Oak Tree in an Acorn: Meet "Poison Dart Frog" and "Handsome Toad"

Monday, December 8, 2008

Meet "Poison Dart Frog" and "Handsome Toad"

This year, Olivia and Brian have joined Adventure Guides sponsored by the YMCA. This is the group formerly known as "Indian Guides" with a more PC name and now open to both genders. Each parent-child team is part of a small group called a "circle" and once a month each circle gets together for a "Circle Adventure". Each participant chooses a special name to use at the meetings, and Olivia chose the name "Poison Dart Frog" while Brian chose the name "Handsome Toad". Those names make me laugh!

All of the circles are invited to several camping trips throughout the year. Olivia's circle, "The Karankawas", along with several other circles participated in a group camp out at Mustang Island State Park on Nov. 14 - 16. She was so excited to be going on a camping trip with her daddy, especially because this one was at the beach. Olivia has never been to the beach (embarrassing for me to write since I was born in Galveston!), and Brian has never beach camped, so this weekend had potential to be a great adventure...and that it was!!! Brian bought 14 inch rebar to hold down the tent in the sand, and it was a good thing he did because at about 8:45PM on the first night, a cold front blew in with fierce 50 mph winds! Thank goodness someone thought to bring a shovel so that everyone could dig huge pits for the tents to sit in. As Brian was shoveling, Olivia wandered around and found a snake. Brian told her "If you're friends with a snake, it'll be friends with you". Now, Brian has more experience camping than me, but I've been around more non-pet snakes than him, and when Livy called to tell me about her snake-find and what her daddy told her, I was alarmed and said, "Don't believe it!"

My motherly alarm bell was ringing like crazy!

Brian and Livy were in the tent by the time the storm hit, but they could see the sand moving in sheets around them. They only slept a couple of hours as the sand rained in on them through the tent vent. Finally about 1 AM, they gave up on sleeping and ran around outside in the wind and sand. They called and left me a message that I'll probably keep for a long, long time. You can hear them both yelling, "Sandstorm!", and that's pretty much it because of all the static sounds from the wind.

The next morning, the tent was broken and only one-side remained staked down, but they survived and have quite a memory together. They headed home on Sat. instead of Sun. since their tent was broken and it was less than 50 degrees F, but before leaving, Brian let Livy play in the waves, and did she have a blast! What a dad!

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Why the title, "Oak Tree in an Acorn"?

Well, really it's all about perspective when raising the girls. It helps me to think about the grand scheme of parenting and remember that what we do now affects how our little acorns will grow. Like an oak tree, we want them to be strong in their words and deeds, be able to withstand life's storms, set and reach their goals, and be people that others can lean on and trust.

We have an oak tree planted in our yard that came from an acorn my dad planted in a pot. This acorn came from a huge oak tree that was planted in the backyard of my dad's childhood home. My dad's father also planted this tree from an acorn he found on his hunting lease in the early 1960's. Our tree is thus a family heirloom, a "family tree".

It was the year of Olivia's birth when we planted our little sapling. It looked so very sad that winter with no leaves; it was, basically, like a stick rooted in the ground. Five years later, though, it stands 9 feet tall, and we continue to nurture it and watch it grow. We hope one year it will produce acorns of its own, and we can continue to pass on this family heirloom. We hope to remember it's example of how each acorn has the potential to be an oak tree, and how our acorns, Olivia and Genevieve, will one day, with help from God, become mighty oak trees themselves.