Girly Mom Writes

It all started with a hike. I’m not a big fan of hiking. I’d rather ride bike, swim, take a walk, go for a run. . .As far as I’m concerned, pretty much any other form of physical activity is a better option. So for me to agree to a hike is a bit unusual.

But, I’m a team player. If my family wants to go for a Sunday afternoon hike with the rest of the church family, then who am I to refuse? So a-hiking we went. I should have known better.

We were only about 5 minutes into the hike when the big kids took off running, leaving Ellie in the dust. The big kids easily hurdled over a fallen tree in the path, but Ellie couldn’t quite do it. So she sat on the tree trunk and swung one leg over. As she was swinging her second leg over, she suddenly started screaming. To be honest, I didn’t take her too seriously at first. She is known for FREAKING OUT over a spider coming too close or an ant crawling over her foot. So when I heard her screaming I assumed she spotted a spider.

As I got closer to her I realized that not only had she been stung, but she was nearly sitting in the hive she apparently knocked open under the tree trunk. Before I could think twice, I went in after her and immediately my whole body began to burn. In the pure mayhem that followed it became clear that we were dealing with very angry hornets who were stinging multiple times. It. Was. Awful.

All I can remember is Ellie screaming that her neck hurt (at least 4 stings on her neck), someone asking if she’s allergic (she’d never been stung before), wondering how we were going to get the other kids back without getting them into the bees, and best of all, yelling “DAMMIT THAT HURTS!” somewhere around the 5th sting, this one on my ring finger. Because, well, it hurt.

I also recall a tearful conversation in which Ellie declared she never wanted to go hiking again and I assured her she would never have to because, really, doesn’t hiking suck? and isn’t this awful? and now does everyone understand WHY I HATE HIKING???

We headed back to the picnic area where we put ice on the stings and started counting them up. At least 20 different spots, some of them looked like multiple stings in the same area, so it was hard to get an accurate count. I had 6 and Conrad had one right on the tip of his nose (he said that sting lit his whole face up and he felt the pain shoot up to his eyes so that he couldn’t even open his eyes for a bit. How awful!). Another lady from church who was with us got 5 or 6. We were quite a sight.

All we wanted to do was get back home. We packed some ice to keep on the stings and headed home where we found ourselves in a post-traumatic state of shut down for the rest of the afternoon. Ellie continued to complain that her spots burned (mine did too! Ouch!), but between Motrin and Benadryl and a trip to the ice cream shop, we kept the pain under control.

All in all, it was a horrible experience. Horrible! But, I know it could have been worse. I’m thankful no one had a bad reaction and that we were able to get to safety before any other kids got tangled up in the nest.

So that’s that. I’m thinking from now on I’ll stick to safer outdoor activities, like white-water rafting or sky-diving or riding a motorcycle without a helmet. Anything but hiking. I’m pretty sure Ellie feels the same way.

I’m in Pennsylvania this week with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law along with my 3 girls and my 3 nieces (the men are hunting. . .more on that later!). The 6 girls get along nicely and they really don’t need much supervision anymore. Knowing that I would be spending a lot of time with them this week, I decided to plan a few activites, including this very fun scavenger hunt.

Here’s what I did: I went to Wal-Mart and stole about 15 paint sample strip thingys. I tried to get a wide variety of colors, including neutrals. Then I cut them all into individual colors and put them into a paper bag. I gave it a good shakety shake and let the kids draw out 6 colors each. Then I let them loose all over the back yard to match something in nature with their color sample.

Maria examining her colors

Their directions were simple: Find something in the yard that matches the color sample as closely as possible.

Tori finding the perfect shade of pink

I wish you could have seen them scouring the back yard, garden, flower beds, and rock piles to find the perfect color:

Then it was time to show each other their treasures:

They drew six new colors each and started all over! It was really fun, and better yet, FREE!