summer debriefing project. week three.

good afternoon! i am sitting in an artsy-fartsy "coffee bar" in Cookeville. i have an iced vanilla coffee and jenny by my side, so obviously things couldn't get much better.

this week was draining emotionally and spiritually. it was great, but also crazy.

i think the whole day thing went really well last week, so i'm going to that again.

sunday: i was so excited to have the middle girls. they were coming with a big group from knoxville that has come to camp many years, so i knew they would be enthusiastic. i had a great day of rest on saturday and got to talk to jen and david in the same day (wowee).  julie was my kind of co-counselor (we were in separate cabins that decided to combine) and we both had great jr. counselors, so it looked like a promising week. church that morning was so awesome too. i always forget how nice it is to worship at camp until i'm there and almost in tears because it's just so beautiful. it was so so so crazy when the girls got to camp. their moms were CRAZY (for the most part) and unpacking was so chaotic. we ended up going to dinner as the "braidy bunch" and braided all crazy. we also established three important rules for our cabin: 1) breathe, 2) never back down, 3) always give 100% (this was usually followed with a warrior pose). the girls seemed sweet and all was well.

monday: counselor meetings started this day. these are my favorite and i always enjoy them. i love the quiet, early mornings at camp.  they are such a nice time dedicated to cups of tea/coffee on the porch, watching the sun shine through the mist and on the dew, and spending time with a holy and perfect God who just loves us so much. i ended up teaching riflery class. i want to go outside my comfort zone this summer and teach activities that i wouldn't usually. so i acted like a drill sergeant and yelled at the kids to respect me and whatnot. it was fun for the kids and fun for me. monday went by pretty quickly. it was nice to be able to sit back and let the kiddos have fun with eachother, but it was also chaotic to try to control them. i ended up being bad cop quite a lot this week. but that's okay. monday night, we went to dinner dressed as warriors and it was awesome.  we did a lot of warrior poses and such. my porch talks began this night. i usually take girls out onto the field with a blanket instead of just sitting on the porch. i like that because it allows us to sit under the large, starry sky and observe how large God is.

tuesday: life was so difficult this day. i would rather not talk about it that much, so i kind of will skim tuesday. okay so the huge thing that happened this day was skit night. skit night was probably the best i have seen since i have been working at camp. like they were SO clever and hilarious. our girls were missionaries from the FUTURE (futurefuturefuture...) and went to all the planets (including the dwarf planet, Pluto and a planet named SOLAR). They were adorable and did so well. i was pretty impatient this day and was not able to "roll with the punches" or whatever the saying is. i ended up crying and calling david during the night game. that was both exhausting and humiliating and new. but david was so patient. and instead of giving me empty encouragement, he spoke truth to me. and that was priceless. one of my campers got saved on tuesday night, too. i feel like that was Jesus just confirming that life is good and He is good and He has a plan.

wednesday: this is my favorite day at resident camp. the gospel of salvation is presented and great things usually happen. i was so spent this day. my vocal chords were in pain and i was so tired. but my heart was not as heavy as it had been. the thing that impressed me so much this week, was that my girls were so supportive of eachother. all of them were just very sweet and seemed to really care for eachother! that's such an amazing thing to encounter in a group of 19 girls. campfire wednesday night was great. ryan did an excellent job giving the most beautiful message you could ever give. this night was banquet. banquet night is ALWAYS CRAZY. it's so fun to dress up, but it's also like AHHH CAMPERS! i got to take a picture with one of my favorite campers this week, wheat. his name was wheat. so you know, a picture with me is hilarious. because i'm wheat-intolerant! hahaha
i thought it was funny.

thursday: i really got to know some of the quieter campers this day. that was so invaluable to me. we sat and made bracelets and wrote stories at the pool. thursday night was an emotional night for some of the campers. it was a quiet kind of day for me. i woke up an hour later than usual and felt rested.

friday: this day was full of fun and jenny got to camp! in riflery, i had them complete a challenge to get their award and gave a talk about training in righteousness. it really summed up the whole week really well. i asked wheat what his favorite part about camp was and he quietly answered "the people here." it kind of hit me that that's my favorite part about camp too. water day went so well. i ate TONS of candy to get myself pumped up enough to be excited. after the water slide, we took hose showers in our bathings suits and ran around in the sun to dry our hair. then jenny came. and everybody kind of got crazy excited because she's basically the best. everything about this night was lovely. the bonfire was awesome. a little boy named perry cried softly in my arms for most of it. it was a good time for me to just love on him. i love little boy campers. they're so sweet and innocent still. i got to know a lot of the younger boys this week and that was so so so nice. i ended up giving my testimony at bonfire night, even though i didn't plan to. the party that we had in our cabin was crazy, but (luckily) short-lived. before we knew it, all of us (we were piled on the floor) were asleep.

saturday: (that's today) all of the girls left in a whirlwind. i realized, as i took a super super long shower after they all left, that i was just so drained and needed to be alone. so i have been. and then i got to talk to jen. and that's been good. basically, today has been good.

so yeah, that's my week. it's been crazzzzy and fun.
i have anna (who is so so great) as a junior counselor next week and some campers that i have had in years past. so i'm really excited. but i am a little tired. so hopefully i can get rested.

i hope that you know that Jesus loves you so much and that He always provides, because i was very pointedly reminded of that this week. i was also reminded that i am such a needy person. i just need lots of things. like love, rest, encouragement, and (more than anything) Jesus.

have a great week, yo.

thou mayest

I'm currently typing out whole sections of East of Eden so I'll remember them.

I like stumbling on old photographs. I never printed this one (it's a scanned negative) and I regret that.

Happiness is only real if shared-Christopher McCandless

this weekend confirmed these and many other things in my mind:

-God always supplies what I need. Always.

-God loves me too deeply for me to grasp

-I want more than anything to pack my things and go. anywhere.

-Dear friends and adventure are the ingredients for a most excellent road trip

and much much more.

Oh dear Jesus, help me be grateful. Help me get rest. and above all, help me to love people the way I ought to.

loveliest jen

going through older photographs.

found this.

liked it a lot.

*click on image to make it larger. and to make it look better. please.

I and Love and You

Sorry for not blogging lately,

I've had a ton to do, but I keep putting it off anyway...so I might as well blog. Ah, my life has been fantastic as far as motivation and inspiration goes...but right now, my mind is kind of a torrent of thoughts all swirling around in one stormy mess. I took so many pictures while in branson, yet I'm too lazy to upload them all...but there's a few.

So las Friday, I went to Beethoven's 7th with my good friend Bethany (who, by the way, I'm feeling closer and closer to all the time!). It was amazing to watch the wonderfully nerdy, yet adorable conductor, Tobias (I know right!?) control his minions aka...the orchestra. I find the whole conductor thing to be incredibly fascinating and entertaining. Plus, the 7th was sick-nasty and made me excited for the rest of the night. I wanted to run until I couldn't anymore...or something like that.

The following day, I ran around a playground with Bethany and Sara and it was so lovely. We calavanted...is that a word? Whatever, we calavanted around downtown and such. *sigh* so fun.

You know, there so many things that are unexplainable in this world. Feelings and thoughts and actions . You don't know why they happen or why you do them...they just...happen.

I guess I'm a little bit distracted right now...my life has been so good it's overwhelming, yet...well I already told you. I'm just thinking too hard.

Goodnight-

OH WAIT Guess who's coming over tomorrow? The lovely lady above herself. JEN! I'm pretty excited =)

Okay, bye!

Mary Em

I couldn't think of a clever title so I put this.

My oh-so-happy floral skirt....

This is what we did today =) Oh yay for family pictures...hahahaha I love my family...

This is the trail that's randomly in my neighborhood. I took Jen there to take pictures. I want to show it to everyone. The trail starts on a street and ends in some other world with gorgeous colors and amazing textures. Can you believe people drive their four-wheelers around it?!

We were basically trapped inside the fort when it started pouring rain! LOOK! A RAINBOW! That made my day.

Hanging out with Jen on Friday was pretty much the best thing ever. I've missed her so much! We're resolved that it's going to happen more often. I've had a great weekend, but now it's time to buckle down and start the week. Ew.

Eet

I love this delicate rose necklace. My friends had a magic basket full of old costume jewelry that they let me dig through. I have found some wonderful little pieces. Today was sunny


I don't know why, but I felt like an indian today. I had my hair all braided and this organic, flowy shirt on and beads...call me crazy. So, I just found out that I'm going to have Jenny over on Friday! I haven't really hung out with her since the Summer so I'm SUPER excited.I'm pretty sure we're going to have a photo shoot for photography and it's going to be sick-nasty. (be jealous)

To explain the title-

I vaguely remember being aware of Regina Spektor's new album "Far" coming out in the summer. I didn't hear any of it 'til this week. It's absolutely amazing! A lot of the lyrics are centered around this idea of God. Which, although her theology is WAY off, I think she is starting to ask questions and I think she's searching, which is great. Anyway, I would TOTALLY recommend it. It's completely clean and completely beautiful.

I'm going to go now, but I hope your Thursday is jubilant.

Mary

o

I like it when it's rainy... I felt quite innocent wearing pink and white today. The silly picture in my bathroom is of my sister and I, and two of my friends. I'm heading off to print off pictures to send to Jen. She's been at camp two weeks almost. I am missing her something awful...have a wonderful day!