…camp covid plans…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… or it should be, if we weren’t living through the plague. Traditionally, the third Thursday in October is GO Day, filled with last minute flurries of activities before heading down the mountain for a weekend of creative fun. Today though, instead of packing my car with every last craft project I might possibly vaguely sort of think about picking up, I’m sitting at the school table. The washing basket is screaming for my attention. The sheet need changing and the groceries are waiting to be picked up. There is no hourly countdown in the group chat. No last minute gift-making-related injuries. No frantic packing and delivering of children to grandparents. Just…home, and life. For the second year in a row.

We had been optimistic about the potential for a camp this year. We didn’t book, so we could stay flexible, but mentally we al had the weekend earmarked. Then, in June, we were scheduled for a weekend away with family. I paid the final balance at 2.30pm. At 4pm, 1.5hrs after confirming our booking and 36 hours out from leaving, our destination was declared a hotspot. Suddenly, our plans were thrown into disarray as we called family conferences and cancelled bookings and attempted to find new plans for our now empty long weekend. It was at this point we realised that no matter how flexible or optimistic we were, things could change far too fast for us to commit to booking time off work and having plane tickets be rendered useless. Of course, we all know how things developed from there. Four months later, four of the group are stuck on the Queensland side of the border. A fIfth is stuck in Melbourne lockdown. I’m in the right state but can’t leave my LGA until I’ve had my second vaccination. Yep. Camp was never going to be thing this year.

I can’t let the weekend pass by unacknowledged, however, and not only have I posted off the traditional camp gifts, but I’ve informed the family I am planning on being worse than useless this weekend, and will be doing camp at home once more. I’m even planning on pulling out a basket or crate to store all my planned weekend projects. On my list for the weekend:
*the border of my waffle blanket
*finish at least one block of my Oz cross stitch
*finally sew those chambray shorts
*a bamboo tank tank top using this free pattern as a test run for…
*swimmers – tankini + rashie
*start cutting my party dress
*write
*play with my gelli plate and art journal
*Sunday online church and bible journaling
*REMIX: Car is going to scroll through my past camp posts and assign me a remix project.

Aside from craft projects, I’m also planning to:
*finish reading The Rose Code
*binge season 9 of Wentworth
*finish season 1 of The Newsreader
*start season 1 of Fires
*continue Blogtober posts
*record our new podcast episode

Camp is not camp, without an overly ambitious to-do list! There will be all the extras as well. Coffee breaks. Mocktails. Walkies. The groceries awaiting collection are loaded with sugary treats. My various devices are charging ready for a big weekend of an exploding group chat. I have a camp playlist made up and ready to hit play first thing tomorrow morning. Today, though, is all about making that possible. Finishing school for the week. Packing my goodies. Racing around town to get all my chores done. Tidying the house so I can slip into bare minimum housewife mode for the next three days. Camp at home may be a rather poor imitation of actual camp, but I’m going to have a red hot crack at making it as fun as possible.