Blue feet

Good evening loved ones. This week we had our summer solstice here in the US. I’m guessing that means that my Australian friends have just had their winter solstice. Our longest day of the year was their shortest. The days are indeed long here, I don’t think days ever last this long in Australia. Perhaps it’s just that I don’t wake up early enough to notice when the sun rises, or that Michigan happens to be on the edge of the Eastern Time Zone. I didn’t dance around a fire celebrating the solstice but did spend time with friends enjoying the never ending sunlight in Ferndale. In the daytime, we visited my friend Judy who was present for Jacinta’s birth just three years ago. We made cookies and played with her daughter’s old doll collection, it was very special. Later on Jacinta, Genevieve and I went mulberry picking with our friends Carrie, Chay, Otto and Nigel. Otto was smart, he rode the tricycle. Carrie and Chay wore shoes but Jacinta and I went barefoot and came back entirely blue. The masses of fallen mulberries on their neighbor’s sidewalk were reason enough for us to assume they simply did not want the mulberries, so we happily indulged while Genevieve and Nigel (six months old) watched and studied the grass. This was the closest to a barefoot wine stomp that I’ll ever get. Don’t we all dream of stomping grapes and drinking wine in France and Italy or is it just me? On my travels in France I kept wondering when I was going to come upon a wine festival, but most often I ended up staying with the few people in France who didn’t like wine, but were very nice people. I suppose I’ve read too many picturesque travel books.

The life I’m leading here at camp though, this could make a picturesque travel book. My book might not be advertising camp for campers, but living a life of luxury in the midst of camp happening. I have friends coming for visits as if this is my summer home with the added bonus of kind counselors to help hold babies in the pool, magic shows and drumming at night, piles of fire wood for camp fires, and the occasional tasty camp meal. Lauren brought Iris and little Dennis out on Monday. Christine, a close friend from Ferndale came on Tuesday and stayed over night. We hiked around climbing trees, pausing at the labyrinth and enjoyed the beautiful trails through prairie land. Maggie, a great friend from college who happened to also meet her husband here at this camp, and Adrian brought their two little girls out for a visit this weekend. Jacinta got to be a little girl this week, able to play with little people and do little girl things. She and Iris chased each other around with pillows, wrestled, played in the tent, and ate heaps of cherries. She and Otto gave each other rides on the tricycle and wrestled. Wrestling??? This is something new for her, it’s quite funny. With Lilly and Ella, she played in the sand box, picked wildflowers, dug in pine needles and made “soup,” and played her first game of “house.” Jacinta can yell a good “goo goo ga ga” now :)

Genevieve does not say “goo goo” or “ga ga,” but she does make some pretty cute noises. She giggles now, but can only be inspired to giggle by her big sister. A few times Jacinta has wither grabbed Evie’s hand or smiled at her and been rewarded with the most infectious giggle. I try tickling her to get the giggle but she needs her sister to laugh. Genevieve is still keen on lying on her belly, she rises higher and higher on her belly each week. This week it looked like she was in a constant state of flying: arms out in front flexing to take off, flat on her belly with her legs also flexed straight behind her, rocking from side to side trying to move. She can really roll around and go somewhere now. One of her main goals these days is grabbing our plates at dinner, spoons, her cloth carrot or bean and putting it in her mouth. She is quite adept at the grab, but lacks coordination in actually getting the object into her mouth. If you need an image of her most common expression, picture her being carried by Matt with her head looking at the people walking behind her. Her eyes are so wide open and intense you’d think she was in a constant state of shock or awe. Her little rosebud mouth is half open, and her cheeks are bouncing with each step. This is our sweet little Evie.

Although Matt works from 7am until 11pm every day, he is around all day long and able to jump in and grab Genevieve or Jacinta when we are in need or he just needs a cuddle. He took Jacinta for a few hours one day and I actually got a nap, a long beautiful nap with Evie, what a blessing. He spends his days taking pictures of each and every activity and nights singing with campers, in staff meetings and compiling cool Dvd presentations to show the campers how beautiful they really are. This is a concept he learned from his friend Diane, and finds very effective in boosting people’s egos. These presentations were extremely informative for me to see what I had missed while I was off visiting with friends. He also did some recording: both of camp music sung by campers and for a boy named Anthony who wanted to be a rapper. Anthony was in heaven as they played his “debut” rap at the dance on the last night. Matt is the technological chaplain and really makes a lot of people smile.

Matt and Colleen, “the chaplains,” in our nightly meetings and Sunday morning worship have been using food to teach lessons. One night we all ate a strawberry mindfully, concentrating on every part of the gift, including the tiny seeds on the outside of the fruit. This morning we made bread, each counselor kneading their own little roll and adding their own “spice” and touch to their loaf. I was proud that they all rose and actually tasted good, this was my part of the project.

On that note, food that is, the garden is slowly progressing. The logs are all in place, half of the chicken wire is up because the hardware store ran out, the hay is almost all down on the bottom layer. One third of the garden is ready to plant, complete with hay, manure, straw and topsoil. A very kind girl who works in the kitchen here has brought in some manure from her farm. Tonight her boyfriend showed up with a truckload of amazingly fertile “muck,” so we are on our way. We will plant it all out this week.

Planting gardens, trekking around camp, seeing friends, watching my little girls grow and my husband work a job that makes him happy: it couldn’t get much better.

Wishing you all chance to plant gardens and trek around wide open spaces.

Peace,

Shana