Active Mind Lately

Sooooo, funny how I haven't blogged in TWO MONTHS since I vowed to be more open with my blogging hu? Ha! Oh Shanna.

The good thing is that in the past two months my mind has been racing thinking about all sorts of things and pondering. This is not typical for Shanna Hartman Kirkpatrick. The usual Shanna does not "ponder", she "knows". Just ask Bobby, he will tell you that if you ever pose a question to me my response will NEVER be "let me think on that a while". Instead it will be "WELL, I feel that.....". It is not typical for me to have my heart softened to things by thinking. I am just not wired that way. I am wired to get down to business.

However, the past two months the Lord has been softening me to all sorts of things.

1. I have been feeling so much compassion lately. I cared about people before but now I am thinking about different people groups more than just when I am presented with them on the news or something. These "people groups" include animals too. :) In particular God has really made me aware of couples that are unable to have children. I have known quite a few personally who have either lost babies or who are unable to conceive and my defenses have come up when I hear comments to me or others like "how come you don't have any kids yet? Don't you want children?" or more recently I have heard "oh, don't worry about dropping him, babies are easy to come by. HAHA". These comments may be said with pure intentions or jokingly but I have just really been sensitive when I hear people say things like this. You never know who you are talking to for one thing and two, you don't know their personal situations. It has taught me to be aware of my surroundings and sensitive to the personal situations of others.

2. I have strangely been relaxing a lot lately and surprise, my job has actually not been suffering! This started when my computer died and I couldn't be on it all the time. Now I don't rush to check my email every morning and don't spend my whole day that the computer working. I have been keeping my house cleaner, spending more time with Bobby and brainstorming more about work than doing busywork. I love it!

3. A big development is that my sister Katherine and I are going to Rwanda on a mission trip in July. This is sooo not like me. I have greatly enjoyed our yearly mission trips to Mexico but it is not like me to jump into a three week trip like this. I am a homebody and I especially love being home in the summer. Usually Bobby is the one gallivanting around the globe. We have quite a few missionaries in Rwanda from our church and I have really felt connected to what they are doing since one of them was a girl who grew up in our church and the other is a couple who stayed with Bobby and I for a week last year. I have always told myself that I wanted to go to Rwanda either before I had kids or when they were older, I just didn't expect it this summer. However Katherine and I dove in when we heard about our churches trip. Diving in for me is a good thing. That way I don't talk myself out of it. :) I am nervous about being away for that long but am excited to have this experience, see what God is doing there, and to be a part of these missionaries lives for a few weeks. I am also excited to go dance with the Africans. It is on my bucket list. :)

Currently, we have been busy with various Christmas things. Bobby and I went to Kingwood to watch Kirsten in the theater, dance and choir department's "Holiday Follies" for which Kirsten and I choreographed her solo. This weekend we have three Christmas parties at our house that I am getting ready for, Bobby's staff party, my staff party and a church wide pastors open house. Yikes! Saturday the studio has their Christmas ministry performances. The preschoolers will be dancing at various nursing homes and the older kids will be dancing at Friendswood's Christmas in the Park! I am looking forward to it, I think it will be a big statement for our studio in front of so many people in the community for the first time. I really hope that people see that we are different and why. And NEXT weekend all the Hartman's will be road tripping it to Lubbock to see Halie graduate! I would Whoop but she is a Tech-y. :)