RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY....

When the kids were little we used to go camping a lot during the summer. My parents and brothers and sisters (and their families) would go as well, so it was a lot of fun. And a lot of work.

Any mother knows what a chore it is to pack clothes for your child for a camping trip. You pack about 20 pairs of pants and about 50 shirts, plus about 100 pairs of socks. And that is just for the first hour after you've arrived.

My kids used to go through clothes while camping like it was nobody's business. If you're really lucky, at some point, you get the proverbial rain. If you haven't been camping in the rain you don't know what you're missing, people. It just oozes with fun.

So you're up camping and it begins to rain. Every child's delight and every mother's nightmare. Because camping is in the dirt, people. That's the oozing part.

Do you know what happens to dirt when water is poured on it? Lots of water? Lots and lots of water? Well, let me educate you. It becomes mud.

Mud that gets all over your child's clothes and into every pore and piece of skin that they have. Did I mention that you are up camping?

That means no baths and no showers, unless you are at a campsite that has those and certainly we never went to any place that had 'em.

My children were thrilled. All that dirt and mud to play with and not a bath in sight! I was horrified as it was pretty much my major goal in life to keep my children clean. Or at least, semi-clean. I mean, you never know where that mud has been!!!!