Kristen Blog

Yellowstone, here we come! We planned to enter Yellowstone through the south side, staying a little ways outside of the Grand Tetons in Moran, Wyoming.  Listen, I did this thing pretty last minute.  From what I understand it is important to book like a year in advance to get certain "special" locations.  I don't think I will EVER be able to plan a vacation that far in advance.  So, we deal with what we've got available.  I think I used Expedia (not always a reliable method), and I found a lodge that looked right up our alley.  It was a little remote, but we were super pleased with our stay and experience at Togwotee Mountain Lodge. This was definitely part of the trip where I had researched a stop about 20 minutes ahead of our arrival to get groceries.  It was a 3 night stay, and there wasn't much around.  There was a nice restaurant and a little convenience store (with gas!) but...with 4 kids, we opted to have all of our little needs ...

I am a firm believer in acceptance. I am all about diversity.  So much so, because I am so diverse within myself.  My moods often change from one minute to the next!  I mean, I've never been really big on conformity.  I love change...as long as I am in charge of it.  😁  I am drawn to unique, different, diverse.  It's part of why I love my job.  I am all over the place, stretched out over 3 counties and 20 schools.  I see different people every single day, and often times I am in multiple different places within one day.  Never too long in one spot (I was not good with the whole classroom gig, same place every day 8 to 4.  That was way too rigid for me.) I just love diversity.  And I love people.  I mean...collectively, I hate them.  But individually, I just love ALL people, and I want to give them a GREAT BIG HUG!  I love all people...except...the ones who are in front of me, behind me or beside me in my car...

It's been a long week.  Back in full throttle mode, long hours and lots of people having difficulty transitioning back from break.  I am a de-escalator.  I specialize in getting people who don't want to...to participate.  I am not always successful.  Either way, it is a major energy drain.  I have to channel all of my resources to filling up during times off, so that I can put everything I've got into both of my jobs, because both of them are challenging in their own ways. However, I'm not so sure I've had it right all along.  I may just be thriving with all of this opportunity to deal with huge amounts and varieties of people all day long.  One day at home with my four kids proves that being home bound alone with them can be just as challenging and draining (if not more) than working my full-time job and internship together every day.  At least I am teaching, encouraging and de-escalating different people...people who might actually list...

I've been thinking and reading and hearing a lot about instant gratification, our inability to delay it, and, for that matter, our natural instinct to run from any kind of pain, discomfort, or displeasure.  It makes sense, naturally, to go after exactly what we want and take it. It makes sense, naturally, to avoid pain at all cost.  That is the pure, raw instinct of the flesh.  The problem is, that tendency, to instantly quench all desire immediately, to instantly fight off all kinds of discomfort and displeasure, is a short-term remedy, which often comes into conflict with the long-term gains. The problem is we are not merely animalistic, fleshly beings.  We are made in the image of God.  We are Spirit-breathed.  We are both Spirit and flesh.  This is the conflagrant conundrum.  Because of our spiritual nature, sometimes the eternal good requires the temporary delay of gratification of the flesh, and that is just UNNATURAL!  (Deny de...

Well...what I thought was going to be an almost boringly slow week, of course, turned out to be pretty busy, in the end.  It was kind of a wrap-up week.  I was finishing up with schools for their winter break and finishing with hours for my internship, because...I am SOOOOOO done with my first semester of my last class ever!  And I am just about to cash my check at the bank, 'cause I am so on track to graduate in May.  (Just kidding.  Graduation doesn't come with a check.  It actually comes with debt...just so we are clear. 😉) I started the week with an after-work school event.  I am so cynical when it comes to these, and I was soooooo feeling The Grinch about it. What kind of Mom doesn't love kids' programs?!!  For real?  You guys...I really don't like choir concerts and programs and special school events.  Like...at all.  Am I a bad mom?  Please don't tell my kids, because, apparently I have developed a bit of a pok...

Monday, bloody Monday.  At least, I believe, at the end of my life, I will be able to lie on my deathbed and think, "Well...that was...explosive." That's kind of how it feels, anyway.  Explosive.  Bombs going off around me all night and day, and I am just scrambling to deactivate and disengage. Monday started with a crisis in my own household.  I was left de-escalating my own child via text, while trying to drive to a school.  (Don't worry, homies.  I only texted at stoplights and stop signs.  I am a law-abider-ish.) And then my school hit me back-to-back-to-back with students all day long, and that is AWESOME, but intense.  And then I had a short moment to stop home for a salad before I had to rush to Synergy, and it was a needy day, and I peopled, A LOT.  And then I rushed to Eden's choir concert, and you guys!...I sat still for her for, like, 2 whole hours!  And it was probably only because I was so wiped out from the day that I...