For a pokey decision-maker, I am pretty good at making vacation choices.

Eggbeaters or egg whites? Whites.

Run or gym? Run.

Pool or beach? Pool.

S’mores or ice cream? S’mores.

And the vacation decision of the week…

I went for the zipline. Did the Tarzan swing last year.

For the last two summers, our family vacation to the Lake George, NY area has included a treetop tour at Adirondack Adventure Course. Last year, my sisters and our husbands (and my oldest nephew) bonded over a day spent in the trees, meeting challenges 10 to 60 feet above ground.  This year, my little sister and her husband couldn’t make the trip, the husbands bowed out on account of childcare/being afraid of heights. My 60+ year old mom proudly took their places on the log crossings and plank bridges.

How many 11 year old boys can say they’ve been zip-lining with their Nana?

That’s my nephew Josh, my awesome ropes course partner. And his brother Brett, 8, cruised through the kids’ ropes course four times, hardly taking a step without smiling.

Last year, my son Ryan, two years and inches shy of even the kids’ ropes course, begged to just be harnessed in and practice clipping the carabiners. Luckily, a small ropes course just opened at Mount Sunapee, so he got his chance in the trees during our B-school reunion last week.

On the low ropes course, Ryan eyed an obstacle that just looked too hard — a thin cable wire to cross with just some knotted ropes on one side for support.

He took a tentative first step, then crossed the obstacle in a minute. “Isn’t that cool, Mom?” he asked. “I thought I couldn’t do it, and then I just figured it out.”

Exactly.  In a minute, he learned the definition of an obstacle, felt the desire to overcome a challenge and went for it.  He cruised through the low ropes course the second time around and we advanced to the high course. The second obstacle was high and frightening – he wanted out. A guide tried to help him through, but Ryan decided to go back down.

I was proud of him for going so far, and for knowing that he’d had enough. He waited patiently, if a bit tearfully, as we finished the loop. When I started the second loop with my friend’s daughter and my friend tried to take Ryan to the low ropes loop, he lost his patience.

Imagine crossing a log forty feet in the air, with your six year old crying and screaming for you from below. It’s what I call one of those not-so-glamourous moments of motherhood. An out of body experience that you don’t fully believe is happening to you. I actually asked the guide nearest me if I had to go down to get my kid quiet. (As if that job might miraculously fall to someone else? I was quite tied up, you know).

I learned what “obstacle” meant too. This was intense; embarrassing in the usual way of a child’s public fit, yet far more heart pounding and impossible than any toy store tantrum.  I kept my relative cool across that log and the next, yelling something at Ryan neither profound nor profane (my sister later suggested “I’m going to fall and it will be all your fault”). He quieted when he realized I’d be finishing the course, and later, murmured an apology to the guides and our friends when he wanted to hop back on the low ropes course.

Yesterday, Ryan cheered me through the Adirondack course, repeatedly asking when he’d be old enough to try it.  Looking forward to our next time in the trees together. Is it safe to wear earplugs?

Last week, I forked over a few bucks for 250 Love Them Madly business cards. Uneasy about treating my blogging as something akin to a career, I tucked the little box of cards in my rolling suitcase amid dresses and quasi-comfortable shoes without showing my husband. To counter the ridiculousness of getting ready for a blogging conference, I profusely thanked Scott, my friend Stacey, my mother-in-law, my dad and babysitter for taking over my carpooling/cooking/tucking-in/mommy-ing duties for three days.

I reliably have counted on my sons to be my alarm clock for 99% of my wake-ups over the last six years, so I barely slept Wednesday night, out of distrust for both my iPhone’s alarm function and my alarm-setting abilities. In the wee hours, I showered and slipped out of the house and onto Metro-North bound for NYC.

Nothing legitimizes blogging more than spending a day at a “Blography” (Blog Photography) class and the next two at a BlogHer conference. Two posts or five posts a week, paid or unpaid – no matter; I’m a blogger. Along with about 4 million other moms in America. 4 million. I know. It’s a wild number. So wild that President Obama addressed the 4,500 conference attendees via live video feed to discuss the election. Martha Stewart spent an hour of her birthday speaking to us, endearingly perfect (“Blooper reels are great. I wish I had more of them.”). And Katie Couric (adorably promoting her new show Katie), Christy Turlington Burns (advocating for maternal health as founder of Every Mother Counts), Malaak Compton-Rock (urging all to “pay your rent for living with service” as she does with her Angel Rock Foundation) and Soledad O’Brien (promoting Christy and Malaak and social responsibility) all interrupted their summer weekends to share their business and philanthropic platforms with the women of BlogHer ’12.

And there are certainly a lot of companies that feel women bloggers are important enough to want to make an impression. In prepping for the conference, I heeded bloggers who said business cards were mandatory and listened to my sister when she told me to wear fun necklaces. I had every intention not to be a “swag hag” who showed up at writing labs and blog audits weighed down by product samples and literature. I did not want to be the person trying random products just because they were free.

My medicine cabinets are fully stocked, thanks to Walgreens, Pfizer, CVS and Oral-B. Ditto; pantry, bookshelves, junk drawer. I am sporting a Zicam charm bracelet (thank you Kim for dragging me from the booth as I wrestled among mothering, homemaking, cooking, blogging, photography,traveling, running and teaching charms), to remind me of the four most important jobs I must stay healthy to accomplish.

I am now considering becoming a full time conference attendee with a swag re-sale business. Check out Love U Madly‘s mild mocking/admiration of my methods (and the delicious post-swag meal she made me).

Mrs. Love U Madly had a bit of fun herself.

I’m hoping to really start understanding my camera when it returns from Nikon (or morphs into a new Nikon) and put into practice the many excellent lessons on writing and storytelling I learned from some very fabulous bloggers this week.

And now a little swag for you: check out the website/free app Wonderopolis from the National Center for Family Literacy, sponsored by Verizon Wireless. Each day, families can share an offbeat little wonder of the world. Click below to see yesterday’s wonder and check out the site. You’ll see Wonderopolis answers the question well, and folds in a bit more. In yesterday’s wonder (below), the site opens a discussion on fears, rational and not, and a list of words related to the day’s wonder. Great conversation starters whenever you find downtime. I’m excited to have found another learning tool to share with my kids during car time, waiting time and maybe even, meal time.

What does a man who has donated over $500,000 to Make-A-Wish® Connecticut look like?

Meet Duane Button, a dairy and cattle farmer in Griswold, Connecticut.  Since 2004, Duane and his family have dedicated acres of their farm to growing sunflowers, which they sell for $5 a bouquet, with 100% of the proceeds going to Make-A-Wish® Connecticut.  That’s right – in just eight years, Buttonwood Farms has raised over half a million dollars by selling sunflowers, note cards, t-shirts and hayrides.

There’s no big-ticket gala with heavy hitters writing big checks, just nine days of harvesting sunflowers early each morning to keep up with the demand of visitors who flock from across New England to see Buttonwood Farm’s happy fields of sunflowers each summer. This year, 450,000 sunflowers are expected to bloom across 15 acres.

As a long-time wish granting volunteer and board member, this was my 4th visit to Sunflowers for Wishes. On Saturday, Ryan and I volunteered in the gazebo, selling bouquets, t-shirts and cards.  We met a few Make-A-Wish families; happy kids with huge smiles, drippy ice cream cones and armfuls of the “biggest” sunflower bouquets ever.

Here’s what I learned backstage: sunflowers are heavy.  These buckets, which are loaded in the fields and then onto trucks headed to the gazebo, must each weigh 40 pounds.  Button and his crew of volunteers work unbelievably hard.

I also learned a three hour volunteering shift is a bit much for a six year old.  Hour one went well: Ryan loved collecting the money and recording sunflower sales and was equally enthusiastic about tearing plastic bags from the roll and opening them up for each each bouquet.  Rounding out the first hour – white chocolate chip ice cream from Buttonwood’s heavenly dairy bar.

Midway through hour two, Ryan discovered a one pound bag of rubber bands in the gazebo and one of the seasoned farm staffers showed him how to launch the bands with his fingers.  Just in time for my sister and brother-in-law to arrive and whisk him away to the fields.

Dean (a.k.a. Mr. Madly) found some seeds for us to try to plant.

And helped Ryan commandeer the tractor for the cow train.

We all took a hayride through the working farm where we fed the cows and took lots of pictures.

Ryan thought the sky looked awesome, and called this shot “Blue/White, Green and Yellow.”

Ry searched hard for flowers that were facing him.  He guessed the flowers all faced one way because of how the seeds were planted, in the direction the point of the seed faced when it was planted. Not a bad guess, but one of the farmers set him straight with the ‘ol “they face the sun” theory.

 

Then we returned to the ice cream stand, with dozens of fabulous flavors, including for a limited time:

Sunflowers for Wishes runs this year from July 21st through the 29th, 11 am to dusk. When we left at 7 pm on Day 1 of the event, over 1,000 bouquets had been sold.

Within driving distance to RI beaches or the Connecticut casinos? Make the trip to Buttonwood Farms! For the sunflowers, for the ice cream, for the photographs, for the families of Make-A-Wish® Connecticut and to celebrate individuals like the Buttons who create joy and happiness in our sometimes very dark world.

Make-A-Wish® Connecticut grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. To donate, volunteer or find out more, please visit CT.wish.org.

I am very excited that our visit to Buttonwood Farms will be featured on Out and About Mom on Wednesday.                                               Stay tuned and check it out.