Five Minute Friday – TOGETHER – Allume Style

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Kristin

Linking up with Lisa Jo again – LIVE FROM ALLUME!!! -this week to participate in Five Minute Friday.

Today’s word is TOGETHER – ready, set go –

I wasn’t sure exactly what this weekend would mean for me. This gathering of friends together at Allume.

I had hopes for meeting my roommates for the first time and developing those real life relationships…but I had no idea it would be like this.

I am home. I am with my people. These are women that know me and help me to feel more together.

Sisters. Girlfriends. Gifts.

Each of you know who you are. You have gifted me with laughter in ways I couldn’t imagine I could experience in the course of 24 hours.

If I walk away from this weekend with nothing else, I will feel blessed abundantly.

Thank you dear friends for loving me.

Thank you for accepting me.

I am finally at a place where I feel like I belong, and it is together with all of you.

This God of ours that brought us together in this unique way is showing me that He can fill the voids that my heart has felt for so long.

Thank you Jesus.

I am filled with overflowing.

Five Minute Friday – Laundry

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Kristin

Linking up with Lisa Jo again this week to participate in Five Minute Friday.

Today’s word is LAUNDRY– ready, set go –

It piles up every day, the laundry that my family produces.

With 6 of us in the family, I need to be doing laundry constantly or it would become overwhelming in a heartbeat.

Each morning before I leave for work I start a load on delay. The best invention for a working mom is a washing machine that can be set to run at delay so that it is complete when I come home for lunch. No more stinky laundry – I love it!

At times keeping up with it can be frustrating. The sheer volume of socks that comes out of my dryer taunts me. I despise folding socks. I will fold everything first before those socks and even then the socks might find themselves spinning along with the next load once again.

But if I stop for a moment I can see the blessing in my laundry.

For some, they have to take their laundry out of the home to pay at a Laundromat. I have access to my washer and dryer any time. For some women in the world, a dirty river is the only place available to get their clothes clean. I have an amazing laundry room compared to those standards.

I know there are women out there that would give anything to have to fold pairs or little socks and underwear, but for some reason can’t have children. Hearing mothers complain about something they only wish was a problem for them can be hurtful. I can see that with each sock that needs to be matched it represents a little member of my family.

I know it can be difficult to see something like laundry as a blessing, but it is. The piles represent life. Our life. With each new day there are messes and stains, but there is life happening around us and so I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my family in this way.

And some day I will hopefully defeat my fear of the overwhelming sock basket. For now I will continue to let my husband, who graciously offers to sort them, tackle that part of the job! 🙂

Five Minute Friday – Ordinary

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Kristin

Linking up with Lisa Jo again this week to participate in Five Minute Friday.

Today’s word is ORDINARY– ready, set go –

Sometimes I forget to stop and see it.

The beauty in the ordinary all around me.

My kids recognize it without even thinking about it. My head seems so clouded with stress and fear, anxiety and worry about all I need to do in the little time I have in a day. I don’t stop to see the beauty around me.

We were having family pictures taken and as we were posing a dragon fly landed on Dominic’s knee. The kids got all excited and everything stopped so that they could look at it.

What’s even better is that our photographer Heather took pictures of it!

She saw the beauty in the ordinary too.

As I look at this picture I can see it.

I can remember how excited the kids were, especially the younger 2. How Isaac wanted to capture his own picture, how they all stopped to see the beauty in the ordinary.

It is all around us. As I type I can see glimpses of the trees swaying in the breeze and the colors starting to change in the sky as the sun starts to rise.

If we are open to seeing it, what once seemed ordinary, is amazing and beautiful.

Are you looking for it??

Five Minute Friday – Write

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Kristin

Linking up with Lisa Jo again this week to participate in Five Minute Friday.

Today’s word is WRITE– ready, set go –

I don’t come here to this place often enough. To write and share my heart.

I want to, I have some of the best blog posts written in my head in the shower every morning. But I struggle with getting them down.

Struggle with finding the time in my busy schedule to do what I love.

I don’t know when it happened, this love of writing.

It started slowly at first, as a way of healing after our miscarriage. I was having such a hard time with getting through it and decided to start writing. Being able to bear my soul was therapeutic.

Writing can heal.

Then it moved into a way to document my pregnancies and children’s birthdays. Just the other day I went through some of old posts on my family blog and smiled at how much my family has changed since 2008.

Writing can leave a legacy.

Today I have this space, a place that I hope can build community and offer encouragement. When I write I can share my weaknesses and His strength. God has done so much in my life and when I write I hopefully glorify Him.

Writing can encourage.

Whatever the reason, I believe that this love of writing is a God given gift. I may not always have the perfect sentence structure, grammar or fancy words that impress. But when it comes from the heart, our words can have so much impact.

And that is why I write!

Five Minute Friday – True

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Kristin

Linking up with Lisa Jo again this week to participate in Five Minute Friday.

Today’s word is TRUE– ready, set go –

Lisa asked us to write a true story, to share the truth of where we are right now….

Truth is I am worn out and weary most days.

Truth is I do it to myself. I have high expectations of myself and others and I get frustrated when they aren’t met.

Truth is I spend too much time worrying about what other people think about me and not enough about being a true light of Christ in my day.

Truth is I get jealous when I see friends in this online community that seem more successful than I am.

Truth is I don’t make the time to write as much as I would like so I only have myself to blame! 🙂

Truth is I have met some amazing women through blogging. Women that I can email and share all my ugly truth’s with and they still love me.They still accept me and encourage me.

Truth is THAT is what this is all about for me. Community building. I know that I am not the best at it. I know that I don’t have the email subscribers or twitter followers that others have but the truth is it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that there are people available to me because of this community and the truth is I am so so grateful.

In 4 weeks I will meet many of these women and the truth is I am terrified they won’t like the “real” me in person as much as they seem to like the me behind the computer screen. But I am stepping out and trusting it will be ok.

The truth is, this probably took longer than 5 minutes but I am blessed by the opportunity to write and share and thankful for each of you that stop here and encourage me.