnight.

Then, groggy but excited, we watch the movie just the two of us and eat the Star Wars themed treat. Here are the blurry photos of us enjoying this Wilks Family tradition.

You may have noticed that Sweet Boy#1 looked especially groggy in his photo, in pain even. That would be because of The Great Machete Incident of 2017. Let me explain. There is a risk in purchasing machetes for your sons. One year, we saw machete, ax, pocket knife, and hatchet on the birthday and Christmas lists and cringed as we imagined lopped off limbs and gushing wounds galore.

After careful consideration, we did purchase machetes and have been pleasantly surprised by the level of responsibility that has been shown in their wielding. Nonetheless, our oldest and most accomplished machete whacker was chopping at a young aspen tree and sliced right through the trunk and deep into his knee. There was blood and rapid bandaging at his aunt’s house and a subsequent drive to the E.R. by yours truly. At the hospital they cleaned and stitched him and said to get the stitches out in two weeks. We did and although the wound was kind of held together with these little glued on strips, it burst open as our oldest zoomed around the forest upon the injured limb. It is quite difficult to make an active 13-year-old sit out his summer on the couch and they did say he could return to his normal speed.

Perhaps they did not realize what that speed entailed. The Dr. informed us that we would just have to let it heal the old fashioned way. It then got infected and swelled up quite large and after a round of antibiotics our son was finally wound free. He does have a very impressive scar and we can now warn all of our children to “Be careful or you’ll chop your knee off like your brother!” Which is always a useful phrase to have in one’s lexicon.

So that my friends, is a slice of our summer. How did your vacation months go? Did your time away from school include machetes, cloaks, forest frolics, and or large dogs attempting to rescue you but only succeeding in scratching and causing a panicked stampede away from their assistance? If not, why?