The beauty of Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday with loved ones.

I have been very blessed this year to experience a new beauty with Christmas.
Christmas is a special time to many people. It also can be a really difficult time. Though I love Christmas, I can understand some of the pain that the holiday season brings about. It is a time when the brokenness  and separation of our own lives becomes a bit more evident. Whether the brokenness is death of a loved one, a split relationship or a difficult relationship (even if that is with yourself), it seems like the difficulty at this time of year comes from relationship stress of varying magnitudes. Humanity struggles with relationships, as seen in the number of wars and strife, hate and hurt, broken marriages and disconnected family members and friends. There is hope.

Let me tell you something beautiful. This day, many years ago, Jesus the Christ was born. He came to bring life and relationship. Jesus says in John 10:10, "I came so that they may have life and life abundantly." Jesus came to give life, true life. The beauty of it is life is given through healed relationship. Jesus, son of God, took on human flesh so that he may sacrifice his life in order to reconcile the sin of humanity and create a pathway for us to have relationship with our heavenly Father. Only through his perfect sacrifice are we taken out of the equation. We no longer must work harder or be better. We only must be, and in doing so recognize that we are not enough, but we don't have to be, because Jesus was and is! He is our pathway. When we enter into this relationship with God, created through Jesus, we find life and life abundant. Life so full and so rich, we recognize that we need not suck up life from all our other relationships, we have all we need. Jesus is our final victory because his death on the cross conquered death and all the destruction and sin that reigns in us. This death and destruction is what causes brokenness in our world and in our lives. Jesus was victorious on the cross and enables us to live in victory as well. It is an incredible truth that never gets old or boring because each day it brings new freedom. And as beautiful as our salvation story with Jesus is, to fully grasp this we must understand what came at Christmas time.

Jesus is known in a lot of different ways (check out this website to see all the different ways he is known today). There are people who love Jesus and those who hate Jesus and then a bunch of people in between. In truth, I say that Jesus is God and son of God, he is also our incredible savior, he was a perfect example of human life, an incredible teacher, and at one point a mere baby.

I have always loved Christmas but never did I begin to grasp why the birth of Jesus was so special. I knew that the virgin birth was totally miraculous and that the prophesies of the old testament were perfectly coming true through this birth, but why was Jesus as a baby so amazing? In church a couple weeks ago the pastor spoke on the fragility of a baby and complex needs that a baby must have met for survival. This when it really struck me. Jesus, our Lord, put himself in the most fragile position, the most vulnerable state. He gave up oneness with God our Father to be human flesh. He did this, because he loves us. Love so sacrificial and so perfect that no human love can even come close. People may think that Jesus is a lot of things, and during the Christmas season, seeing Jesus as a baby is pretty common. But how often do we stop and think about what it meant for Jesus to be a baby?

Power beyond comprehension, Jesus laid it all down to be human and walk with us, laugh with us and cry with us. Jesus as a baby demonstrates so fully his humanity and thus his sacrifice in a very different way than I usually think of it. Jesus gave everything up to be with us, and heal broken relationships. He did this because he loves us, and to him, we are completely and wonderfully lovable.

Today, my wish for you is to find hope in this, to think on this and to rest in this. Jesus was born today, many years ago, so that we could have hope and see how beloved we are to God.

Merry Christmas!!

"Where I'm from" an Art Show!

So, if you hadn't gathered from the title, this blog is all about the places I call home. These places include the greater Portland area, Seattle, New York, Gettysburg, and every place that has someone I love, so Baltimore, Kirksville, Argentina, Virginia, California and the list goes on and on and on.

So, what makes your home a home? Is home a place or a person or something else? What types of emotions do you feel at home? How can you describe your home? What have you learned from your home?

...These are all questions we asked our New Futures first through six graders! The last month we have spent significant amount of time on Accordion Books dedicated to home. Each page displayed a different component of home. We gave the kids a lot of freedom to describe what they wanted to about where they are from and what home is to them, and let me tell you, they did a great job! One of my favorite portions of their "home book" was a page dedicated to poetry. Ellie, my supervisor, asked me to plan and present the lesson on poetry, and i absolutely loved the opportunity to do so! Poetry was one of my favorite things to do with the El Centro kids I worked with a couple summers ago, and so I was happy to do poetry with these kiddos. It is such a great way to get a look into a child's heart :)

Considering I find the definition of home so complex and beautiful, I really loved this project and how it made the kids think about their realities.

After a month of hard work, we celebrated tonight with an ART SHOW!! We called it, "Where I'm from." We invited their parents, teachers and friends to come and check out all the kids hard work. We completely transformed our space and offered a delicious spread of food. Overall, it was a GREAT success, and so much fun to see the kids proud of their accomplishments.

Here are some pictures from the evening :)

Doesn't it look great?

Help find Joe Sjoberg!

Hi everyone!

I am posting this today because I need everyone's help--just their eyes. On November 30th a recent grad from Carlton College went missing. He is a Seattle native and was working in Madison, Wisconsin.

Here is a recent article from the Seattle Times with more information:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013720221_missingman20m.html

And here is the link to the facebook group organizing support to find Joe:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_173227499368973

He is about 5'10" and 180-200 lbs. He has brown hair and greenish eyes. His car is a gray 1991 Chevrolet Caprice with Washington license 513 WYN.

If you see him or see his car, please contact 911 and let them know or call his brother, Pat at (206) 954-2723. There was a possible siting in the Seattle area, but he could be anywhere.

Please, keep an eye out!

Thank you!

--Kate

CPR Training

Today, I became officially CPR certified for adults and for children and infants. Wooohooo. It was great to see most of my AmeriCorps team in the training and I really loved getting a refresher and being pleasantly surprised by how much information I remembered from my babysitting class at age 13.

Here are some cell phone pics of us practicing our new knowledge :) We're getting ready to save lives!

From the CPR Training, I went to New Futures where I did paper work and cleaning. It is a great change of pace from being with the kids all day long.

After coming home and eating dinner, I finished up some important Christmas shopping and baked some yummy cookies. It was a packed day!

Hope you all had a great monday!

a full friday, a holiday party and a christmas pageant

This weekend was a wonderful holiday-activity-filled weekend! (was that a mouthful or what?) I came home to the Portland area for a nice and jam- packed 3 day weekend! If you were wondering, that's why it has taken me awhile to write a new post.

My Friday was filled with an early morning breakfast with my daddio, errands around town, lunch and shopping with my grandma, and a great evening with Mark and Jeff.
One of my favorite things about coming home are my early morning breakfasts with dad. Being the busy gal I am, and my dad being the busy guy he is, we don't often get a lot of big chunks of time quality time together, especially without interruptions. I cherish our early morning breakfasts filled with catch up and wisdom sharing conversations. We always go to the same restaurant, Millers Homestead, and eat yummy food and just enjoy each others company. This early morning rendezvous was no different and equally wonderful. After that, I did errands around town and then headed up to see my grandma. I always have a really relaxing and rejuvenating time with my grandma, and this Friday was no exception. One of my favorite things about my grandmother is her flexibility. She is so able to go with the flow, I don't need to worry about being five minutes late or staying an extra hour. She loves spending time with me and will do so on whatever pretense; this feeling is definitely mutual :)
After returning from my grandma's, I spent the evening with one my dearest friends from high school, Mark, and his good friend Jeff. I love friendships that are so easy to pick up where you left off, where there is no tension or pressure, and you can just be your ever changing, always the same self. Mark is one of those friends. He, along with a handful of other friends, played a really defining role in my high school experience. It was so nice to catch up with him and spend time with Jeff too. The three of us had wonderful conversation, relating to how facebook is changing our reality of friendship to how you know when someone is the one and many little interrupting anecdotes in between. We just sipped wine and enjoyed the conversation. Even when the power went out, we just continued talking. As the night went on, Mark started demonstrating his DJ skills for us, which was incredible and so much fun. Overall, it was just one of those sweet times spent with good friends and filled with good conversation and cheap wine.

Mark and Jeff a couple summers ago

Me and Mark the night I left for Gettysburg College before my freshman year--love this one :)

Saturday was another wonderful day. My mom and I had a really great time at coffee, just getting some time to really talk and catch up. I love getting to talk about how I am doing on the heart level, and hearing my mom's wisdom and advice. I also just have a really great time with her, and know how much she loves me too. Family is so great! After coffee we prepared for our annual holiday potluck party. We have been having this holiday shindig for as long as I can remember and I absolutely love it! Some years we are snowed in and only our neighbors can come, other years we have around 80 guests! It is always great to see old family friends, new neighbors, and everyone in between while eating the most delicious hodgepodge of food! I tended the fire and mingled away all evening long. These are perhaps two of my favorite things to do! After all the guests had left, my mom, wonderful neighbor Teryll and I plopped down and watched A White Christmas to top off a perfect day.

Sunday was the day that initially triggered my coming back to the Portland area. My brothers were performing in a Christmas Pageant at their church! And boy, did they do a great and adorable job! The pageant was how I would imagine any pageant by children who had limited practice would be--adorably wonderful and filled with pauses, nervous smiles and lots of laughs! It was absolutely wonderful getting to be there and support my brothers. Spending the afternoon with them afterwards was also pretty great :)
Needless to say, I am officially in the Christmas spirit! I sang along to Christmas carols most of my drive tonight, back up to Seattle.

Matt as Joseph

Andrew as Zechariah 

Sean as a wiseman

I love this shot!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, last couple days before Christmas! I know I will be busy finding presents for my brothers, wrapping gifts, baking cookies and hopefully finally getting my room clean! There will also be at least two more blog posts too, so stay tuned!

PS Did I mention I also got to decorate a few Christmas trees? :)

The Seattle Children's Museum!

Last week we took our Colorful Hands kiddos to the Seattle Children's Museum. They currently have a Clifford exhibit which was all I was really expecting, however their permenant exhibit is pretty unbelievable as well.
The Children's Museum is really beyond words. It is a child's paradise! Everything is hands on and meant for experiential learning. It is also child size. There is an exhibit filled with rooms dedicated to what homes look like all around the world, from kitchens demonstrating the type of food there is to bedroom and living rooms showing how different cultures live and spend time together. Another exhibit they have is a mini grocery store with plastic food and mini grocery carts so the kids can play pretend grocery shopping. There also have a fire truck and a theater and everything in between, all designed for the children to be able to touch and play with. There is even a whole room dedicated to art. This room had every type or art possible and was so kid friendly! The kids were able to play with clay, paint, draw, cut shapes and all that in between.

The kids really loved it! Even those children who are slow to become engaged and participate were active and enjoying themselves. We opened the field trip up to parents so that they could go with their children. We had nine children go total and six of these children were accompanied by their parents. It was such a fun outing!

Here are some more pictures. How cute are these kiddalinks!?

all lined up before we went into the museum!

cutest catch of the day I've ever seen :)

snack time!

art room!

Isaias enjoying the Clifford exhibit

Mr. Fireman!

just grocery shopping, you know?

If you are in Seattle and have a reason to take any kids to the Children's museum--do it! It was such a wonderful experience!

10 days til Christmas!

pen-pal relationship

hello everyone!
it's been a while and I am sorry to have not been more consistent in the last couple of days! It's been a busy time and blogging has not been on the forefront of my mind. Thank you for bearing with me :)

As you all know El Centro is an organization that I absolutely adore. I worked there in the summer of 2009 and I volunteered there for the second half of my Gettysburg College experience. I also developed wonderful relationships with the staff and the kids, which I continue to treasure so much. Being with New Futures now, I see a lot of similarities between the two organizations (though many differences as well!). Because I totally believe in writing and expressing oneself as vitally important to our human existence (you'll read more about this in an upcoming blog on poetry!) I thought that a pen-pal relationship between El Centro and New Futures would be wonderful. The kids I worked with at El Centro and am now with at New Futures are in the same age range and both populations deal with really similar issues and experiences. Staying in touch with my kiddos from El Centro was also appealing :) I suggested the idea to my supervisor and she loved it! I made all the necessary connections and El Centro was supportive too! It has been really exciting and build these relationships and connect our communities that are over 2,500 miles apart from each other.

We are in currently in our second round of exchanging letters. New Futures mailed off the first letters to El Centro and we have received responses. The 1st-3rd graders have all finished their letters and now the 4th-6th graders are finishing up theirs. By the end of this week, I hope they are on their way! The kids write about themselves, their interests and their experiences. It is really cool to see them become engaged in writing and interested in these people across the country. Of course, at times, the concept of letters going through the mail doesn't quite make sense, nor does the time it takes to get there and back. However, the kids have been overall excited and I would deem this project a success.

These kids are writing to...

...These kids

And back and forth and back and forth... I hope :)

Twelve days to Christmas! I'm home this weekend for my mom's annual holiday party and my little brothers' Christmas pageant! I am looking forward to the holiday activities :) What do your holiday plans look like?

PS Did you have a pen-pal growing up??

Eiffel Tower and the ring bearer

Have you heard of the website Overheard in New York before? This website is pretty hilarious. People post various things that they overhear while in New York. This website is pretty hilarious will all the random and weird things that are overheard... you never know when someone is overhearing the conversation at the wrong time! Make sure you check this website out if you're in need of some laughs!
One of my all time favorite Overheard in New  York posts is below... you'll see why I like it :) John posted this on my facebook wall over 2 years ago, and I dug it up to share with you all!


College girl #1: Which way to the Eiffel Tower?
Suit, puzzled, pointing East: That way?
College girl #2: How far is it?
Suit: ... About three thousand miles.
College girl #1: No! No! [Makes peak with fingertips of both hands.] The... Eiffel... Tower!
Suit: Yeah, that way about three thousand miles -- across the Atlantic Ocean -- in Paris.
College girl #2, also making peak with hands: No! No! It's a... It's a... The Empire State Building!
Suit, pointing at looming Empire State Building: The Empire State Building is right there.
College girl #2: You have to excuse us -- we're from Oregon.


What do you think?? Pretty great, right?! I bet you can guess why I like this one :) The truth of this Overheard in New York is what makes it so funny--I've totally had to make sure that I was saying Empire state building rather than the Eiffel Tower.
Another funny website is called My Life Is Average (MLIA). On this website people post funny but seemingly average things that happen in day to day life. One of my favorite MLIA is below. Believe it or not, I posted this one on John's facebook wall about a year ago, and that is how I dug it up for you, my wonderful blog readers :)


Today, I attended a co-worker's wedding. A little boy who looked about 6 was coming down the aisle and he took two steps, stopped, and turned to the crowd (alternating between bride's side and groom's side), put his hands up like claws, and roared. Step, step, ROAR, step step, ROAR, all the way down the aisle. The crowd was near tears from laughing so hard by the time he reached the pulpit. The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the laughing and was almost crying. When asked what he was doing, he sniffed and said, "I was being the Ring Bear." MLIA


I love this website, and often used it as a study break in college. It always gives me a good laugh. Especially when the posts are about children :) Make sure you check it out when you have time!


Another thing I'd like to report on is my blog! I started my blog October 24th, so about a month and a half ago. Let me tell you how it's going. First of all, I am LOVING it! I really appreciate the opportunity to write and reflect on my life. Secondly, I'll give you some stats. In the first month of All the Places I Call Home's existence there were 586 page views. Right now we are up to 921 page views. I have posted 31 entries (including this one!), averaging around 4 a week. I have received one comment and have four official followers. The viewership is largely from the United States with the second largest viewership hailing from Oman, third from Malaysia and many others from the United Kingdom to Germany to Ghana to Israel to Ireland to Japan to Mexico to Australia and a whole list of others. How cool is that? 


What I really want to say is a big THANK YOU!!! Thank you for reading my blog! If you are interested in commenting more and letting me know what you think, I would love to hear from you! Let me know what you like, what'd you'd like to see more of, etc. If you are interested in following my blog, I would be truly honored! To follow my blog, look to the right of the post, and there will be an icon that says follow. Click that and follow the instructions!


I hope that I have given you some good laughs tonight! Happy Wednesday everyone and thank you for reading! Tune in tomorrow for my weekly Thankful Thursday post! 

weekend highlights and urgent care!

Hello friends!

I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far. For some reason, today has really seemed like a Thursday. It's been a long week, but I'm not quite sure why. So, I was thinking that if I reflected on the weekend, perhaps I'd get a reality check, and realize that it is just Tuesday. 

Friday, I went to Burlesque (the movie). It has Christina Agulara and Cher in it, and I wasn't sure what to expect but, I was really impressed. I have my critiques of the movie, and perhaps just movies today in general (being overly sexualized or overly violent--the first in this case) but I would definitely recommend Burlesque and would love to see it again in the future. Perhaps the best part of going to the movie was that I went with Maia (remember my post about her and her family?) I just love hanging out with Maia and I got to see her a lot this weekend, which made it extra wonderful :)

beautiful Maia, all dressed up

Saturday, was the Oregon and Oregon State civil war football game. Sarah (one of my lovely roommates) and I went over to watch the game with Maia at her house. And then.... I had the best time helping Maia get ready for a school dance! Man oh man, high school dances are what I miss most from high school! (sometime I'll try to dig out old pictures and post them for laughs!) I did Maia's hair and make up and she looked gorgeous! She was smokin' in that little black dress! 

After seeing Maia off, Sarah and I headed back to our apartment where we unashamedly had a Twilight marathon. If it wasn't on your radar... Eclipse (the third twilight movie) was released on Saturday! I am a new Twilight convert so I hadn't seen the third movie yet. (don't judge.. I really love them, especially the third and forth book, you would too if you made it that far in the series)

Sunday was filled with a wonderful Church service. We sang some Christmas carols mixed in with other worship music and these lines in particular stood out to me.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay close by me forever and love me I pray. Bless all the dear children In Thy tender care and take us to heaven to live with Thee there

I was incredibly moved all throughout the service, and left feeling so thankful for the gift of Jesus. After church I headed over to the house of a family that I will start babysitting for tomorrow (yay! I am so excited!). I had a great time with their daughter and am excited to get to hang out with her more, she was so sweet and spunky!

Though I had a wonderful weekend, I had a persistent migraine which definitely tainted my weekend activities. There was much more down time than get up and go, which turned out to be pretty great anyways :) Yesterday, the lingering migraine was there, but an additional sinus pain began. By the end of my day, I knew I had a sinus infection but wasn't quite sure what to do about it, not needing to have medical care since I've been in Seattle. 

So after a few phone calls I found out that Group Health and Kaiser have a reciprocal relationship where they offer the same services and benefits to each others' members. The advice nurse suggested that I go in as soon as possible when I explained my symptoms. Group Health had an urgent care clinic open 24 hours just blocks from my house, which made getting to the clinic totally possible. I am so thankful for how simple it all was, and how easily it worked out! Thank God for making all the pieces come together. And my wonderful roommate Sarah, even came with me and kept me company in the waiting room!  

Here are some shots from my experience: 

proof I was admitted to urgent care!

my view from the urgent care room

I am feeling better today and know that soon my sinus pressure/headache mess will be all over soon. I am so thankful for how easily going to the clinic yesterday was and just how well it worked out. This is just another one of those examples for past Thankful Thursday post.

Happy mid week! Expect a funny blog post tomorrow :)

skate park

they were so cute with their helmets and knee pads!

This last Wednesday, I had one of the best days I've had yet with the 4th-6th graders at New Futures. I usually approach Monday and Wednesday afternoons with a bit more anticipation than other afternoons of the week. I've discovered that working with a large group of 4th-6th graders is just plain challenging. Even when a lesson has been successful, it doesn't seem like it has because of all that has surrounded it. I leave extra exhausted and beat. I really enjoy this age one on one or even in a group of three or so. But the energy these kiddos have together is just pretty intense. Needless to say, I find working with the 4th-6th graders generally much more challenging than the 1st-3rd graders.
This last Wednesday was pretty remarkable. We went on a field trip with the 4th-6th graders to a skate park. The kids were sooo excited. This field trip has been a request of there's and seeing it come to fruition was just wonderful for them.

love this genuine smile!

We were at the skatepark for about an hour an half and they kids had a blast. They were able to rent skateboards, scooters or rollerblades. Most of them started off with scooters (there was a limited supply of skateboards) and a few brave souls started with rollerblades. It was so fun to see them step up to the challenge. These kids were so brave trying new things.
For us adults it was pretty wonderful too. We couldn't actually pass into the skatepark itself, so we stood or sat just outside watching from a distance. The kids started off in the far corner, where we had no line of sight to what they were up to. It must of been so empowering for them to be over there, trying new things and figuring out what worked and what didn't without us adults reminding them to do this or that. It was also great for me :) Soon, the kids moved over to an area where we were just feet away. It felt pretty great that the kids wanted to be closer to us and show us what they were up to. I had fun taking pictures and also catching some videos that are just too funny!

The whole time there was super fun and entertaining! The kids left on cloud 9 and I left so happy to see this side of these guys. I hope we are able to go back to the skatepark again!

I hope you all had a great weekend :) Now, on to the week!