"It's Kinda Like a Breakfast Corndog"

I had low hopes that I would eat anything memorable while chaperoning a middle school youth retreat. After a Friday night dinner at Burger King in Shelby en route to our camp in the mountains, I thought the weekend would be a real waste of calories.

Oh, my. Enter Sunday morning's breakfast. "CAMPERS, WE'VE GOT A REAL TREAT FOR YOU THIS MORNING!" announced the director over the PA as we lined up outside the camp dining hall. "What we've got is -- well -- you take some blueberry pancake batter, and you wrap it around a sausage. So, it's kinda like a breakfast corndog."

Given my documented affinity for sweet and salty combinations, I was SOLD! I couldn't wait to try it -- especially once I got up in line and saw they were serving it with a vat of strawberry syrup. "Think of blueberry pancakes with strawberries on top," the cafeteria lady assured me.

Just in case you doubt me...

It was yummy!

The other highlight of the weekend was the insightful comments I gleaned from leading a retreat session on dating. This proved to be a bit problematic, as I was not quite the expert I first imagined. I mean, dating? I know dating! But then I remembered when middle schoolers "date," it doesn't really have much to do with going on actual dates.

Anyway, one of the things we discussed was how Hollywood portrays love/relationships and how that compares to what we are called to do as Christians. One highlight was a young man's list of the must-haves in his future wife:

1. Not a fast talker.
2. Not a gimme-gimme girl.
3. She should be a good cook.

But I think my favorite quote of the weekend was one of the answers to why the Cinderella story is not realistic: 

 

"I mean, everybody knows that's just silly," one sixth-grade girl said. "Boys are lazy. They would never go to all that trouble to give you your shoe back."