I'm officially collecting orders for this year's FBC shirts. I'm making a bold move and going with long sleeve Comfort Colors shirts instead of sweatshirts. I feel confident about that decision, hopefully you do too.
We're going with a 'Merica look this year because God Bless and I love red, white and blue. The design on the back is an American Flag with bracelets as the stripes. The difficult thing is the design won't be perfected till we place our order so you have to imagine the greatness with me. (The front won't have that blue shadow and the bracelet frame will be navy and turquoise. On the back those bracelets won't have a white background and they're be redrawn without shadows so they're just red, white, blue and turquoise.)
The best part is you don't even have to be in FBC to buy an FBC shirt. You have till Nov 13th to get me $20 and you'll be on the list. At least 100 of the shirts I sell every year go to friends who aren't part of the club at my school. You could be on that list this year.
Did you notice that our shirts say "Est. 2009"? We've been around long enough that 2009 actually sounds like a long time ago. These 7th grade girls were only 5 years old and in kindergarten when I first started teaching in this building.
We've been causing ruckus and chaos in these halls while we play the Human Ladder, creating a culture where everyone is included, filling wrists with bracelets and making knots during CNN Student News for 7 years now. English Comp is important too, but I'm proud of the FBC.
FBC always has a strong start at the beginning of the school year and then we slowly phase down to a more manageable number. Today, three months in, we're still pushing over 75 kids in the library. It's wild and loud and messy and so much fun. And yes, we've still got boys showing up.
Today we expanded our membership when Meredith, Laura and Hadley came over from Riverside Junior High. They're Wyld Life girls and I'm such a fan of the three of them. I'm glad that when they can carpool we can overlap here too.
The girl gang from HIJH is still showing up every single week with plenty of enthusiasm and advanced friendship bracelet patterns. I love when old friends get to reunite.
These 8th grade girls are fun, sweet, helpful, respectful, kind and creative. I love pulling a chair up to their table and hanging out with them while we tie knots or they practice their choir choreography.
Kid President is one of my favorite people and we watch his videos in class ever #awesometuesday. Kid President changed October to Socktober five years ago and my class helps the effort to collect socks for homeless people. This year we have 73 pairs of socks so far.
Going to the Storyline Conference in Chicago last Fall was one of the best things I've ever done. In two days I got to listen Bob Goff, Donald Miller, Shauna Niequist and Glennon Doyle Melton. I was living the ultimate literary dream. So many of their words stuck with me and now I'm an avid reader of the Storyline Blog. Today I'm loving these words in a post from Mike Foster,
"You have to learn when to get up from the table when love is no longer being served. For a healthy friendship to exist, love has to be present. And not the emotion, the verb. We were made to make each other better. To build and rebuild brokenness. And to share life with others who are giving it back. Friendships that look for love will always find it."
Isn't that just so good? If you think through your best friends, the most significant people in your life, are you both investing love into your friendship?
Chloe and Cookie have both been part of my life for the past five years, but my friendships with both of them have significantly grown in the last year or two. Part of that is that they're getting older, part is that it's a season when we're both invest love into the friendship. Tonight I got to hang out with both of them at the same time which was just awesome. They're both the kind of people that I always want more time with-- to ask questions, to hear what they're thinking, to see them really laugh, to listen to their stories. I'm such a fan.
I'd like to propose that one of the Wonders of the World should be Junior High choir concerts. There is really nothing else like them.
Favorite part #1: Watching 8th graders Grace and Grace, Payton, Mer, Camden and Hannah smiling and dancing like their life depended on it. They stole the show and had energy and personality that was off the charts.
Favorite part #2: Best friends Ellison and Evie stood next to each other during most of the songs an they couldn't stop cracking up. During the spooky Halloween song they were both making silly-creepy faces and then cackling at themselves. Oh my goodness I love this pair.
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