Campers and sesame sticks

Good evening folks! Munch munch munch…the most profound statement I can come up with at the moment. I am relishing my long lost love: honey sesame sticks, which I have not yet found in Australia. Of course there are different things to eat around the world, but this is one food I can not make myself that I wish they had everywhere. Real Mexican tortillas, affordable organic produce and pine nuts, lettuce grown in normal dirt (not hydroponically) and tasty herbal tea blends are other foods I am now celebrating. Strawberries are in season so Jess and I made jam this week. Asparagus is at the end of its season here in Michigan so I’m eating as much as I can. It’s good to be back at a productive time of year. Earlier today I took the girls into town and we passed by a huge corn field and gazed at the six inch high corn seedlings. I look at this fields differently now. I used to think of them as a picturesque reminder that I was “out in the country.” Now I admire them with the knowledge of how hard it is to make them all grow and save them from caterpillars. Then my brain takes me all over the place. I assume they must be genetically modified, and that the farmer will probably not need to go out there to pick off bugs. I think of how lovely all that corn will taste and how nice it would be to have such a field of corn to eat for every meal. I then assume that the farmer probably ships his corn off to somewhere at least one hundred miles away to be eaten. What a pessimistic mind I have.

After the loss of my purse over three weeks ago, I finally found enough documentation to replace my lost driver’s license. I can drive again! I feel like a sixteen year old with this newfound freedom of transporting myself. Jess tells people, “Mommy got her license!” Across the street from the Secretary of State in Romeo, Michigan is the most awesome Salvation Army. To celebrate my new license, Matt introduced me to it. This resale shop is like a department store, so clean and well organized. Rather than my usual scorn for my country’s reputation as the biggest in everything, I now appreciate its efforts in resale. I will surely use my new license to go back and stock up before returning to my small town of picked over resale shops.

For the time being, camp is just beginning. Last week the staff continued their preparations for the arrival of the campers. Archery training, policy review, activity ideas, silly games, songs, campfires, pool and pond orientation, labyrinth walks, bowling, and drumming. The girls and I only participated in these activities when we could do so without interrupting or weren’t busy “playing” elsewhere. Matt is busy with the staff from 8am to 11pm, but always finds a little time here and there to walk with us, eat with us, cuddle Genevieve, read Jess stories or make her laugh. Amidst all of his community building activities, Matt is finding ways to help the counselors pause, look around and meditate on all they are doing. This was one of his main goals. Another endeavor he undertook was rewriting the camp song, which he finally shared on Saturday night. It was the perfect time to share with our old camp friends who were here for a visit and our new camp friends who will be here to sing it with campers all summer long.

I spend most of my time momming and socializing, but I do have one project. A few of the counselors asked if we could have a garden! The plans are under way, some materials have been gathered and purchased. All that remains is the labor of creating a beautiful, bunny-proof no-dig garden. There is a grant we might apply for if I can write a good enough curriculum for next year’s staff to follow. I couldn’t ask for more.

Another stroke of luck was my ability to attend the Eighth Grade graduation of a class I worked with from First Grade through Sixth Grade at Oakland Steiner School. Seeing them grow into tall, talented, beautiful, intelligent, interesting and amazing individuals was awesome. At a Waldorf School graduation, each student does a performance. Sitting on the floor with Jacinta and Genevieve, we watched poetry, singing, guitar playing, violin solos and comedy. The Eighth Graders lit the candles of the upcoming First Graders, passing their lights on to the little children who would someday pass their light on to new little children. The ceremony is beautiful, another circle complete. The girls and I spent two full school days with students, teachers, friends and parents. I refueled my French soul in conversation with my few favorite French friends at the school. I also had a chance to catch up with inspiring mothers, old friends, and gaze at the huge children who used to be so small. They all marveled at how Jacinta had grown and how much Genevieve looked like her big sister, the one they had watched grow in my belly as I taught them French, sang and cooked with them, the one they had bounced around while I was cooking. Jacinta didn’t mind the attention, she just smiled and told them stories about her chickens.

Speaking of chickens, in the one class we visited I was made a “category” for their game of Jeopardy. I could ask them any question I chose on Australia, cooking, farming or French. Most of the questions were simple, and then I asked how many eggs a chicken lays a day. I must find out if this was a hard question or not. I am biased because I live with chickens, but I guess I wouldn’t have known before. If you could be bothered sending me an email on your guess as to how many eggs a chicken can lay a day, I’d be interested. By the middle of the game of Jeopardy, Jacinta moved away from me and sat on my young friend Ashley’s lap. Later on at the school picnic she played with a few other girls who I had taught, joyously jumping to catch balloons. She followed McKenzie to get refills on fruit salad as it poured down rain upon the tent. She asked my friend Linda to take her on walks and push her on the swing. Although she could feel connection to my friends and past students, she also formed instant bonds with certain little girls. I wonder what it is that makes her approach a young girl and hug her as if she is a long lost friend. After a long social day, she rode on young Hannah’s back to the car and fell fast asleep. Watching my daughter trust my dear friends although she doesn’t see them much just warms my heart beyond belief.

While visiting the school, the girls and I spent a night at my friends’ Lauren and Dennis’s house in Ferndale. Carrie and family joined us for another great night of friends, good food and drinks, three happy three year olds playing in the backyard and three content little babies rolling/crawling around. Jacinta was very excited for another try at a sleepover. Although Iris was fast asleep in her bed by the time Jess was ready, she insisted that she sleep in Iris’s bed too. All the while the adults, babies and Otto in the hammock lie outside in the dark chatting on the grass, listening to what Lauren and Dennis like to think of as waves crashing onto the beach. It may be a loud four lane road, but who wants to listen to noisy cars and trucks?

At camp our waterfront is a small pond for canoeing and fishing. Matt, Jess and I had a chance to canoe as a family this weekend. This was a first for Jacinta, and she loved it! We thought she might have been afraid, but we were wrong. She was ready, and even tried to paddle. Matt took her fishing, another first. Although she didn’t catch anything, she loved holding the pole, saw other people’s fish wriggling around and enjoyed herself. The pool is now open and Jacinta is learning how to burn energy in it. She’ll swim with most of the female counselors and Matt or I. The campers have arrived and she now has more adults to play with. This week is Camp Joy which is just that, joyful. These developmentally disabled adults are so kind and excited to be here, their enthusiasm radiates far and wide. I prepared Jess in by telling her that the campers are “Grown ups that play like you do.” This is exactly what they do: puzzles, coloring, bracelet making, dancing, ball, parachute games. They are still in awe, there is still mystery in life for them. Many of these campers have been coming for longer than Matt and I have, so it’s fun for us to see them “all grown up” again. They are ecstatic to have a baby and a little girl to play with here at camp.

Little Evie is getting even more attention now that the campers are here, sometimes I have to hide her from getting poked or tickled. The counselors don’t have as much time to cuddle her, but I’m managing :) This weekend some old camp friends came for a visit, to see big Jess and little Genevieve. A past counselor, Kim, our old camp cook, and Amy and her little girl (now 10) who we saw as a baby here at camp came out for the weekend. Caroline (an old counselor) and Heather brought little Reed who is Evie’s age. Jacinta made sure the babies lied down together to play on her bed with her monkey in between. Genevieve is getting stronger every day, and much more alert. She’ll grab my lunch plate and pull it off the table if I am not fast enough. She has a ticklish spot on her belly button and will giggle every time you press it, like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. She smiles this big beautiful toothless smile when she feels good. She has also decided that she prefers sleeping on her side. If I swaddle her, she will find a way to bust out enough to turn on her side. She may be grunting for a few minutes, then immediately after she gets up on her side, she falls asleep.

Speaking of sleep, I must take that as advice and go.

Peace,

Shana