It’s midnight and my window is lid with sunlight as if it was 6pm. Zeevik managed to cover the window fixed in the door of the caravan. I do not understand this and if I could I would ask those who designed the caravan: what were they thinking when they.made it possible to darken the whole caravan except in two places, the window fixed in the door and the window above the bed above the driver? Were they to cheap to pay for two curtains? Did they want anyone sleeping in the center of the caravan to suffer from insomnia ???
Our days are very long. Even though we try to start at reasonable hours, we only get to the overnight campsites around 8:30pm or later. That means dinner starts around 9:30-10:00pm and the kids go to bed around 11:00-11:30. It’s too late for us.
Most of the time, when traveling, the children fall asleep. I always fall asleep, but this is not new… The problem is that they only fall asleep in the afternoon, so in the morning they are slightly grumpy. Especially Barak, who insists he is not tired. But he is. And he’s also slightly nervous because he thinks he should have 9 hours a day using electronics. And he thinks we should not walk. And he does not eat enough fruits and vegetables here. In short, he is his mother’s son 🤨…
Zeevik and I are almost good with the amount of hours we sleep. My back is getting better every day , and with it the pain in my leg and pelvis. This means we have more patience and less nervousness and can respond (a little) more gently to what is happening with the children, and we can take a deep breath and answer reasoned answers to questions and grievances.
Today, when we started the 1 miles hike, Ella wanted to answer all the questions in the Junior Ranger booklet, and did not want to LARP with the kids. Barak got upset and angry and started complaining and being unpleasant to the surrounding. The previous days, I just let him know he has to stop with this behaviour right away. Today, I explained to him why this behavior is unpleasant, why Ella is allowed to choose to do things that may be less interesting to him and how he can deal with it. He chose to continue to be grumpy. I asked him to close his eyes and breath deep and release the anger and then we hugged tight and took out the angers in a squeaky hug. This is not a new strategy. We do it all the time. But today I did it for the right reason, unlike in the earlier days when it was just a habit…
As we continued walking, I told him that the area reminded me of the Lord of the Rings landscapes and I asked if he wanted to hear about the Hobbits. At first the answer was ‘No!’, But after a few seconds I heard a small voice say ‘Well, okay, tell me’. The next 2 miles passed quite easily, and Kfir and Yoav also joined the audience on the way. It reminded me that once, I would tell Kfir (but maybe Roiki too) the Harry Potter story from memory (not to mention the fact that I used to tell stories “from the heart” (my imagination) !!!, but that was when I was young, and I had patience and I had memory cells…)
The kids LARP a lot. About every possible second. It’s great because it keeps them occupied, it lets them deal with crises, and every now and then it drives me crazy. But most of the time, it’s really great. I can only thank Chris who invented the LARP league called Fanwar, for the invention, perseverance (20 years he does it) and most importantly for the summer camp where Barak also participated so he can now be an integral part of the daily game.
12:15am. It’s time to go to bed. Good night!