Kristen Blog

I have a new neighbor.  I'm trying not to ruin this with my over-enthusiasm.  However, I found out she works for the MO Department of Conservation, so I cut down a 15-foot invasive honeysuckle in our backyard that same weekend. Too much? I'm not really sure how to NOT be.  I don't do well trying to be anything but who I am, and it's just, "I'm not for everyone."  Right? To my credit, she was just the excuse I've been praying for.  Matt has been clinging to this bane of my existence for the last 10 years.  I couldn't take the affront to nature much longer.  I'm really just a rule follower at heart.  😉 Anyway...this one was a quiet weekend for little old your's, truly.  Saturday, the weather was lovely, and my mood followed accordingly.   I kicked back on the deck, caught up on some documentation, forced my animals to love one another (come on people, now 🎶), read and enjoyed a restful break after last weekend's back yard Kristen-maged...

I was just out there trying to get my life back to normal...AGAIN (it's a frequent occurrence)...but my heart wasn't in it.  I saw a couple of kids get out of the car in front of mine, but the mom wasn’t budging.  My interest piqued, until I saw the principal come around to the other side guiding a preschooler who was OBVIOUSLY ALSO NOT feeling it that day.  I thought to myself, "I hear ya kid."   This is why I am a counselor.  I FEEL your FEELS.  Seriously.   I do.  Jesse feels them, too. So, I asked for a sunny sabbatical, right?  I got as far as the planning phase, and then… "The weakness of his soul was in relying upon itself instead of trusting in you." -St. Augustine, Confessions [R.S. Pine-Coffin, 1961; p 122] I got snowed into the comforts of my own home with several days of sunshine to follow.  Who could have seen THAT coming??  I sat in a comfy chair in my dining room window for 3 days straight and soaked in every last bit...