Baby Goats and Duck Tushes

 A few moments of zen from this weekend.  

• New baby goats in the campground barnyard...yes, I may have in fact picked our campground originally at least partly because there are goats.. and now BABY goats - just take all my money.  SO Cute!
• Speaking of cuteness - you'll notice on the lake all the duck tushes up in the air... I find them hilarious when they are diving for things and kicking their little orange back feet in the air.   

Hope everyone found at least a few small moments this weekend to breathe and recharge. 

 

2020 - I don't wanna talk about it -- Let's camp!

So 2020 has been a literal hot mess for me and my family (and most of the world) and I could probably write (and maybe should have been) lots about quarantine, Covid (yep - whole house had it), and the litany of other stressors... but well... I don't want to, so I'm not gonna!  I felt a bit like a toddler typing that :-)

Luckily one thing we have been able to hang onto in the midst of pandemic times is camping -- at least for the most part.  In the beginning of camping season campgrounds were still closed but after about 6 weeks (so perhaps mid-May) things started to open up and we were able to dip our toes into socially distanced weekend getaways.  It's certainly not the same - we don't really socialize a lot with other campers (we definitely are on the cautious end of the social distancing/ staying in our bubble scale) but for my introverted self this is A-OK (sorry camping friends - I love saying hi from 6 ft away still!).

I love watching the ducks, geese, and baby bunny that sometimes hops out from under a nearby shed.  Or taking a walk to the barnyard area of the campground and checking in on my goat friends.  Mostly I like breathing in fresh air and hanging out with the family (including my best buddy, Hank the dog) and curling up with a good book and checking out from the realities of the world for a bit.  

My only conundrum is that I'm not entirely happy with the current camper ... so we will see if I can convince the family to trade the current one in before camping season is over.  My current list of whines about the camper (and yes - I 100% realize that these are not real world complaints but spoiled middle-aged glamping complaints).

    1. The outlets are in all the wrong places.  I do not want to have to run a cord across the whole camper or from the bathroom to charge a phone or use the laptop.  I know it would be easy to say "just disconnect while camping" but with one of us doing online college, and both of us being a bit attached to our work emails, this isn't reality for us. Plus at the bare minimum, it's nice to have a charged phone for safety reasons.  (I know, I know, my parents camped for many years without a phone).

    2. The bunks are teensy, and the girls are teens ... so not teensy anymore.  Bunks in general would be ok I think, but the way you have to climb into ours is just not great.

    3. I really want a door side window.  Our camper is parallel to the lake, and I am sure that most campsites are not situated this way but ours is and I would love love to be able to see the lake and all of the critters that hang out at the lake from inside on rainy days or just whenever.  It's a campsite with a great view and I want to see it as much as possible.  Now- we do have a small window that looks out that side... but it's over the sink... and I just don't find doing dishes to be all that fun :-)

    4. I'd LOVE to be able to comfortably walk around the bed.  There is about a foot at the bottom of our bed between the bed and the wall and I sleep on the far side so I either have to crawl across the bed or squeeze through the bottom pathway.  This is especially tricky in the middle of the night when Camping Husband's feet are also hanging off the bottom of the bed!

With all of that said - I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have this luxury... but if you ever find yourself in the market for an RV, you can learn from all the things I didn't think to look for the first time!

Some quick photo captures of my moments of zen.  I'm currently reading Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin - I'm enjoying it and contemplating my own "happiness journey/project" so maybe that will make blog appearances in the future.  

Hope you all are well, staying sane and finding ways to practice self care and find beauty in the world.  Sorry for staying away so long, sometimes anxiety gets me down and I fall out of good habits like enjoying my favorite hobbies and things like blogging... the very things that would probably lift me up.  Something to work on :-)

I'd love to know your tips for finding joy and taking care of yourselves and each other in this upside down world! 

Peace, Love, and Paw Prints, 

Camping Librarian

46 Days Til Spring

Hello friends!

Happy Groundhog Day!  I make no secret about the fact that winter is my least favorite season...not that I don't enjoy curling up with my fur-kids, a fuzzy blanket, a good book, and a hot cup of tea, I definitely do!  The darkness and cold get to me though, less energy... and just, well, less.  But 46 days is under two months to go til spring, and even before that comes longer days with the time change 😎 Bring on the sunshine!

Until then I'll keep working on finding balance, self care, and finding a little bit of spring in each winter day.  The other day I watched two birds play outside of my office window, taking a few seconds to just let my eyes follow them here and there as they flitted around playfully.  I don't know enough about birds to know what kind of bird they were but they were cute and brought me a little spark of joy.

My balance check in: new water bottle, enjoying some sunshine with the fur-kids, books, tea, and fake fire coziness.  I did a pretty good job of making a point of drinking more water and also had the unintentional habit of making our bed every morning.  It just sort of happened a few days in a row and I also recently heard a bit on the radio about how making your bed every morning can set the tone for the day by having a little accomplishment first thing.  Plus, somehow it's so nice getting into a made bed!

Balance goals for the coming week(s):

• Keep drinking the water and making the bed!
• Leave the phone alone in bed... read or sleep.
• Meditate - I didn't succeed at this goal since the last post... and I think if I could get into a regular habit it could be a valuable tool when I'm try to quiet my thoughts.
• No fast food - yes this even means the breakfast sandwich from Wawa that I find it hard to resist when I need to stop for gas in the morning.

What We're Reading and Listening to:

Truly for now it's more like what "I'm" reading because Camping Husband is deep in the weeds of reading and writing about nursing theory.  He started taking a class last week and going back to school after more than a decade is no joke.  I feel guilty that I'm curled up reading and writing whatever I want while he's reading and writing and worried about doing it correctly.

Audiobook:

I'm using the Libby app through the public library to listen to Becoming by Michelle Obama.  I'm only about an hour or so in but it's really wonderful so far learning more about her childhood and experiences in her own voice.  I find her voice to be very welcoming, like listening to a friend - I think I will really enjoy my commute these next few weeks :-)

Books:

I really enjoyed this one: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman.  I couldn't put it down and spent most of a day off curled up under a cozy blanket, with a hot cup of tea, and a cat purring nearby, reading this quirky, nerdy, comforting, chick-lit.  One of my favorite fiction reads in a while! 



The Elephant in the Room: On Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America by Tommy Tomlinson.  I don't remember how I came across this one, but when I went to search it in the library catalog it had a fairly long waiting list so like I sometimes do I popped over to amazon.com to just do a quick check of the kindle price and it was my lucky day... it was on sale for $1.99 (it's one of their "great on kindle" titles) and I had an ebook credit to spend. I hit the book-nerd lottery :-)  The author is also a journalist and I found his writing style very engaging: funny, heartbreaking at times, and honest.  This book is about so much more than a struggle with weight, but more about how our lives are so complicated and sometimes fragile, and about how the inner workings our mind, mental health and life experiences all function (and sometimes don't) to make up who we are.  Very relate-able read.


I hope you all are finding little ways to enjoy winter (hopefully some of you even love winter).  I'd love to hear your favorite winter activities or book, movie, or TV recommendations! 

Peace, Love, and Paw Prints, 

Camping Librarian

New Year, New Word

Hello 2020.
Hello Balance.

For the past few years I have jumped on the trend of choosing a word for the year as opposed to making specific, and probably quickly abandoned new years resolutions.  This year's word is BALANCE.  I like to use the "Find Your Word" free course by Susannah Conway that a friend pointed me to.   It takes you through 5 days of exercises to thoughtfully but still very organically find the word that feels right ... this is the final product of those exercises.

My word, balance, is surrounded by a lot of other supporting words that came up repeatedly for me: prioritize, peace, calm, forgive, compassion, strength, restore, and vision.  Balance seemed to bring all of these together.  

My hope is for this to be a centering word - when I seem to be straying too far in one direction or another... mostly if I seem to be straying too far in a stressful, work filled, perfectionist, direction... lol.  I don't tend to stray in the the relaxed, anxiety free, direction very often, or ever!  I also need to make sure not to stray too far into the eating junk, not making health a priority direction...I know I need to learn to prioritize and find balance in the center.

My Balance Check for this week: zoodles, tea, homemade trail mix (no almonds), and planning :-)

I also spent time reading, visiting my dear Aunt, taking flowers to my parent's grave, juicing, having family Christmas in January, and getting more caught up at work... easing into 2020 like a boss...or something like that... 

Balance goals for the coming week: 

Drink more water! 

Meditate 

What We're Reading and Listening to:

Audiobook:

I'm using the Libby app through the public library to listen to A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson.  I'm really enjoying it so far...and the historical and ecological details that I might find myself skimming if I were reading it, I find I am really enjoying listening too.  I'm not finished it yet, but I can already say I would highly recommend listening to or reading this one! It also makes my commute not seem so long 🚗...

Books:

Today I started reading Guts by Raina Telgemeier - I love her work and this one is proving to live up to my expectations and exceed them!  This Children's/Middle Grade graphic novel about fear, anxiety, school, friendship and simply navigating life spoke right to my heart.  As someone who also has bouts of struggling with anxiety I sure wish I had had this book when I was a kid.  With that said - this is definitely not just for kids!  Pick it up!

Camping Husband is reading An Abundance of Katherines by my all time favorite author John Green... he's not quite finished yet but I've heard him chuckle several times reading it and that makes my heart happy!  I think this is a great John Green book if you're looking for something a tiny bit lighter than his more well known books like The Fault in our Stars (which will likely cause your eyes to leak a lot).

Let me know what you're reading, and what you're looking forward to in 2020, and Happy New Year a few weeks late!

Peace, Love, and Paw Prints, 

Camping Librarian