I am back from my vacation (if you’re connected with me on Facebook, you’ll know I went camping with the Manfingy in celebration of his 42nd birthday) and wow…is it ever AWESOME to be back. I had so much fun today putting together a full spread with a bunch of juicy supplies from JBS Mercantile.

Here’s a snapshot

You can watch me make it here, if you like!

The camping trip itself was epic. It started with pure happiness as we arrived, got set up and lit a fire. By eleven p.m., though, we were being drenched with rain, and though we did manage to put up a huge sun-brella and enjoy a bit more beer swilling, laughing and fire gazing, it wasn’t long before the rain was coming down in sheets. We retreated to our tent only to find it leaking in a dozen places. Oh, noes! We spent a sleepless, miserable night all huddled up under sodden bedding with wet dogs. On Saturday morning, we headed home to wash and dry all our bedding and clothing and give our tent some time to dry out before returning.

Saturday evening, I got worried about the wind and what it might be doing to our camp so we headed back out to discover a clear, star spangled sky and the smell of autumn in the air. We lit a fire, called the Kidlet so he could dog sit, and spent the night. It was bliss.

Sunday morning, we headed back home to grab the furbabies, and headed back to our camp. Though our fishing plans were thwarted by yet more rain, and a broken fishing rod, the rest of our evening was blissful. We cooked over the open fire and bonded deeply over a flask of whisky. We were so intent upon our conversation that we lost track of time altogether. It felt like we’d been sitting there forever. I guessed it was four a.m. and Manfingy figured it was 2 a.m., but when we checked the time, it was actually 12:34 a.m. One. Two. Three. Four. We had a good laugh, decided we might want to get those numerals tattooed as a reminder of how *amazing* it is when we are simply quiet together in front of a camp fire, and then headed to bed.

Monday morning we got up, made bacon and eggs over the fire, and struck camp. We were on the road by noon and home by one. We spent the rest of the day napping and munching on left over camp food.

Blissful. Even though we got rained on. Even though fishing didn’t go as planned. I will remember this trip for a long, long time to come.

In Other News

We were struck with how much closer we felt after a weekend of no technology. This might become a thing. We might find ourselves opting for less on line and more time face to face without the wall of iPhones and laptops. I hope so, because wow…I really loved the renewed sense of connection.

We talked a lot about happiness this weekend and where it comes from.  All the things society tells us we should seek out for the sake of attaining happiness fail us. We don’t want a bigger house or more money or nicer, more fashionable clothing. We want more time with one another, camp fires and cosy dogs, less of pretty much everything that serves as a ‘status symbol’ and more of the kind of things that come for free.

How blessed we are to know this!

And on that note…

My work is done for the day, so I’m off to spend it doing things that bring me joy: cooking a wholesome dinner for the Manfingy, loving on my dogs, reading a good book, and working on Soul Restoration I (which is still rocking my socks off!).

Big love and lots of smooches,

Effy

Here are a few shots from our trip

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