#stuffcamperssay

Today was a very long day. Level 1, Level 3, afternoon session of gymnastics day camp, kinders (4 year olds), trompers (3 year olds), beginnning middle/high school. Good thing gymnastics campers are full of entertainment

Me: What's Coach Misa's middle name?
Camper: Konichiwa (Coach Misa is Japanese)

Camper: She's engaged to Justin Bieber
Me: That's not true
Camper: But she said it
Me: And I just said I'm hanging out with Taylor Swift tonight. Do you believe everything everyone tells you?
Camper: Well, yeah. Can I come over tonight, too?

Me: Why are you afraid?
Camper: I'm going to fall on my head
Me: Why do you think that?
Camper: Because I'm going to let go
Me: Why would you let go?
Camper: Because I think I'm going to fall on my head
Me: So you're afraid of falling on your head because you're going to let go because you think you're going to fall on your head?
Camper: That doesn't make any sense. I'm confused.
Me: Yeah, me too.

Camper: So you don't have a husband?

Me: No. 

Camper: Well what about a boyfriend? 

Me: No. 

Camper: Well you should get one.

Me: How? 

Camper: Just hang out with some boys. Do your back tuck, that will impress them.

Camper B: And your splits. Do the splits

Me: If you want to, for fun, you could call me Kate the great

15 minutes later

Me: So what's my name? 

Camper: Coach Great! 

My Soul Will Dance

If blogger had a feeling function like Facebook does now, mine would say feeling joyful. 

Yesterday I had an impromptu dance party with some of the girls from the gym while waiting for it to be class time. Their ages ranged from 2-9 and it was the kind of thing that makes your soul smile. 

Today our pastor was talking about how we shouldn't feel like we have to read our Bibles or spend time with The Lord because it's the right thing to do; we should desire Him because He is good and He loves us. He talked about thinking like a child and enjoying God in the most basic ways. He urged us to wander into the awe of God

Working with kids has certainly softened my heart to the awe-factor of The Lord. 

I thought about all this as I listened to Where The Love Lasts Forever. It's such a gospel song, so freeing. 

Your mercy found me 

Upon a broken road

Lifted me beyond my failings

Into Your glory

My sin and shamed dissolved

And now forever Yours I'll stand

In love never to end

To call You more than Lord, 

Glorious Friend

So I'll throw my life on all that You are

'Cause I know You gave it all for me

And when all else fades my soul will dance

With You, where the Love lasts forever

And forever I will sing 

Lord forever I will sing

How you gave Your life away

Just to save me

Lord you save me 

And with all that mulling in my head, I read the first story in the Jesus Storybook Bible; here's the first sentence, 

"God wrote 'I love you' - he wrote it in the sky, and on the earth, and under the sea. He wrote his message everywhere. Because God created everything in his world to be like a mirror- to show us what he is like, to help us know him, to make our hearts sing" 

And to provide a place for our souls to dance. 

All or Nothing

Today was all or nothing day. I don't celebrate every holiday with this much enthusiasm, but I had a day off work so I figured go big, right?

The day started with a Stick It quote, one of my favorite quotable movies,

"Somebody somewhere once said, I'm going to climb this insanely high mountain. Watch me"

And also banana oatmeal with chocolate protein shake powder mixed in.

I packed a cliff bar, an avocado, a black bean and lentil burrito and a full water bottle as well as plenty of sunscreen.

I drove about 35 miles to Mount Si (it's pretty close to Rattlesnake; you can actually see Rattlesnake Lake from the top of Si). Most of my readers probably have no idea who Scott Jurek is, but to the world of ultra running, he is a legend. He used Mount Si to train for the Leadville 100, running the 4mile, 4100 foot elevation climb. Twice. Back to back. As one who has now walked the mountain, I can say that Scott is indeed superhuman.

You are supposed to need a discover pass to park here. I (wrongly) assumed I could purchase one there. I took my chances and nothing happened. Anyway. 

4 miles to the top, plus more for Haystack Scramble but we'll get there later. It was about a 2 mile elevation gain. 

It was very quiet. I hardly saw anyone else the whole time. 

Very beautiful views. See my Facebook for more pics. 

This is Haystack Scramble. Climbers were told to exercise extreme caution. I had never climbed real rocks before but I figured there's a first time for everything. 

Edit: I looked up some more information on this scramble. Scrambles are ranked on a scale of 1-5. This is a class 3, which means that you have more exposure and will need to use all of your body, sometimes carry a rope but it's not generally necessary, and falls are typically  not fatal. 

This was on the way down. If you look above me, those are the rocks I was climbing. 

Pretty steep stuff there. 

I had an awesome time and then I ate fries and a shake and a bacon cheeseburger and spent 15 minutes scraping the dirt off myself in the shower. 

A successful all or nothing day if I do say so myself

Hey

Kate, you haven't blogged in several days. 

Yeah, I know but I promise nothing all that interesting has happened. This week especially, everyone I know has felt just very tired and whiny. Like I go home and my roommates and I just complain. And then we do things like celebrate wine Wednesday on Tuesday and get 10% off at Hagen das for answering their dumb trivia question correctly. 

I made this chicken salad. It's pretty much the best one I've ever made. I baked the chicken in olive oil, salt, pepper and penzey's bouquet garnis. I also cooked macaroni shells. Then I added some mayonnaise, celery, red onion and pepper. Yup, delicious. 

I also made a coffee cake this morning. I have Tuesday and Wednesday mornings off usually so I like to cook in order to feel productive. Except usually I cook actual foods like meat or black beans or lentils or lasagna that I can refrigerate and eat later. 

This morning I talked to Betsy on the phone. We learned that we both went to the post office yesterday and mailed each other a letter. Weird. My favorite quote was "I ate lettuce. You can't keep buying me shots". 

Oh, and I got to text Liztowne because she is no longer in Germany! She made it home! And soon she's coming to me to establish our new home. 

I ate an avocado at Starbucks. I am addicted to avocados. But grocery outlet sells them 2.35 for 2lbs which lasts me at least a week so that's fine with me. And I really didn't want to go home cranky again so I got a green tea. I might also go get a frosty soon. Wait I have coffee cake. That would taste so good with a frosty. 

Sorry this blog post is dumb. At least it exists. 

Oh, but I'm teaching with the preschool in the fall which means I get to work at 50% of the 4 SGA gyms. These two are two blocks apart from each other. The other ones are further away, really. The thought popped in my head to become a fully certified preschool teacher. Not right away, but maybe eventually. I am really really loving that age group. I've taught it before and it was pretty good but SGA just has a lot more space and equipment for them so it's really fun. 

One more thing: 

Emily is 9 and is part of our program at the community center. 

Me: Emily, do you have any brothers or sisters? 

Emily: nope, only child. 

Contemplates. 

Emily: do you have any children? 

Me: No! Not yet, silly. 

Emily: hmm. Well do you have a boyfriend? 

Me: nope. 

Emily thinks hard about this one and asks, do you have a husband? 

Geeze. Half my kids think I'm 17 and the other half think I'm 35. 

Solid Rock/Cornerstone

Solid Rock
Published in 1837
Written by Edward Mote

1. My hope is built on nothing less
   Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
   I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
   But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
   • Refrain:
     On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
     All other ground is sinking sand,
     All other ground is sinking sand.
2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
   I rest on His unchanging grace;
   In every high and stormy gale,
   My anchor holds within the veil.
3. His oath, His covenant, His blood
   Support me in the whelming flood;
   When all around my soul gives way,
   He then is all my hope and stay.
4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
   Oh, may I then in Him be found;
   Dressed in His righteousness alone,
   Faultless to stand before the throne.

Cornerstone

Released 2012

Written by Edward Mote (emphasized by yours truly), Eric Liljero, Jonas Myrin, Reuben Morgan

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly trust in Jesus name

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly trust in Jesus name

Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all

When Darkness seems to hide His face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
My anchor holds within the veil

Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all
He is Lord
Lord of all

Christ alone
Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all

Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,Faultless stand before the throne.

Most modern churches are probably singing Cornerstone and people don't even know the song's history. 

We sang Solid Rock at church this morning. I love that my church mostly sings hymns; even though they're usually in a more modern style, the theological truth and weight remains the same. 

I personally think it's kind of bogus that Hillsong gets to use all of the same verses, write a new 20-word chorus and a bridge, and then not only pass it off as a new song, but also market the entire album around it (this is the title track of the 2012 album).

Secret Thoughts

I read Rosaria Butterfield's book. 

Again. 

I don't know how many times I've read it in the last six months, but it's probably getting ridiculous. I love what it says about sin and grace and sanctification. I love what it says about hospitality and loving your neighbor. I love what it says about church and the church and the Bible and prayer. 

And I love her heart for the forgotten child. 

I have long thought I would like to be a mom. Teaching my babies on Saturday mornings makes me want to have kids. But there is also a deeper longing. 

I would love to provide another option to abortion. I would pay for the expenses throughout pregnancy and deliver and let the mom see her child grow up of she wanted. I'm always really inspired by Eric and Leslie's story with their son Kip: his momma was 17 and scared and was thinking abortion. The Ludys invited her into their home and loved her and she comes and sees Kip regularly. I could do something like that. 

But I also read Rosaria's tales of the kids she's adopted out of foster care, and the ones that slipped through the cracks and red tape. I'm reading Michael Oher's book, now too. I don't know if I could have what it would take to be a foster parent. You never know how long you'll get to build a relationship for. I think I would want to adopt every child who came through my house. And I wouldn't be able to. But maybe I could adopt at least one out of the foster care system. 

I was given so many privileges in life and I want to be able to give someone a chance who has none. The question for me wasn't if I would graduate college, but which one. Meanwhile less than 10% of kids who age out of foster care will even enroll, and less than 1% will graduate. Children who go to foster homes are more than twice as likely to experience PTSD than American soldiers returning from war zones. Only about 1/3 of foster kids ever get adopted, and most of those are under the age of 8. The rest age out and within a year and a half, half of them are homeless. 

This is something worth weeping for and praying for and fighting against any way we can. 

Leftover Egg Bake

Most of the time I make something, I'm pretty sure it will taste good. I was skeptical of this one. 

I still had a lot of biscuits and they were starting to go stale. I split them in half, buttered them and then put them butter side down into a pan. I put in cherry tomatoes, avocado, leftover broccoli lentils, black beans and a ton of cheese. I poured 4 eggs beaten with milk over the top and added fox point and pepper and put it in the oven and hoped for the best. 

18 minutes later, I could smell it and everything seemed solid so I pulled it out. 

It is seriously the best breakfast I've had in a long time. Biscuit bake is absolutely delicious and has so many possibilities.