My Boy Scout

Packed and ready to go!

I still can't believe he's 12!

The dreaded tin-foil dinner!

Not willing to wait for me to drive him over,

he walked to his leader's house!

Last weekend Jaren's camp-out had been cancelled. I didn't realize that a boy could be as disappointed as Jaren was. It was a little ridiculous to be honest. Stomping, slamming, scowling, complaining, and a whole lot of grump ensued. He didn't believe either his Dad or I when we told him it wasn't cancelled, just postponed.

To Jaren's much relief, he was able to go camping this past weekend. My son cracks me up. Watching him scurry around the house collecting his things, is a great thing. Until he comes to a point when he can't find what he's looking for and the world comes to an end. Unfortunately for him, neither he or I or the best lookers. We usually leave that up to Brent, who could find a needle in a hay stalk if need.

Jaren couldn't find a good flashlight. At this point he was threatening not to go because we couldn't find Brent' headlight and there was no way he was going to use Beckham's play headlamp when it worked brilliantly. Out of pure luck, I pulled a box down from the laundry room in which there was a lame flashlight, but it worked and was better then Beckham's. Then Jaren says, "I have one up in my room that I can use too!" What?!! Are you kidding me? We went through all of that when he already had a flashlight he could use? As Jaren was walking out of the laundry room I dug a little more into the box and found the blessed headlight! Sometimes I think Jaren is bi-polar. He goes from extreme downs, to extreme elation in a matter of seconds. At least the catastrophe was averted.

I also needed to convince him that he needed just on change of pants, on change of underwear, shirt and two additional socks. He had four pair laying ontop of his pile. He quickly grabbed on pair and added it to his feet and just threw the extra fourth pair upstairs.

All in all, he got ready all by himself. The only other thing I helped him with was the tin-foil dinner.

Jaren came home sick. He was literally hunched over and in pain. My immediate thought was the tin-foil dinner. Jaren told me not to put the veggies on top of the meat cause the meat wouldn't cook properly. I thought, if you just turn it while it's cooking it will be fine. He took off all his soaking clothes and crawled upstairs to bed. Where he stayed for the REST OF THE DAY!!! He got home at about 1:30pm. We didn't see his bright smiling face until about 6:30pm. He would have stayed in bed. We had made plans to watch Avatar as a family. He wanted to watch that more then to stay in bed.

I love how the Scouting program is toughing up my oldest Son. I love how it motivates him to get things done on his own. I love how it helps him to work through pain. I guess he went on two hikes while his stomach was cramping. I am grateful to good leaders who are teaching him valuable skills!