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Chasing Blue Skies

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Kristen
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Sometimes, visiting where you were yesterday helps

I started doing a thing I hadn't done since I was

I started doing a thing I hadn't done since I was 26: Teaching elementary students in a regular school classroom.

Or rather, I've been substitute teaching in regular school classrooms!
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As a young’un, I taught K-5 music as a public school teacher. I loved that gig...but then came moving and my husband’s frequent traveling. Also, becoming a certified teacher across states wasn't simple.

Most of all, I loved staying home with my kids and believed that was where I was supposed to be--and I'm thankful that's where I could be thanks to my husband's employment.
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I entertained going back to teaching part-time when my kids were all school-aged, but I didn’t think I’d have it in me to encourage other people's kids all day long and have enough in the tank to come home and encourage my own. ⁠Countless full time teachers with children and families manage both BEAUTIFULLY—I can name many I know in my life alone! Plus, by the time all my kids were in school, I’d picked back up my old love of writing, and I continue to enjoy the doors God opens with that.
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But it’s a new season, so I'm dipping my toes into teaching again by subbing part of each week. I enjoy the flexibility it provides as I'm still very much writing!
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Let me say, however, that I'd forgotten how exhausting😅 a classroom full of young darlings can be (GOD BLESS YOU, TEACHERS.) 🥰Also? I’d forgotten how HILARIOUS young kids are.

Case in point: One Kinder girl looked at me and asked, "Do you live in Colorado?" I replied, "Well yes, I do!” To which she said with much skepticism, "You can't live in Colorado cuz you talk too country." ⁠🤣🤣🤣
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Great day, I laughed to high heaven. As I did earlier this week when a 1st grade boy kept calling me Mrs. Tall rather than Mrs. Strong. (Fair mistake.)

Anyway, I suppose this is my testimony that it’s kinda special to re-start something I used to do while continuing to love what I’ve been doing a while. Both/And wins again.

If there's one thing I've learned after a whole ye

Every August, I laud the beauty of Black-eyed Susa

Every August, I laud the beauty of Black-eyed Susans, a simple flower that shines all happy as a landmark at the intersection of End of Summer and Beginning of Fall (at least in Colorado).⁠
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This last week of August…

🌻I hopped out of my car four different times to snap Black-eyed Susan pics.

🚲I rode my bike for the first time since my good man bought and gave it to me five years ago. (Why in the world did it take me so long?!?)

🤸‍♀️I worked on not one but two new projects that I'm so excited about, I could just burst.

🥰I sat on Christie's *glorious* back deck with friends, friends who are a support group for this stage of life. ⁠⁠The older I get, the more I learn I need friends now as much as ever.⁠
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These were some highs, but of course real life has its lows, too, and mine is no exception. ⁠
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Be that as it may, as the sun sets on August, I want to be like those Black-eyed Susans, happy to be where I am, in the golden light of grace everywhere.

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