MS Goes To Camp

My kids and I volunteered to serve at a Christian camp for children this past week.  My job title?  "Cook".  Ok, so I technically didn't cook much of anything, but boy did I ever cut a bunch of stuff up, carry it around, and serve it!

Aside from slightly misjudging the proximity of myself in space (resulting in knicking myself with a knife on 5 separate occasions), experiencing some left eye floaters and blurriness (resulting in awkward blinking), screaming legs and feet from the 16+hrs of standing (resulting in a Herman Munster gait) and tremors in my right hand (resulting in throwing a child's sausage on the floor instead of his tray, and I wish I were kidding), ms was fairly silent. 

Either that or I was too busy enjoying myself to pay it much mind... 

It's funny how, back when we were able to take family vacations, I used to feel as if laying on the beach for a week was the only proper method of escape from the working world...and the only way my kids could possibly consider their summer a success.  When that ability left the building, I threw an only child, internal tantrum and longed for what used to be.  Since I'm confessing tantrums for yesteryear, I'll share that I've spent more time than I'd like to admit longing for my pre-ms days.

Coincidence that the topic of our morning devotionals at camp included the following scripture?

Ecc 7:10,14
Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions...
When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one as well as the other...

A great reminder to me that there's no use looking back and missing the old days, because there were as many challenges and stressors then as there are now, just in different flavors.  Each day really is a gift, and that doesn't change according to how I may be feeling, what I may be feeling...what I may not be feeling.   (Shout out to paraesthesia!  Woo!) 

It's funny.  I spent 7 days pushing myself beyond my physical limits, yet returned home feeling more uplifted and refreshed than I can ever recall after any previous vacation.  My kids can't stop talking about the new friends they made and all the fun they had in serving the campers.  With the exception of a few sodas and a $1 car magnet, we didn't spend a dime.  And there was no need to swing by the car wash to vacuum 20lbs of beach sand out of my car! 

Call me crazy, but I think the term "winning!" has just been redefined ;-)