Keigley Campaign: The Idea(l)

I think it was May when we first had the idea.

Yes, yes it was May.  (I like how a blog reminds me of things I forget.)

And it was also May when I said my plan was to tell you about our camping campaign idea.  (I don’t like how blogs remind me of things I forget to do.)

And so far, all I have done is tell you about one particular camping adventure.

And that’s okay I guess.

I doubt you’ve been hanging on to the edge of your seats waiting for me to follow through with that.

(But if you have – I’m sorry.)

And today I’m going to finally explain our idea – three months later.  (Because, you know, that’s how I roll.)

Kevin and I struggle constantly with the balance between being overwhelmed with the speed our children are growing up and being aware of our goal of redeeming the years we have and the hope of embracing the now we get with our children.  We struggle with feeling as if we have not held on enough to our oldest and we watch as she struggles to find herself apart from us.

And we long to bridge the gap between all of that.  The gap between our oldest and the rest.  The gap between being a family with memories and a story to share together and a family who grows up and moves away from one another and shares only a past.

We read a lot of parenting books.  (Well, I read a lot of parenting books and give Kevin the Cliff Notes.)

But one book that has really shaped our parenting philosophy and has served to rescue our children from our foolishness many times is called Shepherding Your Child’s Heart by Ted Tripp.  Kevin has actually read this one himself.  I’ve read it literally dozens of times.  I’ve seen the author speak at several conferences and Kevin and I once drove all the way to Washington, DC to hear him deliver a weekend conference series on that specific book.

And he says a lot of good things with more importance than the one thing I’m pulling out for this post.

But here I go anyway.

Mr. Tripp talks about the incredibly strong desire of people, but especially pre-teens and teens, to feel a sense of belonging.  

And how that desire to belong can often draw kids into making poor choices with their friends or their peer groups.

He proposes actively endeavoring in your own families to be the kind of family that a kid wants to belong to.  (Please trust me – his is not a how-to book – it’s truly a God-centered reminder to draw your children to the only true authority, but this is just one idea we gathered from his book.)

Kevin and I mulled that concept over for a long while.  The idea of doing something big together as a family.  The idea of creating a something that our kids could say, “Yeah, this is what we do.  The Keigleys just do this.  It’s our thing.”  The premise of creating within our family group an almost club-like mentality.  Something to belong to.  Something they thought was great and they wanted to belong to.

Sometimes this is accomplished with simple traditions.  Yearly vacations to the same spot.  Weekly Friday Pizza & Movie Nights.  Saturday dinners cooked by the kids.  Running races together.  Book Club with the girls.  Nature bird walks with the boys.

And sometimes you need something a little bigger, a little broader, a little more intense.  Something with a purpose and a big goal.

For us, we decided that something would be camping.

It fit so much of our current criteria.  Every age can participate.  It is cheap.  It is flexible.  It appeals to our family.

Our goal, then, is not just simple camping.

It’s this: Visit one South Carolina State Park every month for the next year.  

There are more than 12 state parks in South Carolina, but we figured we’d aim for one year and then see where we want to go from there.

We started in May – with Lake Jocasseee and Devil’s Fork campground.

And here we are in August and this weekend we conquered Jones Gap.

In between we have visited Hamilton Branch and Table Rock.  Although we didn’t camp, our travels this summer have also taken us to Paris Mountain and Hunting Island.  (Which boosts our total to six state parks so far.)

Planning has helped.  When Kevin and I decided we were going to attempt this we immediately sat down and chose one weekend every month until December.  That way, the weekends were on the calendar and everyone had to simply plan around them with no excuses for not knowing the dates were impending.

My goal (and yes, I plan to accomplish it) is to  backtrack a little and fill you in on the recent camping adventures.  Partly because every trip has a funny story and partly because I don’t want to forget each excursion.

But for tonight, for today, it is enough to just explain the “why”.

The ideal behind our idea.