mamas need camp, too

This summer I expanded a bit from just offering the one weeklong girls' camp that I've been doing for three years and hosted several days of 4-5 year old day camp and two days of 'Mama Camp'.  The kid camps were great and several little buddies of mine had lots of fun learning about chickens and compost and tasting all the different herbs in the garden and making tea and doing all sorts of art.  But mama camp?  Oh my goodness.


Twice in the last few weeks a dozen women (mostly a different dozen each time, but a few lovelies came both times) have come together at my place (some I hadn't even met until they bravely parked in my driveway and walked up the front steps to introduce themselves) to make and craft and brew and chat and eat and connect with each other for a stretch of about four hours or so.  It has been a blissful thing.  The first time around I wasn't sure I knew just what my role would be- yes, I organized it and ordered all the materials and put it together and invited folks, but 'teacher'? Hmmm....... I'm used to that when I've got a group of kiddos around, but a group of my peers?  It is true that several folks were coming to learn something, as these things that I feel are second-nature are not necessarily the average skill set of the 30-something and 40-something crowd in 2018.  I realize not everyone is going around asking for neighbors' permission to tap their sugar maples and foraging for mushrooms on the roadsides and kegging kombucha and rendering backyard beeswax.  And such.  We all have things that we come accustomed to making and doing and sometimes all we need is a little nudge to expand into a different space.  (now I'm rambling.  and also thinking of all the things I want to do but need a nudge to do....)


As much as I wasn't sure how I'd carry out the actual 'event' that first go around, it came together beautifully and was just such a lovely time.  Truly, I think all the mamas would have probably been thrilled just to be together with a dozen other mamas without all of our kiddos in tow.  That rare chance to completely remove our 'mama hats' and relax and exhale into adult company and camaraderie for a good stretch of time.  The fun stuff we made together was the icing on the cake.  A great big collectively made party favor, if you will.  And did we ever make!  We made a lot.  Indigo-dyed tea towels, sauerkraut, deodorant, body butter, tinctures, two kinds of herbal teas, indigo-dyed pillow cases, healing herbal salve, insect repellent, beeswax food wraps, a flavored secondary-fermentation kombucha, herb-infused facial oils...... whew!  That is a lot of stuff to make but we pulled it off, and all while connecting and learning from one another and enjoying delicious food and drink.  Good, good stuff.  Soul food, I believe.