"I love old people. I'm doing homework at a Starbucks and an older woman came in, ordered, than found a random Asian kid and asked him if he was smart. Then she pulled out a clock from her purse and asked him to change the time on it."

This weekend was a whirlwind...

1. Friday night road trip with a pit stop in Delphi to tour the HS, visit Ruth at St. E and grab a bite at the local DQ Grill and Chill

2. Met up with a crew of counselors in Upper Pioneer to kick-start Others Second On The Second weekend with hobo dinners, screen printing t-shirts, planning the schedule, finding costumes for Team Joel, sharing devotions and bunking up in Whitetail

3. Saturday One Day Camp with a group of 4th graders in Lafayette-- there were camp songs, name tags, clinics, flies between gymp and cartooning, the craziest lunch you ever did see, poster making, UNITE, team-building, skits and a hip hop performance.

4. Sunday morning Cracker Barrel date with Ellyn and ERIN DICKETT! We took her for her first time ever at Cracker Barrel and playing checkers.

 Cheered on her soccer team and then ended up running into HANNAH ORNDORFF too!

5. Sunday afternoon Indiana Elite Dawg Show pre-season performances-- the best way to watch all of my Junior High and HS girls perform their routines in one place. They killed it.

6. Other spectacular moments of the weekend included the best nap I've had all year, baked oatmeal, friendship bracelets, homemade chowder, hanging out with Mel, doing life with KCraig, being so thankful for Smoon even when we're hours apart, a new podcast interview with my girl Glennon Doyle Melton and loving that extra hour from Daylight Savings time.

"I heard we're going to have to eat a mouse." Fear Factor Club

Saturday nights are for Wyld Life. A parade of cars, SUVs and min-vans turn in to Shore Acres and drop off a mob of 7th and 8th graders. Soon basketballs are flying, the swings are filled with kids, leaders are greeting everyone and there are circles of friends all over the place. Wyld Life is exactly where you want to be. 

One of my favorite parts of being a Wyld Life leader is getting work side by side with friends like Cassidy and Kaylee. These HS Juniors are two of the most beautiful, authentic pictures I know of love in action. They both exude positivity and when you're around them you feel like you can just be yourself. It's the best to get to see them loving on these Junior High kids.

Most of our Club themes are decided by the kids in a Twitter poll. These time they voted for Fear Factor Club. We later discovered that these kids all thought Fear Factor meant Halloween... little did they know Fear Factor used to be a television show of the most insane, disgusting, heart-attack-inducing stunts of all time. 

Spider pits...

Jumping from heights, holding on while swinging through the air over water, carrying eels and other weird, gross things...

Being buried in worms or eating cow brains. Nothing was off limits.

Tonight's Fear Factor contestants came from Riverside Junior High...

HIJH...

Fall Creek Junior High...

and Fishers Junior High.

We had a whole night of Fear Factor inspired "fun" in store. The most interesting part might have been that while some tasks were terrifying for some kids, they were no problem at all for kid beside them.

Our first relay was a bit slimy, squirmy and fuzzy.

Runner #1-- ran to the other side of the room, got a worm and brought it back to their team
Runner #2-- returned the worm, got a cricket and brought it back to their team
Runner #3-- returned the cricket, got a mouse and brought it back to their team
Runner #4-- returned the mouse and ran back to finish the race

We ended up running the relay twice because so many kids said they weren't afraid to hold the worms, crickets or mice.

The next game was Jimmy Fallon inspired. We played hot potato in a giant circle. If the object stopped in your hands when they music stopped you went to the middle of the circle. Next you smashed an egg on your head-- hard boiled eggs didn't do much, raw eggs left a runny slime behind. 

Next was an individual game of suspense. 10 kids lined up with balloons across the gym. They inflated their balloon until it popped in their face.

The last game would have been the worst for me. 5 volunteers represented each of the 4 Junior Highs. Each team opened up an unlabeled can of food. They opened them up to each find a different flavor of beans and then raced to eat their can first.

Riverside dominated and finished their can of black beans significantly before anyone else. Max would not have faired well in this game, but he was willing to help a pal out by holding back her hair from that bean juice.

Tonight KCraig talked to us about fear, about being far from home, about feeling like there's nothing left to do.  She told us the story of the Prodigal Son who had left his family and tried to make it on his own. He ended up throwing away everything he had, finding himself in bad shape and having no one to turn to. He headed back home, but when he was a long way off his father saw him and ran to him. His father was waiting for him. He was looking for him. And then he ran to him. KCraig told our friends the good news that they can come home too. God loves them so much that he will never make them do anything, but he is waiting for them, looking for them and ready to run to them and welcome them home.

An Ode to Ruth

Every summer the CILTs at Camp Tecumseh take a trip to the St. Elizabeth Healthcare Center in Delphi to visit with residents. We spend time talking with them, share camp songs with them and learn more about them and their life. As a counselor, I get to go visit three times. I've been a counselor for the CILTs for 9 summers so I have been a frequent visitor at St. E. 

From the first year I visited, I would spend time with my gal Ruth. Every time we showed up, I'd beeline it for Ruth's room down the hall to the right. She'd always greet me with a smile and over time we became friends. I learned about her jobs at the telephone company and the bank. She grew up in Brookston and had never traveled far from home. Each summer she'd tell me about her grandchildren and how they were getting ready to take their sheep to the 4-H fair. Some weeks her son would be visiting at the same time and I'd get to know him as well.

One thing that Ruth and I had in common was that we both love crafts. I'd show her my friendship bracelets or give her one each summer. Ruth's windowsill and book shelves were a museum of all the crafts she had been working on. They have a class for residents to make things each week and Ruth was always in attendance. She had picture frames, flowers, wreaths and more than she had put together. Ruth has a great laugh and quick wit. She'd tell me about other residents, her new roommates, about the people who worked there-- I love spending time with her.

This past summer when the kids of Session 1 came we had time to take our friends outside to the patio. It was a beautiful day and the sun was too bright for Ruth's eyes. Noah, one of our awesome guys, offered up his neon CILT hat. Ruth put it right on and didn't take it off the rest of the day. Noah ended up telling her to keep it and she had it with her every time we visited the rest of the summer. She's an honorary member of the CILT Pack.

I missed the CILTs second trip this summer when I was doing Wilderness in CO with Young Life. When I returned Ruth greeted me with, "She's back from the mountains!" I brought my computer and told her all about our entire trip. She asked questions and wanted to know about everything.

Because our visits to Delphi are always in the morning when clinics are going on, Ellyn has never been able to come with us. When she and I headed to Camp on Friday we decided to make a pit stop at St. E to see our gal Ruth. I was so excited for the two of them to meet. We went in and found her in her usual spot by her window.

We knew right away that she wasn't doing very well. She recognized me and reached for my hand right away. As I held her hand, I told her about my students, about Young Life and what we were up to at Camp this weekend. She didn't talk much but it was so good to see her.

Today I got a message from a friend who works at St. E letting me know that Ruth passed early this afternoon. She's 99 years old, and would have been 100 this February.

I'm so thankful that I got to see her one more time.
I think it was divine timing that I got to see her just yesterday.
I'm thankful for the ways our lives overlapped to form this unlikely friendship.
I'm thankful for Ruth's life and the ways that she impacted the people around her.
I can't wait until we're reunited again one day.

"Did you just pick a cookie as your side?"

Highs of the day:
1. My kids crack me up-- school is the coolest
2. Playing nanny to the Andritch kids
3. Dinner meeting with Tom and J to talk CILTs and how to keep making it better
4. Watching the Cubs with Audrey
5. A letter from Maddie Flynn that made me laugh
6. Ordered the FBC shirts!


At the end of every Young House Love Has A Podcast episode John and Sherry talk about what they're digging. Here's what I'm digging lately:

Starbucks order and pay on your phone-- after Smoon showed me the magic of this app when she was recently visiting I finally wised up and got it myself. Instead of waiting inside or in the drive thru line, you order your coffee before you leave your house, pay on the app and then walk into the Starbucks and find your vanilla latte waiting on the counter for you. It's magic.

Rifle Paper notepad-- Usually I stick with my Happy Mail cards, but I fell in love with the paper from one of Smelko's letters. There's something classy, fun and old school about this paper that just makes you want to sit down and write to an old friend.

Today Is Going To Be A Great Day Calendar-- I've had this page-a-day calendar on my desk all year and totally love it. I just found the 2017 version so the happiness won't stop. My favorite part is finding the perfect torn off page to send in a letter to one of my pen-pals. 

What are you digging?

"Well, at least we have Jesus."

Forget about the Super Bowl, World Series, March Madness Championship, Stanley Cup, the Masters and the Olympics for that matter. Tonight I got to witness one of the greatest sporting match-ups of all time-- Hope College Flying Dutchman v. the Indiana University Hoosiers. It was the show down that would put all other show downs to shame.

I grabbed Hannah, Maddie and Ellyn after school and headed South to Bloomington. Our first stop was the Chocolate Moose, a BTown staple, but much to Ellyn's dismay we missed their closing by two days. Lucky for us, they're still selling Chocolate Moose ice-cream in the basement of the library. 

We walked around a little bit of the campus and quickly ran into three of our friends. Alexandra and Lauren are both CILT girl alumna who now go to IU. We also ran into one of Ellyn's BFFs who spotted us first.

Ellyn will tell you that she peaked in college, though I would say her best days are still ahead of her. We did a drive by of Ellyn's favorite house-- that's straight up joy my friends.

Ellyn took us to Smokin' Jacks' Rib Shack for dinner; one of Bloomington's finer dining establishments. It was worth the trip my friends. We were about ready to burst by the time we finished all of the mac n' cheese, corn bread and chicken.

Then it was time for the main event! Thanks to the Devoe family, we had an awesome seats to watch Hope dominate on the court. They led IU for the first few minutes of the game until IU came from behind... and then led the rest of the time. Hope fans were definitely outnumbered but that didn't dull our spirits.

As if the night couldn't get any more magical, Sam and Arie were there too! They came down to sit right by us for the second half of the game. Friends and sports--that's what life is all about right?

After the game was over we got to see our favorite cheerleader Haleigh, visit her dorm and see her roommates. We headed back to Indy, reminiscing about the music of Ellyn and I's adolescent days the whole way, and cheering for the Cubs as they added another W to their streak. Sports-- they're just the best.