This Is Kristin

I have lived in TN for 5 years now, and I still marvel at the distinctness of each season here. I will always be a California girl, perferring the subtle changes of seasons and less dramatic weather, but I do love seeing the changes happen, and as always at this time of year, the season changes provoke me into thoughtfulness.

It gets so cold here, so quickly, that it is almost shocking to the body. I honestly kind of dread the winter here. It seems like if I get cold, I can not get warm very easily. I also don’t like wearing socks and shoes, and coats and layers- all of which are required for a long period of time in the winter!

I often wonder how plants around here can survive it, so at one point I looked it up, and learned that plants are these amazing and complex systems. They have cycles, and when it gets cold, they stop producing fruit and flowers, and instead work on their root systems. That is such an amazing thought to me, that even when it seems a plant has become dreary and nearly lifeless during the winter, underneath the earth it’s roots are growing strong.

To me, that seems to be what happens with humans. When the cold comes, when the difficult seasons hit, we may stop producing fruit and flowers, and be forced to work on our root systems. We may find that the things our roots clung to were not things that are secure. We may find our hearts are rooted and relying upon something that is unable to truly satisfy us, and when that thing, idea or dream is changed or taken away somehow, it feels like winter, and that is when our roots start growing, and during that time, if we cling to God, and have the roots of our hearts grow in Him, when the spring comes again, we will be even stronger and healthier. When winter comes, it’s time to grow.

And, during that time, we cling to the hope that spring is coming again. We cling to the promise that God is a good God that works all things together for good, and we believe through anything Jesus will give us strength- strength to stand through the cold winds, and freezing rains, to survive the season we dread, and come out on the other side, strong, and grown.

I love this excerpt about seasons of life:

“God, Trees and New Beginnings”

“A change of season is about as routine as it gets. Best I know, it has hapened four times a year, like clockwork, as long as humans have been able to keep track of such things. But each time winter yields to spring, each time summer whispers to us that fall will soon arrive, nature is telling us a story. Nature is telling us the story of a God who is always creating, always remaking, forever crafting new beginnings. No matter how dry the sultry dog days of summer, no matter how bitter the winter death, new beauty, new life is always coming. It is only a matter of time….With God and with God’s people there will always be a new season, where life is infused and fruit blossoms….Jesus came to allow us to begin again.”

~Winn Collier author of “Restless Faith”

We have been using Shutterfly.com for our Christmas cards for the past five years, and we love their service, and especially how the cards turn out. This one is from 2005… look at those little guys! ~

Shutterfly has so many cute Christmas card designs to choose from, and even matching address labels. I love this new design this year, it is so cute with a black and white picture! (we may have to use this design for our Christmas card this year!) Right now, Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards! (That is a really good deal.)

We really do love Shutterfly.com, they have great prices on picture prints, we buy all our photo prints from shutterfly. We’ve even had a giant canvas family picture printed by them and it turned out beautiful. We have had many mugs printed of the boys for Father’s day, calendars, and photo books. They are a really great company to trust with your family pictures. The pictures and cards turn out great quality, it’s easy to do, their prices are great, and they always ship your order right away. Go and check out Shutterfly.com!

I love a good chocolate chip cookie, but it seems that every time I make them, they come out flat and kinda crispy. I like the kind that are soft, and chewy. So I am in search of a delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe and am going to keep trying until I find one! (I am sure my family will love this) I will post it on here when I find it!

Do you have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe, that you wouldn’t mind sharing?

Spiderman has been a popular super hero in our family! Blue has been spiderman off and on for Halloween, and we’ve gone through a couple different costumes because he used to wear it all the time, even under his clothes! Aiden has also worn the costume and this year is going to be spiderman again for Halloween!

~Blue and Aiden 2005~

Spider Baby!

~Blue 2008~

~Aiden 2010!~

I have been wanting to see this film since I saw the preview for it. I finally watched it last night, and I loved it. It was so interesting to see the diversity of our world and how each baby is raised so differently. It was so well done, a really beautiful film.

(watch this video clip all the way to the end, the last scene is so funny!)

A couple of weeks ago we got a baby girl puppy and named her Penny. Our plan was to wait until Christmas to get a puppy, but then we started talking about what kind of puppy we’d want, and came upon a picture of a german shepherd mix puppies rescued from a barn. We were missing Luther so much, and both Brody and I have always had a dog in the family, so it was strange to not have a dog at home with us. I’ve wanted a puppy for about a year now, so it didn’t take me long to fall in love with one of the little pups!

She has grown quickly, and is so cute. She’s full of energy and gets in lots of trouble, but I love having her around. I think it’s so good for the boys to have this little “baby” to take care of, walk, feed, brush, and she adores the attention, and they lover her very much too.

So much of the time she looks like a stuffed animal to me, and she feels as soft as one too. She is a german shepherd/ english bulldog mix, so that will be interesting to see what she looks like as she grows, right now she’s adorable, and fitting into our family comfortably.

Awhile ago, my friend Amy asked me to read and review a book by Julie Lessman. I was excited to get the book in the mail, and start reading the novel!

“A Hope Undaunted” is catagorized as an inspirational romance novel, and it is set in the 1920’s.

The author spends a lot of time describing the characters, what they look like, as well as their relationship to one another. By the end of the story, you really feel as though you know the family, and especially the main character- Katie.

I generally read mystery novels, so reading a romance novel for me was something new. At first I felt that the story was taking a long time for me to get into, I am sure because I am used to mystery novels where things start happening right away, but once I got into the story, I sped through to the end, to see how it would turn out.

I think the best part of the book, was the actual writing. The author does such a good job at describing the people, the setting and even the movements and feelings of the characters, that you can truly picture each scene.

This is a feel good, happy, and inspirational novel!

Our sweet 11 year old dog Luther died yesterday. He had been sick for about a month. The vet had told us he had days to live, and he ended up living a month past that prediction. He waited until we were gone for the weekend, and then he died. We think he was trying to hang on for us. He could barely walk, but he would try to move room to room with us, he didn’t want to eat, but would try if we held it in front of his mouth. He was just the best dog, all the way up to the end.

Brody got him when he was a cute fat little puppy, before we were dating. Luther went on our first date to the park, and has since been a part of our family for the past 10 years. He was the sweetest, most loyal dog we have ever had. It is very strange for him to not be here anymore, and home now feels different without him here.

We will miss him, and we are glad to have had him as part of our family for as long as we did.

Aiden started kindergarten this week, and it has slowly been settling in on me. It came up so fast! I have been trying to make sure he was not scared, and instead excited about it, that I have been so excited for him too! Until this morning, when he got on the bus, instead of me walking him into his class, then I suddenly felt very sad that he is growing up. I am happy that he is being brave and wanting to ride the bus, but at the same time, I know that once they start kindergarten, it seems like they start growing up very fast.

All the same, I am very happy that he has the same kindergarten teacher that Blue had, and she is so caring and teaches the kids so much. Even though I will miss having him home with me, I know it will be a great year for everyone!

This baby picture of Blue, was when he was 1 year old. It is one of my favorite pictures of him. I had decided to take a picture of him for our christmas card. I hung up a mosquito net for the backdrop, got him dressed in a cute outfit, and set him on the bed for the picture. He didn’t sit still. He did somersaults, jumped up and down, laughed and on and on. I took about 200 pictures, and had no clue that during that time that I was just snapping away as he rolled and jumped away, that I had captured a split second of adorable. This picutre looks so posed, but there was not a moment that he was cooperating!

Now that he’s 8, he’s still hard to get a still picture of! While trying to take a family picture, he’s usually the one with the funny face going on, or looking the other way! But, when we do capture the normal smile, you can easily see his character in his eyes. He’s a handsome boy, with so much in his future. I am sure that he could do just about anything. He is so full of energy, and life, and joy. He’s optomistic about everything, and is always looking for fun.

I miss the baby, but am excited to watch him grow. I can’t believe that he’s 8 already, it’s gone too fast. I’m praying for a great year for him, and glad that he had such an awesome 8th birthday!