I Loathe Camping

I had a friend point out that "loathe" is a pretty strong word, to which I assured her that I meant the statement to be strong. Just to be sure, I looked up loathe in the dictionary.

My old Random House states: Loathe-to feel disgust or intense aversion for; abhor.

While abhor might be a bit strong, I think the statement "intense aversion for" aptly applies. I could go into great detail on the little reasons why camping is not my thing but why waste the space when I could explain why I do something I don't enjoy.

Besides, if anyone looked back into the blogs written in June, there's a piece called "My Spiritual Backyard". I go into great detail why I don't enjoy yard work. Copy and paste my first paragraph and it pretty much applies. If you don't want to look, I'll explain with the word that is allergies.

But onto the good. Everyone else loves camping. Kent loves it, the girls think it's fun and boy do the boys love it! Cooking and eating outside is so much fun! Being away from home and since Kent bought the camp trailer, peeing in the portable potty apparently is immeasurable fun!

I don't think I'm a very good or creative campfire cook. Not that my kids care, they could live on hot dogs and smores, although that gets a little old on anything more then one night. Oh and the campfire! That's a great way to set allergies off!

Sorry, I wasn't making this about me.

Okay, the good.

Let me say that I didn't grow up with camping but I did grow up with parents that loved the beautiful world around us. We went on lots of hikes. We saw nature on a regular basis. I heard my grandfather express extreme amazement at the beauty of a flock of wild turkeys that he saw in the early morning from his front porch.

I remember being obsessed with drawing trees and trying to mimic the beautiful flow of branches from one to another.

I love nature. I love this world that God has created and all the beauty within it. I want my children to appreciate the outdoors as much as I did as a child. It's only through appreciation that our children will learn to love and respect the outdoors and in turn, take care of the Earth the way God wants us to.

I'm pretty sure Kent would want me to point out that camping is pretty cheap too. Other then food, we have what we need. The family time is very good for our children. They're less likely to bicker and fight while camping.

We need that.

So my own *cough*misery*cough* aside, we're camping this weekend, for three days and two nights. I know it's worth it.