This week She Who Must Be Obeyed as been stressed because our girls have been in and out of the house for a couple nights at a time.

I actually consider this peaceful; she considers it stressful.

At our girls’ schools, the end of school marks the start of school camps. Our oldest went to an overnight camp as part of a junior leader program, then came back for one night before leaving the next day on her school overnight camping trip.

After she got back from that, our youngest left for her overnight camping trip. This started badly, though, when the kids had to hike from the school to a bus station and, because no mothers had been informed about this first leg of the journey, many of the kids had duffle bags rather than backpacks.

The guilt from this (even though it wasn’t, technically her fault) stressed out She Who Must Be Obeyed and made her more concerned than she normally would be (and she normally be extremely concerned). I therefore gave your oldest a standing order that She Who Must Be Obeyed not be allowed to leave the house. “If mommy goes out to check on the car; stop her. If mommy puts the trash out early, stop her. If the house is on fire, stop mommy from leaving because she probably started the fire herself.” (Something like that.)

In the end both girls were fine and came home with little trouble. There was some rain and some altered plans, but they managed to camp before the heat of summer kicked in. That seemed to make the trips better.