The Whole Kristen ca-Doodle

Let's go to Sunday School. Or actually, not, because I am not sure I ever learned this part of the story in Sunday School, and I was a star student in Sunday School.  I learned the story of Moses as a baby, his basket, and the princess who adopted him, but never learned the short story preceding it.  Found in  Exodus 1:13-20 , allow me to paraphrase. Remember when Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous he was their dad's favorite, and really Joseph was pretty smug and annoying about it?  Then he ended up in Egypt, and in jail, but God gave him the gift of interpreting dreams and he ended up doing that for the Pharaoh.  Joseph became his right hand man, of sorts, because he helped Egypt by predicting a famine and oversaw preparations for that famine.  And while he was a big boss guy in Egypt, his family was struggling and came to him, without knowing his true identity, for help, and after some weird fancy cup planting o...

I am learning to love stillness.   I have been previously hopeless at this skill.  My mom tells me that when I had mono when I was in Kindergarten, the only difference was that I acted like a "normal" child.  Ha!  I sound like a dream.  I was a squirmy kid, who grew into a squirmy adult.   I was a child dancer who couldn't even in ballet.  It was too slow, too still.  Instead, I tap danced down the grocery aisles.  I didn't even succumb to stillness in sleep, waking up twisted in the blankets or upside down in my bed.  I filled silence with songs, even commercial jingles, and overpowered my thoughts by escaping into the magnificent and magical world of books.   My squirmy tendencies continued into adulthood, always crossing, recrossing, or folding my legs; pulling my split ends; and doodling in the margins in lecture halls in college.....and Bible studies as an adult.   I started practicing yoga through our loc...

I am so over our competition culture. Can we all agree to be confident enough in our own life choices that we can stop overselling them to our friends and family?  And stop arguing or at least implying that our choices are superior to theirs? You do you. Click here to download You Do You doodle. And I'll do me.  We can all be happy doing what is best for us.   Home school or public school or private school.  Daisies or succulents.  Cable or Netflix/Hulu or no TVs.   Disposable diapers or cloth.  Mini-van or SUV or truck.  Color your hair or go gray.  Heels or flats.  Vegan or vegetarian or flexitarian or carnivore.  Read the book or watch the movie or both.  Coke or Pepsi or "I don't drink pop."  Pop or soda or soda pop.  Run or lift weights or dance or don't.  From scratch everything or go out to eat.  Chocolate lover or someone who obviously doesn't have tastebuds. Of course, of course...

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.  -Robert Frost With so much going on right now, both big and small, macro and micro, my mind has been on a spin cycle.  Big, cultural, societal problems take up mental real estate and battle with my smaller, everyday thoughts and frustrations about parenting, in particular.   How do I show support? How brave will I be? How many times do I have to tell them? Just stop bickering! What happened in the news today? What happened at school today? We have to do better. How can I be a better mom? I just want to cry. I just want to scream. Poetry that stuck. On the screen in worship on Sunday was a poem by Rumi, a famous 13th century poet and scholar.  It really spoke to my heart and my mind, addressing my big and small worries and thoughts.  Raising my words in my parenting, in my relationships, in political discourse, in advocacy, in s...

I love being cozy. Give me sweatpants and a blankie any day.  Amiright? Penny Lane agrees.   Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which is all kinds of rad, defines cozy like this: Definition of  cozy cozier ;   coziest 1 a   :   enjoying or affording warmth and ease  :    snug   a  cozy  lakeside cabin b   :   marked by or providing contentment or comfort  won by a  cozy  margin 2 a   :   marked by the intimacy of the family or a close group  We had a  cozy  dinner with the whole family. b   :   marked by or suggesting close association or connivance  a  cozy  agreement   His political opponents accused him of getting too  cozy  with powerful companies. 3 :   marked by a discreet and cautious attitude or procedure  a  cozy  waiting game TBH, that third option threw me.  If you...

I knew I needed to do it. I was too afraid to start.  I rehearsed the conversation in my head over and over, but still didn't know where to begin.  I had excuses:  They are too young.  They won't understand.  It doesn't directly affect them.  They don't have the historical perspective yet. But the truth is, I was afraid to tell my children about Charlottesville, because I was afraid to reveal to them the ugliness of humanity, the failure of my generation and their grandparents' generation to address social ills and instead to sweep them under the rug.  I was afraid to see my pain, confusion, sadness, guilt, and fear reflected in their innocent faces.  It was hard enough to address the inadvertent mispronunciation of the African country, Niger, by a classmate, and the loving, necessary correction of that mispronunciation by another of their friends, last year,  and the conversation about words the people use to steal the humanity a...

The total solar eclipse has been getting a lot of press lately. Rightfully so, of course.  I am not completely geeked out over it, but am excited and looking forward to it.  I mean, the sun is totally getting mooned.  That's awesome. Technically our suburb of Kansas City is getting a partial eclipse, approximately 99.5%, which is good enough for me.  I have prepared, somewhat, and even practiced viewing the eclipse.   But I don't think I was doing it right. Our school district got a grant and provided all the students with glasses to view, so that was covered.  Then they decided not to have to younger students go outside to view, which means I am picking up Baby Girl 2 to view with me, and the school sent her glasses home.  I got glasses for me, hubby, my sister, my bro-in-law, and have plans with my parents to go to our town's solar eclipse shindig in our downtown.   I made the girlies eclipse shirts using a paper plate and a b...