10 Years and Other Things
One variation of the Brush Ranch logo (we didn’t exactly have “brand standards” so there are several versions)
I can’t believe that yesterday while I was brushing my teeth before getting into bed (not sleeping, thank you, babies), I realized for the first time that this summer will mark 10 years since our last summer of Brush Ranch! I’m sure you’re wondering how I came to this realization:
Last week I took the babies to Santa Fe and we spent the night, then went to lunch and did a bit of shopping after lunch. One of the highlights of my summer (when I was a camper it was a highlight, nightmare as a supervising adult) was “day on the town” where we’d load up the campers and take go to Santa Fe for the afternoon. Everybody would get $20 (yippie!), and be split into groups of 5 or 10 campers and a counselor or two and we’d spend the afternoon cruising around downtown Santa Fe. My favorite haunts where Doodlets, to buy stickers of course, the rubber stamp shop, Gloriana’s bead shop (even though they HATED us in there), and Marcy Street Card Shop. Man, I must have been crafty back then!
So…I was thinking about our “day on the town” and about how we used to also take the entire camp to the rodeo and to the opera in the summer and how crazy that seems now! It was always a bit of a logistical nightmare to coordinate these trips but the campers seemed to love it and there were usually very minimal problems. From what I can remember, the biggest problems seemed to arise when our campers from Santa Fe would try to meet up with non-camper friends when they got into town (that and trying to keep people from making out on the bus). Camp can be a bit isolating and I’m sure they just wanted to hang out with their old pals and have camp folks meet real life folks. But…it was difficult to manage, especially with the older campers and the general shenanigans that accompany teenagers. Then I thought OMG, what if everyone had cell phones then like they do now?! It really would have been a NIGHTMARE! And, that’s when I realized that it’s been 10 years since our last summer of Brush Ranch.
Isn’t it crazy that even just 10 years ago many people, including most of our camp staff, did not have cell phones? Just for a little perspective, the first iPhone was introduced in 2007, a full 3 years after we closed camp. Now, of course, everyone has a phone, including lots and lots of children, not just teenagers.
It never ceases to amaze me how big the Brush Ranch family is and even after 10 years it’s awesome how many people I’m still in touch with and how large the Brush Ranch community is. And again, I return to technology, so many of the connections that I’ve been able to keep with people from Brush Ranch are because of social media (especially Facebook, launched in 2004) and I am so thankful that there is a way to easily share my stories and hear the stories of others. Ten years feels like the blink of an eye, but I can’t help but wonder how the last 10 years (and the rest of my life) might be different now if we’d kept on trucking and kept camp open. There’s no point in looking back, so I’ll move forward and continue to do my best to make sure that the stories and memories from Brush Ranch are shared and continue to live on!
This was at the bottom of the Brush Ranch letterhead…I love this image, especially the flying lady in the middle…is she swimming?
Hipster, Amish, or Poor: Apricot Honey Sorbet
A few months ago I posted about making my own soy yogurt, similarly titled, “Hipster, Amish, or Poor: Make Your Own Yogurt,” where I explained the title. I highly suggest, if you’ve forgotten where the “hipster, Amish, or poor” part came from that you go back and read that old post. I didn’t make it up. Don’t be offended…
So, I think this falls under the “poor” category too, but also, fresh sorbet is super awesome and good.
It’s fruit season here in the Land of Enchantment and a friend was begging people on Facebook to come pick apricots from his tree. Naturally, to help a friend out, I headed right over and picked away. The tree was so full I didn’t even need to use the ladder (and I’m only 5 feet tall).
I’ve utterly failed jam/jelly making more times than I care to count and am sick of having several jars of fruit syrup, so I opted to use the apricots for something I’m a little more comfortable making. And, there you have it, sorbet.
I think you could probably use any stone fruit for this but the fresher (or is it more fresh?), the better!
Mmmmm….Fresh apricots.
Apricot Honey Sorbet
2 lbs. apricots, pitted and roughly chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Place chopped apricots, water, sugar, and honey into a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Let mixture cool to room temperature.
Once mixture is cool, blend in blender or food processor until smooth, then strain through a fine mesh sieve. Stir vanilla into mixture.
{I couldn’t bear the thought of throwing out all the pulp, so I made popsicles out of it!}
See all that pulp? That’s what I made popsicles out of.
Pour mixture into ice cream maker and churn for 15-20 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and creamy looking.
Put mixture in freezer safe container for 2 hours before eating (unless you prefer it a little on the soft side).
Boom! Super tasty sorbet!
Sunday Morning at Summer Camp
My Sundays in the summer used to be much, much different. They didn’t involve getting up at 4:30 to feed babies, or scarfing down a tortilla slathered in peanut butter and bananas in between burping babies and cleaning up poopy diapers. No, they were much, much different, as were most things in my life, and I’ve always had a real love/hate relationship with Sundays.
I have always disliked how much Sunday felt like the end of the best part of the week, and Sunday nights have often been anxiety filled because of homework (it’s been a while since that happened) or mountains of emails coming in over the weekend, or trips for work. But Sundays in the summer, during camp a Brush Ranch, were different. They were refreshing and rejuvenating and helped start the week off well.
Each weekday started off with breakfast at 7:00 for the boys and 8:00 for the girls (poor dudes!), and then cabin clean up time and then a days worth of activities that were always the same, divided up into periods, much like high school or junior high. Then dinner and some sort of evening activity, then bed.
But, Sunday was different. The boys had breakfast delivered to them in bed, and for the girls, breakfast was optional. I always opted in because just about every day of my life I’ve woken up hungry. (Blessing: I never miss breakfast; curse: I wake up hangry every day.) Then, at 10:00 or 10:30 the entire camp would gather for Devotional. I’m sure at one point it was a bit of a religious ceremony, but the times I remember it was not religious but gave everyone the chance to reflect on the past week and look forward to what was coming up. There was often a musical element, some sort of story or reading, and then maybe some type of activity. One of my favorite Devotional services that usually happened at least once each summer was the reading of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. I am not sure why that sticks out in my mind, but that story always makes me think of Sunday! During the later years at camp, my parents tried to host Devotional on top of Brush Ranch rock each Sunday(a large rock formation that overlooked the entire camp property with gorgeous views of the wilderness to the north and a peek down the canyon to the south). I think it was their way of making sure that every person in camp got the chance to take that hike and take in the views.
Another tradition that I always loved about Sunday was that everyone would be required to wear all white until after lunch. Why? I have no idea. In the later years khaki pants or shorts were allowed with a white shirt. This was the day that group photos were taken and I guess everyone was suppose to look “clean.”
Girls camp photo taken around 1991 (click to view larger). Check us out in our Sunday whites! That’s me, bottom left, rocking the pink headband. Yup.
See…the tradition goes way back. This one was sometime in the 60s (again, click to view larger). Why were all the group photos taken by the pool? I remember being so afraid that the girls behind me were going to fall and I’d fall in the pool!
Lunch on Sunday was always something special like a Thanksgiving dinner and ice cream, and the tables were often set with white paper placemats–very fancy! After lunch the counselors would all go to a big meeting where they decided on camper of the week (a story for another post).
Ahhh Sunday….
Mid Week Ramblings
Here are some mid week ramblings for your enjoyment:
I ran to the coffee shop yesterday morning with the kids and one Chloe dog. Everyone behaved very well and the weather was perfect. I had to leave the stroller outside because it doesn’t fit in the door of the shop. Don’t worry, I did what any responsible mom would do, I tied the dog to the stroller, put it close to the window and went in and ordered. By myself. I get points for asking the barista to bring the coffee out to me so I could stay with my herd, don’t I? I put the coffee in the little cup holder on the stroller and began to walk home. Coffee/foam went EVERYWHERE. All over the stroller up and down my arms, on my phone, and about half way home I realized my shirt was also covered in coffee. Winning.
I was feeding Neala this morning after having fed Rylan and I had Rylan in his little chair. I guess next time I should strap him in? Look at me…mother of the year.
We live on a dead end street (ironically called “Inspiration Drive”), and on trash day, one trash truck picks up one side of the street and another trash truck picks up the other side. I guess it doesn’t matter that both trucks have to drive up and down both sides of the street? Weird.
I got my hair cut yesterday with a new style, virtually moments (ok, almost a week) after the marvelous Caitlyn Ottinger took some lovely photos of me. Not only did she make me look good, but she made our terrible yard (both front and back) look like some sort of lush jungle.
Since I got my hair cut yesterday I look completely different. So different in fact that not a single person I’ve seen since I cut my hair has noticed.
Other goings ons…Neala has had a fat lip for part of the week because she keeps hitting herself in the face with toys.
Both kiddos are rolling over like crazy and Rylan has been sleeping on his fat little belly. It’s pretty cute.
I have 4, yes 4 loads of clean laundry waiting to be folded and put away.
Our dogs really hate thunder and lightning and they decided to keep me up until midnight last night just being scared. In case you’re wondering what that means, it means they were walking around our room with their little sharp nails clicking all over the wood floor and then coming to my side of the bed and licking any exposed body part. They do this over and over and over and overandovernadovernandoverandover. Then, they try to get under the bed which doesn’t work so well because there’s a bunch of stuff under there, oh, and because they don’t actually fit! This whole being scared business finally wears them out and they sleep directly next to my side of the bed so that when one of the babies decides to wail at 3:00 in the morning I step on a dog on my way to see if said baby is wailing because someone poked them in the eye (that’s the caliber of wail we have going on sometimes), or if they’re sound asleep wailing just for fun.
Last night was awesome.
Sometimes It’s Embarrassing to Be Me
Earlier this evening I played in a soccer game. I feel like I’m a pretty competent player most of the time, but lately, I seem to have lost my touch a bit. Maybe it’s because I left for a year to have twins and have done virtually nothing (aside from binge watching all the TV shows I can think of) since last June. Yeah, that’s probably it. Well, tonight was no different from that last few Monday nights, where I felt like I’m just not quite as skilled as I was a year ago. At one point I kicked the ball and it actually hit me in the face. Yes, I kicked the ball into my own face. I have no idea how. Oh well, good thing I’m not in the World Cup. Anyway, it was pretty embarrassing and it got me thinking about other embarrassing moments in my life and I’d love, love, love to share two of my most embarrassing moments of all time! Lucky you!
As most of you know by now, I grew up at summer camp (if you didn’t know, read this post, or this section), and the two most embarrassing moments of my life happened during the summer, at camp. When I was camp age, during the second part of the summer I was not technically a “camper” and I just sort of cruised around the camp acting like my parents owned the place…oh, wait…they did. My brothers and I were the only kids around with bikes, and that was pretty freaking cool. We could get anywhere, and fast! One day, when I was about 12 I was cruising around on my bike, feeling all bad (if you’re from NM, you’ll know how to correctly say “all bad,” if not, watch this video or this video.) and I was near the front pond. One corner of the pond had some railroad ties stacked up basically to keep the path from collapsing into the pond. The fish in the pond liked to congregate in that little corner and I was checking them out as I was riding by. I slowed down just enough to put my right foot on the railroad ties and then, as if in slow motion, my foot slipped and my bike and I tumbled into the pond! Keep in mind, this was not a fancy pond, it was dark and murky, with a thick muddy bottom, no filtration system, no plastic lining, this was the real deal, real nasty pond. I was covered in mud and water and was so very, very embarrassed as I rode my bike as fast as I could home to shower and change. Ick. So, there’s embarrassing story number one.
Embarrassing story number two was several years later when I was about 17. I was on the staff at camp at that point in time, but was just a dishwasher so wasn’t responsible for any campers. It was the night of one of the dances. I can’t remember exactly what the theme was, but I was wearing some very tight bellbottoms, a kids sized Brush Ranch sweatshirt (one of the REALLY old ones that was printed in yellow and brown), and some giant purple suede clogs that my grandmother bought me (that I still have because I just can’t bring myself to get rid of them). In the middle of the dance we always stopped for snack time and everyone would gather in their cabin groups and sit on the floor and wait to be called up for snack. (Snack on dance nights was candy, and it was awesome!) So, it was at this point in the night and everyone was sitting on the floor waiting to be called up to get their candy, the lights were on full blast and the room was very quite. I decided that this was the best time for me to leave the dance for a little while and walked out like my parents owned the place. I reached the top step of the exit, again, feeling all bad, and again, as if in slow motion, completely and totally fell off my purple suede clogs and TUMBLED down the three steps out of the entry way with the ENTIRE camp watching. Yikes.
I know now that I’m not all bad, just a klutz sometimes and I really shouldn’t have been walking around like my parents owned the place because clearly, it was my downfall more than once!
I’d love to hear your latest and greatest embarrassing story, camp related or not! Do share!
Look What I Can Do!
I’ll admit, I’ve been terrified about Patrick’s residency starting. If you’l recall, I wrote this post a while back about the pros and cons of residency, which was just a way for me to mask my terror for a while. I’ve cried more than a few tears in the past 3 weeks thinking about what it might be like to take care of our family while Patrick goes to work each day for at least 12 hours…6 days a week.
Well, I’ve been pleasantly surprised! Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have Patrick home than not, any day of the week, but him leaving each morning super early has allowed us to get on a more regular schedule which is making me feel relatively sane. I’ve also been forcing coercing the kids to sleep for 9 hours between feeds, and that’s been really helpful also. I’m figuring out some routines and what works and what doesn’t in terms of feeding and napping the kids (can you “nap” something?), and I think it’s starting to work. In between diapers and naps I’ve actually been able to accomplish quite a lot this week:
- The kids and I went to Target
- With the help of my brother and sister-in-law, we got the jogging stroller up and running
- Walked to the coffee shop (twice)
- Bathed the kids by myself
- Showered every day!!
- Picked up dog poo
- Threw the ball for one Stella Dog
- Took one Chloe Dog on a walk
- Went for a run (with the kids)
- Played a soccer game
- Watched the USA v. Germany World Cup Game
- Went to the eye doctor for the kids
- Purchased donuts and delivered them to our old buddies in the NICU
- Pulled some weeds
- Killed a giant black widow spider
- Picked apricots
- Made fresh apricot sorbet (recipe to come)
- Made dinner each night
- Fed the kids by myself a few times
- Took one 10 minute nap!
I’m feeling pretty good about my little list up there…I wonder how long I can keep this up!
On a side note, a few weeks ago, another mom of multiples posted on her Facebook page how well her kids were doing and that they eat, sleep, and poop without any struggle and that her life is pretty much perfect. I told another friend about this and how it made me feel like we’re doing it all wrong. She assured me that we were not and suggested that this other mom was probably actually having lots of issues and just wanted people to think that everything with her and her babies was perfect.
We all have our ups and downs, I’m just glad that our first week being home “alone” (I say “alone” because our families have been lots of help) has been quite bearable, and maybe even a little enjoyable. Here’s some photo evidence:
Yum, fresh apricots
Tiny twins in their jammies ready for a run with momma…looking a bit skeptical.
The kids have also accomplished quite a lot:
- Drooling
- Peeing
- Pooping
- Eating
- Both kids rolled from their back to their front for the first time!!
- Growling
- Farting
- Napping
- Screeching