Someone who loves the gift

I am a Shauna super-fan. I endorse her books with rave reviews and buy copies as presents, her blog is book marked on my computer, I make crafts that feature her words, one of my favorite t-shirts has a quote from her on the back, and being told I write like her is one of the best compliments I've received. I want to be part of this following because I believe in this way of life; a life of celebration.

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.” Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

Today is a celebration.

Today I declared "British Accent Thursday" in all of my classes and taught the entire period in an English voice. My students weren't sure if this made me really weird or really cool but a few of them joined in and embraced the day.

Today I wore metallic gold shoes and my feet just felt so fun all day. A teacher down the hall asked me if I spray painted them.... I told him I wished my craft skills were that impressive.

Today Daphne wore her super nerd glasses and came to visit me on passing periods so she could keep talking in her accent. She's rather quite good at it.

Today Maddie and Katy took a break from the cafeteria and ate lunch in my room. They talked about how they want to play restaurant, they drew on the Express Yourself stickers from Katy's water bottle and then we played Pictionary until the bell rang.

Today Libby wrote, "please. we are busy. you are busy. everyone is busy. but you make time for what is important. i know that i fail everyday. i can not be all things to all people. that would be bad for them and for me." That girl writes the truth. And today I made time for what I think is important.

Today I wrote. I love when I make myself put pen to paper instead of using the keyboard and I just write. I wrote about the puppies and if you know Cold Tangerines (or if you know me) then you know I'm not talking about dogs.

Today we played Concentration in FBC. Our favorite category was Taylor Swift songs. Holy cow. TSwizzy has SO many songs. We learned to make the five braid bracelet and I brought in clementines, mini-chocolate donuts and pretzels. Those girls devoured the snacks. I love getting to know these kids better every week.

Today we sang Drop In the Ocean so loud in the car and called Maggie so she could sing along with us.

Today I went to dinner with Alli and Molls. We cried when they were out of Diet Coke, talked about controversial topics, dissected the latest camp news and wrote Top 10 Things I Believe.... lists. As we were driving home Alli said, "That was just so fun." Truth.

Today I finished the craft.

Today I got to eat Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip ice-cream with Alli. This is her favorite ice-cream and the kind we always get when we're on the Young Life Summit. It tastes like celebration.