{pretty, happy, funny, real} ~ fiddle camp edition!

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty and happy}

Other than the dining room, more on which later, the pictures I have on my camera are from fiddle camp last week. And that is lots of fun to show you, so here we go.

Do you have this kind of “camp” in your community? In ours we have drama camps, Gilbert & Sullivan camps (music plus drama!), and fiddle camp. My kids have gone to these camps and taken their turns running them. Our Will even ran a baseball camp, because he really wanted the homeschoolers to know about baseball! It was his personal mission.

For fiddle camp, Bridget’s students gather for five afternoons for one week, and her friend Rose helps her teach them fiddle and also a couple of Scottish country dances.

The children have studied fiddle with Bridget for a few years, but then she went to college, so they caught up this summer as much as they could.

Doing a camp really gives the children an opportunity to work intensely on their skills and encourage each other to reach ever new heights in fiddle expertise.

During the week, of course there have to be breaks.

I cleverly bought squirt guns and a kiddie pool half-price at the store, and you know, a kiddie pool is just a surprising amount of fun for a small amount of water!

I used to stress out about having such an event at my house. Even though I have a big kid-friendly house and yard, I thought it wasn’t good enough — that you need a real pool, or a lake, or an ocean, or some sort of actual body of water (this is my fixation — can’t really explain it).

Not to mention having a yard free of weeds, picture-perfect gardens, some sort of fancy swingset at least… I had a serious case of “not-good-enough-itis,” in short. This comes of reading too many magazines or, if you are like this but probably younger, visiting too many fancy sites online.

I have since relaxed.

These particular very imaginative children instantly organized games of tag and epic relay races. They all played together — all the ages. And they also learned quite a number of tunes and steps.

At the end of the week, the kids practice all afternoon and then the families (with all the siblings too) arrive late enough for the dads to join the fun. It’s a potluck supper and a show!

{funny}

(I don’t have pictures, but another fun and funny part of the camp is a dance that includes everyone — grownups too — on the lawn. An important part of the festivities!)

During the camp, the children take off their shoes instantaneously upon arrival, which is why you see that they are all barefoot while performing.

“Discalced fiddlers,” as one Dad named them.

And Roxie couldn’t really leave the stage, front and center. “I’m a fiddler too. What.”

{real}

“You started painting the dining room right before fiddle camp?” asked my friend Mary Elizabeth… not adding, “And our visit?”

Yes, this is how relaxed I’ve become.

When your daughter offers to paint the dining room the week before, you just say yes, knowing how it will be! Camp, out-of-town visitors, and all! (Next week I will show you the “afters”! It was worth it!)

I just want to say: If you stick with your friends, raising your children together, encouraging them to share their talents with you and sharing in your turn —  and not worrying about how perfect your life may or may not be, you will see… a culture will grow up right around you. That is my only reason for showing you any of this: Just to encourage you to start now if you haven’t and keep on if you have.

Oh, and did I mention a sickly green sky/tornado warning and hail? During the second day of camp and smack in the middle of our friends’ visit!

Yes, picture all those kids crowded into the kitchen, but not in that dining room!








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