A Shared Hobby

I'm really happy about this new camping venture our family has taken on. One of the reasons is because it is becoming like a hobby for my husband. It has been hard for him to find a hobby that doesn't take him away from the family for long stretches (or be too time consuming), cost a lot of money, or take up a lot of room. I know how important it is to have a hobby: to have something non-work related that you enjoy and helps you relax. I wrote a little bit about the benefit of hobbies back here.

Probably many missionaries find themselves a bit limited as to what hobbies they can take up. A number I know are bird watchers. This is mostly older folk or singles, it wouldn't work for us – we rarely see wildlife when we're hiking, we're too noisy! Some take up movie watching. We do a little bit of this, but it can be quite time consuming. Probably good for people who don't need as much sleep as we do! Some women do handicrafts or cooking. I do both. But it isn't easy for the guys. We have no room for model trains, or a workshop, or a shed. We can't store a boat for fishing or go to the cricket.

So it has been great to find that camping is a hobby that we can take up as a family. One where we're all together and all enjoying it. David and I are enjoying the planning aspect of camping, something we can do together, something we can look forward to in the midst of a tiring school year.

It's been 12 days since we came back from our last camping trip. We've put that time to good use. We've bought a few more things to smooth the adventure, so to speak. Here are some of them:

A collapsible box which is not only useful for camping, but at other times too. That is one key to living simply and in a small place: have 'things' that are multi-use. 

In the box you can see our new water cooler too. We discovered we didn't have any large water-containing device last time and thought that would be a good addition to our gear.

We replaced the four thin sleeping mats we'd borrowed from colleagues with air beds. Ours is the most luxurious, the boys are more utilitarian. It was quite difficult to find basic air beds in Tokyo. Strange! Here's hoping that I'll sleep better this trip!

Yesterday I made up some packets. Here are home-made "trail mix" and American term I've learnt since being in Japan. A mix of nuts, dried fruit and a smattering of M&Ms. I also put together a packet of dry ingredients for the Doughboys/Twisties that were so enjoyed last time.

And here is The List. I figured, why re-invent the wheel? So I took the handwritten list I made last time and typed it up, so we can print it out every time we need it. I love lists! In this case it is wonderful to know that if we take everything on The List we'll have 99.5% of what we need (important as we won't be near any shops). A wonderful worry-remover.

Back later with some great photos and stories, I hope.