Family Life Update

 

This past weekend was pretty awesome! I got the notification that my third grad class was about to start on Monday (which I almost forgot about- totally normal for me) and so I was able to get my books squared away on Amazon.  I also got my first 100 on an essay in the course. CHYEA!  

Cuz I'm HAPPY: Spreading Seeds of Happiness

Over the weekend, Brittany and I decided to explore more of the downtown area.  At a great store called Dragonfly Drygoods, we found these quirky and fun trinkets called Seeds of Happiness.

  

Seeds of Happiness was born out of an act of kindness. Mark Borella, a sculptor, created small smiley faces from left-over lumps of clay. He gave these to his friends whose young son was dying of cancer. He told them: "I know there is nothing I can say or do to make you feel better so I thought I would bring you some smiles to help you get your smile back. I call them Seeds of Happiness." Sharing the Smiles continues to grow as our customers plant Seeds around the world.

An Exercise in Personal Values

Last week I had the opportunity to be a part of a group that was doing a trial run of an ethical decision making program.  It was created and hosted by one of my favorite leaders, a chaplain from the Reserves who is visiting from Texas.  Her presence is so neat because she is the first female military chaplain that I've ever met and she's also very awesome.  She created a program that was not only awesome, but it wasn't a death by PowerPoint that, well let's face it, most military briefings are like.  We sat down to do the trial run and were introduced to a personal values exercise and a choose-your-own-adventure exercise.  What what! Yeah, it was that fun.  I hadn't done a CYOA since I was like in 4th grade.  The personal values exercise was what I wanted to focus on in this post because it was not only fun, but it provided a point of clarity.

On a sheet of paper were several 20 values and a blank space to add your own.  The values had their own descriptions and the exercise involved putting a plus sign next to your top eight values that you feel are most important to you.

Did You See?: Pi/Pie Edition

I like sharing over-sharing internet links and fun things.

Here is what you may have missed from this week: 

+ Stranger danger is actually a very real thing, but this mom and daughter duo make information and education supes adorbs :)

+ It's important for schools, especially high school administrators, to encourage discussion on these topics because it's prevalent and an important education opportunity.  Don't censor school newspapers on these topics.

+ Don't be that asshat at the gym.  Support and encourage everyone who goes. Health isn't just a fad, it's a lifestyle choice.

A Young Life Experience- Megan's Reflections

You might have seen some Young Life related Instagram shots this past week.  I may or may not have flooded your Instagram feeds a few times with blurry shots of feet, human pyramids, soda challenges, and other ridiculous things.  But don't worry, it was just an Instagram-themed Young Life.

Young Life is amazing and I want to pour my heart and soul into so many posts describing why it is so, but I first put up a picture of it on Instagram.

 

I first decided to become a leader with Young Life because of my friend Michael but I was really moved to see that Young Life was a part of many of my friends' lives as they were growing up.  Admittedly I was a little jealous because little Catholic Kim would have loved to have gone to Young Life as a high school student.  Now I didn't go girls gone wild in college, but I definitely wanted a stronger foundation with the Lord and Young Life gives high students that opportunity if they want it.

After I saw the comments, I asked a few of my friends if they would be interested in being a guest blogger and talking about their experiences.  Megan responded right away!  She and I grew up together and one of my favorite memories was her love of Nsync and performing in talent shows together.  Today is an incredibly confident, fashionable, smart, trendy, and lovely woman who is a very witty blogger.  Big thanks to Megan for sharing her Young Life story.