Done.

Remember that time I was a counselor at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp?
Remember that time I went all the way to Michigan for about nine weeks?

For my final activity with my girls, the last night of camp we all sit in a circle in the cabin with our flashlights and I have a ball of yarn. We start with me holding the yarn, and then I throw it to someone who shares one thing they learned about their art, one way they grew as a person, and one of their favorite memories. As each new person throws the yarn, they hang on to their corner, and at the end we've made a web. A web of support, and a physical representation of what we have in common through our experiences at camp. I'm looking at this blog post as my own personal closing activity, so I will share the same things. Of course my girls can almost never keep it to only one thing in each category, so I won't try to either. :)

Things I Learned About Music:

• Conducting a band is really challenging, but really neat. With some score-reading practice, I could totally handle a band. I love having that many different sound colors at my fingertips.



• I have the ability to accompany a choir. Or at least a children's choir.



• In the two private lessons that I took this summer my teachers talked to me a lot about ping and placement. Of course we focus on placement in my lessons at home, but it was really neat to hear some new ideas and play with some new spaces.



• I learned several other things too but these are a couple of biggies.

Ways I Grew as a Person

• Ways I grew as a person? What a stupid section heading.



• I practiced creative problem solving.



• I took the lead in resolving conflicts.



• I made the most of opportunities.



• I learned that I enjoy meeting new people!



• I learned that I am capable of (and good at) many more things than I previously thought. I learned not to underestimate myself.



• I realized how important it is to feel connected. I learned the value of keeping in touch. I realized how much I love my family, how far away MI is from VA, and how long 2 months is!

Some of my Favorite Memories

• Bro-ing out with seven bros at Harry Potter, McDonalds, WalMart, and the beach.



• Hanging out in Highlights every day during sessions 2-4.



• Evening off dates with Leslie.



• Penguin-sitting.



• Singing Brahms Lieder. It was really neat to work on that set with someone other than Andrew. It was also cool to really feel comfortable taking the lead in a rehearsal.



• Awesome-Sunday mornings. It was so lovely to go to small breakfast with a few counselors and almost no campers. It was also lovely to walk around a quiet camp on cool, misty, MI mornings.



• Making almost 30 friendship bracelets.



• Playing Water Quidditch!



• There are SO many more.

It's weird to think that I'm going home tomorrow. I feel like I've been in a different world out here. What will it be like to go home? I desperately miss my family and dear friends as well as warm Virginia and the ocean. However, what will it be like to go back there where none of them know what it was like here? BLFAC has been my whole life for the past 2 months... and now it's over? I'm very glad that I've kept this blog and my journal. I'm also very glad that I'll be able to keep in touch with my coworkers through facebook, emails, and letters.

VA, I'll see you tomorrow.

<3, Martha

Preparing for Session Four!

These are my thoughts as I get ready for my fourth and final set of campers.

• I'm SO ready to go back to VA! I miss my family SO much. Seeing pictures of the boys and K and the Floods and everyone just makes me wish I could be there with them. I've always loved them, but maybe I didn't realize how much I liked my family until being so far from them this summer. I also desperately miss my roommates and my apartment. I can't wait to sleep in my full size bed surrounded by my stuffed animals. I can't wait to giggle with my roommates and help plan a wedding. I can't wait to sing on the worship team again. I can't wait to drink tea and do procedures and sit in our corner chair and check our mailbox and write on our Thankful board. I also miss JMU. I miss singing with MadSings and working with KMac. I miss studio class and the Quad and the sky in the mountains. I miss my dear friends and the MRD's and the JMU Wind Symphony and Jazz Ensemble. I'm ready to go home.



• What if my Fourth Session girls aren't as good as Third? Third session was REALLY hard, and definitely felt like the longest twelve days of my life. However, my girls were absolutely precious and I miss them a bit. What if my next batch isn't as good?



• I'm going to miss my BLFAC coworkers quite a bit. I have met some wonderful people here, and it's going to take a lot of work to keep in touch with them. We've had such an unusual experience here, and it will be weird to talk about life here with people from the outside.



• I have so many good ideas! This being my fourth shot at being a counselor here, I've tried a lot of things, and I've had both successes and epic failures. I'm really looking forward to putting all of that trial and error to the test on this last set of campers.



• God is so good. He has been so faithful to me this summer. I have had a lot of ups and downs Spiritually, and one of the things that I've learned is that staying close to God is a discipline. That relationship takes work just like any other. I have tools in place to walk closely with Him, it's just a matter of staying strong in that commitment. Pray that God would strengthen my resolve and that I would pursue Him all the way through the session.

Of course there are many other things going through my mind. But these are the biggies. Pray for strength and endurance. Pray for courage and creativity. I'm praying for you, hoping to hear from you, and looking forward to seeing you in two weeks!

<3, Martha

Halfway Through Session Three!

We're more than halfway through session three, our first session with Middle Schoolers. I have had a wonderful session so far. The most challenging so far, but the most rewarding as well, without a doubt. I'm not so good at writing off the top of my head, so I'm going to go about this categorically.

News Items:

• One of my dear girls went home yesterday! :/ She is a very sweet girl, and she's eleven or twelve, but she is young for her age. The first night of camp we had a HUGE intense thunderstorm, and a lot of the campers had trouble sleeping. She had more trouble than any of the others, and she struggled the next night too. She also didn't really like the food very much, so she wasn't eating a lot at meals. She had two good nights after that, but she was pretty concerned about it and she and her parents decided it was best for her to head home. She was very happy in the cabin. She liked me and she liked her classes and she liked her cabin-mates, but she just wasn't quite ready for camp. We miss her, but we're doing well otherwise.


• I have a camper who is not fully appreciating the "If it's not yours, don't touch it" rule. That's fun. We're going to have a chat with the UD about it tonight.


• Our unit suffered through a Homesickness epidemic. It all started with that stupid thunderstorm on night one. And it continued when our power and phones went out the next morning right as a girl fainted before we even left for Breakfast. Of the six cabins in our unit, four have had a camper go home. The worst is definitely over, though. To my knowledge, there have been no tears shed today!


• We're performing the Brahms Requiem on Saturday at 8pm! Feel free to tune into the live broadcast on the BLFAC website! :)

Miscellaneous Memorable Moments:

• Returning from my night off to my girls running to me with hugs.


• Pictures of ponies and princesses colored by my girls and given to me as gifts.


• Making friendship bracelets for fellow counselors.


• The naughty squirrel that took a bag of cheez-its of a picnic table and carried them with him up into a tree.


• The rotten branch that fell out of a tree in our unit one night. Good thing everyone was asleep and there were no campers standing under that tree!


• Corresponding by snail mail with dear friends and family.


• Praying for my girls one by one silently while waiting for them to fall asleep.


• Winning Cleanest Cabin for the first time all summer!


• Overheard in the bathroom one night: "They thought I said 'I wish my underwear would turn into fruit.'" ... ... ...


• Rehearsing Brahms songs with a pianist who is a fellow counselor. I'd almost forgotten how much I love singing solo rep.

All that to say, these younger girls are a lot more work. They forget many things, ask many questions, and have MANY feelings in a short amount of time... But they're very sweet and I definitely have a special place in my heart for this age group.

I hope you're all well. I love and miss you! I'll be home in less than a month. :)