All by myself

Hi there :) Life is good, no complaints here in Almont, Michigan. Wouldn’t it be unlike me if I just ended it there? Perhaps someday I’ll turn into a woman of few words. As I grow up and realize that life is too short to spend it telling everyone exactly what happened each day, I am learning to say less in conversation. But in writing, I am still long winded as it helps me regurgitate the weeks’ events like a cow chewing its cud.

Some days I envy cows, happy cows, not factory farmed cows, for the time they have to sit and chew their cud. They may only live a year, but I suppose that’s the price they pay for living a life of leisure grazing on yummy grasses, drinking fresh water, chewing their cud, and sleeping. I have enjoyed my life past age one, so I guess I shouldn’t envy the cows too much. It has been a busy week, the girls and I went out visiting almost every day. I think I got to sleep before midnight once. Camp life was busy as usual. This week’s campers were older so they kept the staff busy later into the night, not to mention the late night injury that kept the whole camp up worrying until 2am. The dear boy did return to camp in good health, ready to sleep in his cabin with the other boys. Matt spent a few too many nights dubbing cds and recording songs for our concert. I was out most nights but did get to pitch in a little bit.

As far as camp goes, I was a total slacker this week. I have completely ditched my camp store duties, ever since the store moved locations and its operating hours went up from 45 minutes to two hours. Matt and Colleen did the whole bread making exercise on their own this week. Bread rolls for about 70 campers with dough left over. I must say that Matt has really good bread hands, he can make it rise so nicely. Perhaps he’ll have to make the bread when we get back to Australia. I didn’t even make it onto the schedule for gardening, but tried to at least water it each day. Although that was somehow a challenge, the garden grew on. Beets, spinach, carrots, lettuce, peas, beans, tomatoes, strawberries, and butternut squash are growing. Newly sprouted seeds are corn, broccoli and peppers. My aim is to get two gardening blocks this week as it will be my last week here at camp and I want to leave it happy. What I did do with the schedule this week was look for fun activities for Jacinta, Genevieve and I. One day we made it to canoeing in time to paddle around with my young friend Maddy who was born at this camp right before my second summer 10 years ago. Another day we went on a “Nature Hike” and learned some new flowers and fun facts from another counselor. Jacinta walked/ran the whole way. Her moods are so temperamental that some days her energy will propel her to do run happily ahead of me, other days it will make her lie down on the grass, scream, cry and refuse to move if she is not being carried or pushed in the stroller.

Temperamental, yes. “Why is she blatantly ignoring my friends today, when she usually opens her arms to let them in?” I ask myself. “Why is she bossing her sister and her friends around as if she is their mother?” I also ask. A little voice inside tells me that she is imitating my voice in her speech, using a snotty know-it-all tone. Should I really be more polite in correcting her misbehavior? Is she not getting enough sleep? Is it that she knows we are leaving Michigan soon and her new sense of normality is about to be ripped out from underneath her feet once again? Is it because she is a Gemini? Is she sick of meeting really cool people for the day and saying goodbye as soon as she is comfortable? This could all be true, but fortunately most often she is a curious, fun-loving, energetic, patient little girl. She may not hug every friend that wants to bid her adieu, but she is usually pretty happy to join in the fun.

Unless she is hungry, Genevieve is usually content to cuddle, smile at, suck on, or sleep on anyone we love. She is well and truly teething now, so she’ll especially love you if you give her a cold carrot and help her hold it in her mouth. Her little hands are getting really good at grabbing anything and everything within her reach. At meals, you’ll now see half of the table cleared and crowded onto the other half, just past Evie’s reach. It brings back memories from just a few years ago. Genevieve is getting better at propelling herself forward. One sudden movement today made me jump as she moved across the floor on her belly like a seal out of water. She gets louder and funnier every day. Giggle sessions only happen about once a week. Today’s giggles happened as she watched Jacinta and I do “high fives.” On Saturday we had another little blessing ceremony by the pond for Evie with our friends Chris and Hinde, one in Australia and now one in America. The Skyline pond’s “holy water” was a little chilly on Evie’s head but she made it through, blessed and all.

One of our lovely visits this week was out to Camp Westminster on Higgins Lake, another sacred place for our family. Matt and I were married there almost nine years ago. Jacinta’s godparents run the camp, and many other dear friends have worked there. A few years ago we celebrated the life of our best friend Thomas there, after he passed away. Unfortunately Matt could not leave work to come along, but the girls and I made the journey. We swam in the waves, visited the outdoor chapel where we were married, ate dinner in the beautiful dining hall, played with Jim and Suzanne’s granddaughters, heard Jim play the bagpipes and watched the girls do some Highland dancing. We finished off the night waiting out the rain in the hall where we had our wedding reception years ago. The three little girls all got up on stage and played dress up with the skit props. They took turns singing and telling jokes. Jacinta wanted to sing a song, but couldn’t work up the courage to do it so she asked me if I would. We went up together and sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” After falling asleep in the car, she magically woke up the next day in her own bed and sweetly said, “Next time we go to that camp, I want to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star all by myself.” She worked on that thought in her sleep. Events that seem insignificant to us can be so very important to our little ones.

The next afternoon I took the girls to a weekly beach gathering hosted by some friends. I caught up with some of the awesome people from the school where I taught, and tasted offerings from the potluck. Jacinta played with some of my former students who had grown up and turned into teenagers. They dressed her, fed her, played with her, swam with her and made her happy. Evie got the same treatment, in her own sleepy four month old way. This gathering is such a beautiful community meeting place. I am so grateful to have been able to show up unannounced and join in the fun, having done the same thing two years ago just before we left for Australia. We spent the night and next day being spoiled by one of my most inspiring friends and her family, complete with canoeing, awesome food, wooden toys, and comfort.

Friday night Matt and I gave our first concert! It was kind of humorous for us in preparation wondering if we’d get a crowd of even ten people. Our friend Chris planned it and advertised it through the Presbytery. We told our friends and convinced the camp staff to come. There may have been fifty people there, we were honored. We had a great time singing to our friends. I even heard a few new songs that night! Matt worked very hard putting together three new cds, and we sold quite a few. It was all very exciting. Jacinta and Evie both had their time in the spotlight: Jess hanging on the mike stand and Evie sucking on it. Throughout most of the concert, the girls were held, fed, loved and entertained by our friends. Thus, we all had a good night.

Saturday was a good visiting day that Matt actually got to join in. Thank goodness because it included feasting at an old favorite breakfast restaurant with our friend Linda. We ate a huge American breakfast, and with full bellies continued on visiting a few other friends and finished the day again, eating and drinking at Lauren and Dennis’s house. Jess partied with Otto and Iris again, staying up until the wee hours. Perhaps this is the reason that both she and Evie were asleep by 7:45 this evening.

As I said, I have no complaints. (I just added a few thousand words.) Life is very good for us. I hope life’s good for you all too.

Peace,

Shana