I’ve added something to the Bucket List this week: Learn how to play guitar. Because as one-with-the-Earth and family bonding and bug-slappingly wonderful as our camping trip was, it would have been just a bit more proverbial (in the unicorns jumping over rainbows kind of way, of course) if there was a guitar at the campfire to complete the moment.

And everyone knows, as corny as Kumbaya and John Denver campfire songs are, there is no one cooler around a campfire than the chick who pulls the guitar out and starts strummin’. And everyone’s all, “Dude! You didn’t! You brought your guitar…Whoa!” It’s gonna be me someday. Of course, I’ll have some Tom Petty in my repertoire as well to keep it cool. Because sometimes unicorns like to rock.

So, camping was a hit.

Our friends John and Charlotte joined us with Austyn and Brandyn’s good friends, Ashford and Drake. Thankfully, we like them all a lot.

We’ve been camping here before, but it was Life Pre-Babies. There’s something fabulously full circle about coming “home” to a beloved place after babies. Like renewing your vows. We loved it once already but now we’re bigger and better, and setting up tents while watching your toddler play with twigs and balancing chubby baby legs around your hip while you’re flipping pancakes on the Coleman grill has a way of making you love it all over again…and then some. I do, I do. I do take thee, Campground, to be our lawfully wedded place of good times, again and again.

I love camp air–this dusty combination of loose dirt and thick gray haze from campfire smoke, and it’s rich with this earthy scent that strangely makes me want to wear plaid and chop wood and catch fish.

I like boiling water over the campfire and making coffee that tastes that much better for the effort. I like sipping cold beer out of a tin cup. I like pulling my babies this close to me under the sleeping bag to keep them warm and imagining that winds are howling outside and our tent and my arms is all that keeps us safe from the big bad storm.

Mostly though, I like being together and feeling for a moment like all that exists is us, some hot flames, and this peaceful place that pulls you a little closer to the earth and all it has to offer.

And as all good renewing-your-vows ceremonies go, let there be photos.

Have no idea what this picture’s about. No one was sleeping but strangely, everyone has their eyes closed…even the dog. Funny.

So, yes…if I had a guitar, I suppose I’d pluck out some sort of high-on-life song about now.

But, I have a fabulous new sponsor instead and a giveaway to go along with it.

Introducing, artist Mark Poulin. Mark is a metalsmith and enamalist and happens to have an incredible talent for creating fun conversation-sparking jewelry.

My favorites: my Tic Tac Heart earrings…

…and the family necklaces (can be worn as a set with one clasp or seperately as Lainey and I are wearing our Quadrapus).

Right now, mention “Enjoying the Small Things” and buy any three items and get a little charm necklace free. (offer expires December 6th).

Plus, Mark is giving away a $75 gift certificate to a random commenter on this post. Winner will be announced Wednesday.

And, one more attempt for solicitation. When we were kids, our homeschool group was selling M&Ms once for something–don’t remember what, but we used to stand outside grocery stores trying to sell boxes of M&Ms. It was boring and ridiculously cold in the winter, so someone got creative and made up this little jingle “Would you like to buy some M&M’s?” which we would sing and accompany our song by tapping candy boxes together. It was silly and slightly embarrassing but in that really cool this-is-kind-of-liberatingly-fun kind of way. Dude, people came by the droves to buy our M&Ms. The point of this story?

If I had a guitar and knew how to play it, I’d sing you a little jingle about voting for Enjoying the Small Things in The Bump polls. But I don’t. You can still vote until tomorrow night (and you can vote every day). Right HERE. Scroll down and click “Enjoying the Small Things.”

Hey, it’s Monday. It’s a holiday week. Somewhere it’s snowing (I hear Montana, eh?), and Brett just changed our garage radio that plays 24/7 to a Christmas music station. Good times, Man. Good times.

It was a long day, the kind where nothing seemed to make its way off the to-do list.

Dishes, laundry, carpet stains, whiny spells all multiply while my patience depletes. I’m edgy, anxious, quick to bite and slow to forgive.

The sun sinks right as my awareness of my frustration rises.

“We’re going to the beach,” I declare.

Blankets are gathered. Suits are stashed. Carseats are buckled.

We hit all four red lights on the way there. My jaw tenses, my fingers grip the steering wheel. I swear under my breath and plead with the sun to wait.

It does.

We don’t say much to each other tonight. They are content without my coddling and I am breathing in the universe, releasing my stress onto the tide where the waves take it away.

A man stands at the shoreline, still and bewitched by the pages of his book rather than by the great ball of fire that slowly falls against the canvas behind him. I make a mental note to add “Stand in the shoreline reading book at sunset” to the fabulous things I want to do someday.

We are covered in coarse sand that sticks to our wet skin like salt on a pretzel. We dip our toes into the soft sand and watch as the sea foam bubbles over our buried feet.

Sometimes it feels like I’m not enough, like I want to give so much but my reserves are low.

That’s part of loving too though…making it through the empty spots and finding ways to replenish the good.

Feeling replenished.

Three treats for you tonight…

A) Happy to announce the renewal of Tina Steinberg’s Sponsorship. I’ve raved about my fingerprint necklaces so much, but seriously…I adore them and everything they mean. A new favorite: feeding Nella and watching her reach up until she feels the edges of the charms…and she’ll clutch and twirl and rub her fingers against them until she’s asleep.

They make a fabulous holiday gift and right now (until 11/30), Tina is offering complimentary additional inscription on the back of all Love Touch designs. Please order early to ensure holiday delivery (she also has gift certificates!) Thank you Tina! We are proud to represent you.

B) Jana Laurene, the artist that painted the portraits of Lainey and Nella in this post is offering a $50 discount on her commisioned paintings. She’s only selling 50 paintings, so yours will be one-of-a-kind (so get it fast!)

C) The giveaway winner for the $50 gift certificate for Lilian Eve Designs is Commenter #592, Gina: I so need something pretty to jazz up my boring tee’s and jeans this winter!

Gina, please e-mail your info to kellehamptonblog@comcast.net, and we’ll have your tees jazzed up in no time.

Oh, and thank you for voting for Enjoying the Small Things at The Bump. I’m sharing with all of you our honor as winner of Best Special Needs Blog. (Hollah!) ‘Cuz we all share the special need of drinking a nice cup of enjoyin’-the-small-things, eh? There really are so many amazing voices out there drawing awareness to special needs and showing that, regardless of abilities or disabilities, we share so much of the same challenges and dreams, so Hollah to them too. We’re all in this together.

With that said (ha ha), the ante’s apparently been upped and now we’re up for best overall blog award. Kinda like a spelling bee tournament. It’s Nationals, Baby. Again, happy to be considered…if you want to give a hollah, vote HERE (and you can continue to vote with the button on the sidebar).

With all that said (whew!), I’m taking my replenished soul to bed.

Nella woke up early this morning, her first little croaks whistling out from the bassinett butted as close to the edge of our bed on my side as I can get her. I un-spooned myself from Lainey and blindly stretched my hand out until I felt Nella’s fingers grasp mine, but it was obvious after a few more croaks and the sound of her legs kicking that she was up for good…even though the sun had yet to yawn and stretch. So, I scooped her up and we stumbled through the blackness to the door, out into the kitchen where I fumbled to make coffee, her body molded to my hip like soft clay while we listened together to the hissss and purrrrr and spputtt of the coffee pot and finally the slow, hot trickle we were anticipating. She was still groggy, and I half wondered if she fought to stay awake just for this moment…because she knew that the true magic happens in the quiet of that sliver of time right before the sun rises.

We did something we don’t ever do. Because usually we’re still dreaming this time. But, today…we ventured outside.

We snuck out to watch the sun rise, trespassing across dewy lawns to our neighbors’ backyard where their big swing sat still, overlooking the lake, waiting for us.

And it was quite magical, that shift change between moon and sun. You know that crazy transition at a hospital when the new shift arrives and nurses are going over charts and making sure the incoming staff know what’s been done? I saw that this morning. Except, right about the time the moon started explaining what needed to be done and where he left off, the sun cut him off. And he goes, “Dude, I got it. I’m the sun. Now, go to bed.”

Bravo, Sun.

You know that adventure of nothingness I referred to earlier this week? It had an encore. Except I wouldn’t be doing the adventure of nothingness justice unless I tipped my hat to every bit of somethingness we get from it.

Travel is good. Busy schedules are good. Having important places to be and amazing people to see is all good. But, like fields that rest before a productive harvest season, I find these small-but-very-big-moments huddled up at home so very good for my soul.

So, we did just that this weekend. We did nothing and so-very-something all in one.

And, look who’s got chompers…

I am refueled.

The sun is set. The babies await. …good to come.