Rainy Days and Mondays

Yesterday we announced that we are in a new weather pattern… that the rain has officially moved out and we are going to now experience hot, dry, and less humid days.

Fifteen minutes later it started to rain.

Such is life in the mountains. We should never check weather forecasts… it doesn’t matter around here. Sometimes it feels like camp is in the middle of the rain forest… fortunately, we like rain forests!

Last night’s concert had to move inside due to rain… but it proved to be a great venue to introduce the girls to JJ Heller. JJ and her husband Dave gave a wonderful concert, acoustic guitar with lovely melodies broken up with charming dialog between the artists and the campers. We heard so many stories of the Heller dating history and family life, it felt like we were part of the family! They even showed home movies of their girls growing up. Precious!

JJ, Dave, and their two daughters will be hanging out at camp today (going to classes, eating in the dining hall, relaxing in the Adirondak chairs by the lake). It will be a lot of fun for the girls to connect personally with this wonderful family.

Breakfast Club theme is about to finish the theme of Physical Growth (we have one more day before we move on to our last theme of Spiritual Growth). Today I encouraged the girls to not worry so much about the little aches and pains of their bodies. Any athlete knows that a body aches when it is pushed… any “grown up” knows that a body aches and hurts even more as it gets older. My suggestion: that we not expect a body free from pain. That we not try so hard to make every ache and pain go away.

Many campers (and counselors) want medicine to remove the normal aches and pains from our bodies… but sometimes medicine is not needed, what is needed is reassurance and a little “grit”.

At camp, we learn to have grit. To push through the normal pains and discomforts of life (every camper walks anywhere from 5 to 13 miles a day and they do a wide range of sports… their bodies are pushed like athletes and they are surprised to experience sore muscles like athletes). They go to the Health Hut in huge numbers to have the various pains removed… and after being checked out by the nurses, they often are told to drink more water and just take it easy. They learn that it is OK to tough it out sometimes. Good life lessons!

We are very good at taking care of your girls. Actual illnesses and accidents are given high level care (what other camp has 9 nurses and 2 doctors?). We currently have 8 campers in the Health Hut with low grade fevers and scratchy throats. They typically stay for a day and are discharged, only to be replaced by some more girls with the same symptoms. You will always be called if your daughter spends a night at the Health Hut or is started on any regular medications. The common cold and other mild respiratory viruses are not uncommon at this point in the session, and although we work very hard to prevent the spread of these things, when the girls live, eat and play so closely together, things do get shared. Not an outbreak, but certainly a good topic of discussion in the cabins! It leads to girls worrying about their physical condition to a degree that is silly (at least it seems so to me!).

Margaret and I very seldom took our children to the doctor. We hardly ever put them on any kind of medicine (over the counter included) for we came from the old school… “let’s see if it gets better tomorrow”… it usually did. I know that we were blessed with healthy children, but I also know that they learned to put up with a certain degree of discomfort in life (even though they didn’t appreciate the lesson at the time!). Chances are, the campers were not listening very closely or taking it in… but that is what was on my mind today!

We are already thinking about lunch (Meatloaf!) and tonight will be a Mexican theme (steak fajita’s, chicken rellenos, chips, salsa, queso). EP is along that line as we do a special event called Chaco’s and Taco’s (will be giving them jalepeno poppers, nacho cheese chips, and churro’s as treats).

The temperatures are rising, so we put out the “Misters” today. Nothing satisfies like a mister on a hot dry day! Of course, it will probably rain despite the forecast… and we couldn’t care less!

Life is Good!