Field Trip!

I knew my job here at camp would include a lot of variety – something I was looking for in a job. But, being every a good office employee, I never imagined it would include field trips!

Today, Lisa took me on a tour of Long Prairie, a good-size little town about 25 miles northwest of camp. (When I say “good-size” I mean a population of just over 4,000 – ten times larger than most towns around here, including the one I live in.) The point of this field trip was to see some sites she hopes to give a tour of during our two women’s retreats this fall. It was a fun day and very educational. Just like a field trip should be, right?

First stops: Amish farms. I didn’t realize there were so many Amish up here, but there are – complete with their buggies, and white houses, and farms, and wonderfully crafted woodwork. Since the Amish don’t have electricity and, therefore, no internet, Lisa found these on the Long Prairie Chamber of Commerce. That equals surprises.

For instance, at the first one there were two vans in the driveway and the girl that came out to greet us wore jeans and a shirt a little too short. Now, granted, this particular Amish family have been “enlightened” and are somewhat “shunned” by their old neighbors. But this enlightened? Thankfully, no (although they do now drive vehicles). The Amish family was up in Michigan helping at a camp for a year. The family living there were former missionaries watching the house and working with Hispanics around the state. However, we did get to see the woodwork of the Amish man: coffins. He does those almost exclusively now. I have to say they were VERY beautiful. And, although expensive for something you just bury in the ground, cheaper than most.

After a stop at a farm that no longer does woodwork, we were led to the shop just up the street. The owner wasn’t there, but his brother was working on a set of drawers. We looked around at the beautiful pieces: a gun showcase that wasn’t complete (no windows or lights yet), a lovely desk with lots of cubby holes, a dining room table set just the style I would love, and – my dad will LOVE this – a table with two sets of legs. Why? Well, I asked the man if the dozen leafs sitting on top of the table all went to it. Yes, indeed. Completely pieced together, it stretches 18 feet!!!! I also had to ask him if he had ever made a roll top desk (my dream). He shook his head. He said they didn’t have the proper tools to make the roll. However, he added that he wished they did, for lots of people ask for them.

The last Amish farm was truly educational. They, too, had beautiful woodwork, most of which were beautiful hope chests carved with roses and Bible verses. Inside the shop, two signs hung. One asked for the donation of empty pint jars (for all the jams, jellies and honey they produce). The other asked for Singer treadle sewing machines. We got to talking to the woman about the machines, asking for details as there are so many quilters that come to camp, you never know what they might have. This got us an invitation into the house to see exactly what the woman would desire. I’ve certainly never been inside an Amish house. It was simple, of course, with beautiful wood floors, cabinets and a few furnishings. It was very open and the two machines she has were each sitting beside windows. Except in a museum, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a sewing machine that doesn’t run by electricity. And now we know exactly what to look for.

The last stop we made was at a Vinegary. The man there makes homemade vinegars. These vinegars are wine based (but non alcoholic) from grapes, mixed fruits, tomatoes and anything else one can possibly think of. Once they are vinegars, he infuses them with other fruits, vegetables and herbs. We tasted dill/apple, tomato/basil, jalapeno, raspberry, cherry, sage, thyme, horseradish, ginger and a few others. All the herbs and much of fruit they grow on site. I also learned that you can grow a garden in bales of hay. That’s my kind of gardening – no weeding!

Like most field trip days, it was a bit exhausting. But it was very educational and a lot of fun. And I get to do it all over again in the fall…Lisa asked if I would like to be one of the drivers!

Thank You

Summer Prep

It’s rather hard to believe that summer is upon us when yesterday it was a high of fifty, I was wearing a sweatshirt, the farmers have not gotten in all their crops yet and the leaves are only beginning to bud. But since the summer staff has been trickling in over the past two days and our summer schedule starts with Memorial Weekend Family Camp tomorrow, I guess summer really is upon us.

I’m thinking the real sign for me is that my desk has no possibility whatsoever of being clean. Registrations continue to roll in (thankfully even more online which is SO much easier!), mailings have to go out to the parents every week, and there are still many other angles of my job that have nothing to do with the summer. (Next week I’m going with Lisa on a “field trip” to the places she thinks she wants to take the women to during our fall women’s retreats…four whole months from now!) So while I’m balancing many things, I’ll focus on summer right now.

What do I do during the summer? Let’s see…

• Get use to having thirty or more college students around…five of which spent a few hours in my office gabbing today. I don’t deny that my world is small, but college students live in a much smaller bubble. What they rattle on about is fascinating.
•       Mailings, mailings, mailings. Three weeks before camp starts, parents receive an envelope full of information about camp. The week before the letters go out, I run a report for that session of kids and lay it all over my living room floor so I can make sure all their info is correct (i.e.: balances due, the friends they want to share a cabin with are really coming, they’re signed up for paintball). I then make those corrections, print each child’s statement, run an updated report from which I pull mailing labels and then stuff envelopes. We’re talking anywhere from 100 to 190 letters. Thankfully, we have an envelope “licker” and a postage meter!
•       Answering the phone. There are moments when I want to throw it across the room. (Praise God for Andrea who answers too because I can’t be on that many phones at once!) And I can honestly tell you you will not believe the questions mothers ask…I need to make a list of them for a future blog post!
•      Cabin assignments! I get to do my first ones next week and I’m so looking forward to it! I know it sounds crazy, but taking 150 kids and separating them into twenty cabins is the kind of work I love best. It’s also where I have the most power: if some counselor gets on my nerves, I can give them a cabin full of “ADHD” kids. (Yes – I will warn the staff next week to be VERY nice to me or I will make their summer miserable…)
•      Run reports. I live by lists, so I suit this job very well because before next week is over I will have made a dozen of them: cabins, waterfront, special needs, express check-in, standard check-in, regular canteen, early bird canteen, share camp bonus…yes, I have a list of my lists!
•      Registration. Duh. I am the “Registrar”. But, I get a break on registration Sundays – I get to do express (they’ve already paid for everything) versus standard (they owe money). The first registration day will be a breeze. I’ll be on my way back from Boston where I’ll be in a wedding the day before. But, believe me, I’ve tons of prep work before I leave…and I’ll be running circles when I get back!

That, in a nutshell, is what I do during the summer. And while there will surely be moments when I want to throw the phone across the room or run my computer over with my car, I truly think I’m going to enjoy it. 

Senior Day!

I think I have decided that my most favorite day at camp (so far…) is Senior Day. It’s kind of like having 170 grandparents at once. Only, for me, a lot better!

Camp Lebanon has Senior Day twice a year – once in the spring and once in the fall. They time it so the snowbirds are back…or haven’t yet left. Many of these seniors have been coming to Camp Lebanon way longer than I’ve been alive – a couple longer than my parents have been alive! But even if they are new at camp, they bring a testimony of a long road walked with their God.

I met a man who had been in the Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Had to ask with his Navy cap on – being a navy brat myself.) I have never had anyone actually cheer when I said from the stage (because I was asked by Bill) that I was born in Rhode Island, but one man in the back did. I found out later, he was from Jamestown and was overjoyed that I was from Newport. All through high school, he took the ferry from the Jamestown island to the Newport island and then walked the mile to school. I heard him telling someone else later that I was from Newport, just across the bay from him.

Of course, my accent told them I hadn’t really grown up in Rhode Island. A few knew it wasn’t really a “Texan” accent either. And I don’t think they’ve ever heard as many “yes, ma’ams” and “no, sirs” as I was handing out today. More than one asked where home really was and all of them liked an accent they don’t hear very often. Several had trouble understanding it…

There’s nothing like hearing old hymns sung – many of which I haven’t heard since I was a little girl in Tennessee. I hummed along, not knowing all the words anymore. Many of the little old ladies took my hand and told me how nice it was that I’ve come. And I was told more than once that I have to stay…the Lord will just have to work out a piece in my life to come join me.

My highlights of the day were threefold:

1)      Talking to an older woman who loves dollhouses about my own dollhouse. She’s staying til Thursday morning and I have to show her a picture.

2)      I was sharing the testimony of how the Lord worked out my coming to Minnesota with one man, who in turn shared a testimony with me how the Lord worked out his 5-year-ministry in the Philippines many years ago. As we continued to talk, he asked me a particular question about a part of my life. I gave him the answer I typically give. “And what do you think about that?” he asked. Mmh…no one has ever bothered to ask me what I think about it – those who have made the decision don’t seem to care for my thoughts on the matter. It was one of those moments when someone who has seen the Lord do many things asks a simple but wise question…one I do need to think and pray about.

3)      During the summer, the seniors choose a summer staff member to pray for. They take home the staffer’s picture and leave their name and address so the staffer can write them during the summer. Being “core staff”, I’m not on that list. But when I was out on “The Hub” today, I had one of the women beckon me over. She asked if she could pray for me this summer. I was surprised, but of course I said yes! I left her my name and she said to expect a package in the mail soon. I went back to the office and made sure I got her address from my database. And I will be sure to write her this summer.

I kept thinking today how much Charlene, the home health nurse back in Texas, would have LOVED today! How much fun she would have had with the seniors, which are the people she loves most. I can see why. Most of their life behind them – Heaven ahead. No doubt their last days on earth will be weary ones as their bodies break down and memories fade…but they live with Heaven so close! Who knows if I will ever see some of them again on earth, but this one day has blessed my life. And there will be a jewel in their heavenly crown for it.

PS - This was supposed to be posted last week...time is getting away from me!

My Mother

It seems like every Mother’s Day I sit at my laptop and wonder where I am going to find the words to describe my amazing, wonderful, inspiring, gentle, remarkable, astonishing mother. Even Proverbs 31 seems to fall short at times…

This year, two things come to mind. First, as I sit on my bed and type this, is her sacrificial love. This is the first time I moved into a place that wasn’t furnished. And since most of my belongings remain in Indiana, I have had to purchase things I took for granted. I didn’t have to purchase a bed frame, but I did have to get a mattress set, sheets and looked for a comforter. As I stood gazing at the myriad of choices, it suddenly hit me that I had never had a store bought quilt/comforter for my bed. NEVER. Mom always quilted me something. When I told her that, she said, “Never?”

“Never,” I confirmed.

“But I think…no, I guess even your first one was something I had made. Mmh.”

A week later, she asked me what I wanted. I decided on a “Rag Quilt” with patches of dark blue and red. It is now on my bed.

So, no. I have lived 33 years and NEVER had a store bought quilt on my bed. And every night, I can go to sleep under my mother’s love.

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Doesn’t always feel that way, but it brings to mind the second thing. I want to be like my mom. After 33 years to think about it, I’d pay just about anything to be a wife and mother. I’d live barely making ends meet, trying to figure out what I can do to help put food on the table. I don’t think I’ll ever be half as good at it as my mother, but I’d pay just about anything to try. I know I probably have no idea what that could truly cost, but there’s very little I desire more than to have a husband and children to “rise up and call me blessed”. Not because of who I am – but because I have a mother who I rise up and call blessed. And thank God for her. 

Spring Ramblings

Spring is here! At least, we think. Just so those of you who were watching the news know, I live in northern Minnesota (well, really central) and it was southern Minnesota that got all that snow. So the first weekend since October, Phil didn’t have to shovel or sand…he didn’t know what to do with himself! But no one has won the “Ice Award”. There is still ice on the lake. Bill says we’re starting a second contest and he’s putting out a June calendar tomorrow.

Dads ‘n Lads is very different from Mother/Daughter. I was only in on it Friday night (besides all the prep work). No stress or details involved with guys. The only thing I had to do was make sure they signed up for their paintball time and paid for the zipline!

Mother’s Treat this weekend which is a very-mini quilt retreat (like 15 women). I don’t have to be here for it. But I have some prep work. And Monday starts Senior Retreat. We have about 40 seniors coming from Monday-Thursday. The only thing to worry about is them beating each other with canes over the rooms they want. Senior Day will be Tuesday, when we expect over 100 seniors. Got to make phone calls on that tomorrow. Do nametags. Folder labels. Door signs. Not much to it.

First letters go out this week for the summer. Memorial Day Weekend Family Camp is just around the corner. Got to prep for letters going out next week for Adventurers (grades 1-3) camp June 6-9. Summer staff arrives the Wednesday after Memorial Day. Hard to believe summer is nearly here… Did a run through with Carmen last week. Think I’m ready, except much of it will be learning as I go. What am I looking forward to the most? Putting cabins together. I’m going to have a blast sitting in my living room with nearly 200 registrations and sorting them into cabins of 8 to 10 kids. Yea!

On a more personal note, my mom made me a great quilt for my bed so now I’m all nice and cozy on the nights that are still quite cold. Ordered some pots and pans – now I can actually boil water! Found a chair I am DYING to have. It’s an oversized swivel chair. I can’t stop thinking about it. Makes little sense for entertaining purposes, but I’m alone with my books and laptop much more than I have anyone over. And it would be soooo awesome to read, write and nap in! I’ve just about overcome the price tag…but purchasing a bicycle to ride to work comes first.

Best of all, I have a friend visiting not this weekend but next. My last relaxing “vacation” before I hit summer. (Since being in a wedding the second weekend of June is NOT relaxing.) I won’t have a real day off again until…well, it snows.

A unique panoramic of our lake – see the ice!

Mother/Daughter Retreat

After a very brief respite following Quilt, the retreat season begins once again. Thankfully, it starts with a small group…and includes little girls who love to jump rope! And have snowball fights. And scavenger hunts. And polishing their nails. And dressing up. And – of course – giggling! To me, Mother/Daughter is ten times better than quilt. I have so much more in common with seven-year-olds than I have with quilting adults…

 S’mores!

Snowball fights!

Zipline!

Facepainting!

All dressed up!

 Rainforest Banquet!

Yes, you can believe it: even I got dressed up!