Bam-FREAKIN'-O

Today was a DJ day at Summer Seminary Sampler. A "P"-day, finally. We had a number of "J"-days which had "P" elements such as being at a place at the wrong time. But nothing made me feel better than this morning. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the orderliness and all that it provides, but sometimes, darn it, you gotta live in the chaos. Oh, and by the way, if you want a different perspective on the event, see Dave's Blog.

Enter Franklin County MRDD Center, Stage Right. This is a center (possibly could be labeled a resort because it was amazing inside) for children with some kind of mental or physical retardation, which gets bonus points from me just for the thought. In addition to a GIANT Connect-4 board, and countless other rooms and games that made me want to stay an entire day, we got to take part in the most brilliant idea I have ever come across:
One of the teachers told her students where pizza sauce comes from(tomatoes, of course), but one of the kids answered back, "No, it comes from a jar." So the dilemna is that these kids have no clue how food gets made. What better solution, then, to see something get made from beginning to end. Unfortunately, the garden was not quite bearing fruit(read: vegetables). The geniouses(and I mean that term completely sincerely) thought up the idea to get vegetables from the store, and "plant" them in the garden so the children could come pick them. Wow, what a freakin sweet idea!!! We spent the morning pointing out vegetables to the kids so they could harvest them and put them on plates and in baskets. Eventually a chef came in and made a salad out of the things that we gathered. They officially win every award I've ever even thought of handing out.

These kids absolutely loved the whole idea of it. There were many kids encapsulated when the chef began chopping the vegetables, some of them saying things like, "I picked that carrot." With kids running around everywhere today, it felt a little bit like the crowded home I grew up in, which is probably why it felt so good. The only thing that would have made the morning better would be a nice long soak in the ball-pit.