This Is Kristin

We watched the movie “Into the Wild” last night. Overall it was a pretty sad movie with a sort of hopeless feeling, but we did enjoy it because the scenery is beautiful, the adventure is exciting, and it’s very artistically done. It’s also very interesting being that it was based on a true story.

Most of all I loved the soundtrack, done by Eddie Vedder, of which Rolling Stone says, “Shortly after Pearl Jam released Ten, a disillusioned twenty-something named Christopher McCandless dropped out of society, hitched cross-country and perished in the Alaskan wilderness. Now Eddie Vedder tells the young man’s story on the soundtrack to Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, tossing his weighty baritone onto earthy, folky tracks that temper the romance of absolute freedom with an eerie foreboding.”

~Have you seen it? What did you think?

We’ve used sign language with our babies, and it works so well, if they are willing.  (our middle child never did want to do it much, and still doesn’t)  My oldest talked primarily in sign language for quite awhile, and now my 15 month old is really starting to pick it up too.  I think it is such a good thing to teach babies, because it really opens the door for communication.  Here is a video of a baby signing, this baby really knows a lot of signs!

~We just got through having some really warm, 60 degree days, and now it’s freezing again, raining and super windy!  Snow is in the forecast!  I don’t get this weather.    ~What is “normal” where you are, is it spring yet?   

I have spent the last five years as a stay at home mom.  I never worked outside the home, once I had kids, aside from a few odd jobs and volunteer positions, but nothing full time.  I spent those years feeling like the “world” was continuing to move on and by the time I got my kids raised I’d have to play catch up.  

I have spent the past few days working with women, who have children and who have always worked.  They don’t know what it’s like to stay at home with their kids, they’ve never had that option. They are women who do so much every day, I really respect them. I have friends also, who’ve always worked while having kids, and they manage their lives really well.  

For me, I think it’s hard to transition from being a stay at home mom, to a working mom.  Throughout the day, I think about my kids little faces, and I miss being around them.  I have realized how much being a stay at home mom is a priviledge, (for me) and how the “world” is not only outside the walls of my home, but also that my world is at home, and in those faces I see there.

It’s good to get a different perspective, and a renewed appreciation for my family. It’s good to get a taste of how a lot of women live their lives.  It’s good to see life outside the stay at home mom world, and fall more in love with my kids, and to being home.