I miss camp.
It’s only been 4 days since we left family camp at Forest Home, but I feel like I’ve been slammed hard against that wall called real life.
We were literally getting in the car to leave camp on Saturday when I got the first in a string of emotionally draining and difficult texts. “I can’t believe this,” I told Aaron. “We’re not even off the mountain yet. What a re-entry.”
The rest of Saturday was a mad dash to unpack the car, do all the laundry, help the boys re-pack for scout camp the next day, run last minute errands for them, get groceries, make dinner and go to Target at 11 pm.
Sunday morning I got up early with Aaron because he was flying to Chicago. It was a 6 am goodbye kiss, and then it was race around to get everyone up and out the door when all they wanted to do was sleep waaaayyyy in.
I drove back up the mountain to drop off my big boys for a week of camp. Then we drove south to get our dog from my in laws, where he’d spent the last week. (Thanks Nanny and Papa!) Then we drove back home to collapse on the couch and call it a day. 6 hours driving wears a girl out!
Monday dawned full of potential, even though I was missing my 3 men fiercely. I dropped Lilly off at her art class and Davy and I went to get my broken glasses fixed. Around 11:45 I got a phone call, “Mrs. Eskridge?”
“Yes?”
“Your daughter is taking an art class at OC college, and the class ended at 11:00.”
I gasped and exclaimed, “oh no! I thought it was over at noon! I’ll be there in 10 minutes!”
I dashed to the car feeling like the absolute worst mom in the world.
Neither Lilly or the nice lady waiting with her made me feel bad about my mess up. Lilly’s lip was trembling the tiniest bit and she had some tears in her eyes, but she hugged me tight and said, “it’s ok Mommy. Can you just be sure to pick me up on time tomorrow?” Heart. Broken.
Later that night our dog, Shadow, didn’t eat his dinner. Again. I then noticed him biting at a spot on his hip. It was raw and red and angry looking. It seemed to come out of nowhere and I had no idea what it was. Of course I got kind of freaked out and he instantly seemed to have all sorts of terrible symptoms. I loaded the kids and the dog in the car and we went to the 24 hour emergency vet. Where there was a 4 hour wait. It was 9 pm.
I miss camp.
Did I say that already?
After about an hour they examined Shadow and said he wasn’t critical and I could take him home for the night. I slept fitfully and woke up tired and lonesome for my man and my sons, and just feeling so worn out. And it’s only Tuesday.
Isn’t it funny that of the speakers at Forest Home last week talked specifically about Tuesdays? He said that God is at work in us in all the monotonous, dreary, difficult "Tuesdays" in our life. It’s easy for us to see God on the mountain tops. And can even be easy to see Him when we’re down in the darkest valleys. We cling to Him there, don’t we? But it’s on all the dumb, boring, regular old Tuesdays of life that we get bogged down and lose sight of God and the work He’s doing in our lives and hearts.
So I’m sharing with you here, on the Tuesdayest of Tuesdays, that God is doing a work in me. Here in the most mundane parts of my life, I know He’s working. The thing is, this is the part I struggle with the most. I seek out those highs, and I find His miraculous strength for the lows. But in these hum-drum parts of life, I just seem to stumble often.
These words are a good reminder to me of where my focus should be everyday, but especially on the Tuesdays. Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Perhaps you're feeling the weight of your own Tuesday. I pray these words will sink into your heart, encourage you, and let you know that God is working in your life too. When you're way up there on the lofty mountain tops, when you're down in those hard valleys, and when you're just plugging along on the regular old Tuesdays, He is alive and at work in your life. So let us not grow weary in doing good. Just as He doesn't weary of us.