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. :)

A Dream Worth Remembering

This is what I wrote in my journal late one night this session...

I just woke up from the weirdest dream! Mom, Dad, and K came to visit on Middle Sunday. They signed me out and we, a hamster, and a pony rode a ferry out to an island to spend a couple of hours. There we ran into Abbi who looked beautiful in a flowing patterned dress, and increasingly long hair. She appeared to be at a rather fancy lunch event with a group of navy guys who also had dates. I did not see her man. We were running late to the ferry and both the hamster and the horse died. I woke up after this discovery to the sounds of two of my campers conversing! I investigated. They were exchanging tissues b/c one had had a bloody nose. They claim there is no mess and that the crisis is averted... I guess we'll see in the morning.
I have no idea what time it is. I'm writing this by flashlight under a blanket.
Welcome to my life.
...Was it a hamster or a pet chipmunk???

Halfway Through Session Two!

So in a week from yesterday, we will have finished our second session of camp. It's hard to believe that we're about halfway through not only this session, but the summer! I've been here for almost exactly a month, and I half just over a month left to go. Time flies for sure.
Today I'd like to write a bit about some things that have worked better for me this session, about some challenges that I'm discovering, and about what I'm learning in my personal Bible study lately!

Success Stories:

• Cabin Orientation. This is a part of the evening on Opening Sunday when I sit down with all of the girls in my cabin and go over things like rules, and policies, and where we start to get to know each other. This didn't go too well in the first session... so this time I planned it much more carefully and things went much better!


• The Buddy System. This way, I ask my girls where their buddies are, and they tell me who is missing instead of me trying to count heads like a crazy person.


• Assigning meal chores. This way the clean-up is shared equally and we don't have four girls taking all of the responsibility.

Challenges:

• Middle Sunday. It's SO HARD to get through Sunday of each session. My day starts as usual with breakfast at 7:15. The difference is that there are very few campers coming along. There are two rounds of breakfast, one for those attending chapel, and one an hour later for everyone else. I'll be in chapel every session because the Vocal Ensemble always sings. Then I'm off to Symphony Band rehearsal, followed by a Staff Choir performance for all of the choir campers. Then it's lunch, and after lunch we're back to a regular schedule. Middle Sunday is challenging because I lose a couple of hours of free time in the morning, I have to wear the formal uniform all morning, and I have to sing a lot in the morning. It's a long day, but it's always very rewarding because of the performance for the choir campers. There's nothing like singing for an enthusiastic audience!


• The Brahms Requiem. It's SO HARD. Musically, it is challenging, but definitely do-able. The challenge is to put it together with our conductor. He is a wonderful gentleman from Austria, however, there are some small issues. The language barrier is definitely a factor. Another interesting thing is that he asks for straight-tone singing throughout. This is very hard to do, especially when singing forte in the higher part of my voice. The other challenge will be the emotional demands of performing a Requiem with texts as brilliantly set as these are. The Brahms is definitely challenging, but it will be extremely rewarding as well.

Bible Study:

• I've been going through Kay Arthur's "Lord, I Want to Know You." It's a book about the names of God, and I've learned a lot. I'll list the names and memory verses that I've learned so far!

1. Elohim, Almighty Creator God, Rev 4:11


2. El Elyon, Might God, Psalm 57:2


3. El Roi, God who Sees, Proverbs 15:3


4. El Shaddai, All-Sufficient God, II Cor 12:9-10


5. Adonai, God our Master, Psalm 16:2


6. Jehovah, Self-Sufficient God, Exodus 3:14


7. Jehovah-Jireh, God the Provider, Phil. 4:19


8. Jehovah-Rapha, God who Heals (haven't finished this one yet)

So that's that! Those are my thoughts here at the halfway point. :)

Session Break Number One

So here I am on my first session break. During Orientation I volunteered to work for any session breaks that I was needed, but I was very relieved that I wasn't called in this time. We've been going almost non-stop since June 20th, and it was just time for a break.

I thought that now would be a good time to just reflect a bit on the things I learned during the first session.

Lessons Learned:

• No cell phone = Not so bad.



• "Play the chill card."



• Check their shirts and pockets before washing their clothes.



• Many "minute warnings" makes one's cabin on time.



• It's just as important to tell the girls what they're doing well as it is to remind them of behaviors they should change.



• Make cabin expectations crystal clear from day one.



• 14-year-old girls want my approval... even if they don't.



• Meal chores must be assigned.

I never want to forget...

• What it felt like to conduct a band.



• The experience of working with Dr. Matthew Westgate



• The warm fuzzies of sitting in the sunshine in Stewart Shell listening to the Symphony Band's dress rehearsal.



• Hugs from campers.



• My camper's 14th birthday.



• Dancing with fellow counselors at the camper dance.

There's so much more that I could write about, but sometimes the words don't come. My overall impressions: I did a pretty good job on round one, and with the lessons that I've learned, I'll do a really good job in session two!

Almost Done with Session One!

Can I write a blog post in 11 minutes? We shall see.

So we're almost done with the first session of camp, and it has been unforgettable in many ways! I'm having a wonderful time, and I'm doing very well. here is an idea of what a typical day looks like for me!

6am: GOOD MORNING!
7:15: Breakfast
8-9:30: Symphony Band rehearsal assisting (Lots of supervising, a little bit of giving permission for bathroom breaks, and the occasional music/instrument repair paperwork. Also teaching experience! Tomorrow I will lead my first ever band warm up!)
9:30-noon: Free time or In-Unit time. In-unit means being in the unit to answer the phone, push the laundry, and answer the questions of campers who aren't in class.
12:15: LUNCH.
1-2: Vocal Ensemble or Staff Choir rehearsal
2-4: Free time or In-unit
4-5: Rec Hour! Different assignment every day. Lots of supervising... aka camper stalking. it's fine.
5:15:Dinner
6-7:30: Hanging with Campers in the unit!
7:30-8:30: Concerts or Performances
9:30ish: LIGHTS OUT

Memorable moments include: Teaching a private voice lesson to a Horn major, Receiving my first private voice lesson from a female teacher, Recording "Les Filles de Cadix" for the staff solo competish, writing letters, memorizing Scripture while patrolling the woods, the chipmunk that lives under the pavilion where my band rehearses, Learning to live "unplugged," and So much more.

My girls are mostly rising HS freshmen, and they're bundles of energy, insecurity, boy craziness, and preciousness. Cabin life hasn't been without its hiccups, but I like my campers and with about 4 days left in the session, they appear to still like me!

I love and miss you all back home! I love pen pals, I have cute stationery, and if you send me your address I'll write the first letter. :)



Finished with one minute to spare.