Monday, Monday

I am enjoying my lazy day off after 7 days straight of working. Camp went well; the kids wrote some amazing, touching, and heart-wrenching songs and hopefully we helped at least some of them to learn some skills & have opportunities to work through their grief with other kids in similar situations.

The campers were divided up into 4 groups, a younger group for 5-8 year olds, a tween group, teens, and adults. I led the songwriting for the 2 younger groups and the other music therapist led the older groups. I think the songs we found to rewrite for the tweens & teens were really great this year, so I thought I'd share them.

The tween group piggybacked on Yellowcard's beautiful "One Year, Six Months." I was introduced to the band by a teenage client who brought in this song and "View from Heaven," both of which blew me away with their lyrical appropriateness for a bereavement setting.



The original chorus is:
"I'm falling into memories of you
And things we used to do.
Follow me there, a beautiful somewhere,
A place that I can share with you."

We changed it slightly to:
I'm falling into memories of you
And things we used to do.
I'll remember the stories & special times
These things that I have shared with you.


The teens rewrote LeAnn Rimes' song "What I Cannot Change."



They changed the verses to reflect memories of their loved ones & ways that they're coping, but decided to keep the original chorus:

"I will learn to let go what I cannot change.
I will learn to forgive what I cannot change.
I will learn to love what I cannot change.
But I will change, I will change,
Whatever I, whenever I can."

Rimes notes on her website that this chorus is inspired by the Serenity Prayer.

(For an alternate video, you could watch someone's bizarre slideshow tribute to the Monkees set to this song. I have no idea why you'd want to, or why the author felt that it was a good match, but that's part of the fun of YouTube. There's also one paired with Alias scenes of Syd, SpyDaddy & SpyMomski!)

On the homefront, we had a guy come out this morning and give us an estimate on shaping up the big trees in our front & back yards. They hang down kind of low, especially the maple in the front, and make mowing a pain for Dave. Katie & have both hacked some of the lower branches off over the past 2 summers, but it needs more work than we can do. They're also going to get rid of the Evil MiracleGro Stump on the side of our front flowerbed.

The tree guy thinks it's the remnants of a mulberry. I just know that the ugly leaves grow faster than tomacco, and I will be very happy when it's gone!

I think we're just about done with making the baby shopping lists/registries. Our big buying decisions left are crib, rocker/glider, and car seat/stroller combo. We are working on scheduling a few final trips before I'm confined to the KC metro area. My UD roommate Dana (who just got a promotion & will have minions reporting to her!) is also going to come out for a weekend visit from St. Louis some time in October or November, so that will be great!