Lest there be any question!  Let’s go Pats!

One of the BEST articles I’ve ever read.   The Ancient Solution for Future Generations

 Teaching Adden this, especially:  Choose Your Heroes Carefully 

Try this queso blanc dip (so goooood!), among other delish stuff:  Superbowl Ideas

And the laundry waited, happily:  What’s Happened to Play

Great for a long car ride:  Books Should Be Free

Who holds us close and makes us laugh. 

Who steadies us.

Whom we love, love, love and look up to. 

We love you Paul! 
Happy, happy, happy birthday!!!!!

A Letter to my Teenage Daughter.  And our students now.   

You Never Marry the Right Person.  (Though I did:)

I Believe in Tim Tebow.  My Pats crushed him, but that’s never what mattered in the least. 

It’s True.  They’re moving and we’re running - to support this beautiful work & these beautiful friends. 

The Answer to Anxiety.   A song of thanks steadies everything.

This year, my word is margin.   I am a scamperer, you know, often running from one thing to the next;  hyper and distracted.  It is an often mined failure that affects my most prized relationships.  This year, I intend to leave room for playing, with pant legs rolled up, in the sand.

I will leave margin for myself to take care of that which God has given me.  Making space for long runs and spinach salads and observing changes in my skin and painting my toenails and breathing in and breathing out and God’s Spirit to move as He wills.

I will leave margin for family.  For laughing and upside down nights and pick up basketball games and long chapter books and dates.  For swimming with my girl and tossing a touchdown pass to my boy.  For time spent together and love letters written.  For not being in a rush. 

And I will leave margin for my Jesus, the only restorer of my broken soul.  Who walks with me in beauty.  Who speaks in my silence.  Who shows me what true riches is. 

Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace.
If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God,
nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace.
In that stillness you will know what His will is.
Amy Carmichael

(Praying and hoping and leaving margin towards this very end.) 

Much Love,
Kristin

PS  Do you have a word for this year? 

I’m not sure what I love most about this program:

Participating children receive a t-shirt, a medal upon crossing the finish line, a certificate, a bag of goodies, and most of all – the confidence that they can attain what seems like an unreachable goal. 

In conjunction with the Kids of Steel Program is the Steel Taste Program.  For this, children taste 60 of 100 healthy foods and mark it off on a checklist.  It’s perfect for picky eaters!  (My kids will do anything for a check on a chart.)  Selah had her first salad tonight with delight!  She was so proud.  (As was her momma.)

If you are local and end up doing this, let me know.  Would love to go on training runs together!

Selah is a gift giver like her dad.  You never really know what she’ll come up with to give away - handmade picture frames, mosaics, bars of soap, necklaces.  When she saw this idea in an American Girl Magazine, she was all over it. 

It’s a toilet paper roll stuffed with little treats and packaged with tissue, scrapbook paper, and ribbons.  She wanted to stuff them with chocolate for Valentine’s Day.  But we came up with all kinds of ideas for:

Birthdays – balloons to blow up, confetti, a card, a candle, and candy
Snowy Days -  marshmallows and a hot chocolate packet, warm socks, paper for paper snowflakes
Random I Love You Gifts – little notes of love and Hershey’s kisses
Get Well Packages – bandaids, tea packets, Bible verses of encouragement, dried soup package, tissues
Friend Get Togethers – stickers, a necklace, lip gloss

We spent a great afternoon making these packages together.  They cost nothing with what we had on hand, they will be super cute little gifts for others, and they were simple ways to encourage her heart of giving.  It’s a win win all around!

This week has been lovely….

Not often getting out of my pajamas
Swimming with the kids
Time spent with Paul
Reading

Back to running
Laughing over new games
Rearranging our home
Sleeping in

Tomorrow we head away for our annual Castle Retreat. Paul’s been busy planning forever to have teenagers and college students and beyond descend upon a castle for a weekend away.

Would love if you would take a minute to pray for the following:

Students hearts to be receptive and open to God’s leading.
Relationships to be built and centered around Christ.
All of the details to come together.
A safe weekend for everyone.
That God would be honored in our speaker, worship, games, hanging out, prayer room, room assignments, late night talks, meals together, movies, everything. 

I am really anxious to see what God will do.  Happy New Year’s Friends!  Thanks for praying!

Anything I can be in prayer for?  Email me.  Thanks!

May you know how richly you are loved by
a Savior.

Because of Jesus

With Hope, Joy, and Peace,
Paul, Kristin, Selah, and Adden 

Wherever you are, be all there.

- Jim Elliot

Love is…

One of my all time favorite photo books we’ve made is this one:

Find favorite family photographs that coincide with the words in 2 Corinthians 13:4-8a and 13.  Put one photograph on each page with one line of coinciding text:

Love is patient

and the rest would follow as such:
Love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It does not dishonor others. 
It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails….

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.

It’s simple.  Quick.  The text is awesome.  And the pictures represent LOVE in Action. 

I am ever so grateful for everyone who has loved me (and our entire family) well… Love has been lived before our eyes often.  Friends and family, ya’ll know who you are…  Thank you. 

Because of Jesus,
Kristin