"I used to brush my hair 300 times a day because it's really good for it. And now I just do it for 20 minutes because it was a waste of time."

Did you know that the 8th Grade Washington DC trip is just two and a half weeks away? That's so soon. I'm so excited for: traveling with 200 8th graders in the airport, getting to know our bus driver, the Newseum for the first time, the monument tour, hotel dance party, hanging out with Hodgin, Beesley and the rest of Bus Luke, rooming with Richter, finding the next ugliest DC sweatshirt.

If I woke up tomorrow and found myself as an HSE student instead of a teacher, this is one of the groups of girls I'd want to be friends with. Lexi, Caroline, Lucy, Emma, Liz, Linnea and Kaylee are such fantastic humans. They're funny without being mean, supportive of one another, encouraging and kind, silly and real, genuine and authentic. I don't get to see them all as much as I'd like too, but tonight was a blast. I'm thrilled that they're all going to Timber Wolf this coming summer.

10  Random People I Wish Could Gather For A #TecumsehTuesday Reunion:
1. Sarah Fitzpatrick
2. Sarah Mooney
3. Michael Kraft
4. Maggie Shadid
5. Ellyn Hessong
6. Alex Allison
7. Annie Fazzio
8. Erin O'Awesome
9. Emily Dignan
10. Carolyn Kata

Brookie is the greatest-- today she showed up with this congratulatory sign for my friendship bracelet progress. She's such a cheerleader. At this point I'm throwing out bracelets like confetti.

"Ok, we're just going to hold hands and walk really, really slow down the middle."

Monday mornings are for waking up early and hanging out with these 13 seventh grade girls as we read through Love Does together. Today I surprised them all with a friendship bracelet which was so fun. That's the best part of making all of these bracelets--giving them away. 

"Jesus told the people He was with that it's not enough to just look like you love God. He said we'd know the extent of our love for God by how well we loved people." This is what I aim to do and I love when I get a front row seat to seeing other people love like this. When we got to YL tonight Cassidy surprised Julia with this needlepoint just because she loves her. How freaking cool is that? 

"Being engaged is a way of doing life, a way of living and loving. It's about going to extremes and expressing the bright hope that life offers us, a hope that makes us brave and expels darkness with light. That's what I want my life to be all about--full of abandon, whimsy and in love. I want to be engaged to life and with life."

Speaking of engagement, tonight we had our own Bacherlor/Bachelorette Club at Young Life. Our guys put together some pretty phenomenal Bachelor audition tapes that Jackie pieced together as a sneak preview to next season.

Little did these guys know, they were going on a special group date to play Water War.

Beesley and Ryan flipped over a card on the human table of the other bachelors. The person with the high card got to throw a cup of water on their opponent. Beesley was on a streak and got to drench both Ryan and Mike multiple times.

In a battle of Name That Love Song, Samone blew away the competition and rang in with the correct answer on 99% of the songs. Eventually we told her she had to spin around before buzzing in because the other teams didn't have a chance.

Ryan learned to play JBieb's Love Yourself for tonight and the audience sang along like we've been listening to this song on repeat in our cars for the past two months. Or is that just me?

Jackie pointed out that every good Club has a dance party so we danced it out Hitch style with random partners down the tunnel.

Chris Harrison called and asked us to make promotional pictures for Isaiah's season of The Bachelor and Chloe's season of The Bachelorette. Will they find true love?

Bob Goff writes, "I think of church as a vibrant community of people consisting of two or more varied backgrounds gathering around Jesus. Sometimes they are at a place that might have a steeple or auditorium seating. But it's just as likely that church happens elsewhere, like coffee shops or on the edge of a glacier or in the bush in Uganda." There's definitely some church going on here...

 

I'm thankful for so many fantastic leaders and so many kids that we just freaking love. This is what we were made for. 

"I throw my bracelet ends into the trash to make it more colorful. I have a stockpile of 1 right now. I keep my ONE very organized."

I returned to the Ice Tree today. Last year I visited for the first time with Liz, Hools and Han after I saw a friend visit on Instagram.  Not too far away, 11333 Southeastern Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46259, the Ice Tree is a yearly project by the Veal family that's been happening since 1961.

There's no tree under all of that ice, just a base of lumber and fall tree branches. They pump water from the pond in their backyard and then add food coloring as the Ice Tree grows. Every year the tree looks different than the year before but it's always spectacular. If you live in the Indy area you should make the trip to check it out. Maddie, Cecilia, Hope and I had fun seeing the Ice Tree in all it's rainbow glory.

A few weeks ago I saw that Jen Hatmaker, one of my favorite authors, had release a bible study for teenage girls called Brave Girl. I started watching some of the sessions with Janelle after school and just knew that I had to pull together a group of girls to do this 5 week study with. I was called to invite a collection of friends that included some YL regulars and some friends that don't show up to those events. Tonight we met for the very first time and it was just so awesome.

Be brave enough to be on the outside who you are on the inside.

You are made uniquely-- God made you special and planned every little shiny detail about you. There's so much value in just being you.

There's room at the table for you just as you are. It's mercifully wide. Let's be brave and courageous enough to pull up more seats and build a bigger table for each other. 

Be exactly who you are and don't do 1 thing out of your character. Be who you are no so you can thrive later.

Do you know what's beautiful? Kindness is beautiful. Authenticity is beautiful. Generosity, loving attitudes to others, confidence, someone pressing into her unique identity.

God specifically knit together your charms, beauty, gifts, humor, intelligence, dreams and goals so specifically.

We're told to trust and believe in the bible 237 times. Let's trust and believe what he says about us. Trust him when he says you matter. You are beautiful. I love you. I value you. You have a place in the kingdom, a place in this world exactly as you are. We either believe him or not-- it's just that simple.

Embrace your beauty and how you're made. We're going to say no to culture and yes to how God made us and formed us. We are going to believe in Him. 

Jen Hatmaker Brave Girl: Session 1

"What's the square root of 169? 13! Doesn't everyone know that?"

Once a month our leadership team gets together for a time we call Upper Room. I love getting to hang out with these people, drink coffee together, talk about leading kids well, following Jesus with passion and making time to build each other up. 

Today we got to do a cool activity that you might want to do too. You start with the 4 circle venn diagram filling in the outer circles. Then you go do steps 2-4 using the first circles as your guide. You wind up with your own John 10:10 version of "I came that they might have life and have it to the full."

These are my first circles that we worked on this morning. Eventually these circles turned into my statement, "As I enjoy, honor and love God, I come most alive when I'm sharing and creating relationships, communities and purposeful experiences." 

If you go through the steps and write your own life to the full verse I'd love to hear it!

Every year the Vigren family hosts an Ice Party when Geist Lake freezes over. They shovel off a rink of snow to uncover the ice below and then everyone plays hockey. I didn't skate up this year, but you better believe I still swung the hockey stick around and had a blast. 

Wyld Life Club returned tonight with a Mix Match Crazy night. One of the best moments was when Jake, Julia and Conner were trying to come up with math problems for the relay race. Are you smarter than a 7th grader?

We love these kids and welcoming them in every week. Marni and Reece are two of Trulock's biggest fans. I love hanging out with these 8th graders and my newest sevies I have in class.

Claire surprised Julia with one of the coolest friendship bracelets you've ever seen. This girl has got skills and the biggest heart.

We represent the most mix matched and craziest gals pals in the house tonight. So much awesome going on at once.

They call it Wyld Life for a reason.

Instead of just singing while reading the lyrics off a screen, we have a non stop dance party in the gym. It's one of my favorite parts of the night.

We pulled a toaster into the middle of the room and passed around one gross condiment (relish, tabasco sauce, worcestershire sauce) and one good condiment (nutella, grape jelly, apple butter).

When the toast popped up the kid holding the condiment had to spread it on a pice of toast and then eat it. Such a good time.

We love eating weird things for fun...

Then we had one of weirdest 4 x 4 relays that you've ever seen.
Phase 1: The runner ate 5 saltines and then whistled

Phase 2: The runner did a wall sit for 1 minute

Phase 3: The runners correctly completed a sheet of match problems

Phase 4: Each runner chugged a can of pop

We circled back up for the last game of the night. We had pre-made two giant saran wrap balls that had candy rolled into each layer.

Each person had about 5 seconds to unwrap as much candy as possible before the next person in the circle got their turn. It was like a rolling piñata of candy and fun.

Instead of a regular raffle prize tonight we hid 3 raffle prizes in the barns with signs on them that read, "This is a raffle prize." Kids just ran around the barn to find the very sneakily hidden prizes.

We danced one more time to Hello by Adele and J Bieb's Boyfriend. Alex Craig knows what's up and she can belt it out with the best of them.

Tonight KCraig gave the club talk and I was so struck with how she shared the gospel with our kids. She talks about God's acceptance, his love and his faith in us with such genuine love. She tells us over and over that her faith is the most important thing in her life and that passion is contagious. I love that we get to walk on this journey together.