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

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

Whose cake is that?

Hello loved ones! After an undecided cloudy/sunny day, the sky has finally decided what to do…pour down rain, beautiful rain. This rain would beat down loudly on our tin roof in Australia, but here it gently pitter patters on the shingled roof. Matt is in another building leading vespers. Genevieve is in the arms of the most smitten male counselor here listening to her daddy and a few other lively musicians play beautiful music. Jacinta has been asleep since 6:30pm on her little bed close by, while I reflect on the week’s events. In a nutshell, we’ve adjusted quite happily to life here at camp. Jacinta’s cough has gone and the patterns of the sun and moon seem normal now. There are still no campers to play with, but the whole staff has arrived. All of the counselors are here, all of whom dote on Genevieve and Jacinta. Jacinta has finally allowed most of them into her little circle of trust.

“I’m going to dinner with Lizzie!” she called after pulling on her blue gum boots. She was out the door and on her way running down the hill. I often meet her and sometimes Genevieve at the dining hall, Evie, of course being carried by one of the many counselors waiting for their turn. Jacinta will then run to my side so we can all sing a blessing together. She hums a little and unconsciously imitates the movements in her own way. She eats a bit of whatever is put on her plate, not comparing her dinner to the others’ around her. She can pour her own drink, and feels such pride that she’ll even pour me a cup of water too. We’ve become accustomed to being cooked for and are very thankful. They make a nice effort to please me, but I am complicated to cook for these days. I am learning to play here at camp, rather than spending a lot of my energy growing, planning, buying and cooking food. Don’t get me wrong, I still jump at the chance to shop at my favorite old food stores, and cook just for fun. This weekend I was able to cook at my friends’ house in Ferndale for the birthday party, it felt great. Last week Jess and I planted vegetable seedlings in some garden boxes and today we made bread. In general, I can boast that I am chilling out in the nutrition department. Inspired by a nutrition conscious friend in Australia, I am worrying less about the rare times when Jess eats junk and celebrating more of the times when we eat whole, non-hydrogenated, non-genetically modified, hormone free, minimally processed, love-filled, homemade food. I have also been really flattered, and perhaps embarrassed of my food snobbery when people try in their own way to make me happy in cooking for us.

Speaking of food processing, Evie was returned to me in slumber and has just woken herself with a fart. She quickly nursed herself back to sleep and is still cuddling in my lap. She is like a college student who pulls all-nighters throughout the week and sleeps all weekend to catch up on lost time. For the past four days, she has been napping like a champion, but today has been in a constant pattern of sleep, waking to feed and falling back to sleep. Growing perhaps? It’s coincidental, ever since the day we made it to Ferndale and got our big pile of cloth diapers from my friend Carrie she has been asleep. My bias in cloth diapers is obvious, but they are so much nicer on the bum! Many of Genevieve’s clothes had to be washed because of failed disposable diapers (unable to keep the poop from creeping up her back). We weren’t even buying the generic plastic diapers, and they gave her diaper rash. So now she is back in cloth nappies, sweetly sleeping on a sheepskin rug in a Moses basket again, all thanks to my generous friend Carrie who happens to love the same things we do.

I can hear the counselors next door singing campfire songs, laughing and learning the tricks to entertain campers. Matt has been involved in every minute of the action, losing sleep trying to keep up with the “youngens,” average age of 19. We are old now, no doubt, yet he still stays up late playing cards. This is what a chaplain does….maybe??? He spent hours last week rewriting the staff training manual, simplifying and enlivening the boring text. Other hours were spent trying to hook up wireless internet for the whole house full of young adults accustomed to being “connected.” After long hours of determining that it was a faulty router, he bought a new one and today finally succeeded. A lot of his work is just being present, putting in his two cents, adding laughter to otherwise uncomfortable situations, helping everyone learn to take themselves less seriously, inspiring creativity and letting the other leaders lead. Music is of course one of his favorite aspects of the job. Freed by the fact that there are already two other great guitarists, he bought a mandolin this weekend to enrich the music. This staff is full of musicians. We have a bagpiper, a violinist, an oboe player, some guitarists and now a mandolin player. As you can imagine, he is more excited about music than he has been in a long time. A friend of ours arranged for us to give a concert at a church in July singing songs written by Matt. Now the possibilities are endless for what we can do.

Being at a camp created to entertain children in a gorgeous natural environment, the possibilities for what we might do each day are endless. I wake up each day with no plan other than exploring, showing Jacinta a new part of this beautiful place and herself, nurturing Genevieve, and pleasing myself with trees and people. Perhaps because I am not secretly trying to be productive in any way, Jacinta actually wakes up in the morning and says, “Mom, let’s go on a walk today!” This didn’t happen in Australia. On our walks with Genevieve either in the stroller or in my carrier we have scratched the surface of one tiny part of the camp each day. We found the craft cabin, pulled out a few things and colored and cut paper outside on a picnic table. Genevieve lay on a wool blanket draped over a cushy bed of leaves, kicking around, rolling over to stare at the plants on her level. We found jump ropes to try out, huge balls to throw around, and left many boxes unexplored. We had our morning tea and continued our walk to find a new trail. We played hide and seek in the short trees and long grass while Evie slept in the stroller. Jess got a kick out of learning calf raises on one element of the fitness trail. I actually caught her practicing later on in the week. We hunted for good climbing trees, found a campfire pit, and checked out the wood shed. Having a three year old thirsting knowledge and stories has been nice as I can tell a lot of funny stories about each place. Others may tire of such stories, but not this little girl. It just opens up new doors for more questions.

Another day we walked out to the cabins and watched the holes dug out underneath them. We had just sat down on a log to feed Genevieve when Jess saw her first raccoon running from hole to hole. In retelling the story, she insisted that it was “a baby,” but in fact it was a big fat camp-sized raccoon. Shortly after this, she saw her first deer up close. I had feared dragging her up the steepest hill in camp, the infamous “Chapel Hill,” which has invoked hundreds of lazy campers’ whining all the journey long. I recall cheering on these campers up and down the “treacherous” hill for the outdoor chapel service each evening. Matt helped to build the steps into the hill about 12 years ago. She was far ahead of me, loving the steps as a new challenge. I had Genevieve in the carrier, fast asleep. Jacinta couldn’t wait to see where the path would take us.

Another day we trekked out to the sports fields with our morning tea packed in the stroller. En route we found the shed packed with drums and percussion instruments of all shapes and sizes. We took a music break and beat the biggest conga drums we found to the silent open fields. Onward we marched to find the labyrinth carved into a beautiful forest. We had morning tea on a bench in the middle of this seemingly sacred space surrounded by winding paths lined by rocks and tall pine trees oozing with sticky sap. I walked the labyrinth with Genevieve on my chest from the outer limits to the center while Jacinta jumped around, played in sap, and practiced balancing on fallen logs. This is a path I have walked many times, in the falling snow with women on a women’s retreat, with youth from the church in the fresh spring, and in the hot summer with trusted friends who originally inspired me to “mother” in an earthy manner. This is a special place, this whole camp. What an honor to be allowed to play and celebrate the past and the present in this sacred place.

Although I said we’d not be packing our bags for a while, we did take a weekend trip out to our old home. Matt had work to do at the church with the counselors and I had socializing that needed to be done. We spent the weekend in Ferndale catching up with friends and meeting their newest additions to the family. Since I last visited Ferndale two of my closest friends gave birth to little boys. Meeting little Dennis and Nigel and bringing Genevieve to add to the mix was like completing a circle. Our three small families have turned into a grand mob of 12 people. On Jacinta’s birthday we went out to Eastern Market in Detroit to enjoy the beautifully colored people and food. I caught up with my favorite organic farmers and stocked up on local Michigan produce, honey and maple syrup. Later on I took the girls to the Detroit Zoo for a quick round. Jess had a great time relaxing in the stroller, seeing the polar bears, seals, penguins, flamingoes, prairie dogs, butterflies and the bear cat. Genevieve slept throughout but woke up for some milk right when we needed to leave. This is why we got to know the bear cat so well. The humidity in Michigan is terribly uncomfortable compared to my relatively dry life in Australia, the zoo was still nice though.

To finish off Jacinta’s eventful birthday we went to the Saturday night Jazz service at our church. Instead of running from the crowds, she enjoyed the people and the cookie. Our well churched baby became a big girl and let the cat out of the bag that she now knows nothing about church services. She loudly asked questions at every silent moment. “Why is she talking?”(preacher) “Why aren’t you up there?” “Why are you saying that?” (Amen) “Who’s cake is that? Can I have some?” (communion bread) “Why did she sit down?” “Should we stand up now?” As the Skyline camp staff, we were all introduced in the service and commissioned. Following the service they had a dinner for us all. While Matt and I caught up with old friends, Jacinta sat with the other children and ate her dinner. What a big girl! She found the youngest people in the room (ten years+), gave them big hugs and proudly said, “I’m THREE!”

We were staying at our friend Carrie and Chay’s house, these are Otto’s parents and Otto just turned three also. It’s crazy having four baby size humans in the same house though, it can be loud at times All four of us adults cooked on Sunday morning, preparing for a little combined birthday party. Matt and Chay blew up balloons, chopped veggies, made burgers, frosting, they were the sous-chefs. Carrie held it all together and made sure everything got done. Jacinta and Otto made the carrot cake, with my help :) The babies kept us busy until the party began, when Evie fell asleep and Nigel was swooped up by his Grandma.

The children had a blast together. I was particularly enchanted with the ease with which Otto and Iris and Jess all came together. Otto and Iris play together often, but Jess came back into the mix as if no time had passed. It could be that our efforts in keeping them up to date on each other have succeeded or perhaps that three year olds don’t care who they play with, as long as they like the same things. Jess seems more interested in the babies than her friends, often bringing the babies toys or checking to see what they are doing. She really likes playing with their toys, especially those of which she was deprived (noisy battery operated toys). We saw a few friends who we hadn’t met up with yet and had a great time catching up on lost time. The best parts of the party for everyone were the games. There were five children with water balloons and tons of shredded paper to be thrown and rolled in all over the wet rainy grass. The adults watching perhaps had as much fun as the crazy children, or maybe wishing we could join in. What a day, what a party, what lovely friends we have to enjoy here.

To finish off the weekend we stopped at our friend Cindy’s house to spend an evening with some dear church friends. Jess had her fourth and final birthday cake, and now her birthday is officially over. She is three, really three and perhaps those tantrums have magically disappeared. We live in hope (:

So we are back at camp which is home now. It feels good to be here. I hope you too enjoy being exactly where you are at this moment.

Peace,

Shana