2012 June

Wildfires

Update: The Waldo Canyon fire officially reached Colorado Springs yesterday after jumping the fire line and spreading over the front range of the mountains. Entire neighborhoods have burned and 32,000 people have been evacuated. It is nearing the Air Force Academy. Please pray.

I’ve always romanticized having an idyllic little house in the mountains, a two story home with a wide front porch that would look all cutsy and woodsy like the one Sully built Michaela in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. {Tell me I’m not the only one who watched that show?} So, when we moved to Colorado Springs two years ago, I imagined that dream turning from black and white to color.

But then we went a-house hunting and decided a house further away from the mountains but closer to great friends and the kids’ good school suited us perfectly. Not as romantic as a mountain home, I know. But today, I’m mighty thankful we live on the east side of Colorado Springs.

For the past several days, a forest fire has raged in the mountains just west of town. I remember how every romanticized notion eventually meets reality, and threats of wildfires are the reality of mountain dwellers. Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, and fires burn uncomfortably close to local attractions such as the Navigator’s property and Garden of the Gods.

Would you please pray for the residents of Colorado Springs and those in her nearby mountain towns? And for all those brave firefighters who put themselves in harm’s way so others are safe? Colorado Springs is experiencing record high temps and winds which of course aren’t helping. We need a miracle in the name of a good soaking rain.

Thank you, friends. Trusting in our God who sees it all…

**Top Photo taken Saturday evening from my front driveway, bottom one taken looking towards the mountains just before sunset yesterday.

June 26, 2012 12 Comments Filed Under: Prayer

What You Really Have the Right to Do

By Kristen

My husband and I finally came to terms with the fact we have a nine year old who still doesn’t sleep through the night. Through the years, we kept justifying all the good reasons she wouldn’t sleep: hungry often, night terrors, nightmares, growing pains, restless legs, things that go bump in the night. She’s even been known to sleep walk a time or two. And while these are real issues she deals with, she’s just a light sleeper who enjoys being awake infinitely more than asleep.

I mentioned this to one of my friends, Rebecca, and she said something I can’t quit thinking about:

“The thing about sleep that you figure out after parenthood is that it isn’t actually a right…more of a nice surprise perk!”

Sigh. And yes.

As a mama, I like to think older kids bring certain rights back. I didn’t expect to sleep when my kids were infants or toddlers, but I do expect to sleep through the night when they’re third graders. So once again, I discover how parenting shoves my “rights” to the farthest corner of the closet, mostly forgotten because they aren’t as important as things in the open accessible areas.

When I get all bothered about my “rights,” I’m usually putting myself first. And this isn’t all together bad. After all, I have to get some sleep, I need some time for my own creative interests, Bible reading, hanging with grown-ups. All these feed my soul. But in doing these good things, I’m still putting my loved ones first. I’m giving to me so I have something to give to them. We visit this place of me time, we don’t live there.

“There is a tension that God is asking me to acknowledge and accept–the tension between ideals and realities. True joy is found by living somewhere between the “ideal life” and “daily realities.” That is where Jesus meets me, where His Holy spirit empowers, and where I learn how to live the Christian life with supernatural joy.” Sally Clarkson, Seasons of a Mother’s Heart

In parenting and otherwise, days and seasons ask us to give to others more than we give to ourselves. It isn’t ideal, but it is reality. And this is when I need Jesus most. In the fight between the way things are and the way I think things should be, may I call on Him, the One who sustains me and lavishes joy. Because I do have the right to keep dying unto myself.

June 21, 2012 7 Comments Filed Under: Being a Woman, Faith in Action, Grace, Parenting

What You Must Always Make Time For

By Kristen

“And then, things start to change. I forget everything, everything gets white. I don’t hear nothin’. Ya know, I’m in my zone. I can feel the stress…just comin’ off me. I’m doin’ good.” Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss

Do you ever watch Cake Boss? It features the family business of Carlo’s Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. At the shop’s helm is Buddy Valastro, the passionate Italian baker-extraordinaire who runs the shop with his four sisters and various other family and friends. Buddy creates the most amazing, unforgettable cakes in the midst of complete and total chaos. Sisters hollering, supplies waning, fondant failing, deadlines arriving. Buddy deals with stress on every level. But when he begins drawing his five-star designs on his cakes, he finds his sweet spot. He can be in the middle of bakery armageddon, but he doesn’t hear or see anything.

While it’s hard for me to write in the middle of swirling chaos {hello, summertime with my darling young’uns!}, I do still strategically make time for it. Also, I exercise creativity through things like gardening and cooking. They feed my creative interests and melt my stress. And unlike with writing, I can do them with my kids smack-dab next to me.

I don’t know what you like to do and what you’re great at doing. But I know you have both in abundance. I like to picture you and your un-assembly line self doing your thing this summer, maybe even trying something new. Remember God hand-picked your interests and talents. He didn’t pluck them from His Big Bucket of All Good Things and throw them at you willy-nilly. He didn’t grab the first ones he saw. He picked the best for you after thoughtfully, thoroughly planning every part that would make you you. He sees all our days stretched out before us, what He plans to accomplish through us in our lifetime, and what we need to accomplish it all.

All you have to do is make time to do it. Because He wants you to, we need you to, and you need you to.

“Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you,

The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.” Psalm 139: 16 {The Message}

What creative ventures do you most enjoy? Does your creativity take a different shape in the summer like mine does?

June 18, 2012 7 Comments Filed Under: Encouragement, Faith, Writing Tagged With: Creativity

One Thing That Will Help You Shine Today :: at (in)courage

By Kristen

Alternate title for this post? When What You’re Supposed to Do Makes You Feel Like a Scaredy Cat Who Wants to Please Everybody.

I’ve been writing more regularly for a couple years now. And often while writing, I still see a room full of imaginary people rolling their eyes at me. I see that facebook friend I haven’t spoke with since high school whispering. I see the distant family member laughing over all the awkward things younger me did. I see the close by friend shaking her head with a who-does-she-think-she-is look. They all tell me I’m empty of talent and full of hot air.

Now, the truth is, people are not analyzing me nearly as much as my prideful self thinks they are. It’s all pretty much in my head, but the enemy uses it to steal my confidence in my callings and convince me my gifts are useless. It’s a trick I fall for not only with writing, but with other jobs of mine including wifing and parenting.

Do you ever feel this way? Like you know what you need to do but feel more afraid than brave? Will you sit with me at (in)courage and tell me about it?