by Kristen | Apr 3, 2015 | Character strengths
This week my husband and kids and I took a short spring-break trip to Steamboat, Colorado. Our intention was to snowboard (them), cross-country ski (me) and hang out together. The snow didn’t quite play its part, though, and we wound up sitting by the pool and hiking...
by Kristen | Mar 18, 2015 | Character strengths
One of the things I really used to struggle with was prioritizing my life around the important things rather than the urgent things – you know, putting in the big rocks before the pebbles and the sand. I’ve read Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits book and tried that...
by Kristen | Mar 7, 2015 | Character strengths
When my kids were in their ‘tweens,’ something alarming and tragic started happening: they started being less of who they really were. My wild and kooky daughter became self-conscious and subdued. My silly and tender-hearted son started wondering whether he should be...
by Kristen | Nov 20, 2014 | Character strengths
Dear 7th-grade Kris, I know you’re going through a tough time right now, and I’m writing from the future to help you feel better and get through it. Things get a lot better in high school and eventually turn out really well, but even now you possess some...
by Kristen | Nov 17, 2014 | Character strengths
For the past few months, the winds of change have been blowing from several directions here, and the storm is now brewing in a big way. By the time it’s over it will have picked us up — think Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz — and set us...
by Kristen | Sep 26, 2014 | Character strengths
When I was a teenager, I belonged to a figure skating club. I was never a star of the show but was capable of a few jumps and spins and some of the team maneuvers. One of our more entertaining moves was a straight-line version of crack-the-whip. A single girl would...
