Another week has gone by without me posting much here. It went pretty well, considering the amount of children we had up at camp. I ventured away from my accustomed night hike trail, taking the group up near the landslide precipice, from which we could see the lights of the valley. I didn't bother telling the kids that we were mere feet from the grove where I had discovered Mountain Lion scat on a couple of occasions. We make it a goal never to mention anything remotely scary during night hikes. Most of the kids, and a good number of the teen cabin leaders are pretty nervous to begin with, if not downright scared.
I tried out my new method of checking for understanding after lessons as well. It involves having kids roll the sheepbone dice. Each side represents an animal, and each combination results in a fortune. I have now assigned a natural science question to each roll, so it's sort of like gambling. Sometimes you get a question you know the answer to. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes several kids will get the same question in a row, so it behooves everybody to listen to the answers as they are given. The kids had a lot of fun doing this.
There was a little girl at camp this week who suffers from a rare degenerative disease that has left her confined to a wheelchair. She is not expected to live much past her teens. She wasn't in my field group, but I heard that her parents came on the night hike with her, and that they said it was a really great family bonding experience. This really hits home because it made me remember back when we were afraid Willow had cystic fybrosis, which is another disease that drastically shortens lifespans. I'm really glad to be part of an organization that provides memorable moments for kids, especially in cases like this. What are our lifes but a collection of moments, connected by spans of routine? We need more moments and less routine. Nobody remembers the routines. I think it is very possible do do as much living in twenty years as some people do in seventy or eighty.

Okay, I'm starting to ramble, but my heart goes out to this girl and it was great to see her smiling all week.

Speaking of breaking out of routines, Jen got to go out and hang out with some friends last night while I stayed home with Willow. Willow wanted to watch some unmentionable show about a sappy, extinct purple creature. I sat with here on the couch and read more of The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, which is really great so far. It concerns a jesuit mission to a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. It ends badly. Fascinating read. I just found out that there is a sequel too.