So glad it's the weekend

Top 10 Moments of the Day

1. Kata deciding to come to Indy to play tonight.

2. All week the teachers at my school have been playing Jeopardy. We do a full board of questions in the morning and a quick daily double after school. Today was the final round an my team won! This is our awesome librarian who organized the whole game and the winning trophy.

3. Getting a marker colored letter in the mail from Maddie.

4. Finishing Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult. I loved this book. When I was looking for the book cover to post here I discovered to of the first cover images. I generally judge a book by it's cover so it's interesting to see it from a different perspective.

5. Writing love tank notes and thinking about how I can't wait to see these people tomorrow.

6. Coming up with new games and talking through ideas for the reunion with Eric, Beef, and Kata at dinner.

7. Listening to the new Glee song "Loser Like Me" on repeat.

8. Talking to Grace and Brooke about Brooke's grandpa who was a sub in the library with me all day.

9. Stopping in at the Houghton's house to get my sweatshirt that Ky said, "This looks like Sarah Wright," and Jon knew was mine because it didn't have a hood.

10. Sitting here with Carolyn being real life friends.

"Now I have so much to blog about!"

Here's the truth. 

I'm a planner. I want to make sure that I'm living life to the full and continually connecting with people so I plan to fit it all in. I know what I'm doing every weekend until camp starts this summer except one. I know what I'm doing everyday of the week by Sunday night. I have to schedule in phone calls so I make sure I talk to other busy friends. 

Tonight was going to be different. Tonight, on this very green St. Patrick's day, I made no plans except to do a little television watching, book reading, and note writing after FBC. That vision for relaxation lasted all of about an hour before Jenna said, "Do you want to go to dinner at Annie and Jon's tonight?"

I talk about being spontaneous but I've scheduled my life to the point where I don't have time to be spontaneous. Tonight it happened.

Annie made a traditional Irish dinner- corned beef with potatoes, cabbage and carrots. So delicious. Annie was proud. We were surprisingly all fans of the cabbage.

Nick was precious entertainment as usual. I love hearing him speak strings of words now. "Sowy Kessy," and "Thankyou Mama," and "Please Kylie! Ham!"

Panera does Irish bread well.

Ky wasn't a big fan of the Irish spread. Ham and salami are the way to go.

Meat art. Reminiscent of scene from Mean Girls.

Every time I see Raelyn I'm amazed at how she's grown. We love passing her around and all getting a turn. And Erin loves her peach fuzz head.

Jon & Annie moved next door, like right next door, to Jack & Linda and now all of the kids get to play together everyday. I loved watching the girls laughing and playing together tonight.

Ky's laugh is loud, a full body kind of laugh. It's contagious.

She is just so much fun and joy and craziness and excitement from her flipping hair to her sparking shoes.

Feeling spontaneous after dinner, we took a walk to get St. Patrick's day gelato. We decided to split Maple Walnut, Strawberry, Guinness, Pistachio, Double Chocolate between all of us.

Ky's eyes lit up when the waitress said they had Strawberry. She chooses well. Strawberry was everyone's favorite. Erin couldn't get over the fact that the maple was, "just so granular." Jenna decided the chocolate tasted just like chocolate syrup. Annie loves pistachio. Kelsey, Maddie, and Kylie all thought the Guiness was pretty good.

I loved walking back in the twilight all of us talking and laughing in the welcomed warm weather. Such a great night. I want to plan in some more time to be spontaneous.

Through our little stories

"You tell what you know, what you've earned, what you've learned the hard way. You watch it fall on what seem to be deaf ears, and you mutter something under your breath, something about pearls before swine. But then ten years later you realize your story has now been women into someone else's, a very necessary thing, a bridge to a new way of understand and living..."

[Share Your Story]

"The big story really is actually being told through our little stories, and by sharing our lives, not just our sermons, we're telling God's story in as reverent and divine ways as it has ever been told. God's story was told in Hebrew and Greek, and I believe that it's also being told in whispers and paintings and blogs and around dinner tables all over the world..."

"My life is not a story about me. And your life's not a story about you. My life is a story about who God is and what he does in a human heart. My story is about the people on my street, the things I read, the way we raise our child, the things I've done and the things that have been done to me. A story is never about one person. It has a full cast of characters, connected by blood or love or jealousy..." Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet

My friend Fitzie always says the best way to get people talking is to say, "Tell me about..." When you ask people to share their story, in a way that requires more than one or two words as a response, you begin to see the real them. When I talk to Rach about her friends at Depauw, or to Emily about kids, or to Ellyn about camp they light up. They're excited about sharing their story. One of my favorite things right now is reading blogs because I'm reading people's stories- Alli finding joy, Annie with her friends, Zach meeting a person a day, Sophie loving people in Africa, Lauren being a mom. I want to keep telling my story, whether that's in a blog post, over a cup of coffee, through the phone, or in my living room, of junior high chaos, Young Life adventures, camp relationships, the books I'm reading, and finding my place in all of this.

I believe your should share your story.

SB 11- kind of

Normally on Tuesday night I would find myself sitting at a round table under florescent lights with a stack of articles in front of me about implementing critical literacy in the classroom. But IUPUI is one Spring Break which means I am on Spring Break- at least for three hours tonight and tomorrow.

Instead of eating my dinner in the car on the way downtown I found myself sitting across from Alex, aka Achan, at Chipotle. She's home for SB this week from Alabama and I'm so glad we got the chance to connect. Alex was one of my first campers in Teton. During her two weeks at camp that summer I decided she was a rockstar with her giant tub of cheez-its, love for Camp T, and outgoing personality. We had fun that summer.

Truth: I'm still such a fan. I love that Alex is so honest and that tonight we talked about how she's doing at school and where she sees herself next year and how that all might play out. I love that we can talk about things that happened years ago like playing Dominican Chaos for the first time ever in Upper Pioneer- she actually helped name the game- and that we can talk about what's going on right now.

I've been missing Young Life clubs on Tuesdays because of class but tonight I got to be there. Instead of club we had Carmel girls and guys nights. The girls came to the Apt to hang out with Jenna and me. Funfetti cupcakes, Glee, and fun.

We had a rare mix in our living room tonight- freshmen, sophomores, a junior, and a senior. I loved seeing all of these girls that don't usually hang out interact.

They told us about twama (twitter drama), the secrets of an effective workout, and their thoughts on school/TV/parents/boys/Spring Break. 

I love fake Spring Break.

Happy Pi Day 3.141592

Isn't this fun? It was in Steph's wallet.

Campaigners took a field trip to Orange Leaf tonight. 

I love Ellyn's stories, invention ideas, recaps on life, and laughter at everything.

March Madness is driving Hannah mad. Look at that concentration. I'm guessing my bracket will have no mistakes.

I love anticipation and getting ready. I'm really excited for this weekend.

"She stopped talking to go fold clothes?!"

Common Ground was great this morning and I was happy to find Chris and Mark when I walked in late. Four men that have left this church to start their own communities returned to share their stories. I'm excited about living a life that intentionally creates space for Christ and relationships.

Finished this bracelet after so many knots. Now to pass on the love. This pattern makes me think of the Brunner sisters.

Oh my goodness a two hour skype who knew it was possible? It felt like we were hanging out in the same room making friendship bracelets and talking about life. Top 10 list of the day- If traveling and money weren't an issue what 10 things would you do today?

One of my items was returning here, to Yonder, to adventure with Brown Bear, Dancing Tulip, and Fred. I miss the days when I saw these girls all the time.

We didn't make it to Yonder but we found ourselves in Paradise. Dancing Tulip, Fred, and Brown Bear right there fresh back from a Chicago road trip.

Sometimes people just call them Allison, Dom, and Taylor. So fun to spend time with them.

Can't believed I'd never skyped with Sarah Mooney before today. As soon as we started talking I realized her kitchen looks just like my friend Steph's. I then described Sar's entire house- same floor plan. So weird.

Peanut even dropped in for a minute. Love these sisters. So glad I get to spend the summer with them.

MAGGIE IS BACK FROM SPAIN! Oh how I have missed this face. The saddest news was that she didn't get to ride a Camel because it was raining. She loved the rest of the trip though.

Dear Sarah Wright,

One of my favorite devotion activities is writing a letter to yourself. While at camp you get this God-centered, priority-focused, positivity-infused view of life and the hope is that you can gather some of that up scribe it onto a piece of paper so that when you find it show up in your mailbox months later you can breathe in some of that hope and love in the midst of your life.

I've been saving the letters that I wrote last summer and opened one of them today.  The writing is sloppy, quickly scribbled by candlelight, and it takes me back to that night in Choctaw. I can almost hear the pens scratching and a few girls sniffling. The light flickers from the vanilla candles and a few people are illuminating their corner of the room with flashlights. It smells like shampoo and wet towels. You are squeezed into a circle of friends- maybe one or two from home, a couple you knew from last summer, brand-new best friends, and a handful you still haven't gotten to know. But this circle, it's safe. I remember writing these words hoping that they would give me focus when I someday unfolded this paper.

...The world has so much bad in it sometimes and we are so thankful for a place like camp where we can have these conversations, where dark secrets can come out into the open and God can enter into these girls' lives. God is good... I pray that I believe and live all of this.
The hard conversations are always worth it.
Time with people is more important than anything else.
That relationships beat activities.
That God can and will and does enter into these dark places.
That I have been blessed by God to be here, to be in relationship with these girls so that they might know you more.
That we are all beautifully and wonderfully made and our value comes from Christ. We should judge someone by their heart and their character and never the way that they look.
Living with 36 people is worth the noise and the mess and the shower lines.
We were created to live in community. It's messy sometimes but its always worth it.
God's hands are holding me...