the monthly cooking segment: 'basketball players like to eat!'

so liz and i ran 19 miles.  and then we had the entire indiana wesleyan women's basketball team over for dinner.  it was an exhausting day.  but totally worth it.  the girls are awesome, and they are now conference champions.  on to nationals, baby!  to prep them for their big game, i made three lasagnas (two with meat, one without), garlic bread, salad, strawberries, dark chocolate brownies with white chocolate chips, and peach cobbler.  let's just say no one went away hungry.

picture this: heroes...

every time i walk by this banner, i think about saving cheerleaders...

the wigger house cast of characters

so i have mentioned a few times how i live in the wigger house with some randos. and some of you loyal readers don't have any idea what or who that means. at long last, here is the explanation:

last year, i lived with uncle jon and aunt betty. and fritz, of course. (who could forget about fritz?!) and i met some cool people in grad school. and four of them got a house together this year on wigger street. yeah, that's a place. well, one of the cool people had to leave for financial reasons, so the other girls asked if i would like to move in.

i realize that me moving where MORE people are is a strange concept, but you might also remember that community has been an important focus for my time here in marion. so having the opportunity to live with some friends--and live just off campus--was a cool thought. i prayed about it and decided to jump in. thus, the day after i ran the warrior dash, i moved my worldly possessions from lantern lane to good old wigger street.

and here are the jokers i live with:

kelsie

kels did her undergrad at taylor and is getting her masters here at iwu in clinical mental health counseling. her boyfriend, ben, is cool [because he is getting his masters in student development at taylor] and hangs out with us sometimes. kelsie is a missionary kid, has a terrible sense of direction, is an extrovert, and wears her snuggie backwards. she unintentionally says funny stuff all the time, and we really ought to have a quote board just for her. my favorite thing about kelsie is her gentle spirit.

megan

megan did her undergrad at capital university and is getting her masters here at iwu in clinical mental health counseling. she has a niece and nephew who are super cute. megs has a twin sister, loves glee, is an introvert, and eats a lot of macaroni and cheese. she is easily amused and laughs often. my favorite thing about megan is her excitement over small stuff.

liz

elizabeth ann is one of my best friends. she did her undergrad at iwu and is getting her masters here in clinical mental health counseling (have you noticed a theme in this house?). liz is a basketball superstar, loves going for walks, is an extrovert, and drinks more water than anyone i know (except travis). she has her own language and is hilarious and weird. my favorite thing about liz is how she relates to people in a very intentional, focused way.

all of us like hugs and watching cool shows like the big bang theory and the amazing race. we play lots of monopoly deal, eat kind of a sick amount of brownies, and make bonfires. i love living in this house. these women challenge, encourage, and love me well.

hands to the sky

one of my new jobs this year is working as a grad assistant for the office of student engagement and retention. my workspace is in the academic affairs suite in the library...right at the heart of the campus.

something i love about this job is what happens on friday mornings: the professional staff gather together to share stories, breathe at the end of a busy week, and pray for one another. it's one of the unique things that happen in this type of community. and honestly, it does wonders for feeling known and loved in the midst of a crazy semester.

today, we commented that all of us were really experiencing a heavy tiredness--and it's only three weeks into the semester. you can see it in our eyes and hear it in our words. i've written about how i really feel like God is going to move in powerful ways on the iwu campus this year...but that doesn't come without a battle. and we are already feeling the weariness of the fight.

if you get some time, pray for our community. and if you know any staff or students at iwu, send them an email or message on facebook or something and let them know you love and support them.

thanks. :)

new student experience...2000

eleven years ago, when i was a wee freshman girl at the university of indianapolis (go greyhounds!), we were required to take sort of an orientation class based on our majors. i guess the point was to begin forming cohorts early or something.

but for those of us hapless undeclared students, we got stuck in a special section: new student experience. so there we were, a bunch of eighteen year-olds without any direction in our lives.

each of these classes was led by a faculty or staff member. and there was also a peer leader. the purpose of the class was generally to be a resource for students--"[presenting] academic and developmental information....to meet the needs of students and help them develop skills and relationships that will serve them well as they pursue their degree and career goals." yup. i am nerdy enough that i went to the uindy website to look that up. no shame.

my staff member was christy stone, and my peer leader was tiffany rife.

now, i don't know if they did this with other students or if i was just a special project to them, but these two women dramatically shaped my future at u of i...and my life in general.

i felt lost and completely without purpose when i got to school. i didn't know what i wanted to do or who i wanted to be. christy and tiffany basically took me by the hand and 'encouraged' me to get involved on campus. they made me help out at events. they forced me to become an orientation assistant. they bullied me into applying for a position on the campus program board. they coaxed me into being a peer leader.

i was undeclared for a year and a half, and even after that, i ended up changing my major halfway through my junior year. but it didn't matter. i was hooked on my school. i bought into the community. i was passionate about involving others.

i stayed in school because people on campus were committed to me.

****

the things i am doing with my life right now have everything to do with members of a campus community investing in me. very few things bring me greater joy than connecting with students.

it's pretty sweet.

so...thanks, christy and tiffany. your lives are still impacting students today.

repentance is the heart of revival

i am not really sure i can pinpoint why.

i certainly do not know how.

but over the course of the summer, i have had one thought sort of lingering in the back of my head:

something is coming.

something big.

i have had some mental pictures of fire coming...racing...toward my campus.

iwu better look out.

i feel revival coming.

welcome back to school, wildcats

it's tuesday. that means i am talking about faith and school and their delicious intertwining. conveniently, it is also the first day of our semester here at iwu. sometimes i plan things like that, but this time, it was sheer coincidence. if you believe in that sort of thing.

does loving Jesus affect the way i approach school?

quick answer: yes. and no.

when i take the time to both contemplate my position in life and ruminate on the quality of my position in life and ruminate on the quality of my output--whether educational or creative or whatever--i truly desire to be honoring to God and a blessing to those around me. i want to commit significant time and energy to my [school]work: producing quality schtuff.

but i'll admit that it is challenging to maintain that dedication when i am slogging through the thousands of pages of reading material or fighting to stay engaged with my research paper at the end of a long, exhausting semester.

i love school. reading, writing, the whole shebang (anyone else hear william hung's voice singing, 'she-bang, she-bang'?). it's just ingrained in me. so i naturally want to be a good student. the problem is that i am also really lazy. i naturally want to just be uber mellow and do nothing all the time. those desires tend to war in me. go figure.

in many ways, this is just a glimpse of my heart toward life in general.

thoughts?

my freshmen

my freshmen* are awesome. probably better than all the other freshmen on campus. i'm not biased. they're just that super cool.

in the last hour, i have seen 5 of them wandering around the student center. :) they're so cute. i just wanna pick them up and squeeze 'em.

since there's the chance that they might read this...it being a public and not at all secret blog...i won't use their names (unless they want some fame or something...with 9 followers, this blog is definitely a hot commodity), but i really think they are pretty terrific.

they had an assignment to write a letter to the authors of a book they were required to read. their responses (which i am supposed to be grading right now instead of blogging) have been pretty interesting. i have learned a lot about my freshmen over the past few weeks.

i also make them write 'exit cards' every friday before they leave class. thus far, they have had to write about:

-what they hoped to improve about themselves
-what they have learned that has real life application

they also write their prayer requests. these cards have been so authentic and vulnerable. i am really enjoying doing life with these kids. i mean students. (apparently calling them kids does not foster a feeling of being adult.)

if you think about it, pray for my 22 little ducklings. being a freshman in college is a hard and scary thing sometimes, and it's definitely a time to start working and processing through some heavy stuff. also pray that i would be very intentional with the words i say and the behavior that i model.



*i have 22 freshmen in the breakout group that i lead every friday.