Meet- Kristina, The Home Engineer

     Kristina is the first blogger I  (DM) subscribed to.  I was blown away by her story.  She freely admits she doesn’t always have it all together, yet she keeps moving in the right direction.  She’s feisty, humble, a giver, has a crush on my pig Winston  and plans to visit us this September over Applejam.

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Hi, I’m Kristina and I’m a Home Engineer. My blog, Musings of a Home Engineer is all my bible study, family and food musings pertaining to my corner of the world.

From the blog:

      Hi!  I am a 42 year old married Christian lady who stays at home working hard at a lot of things, volunteers at her sons school and local humane society, involved in my church, thrill seeker (only when shopping at thrift stores for tremendous bargains), weight lifter, blogger, my animals & my hubby’s and my boy’s servant, vegetarian, a child of God, saved, redeemed and trying to be joyful in a fallen world.

Doug took some of my ‘facts’ from my About Page and wanted me to elaborate on them.

(Really I was struggling to write something coherent, so he helped me get started)

So here we go:

#1   I suffer from cyclic depression.

DM: tell me more…what does that look like? (IE: When/ what triggers it/ how long does it last, etc.)

Kristina: Since being drug out of the mire from the Lord Himself while I was in the mental ward of the local hospital about 10 years ago, my depression has only gotten better, I finally got off all the meds and stopped the drinking, only to find I still have these cycles. They fluctuate about every 3 months, Dec/march/June/Sept. I can feel them coming on and just hold on tight. And pray. They last a few weeks with my highs only about as bad as I get really hyper and end up saying things I wouldn’t normally say or talking 90 miles per hour. Maybe a bit of shopping therapy to boot. So I hide myself in the house when I feel it coming on. Thank the Lord I have Him to lean on!

 

#2  I have 5 tattoos (would like more…)

     DM: tell me more…details..What would they look like..Picture would be fun…why this design, etc.?

 

Kristina: tattooing can be an addiction. Let’s just get the past the obvious bible notations about tattoos. I know them all, I’ve researched them all. The final analysis is this; Lev. 19 goes over many sundry laws the Israelites were to stay away from, mostly from pagan cultures. If we put tattooing IN context with the other commands, men would have to ask for forgiveness every day for shaving beard and cutting hair. And from Corinthians, yes, our body is a temple and we are to treat it as such. Ok, mini rant done.

1. sons name on my ankle, 2. Ladybug and flowers. 3. Cross and vines on back. 4. Psalms 46:10 in Hebrew on my arm (see pic) and 5. My husbands birth month flower on my upper back. Most of the pictures, you can find on my flickr photo page.

I still want to get Rejoice Always from 1 Thessalonians 5:16 on my ankle but I made a promise to the men in my life I would get no more.

It’s amazing to see all the reactions I get from the one on my arm. I forget it’s on my arm and people stare at me all the time. I realized going in people would look at me and it could be a great witnessing tool, but I really didn’t fathom how much. Most people say it’s the best one they have seen, or ask me what the verse it or what language it’s written in. One guy, in Mexico, read it to me in Hebrew. That was cool. I also realized one day at Costco that I can’t be crabby if people are looking at me. I need to ‘walk the walk’ so to speak.

#3   “I’m angry” 

   DM: Must tell me more about that…do you know why?

Kristina: Well, it seems I have a problem with anger. I find myself having little or no patience with people. Its sin, plain and simple. I think all should act, walk, talk, think like me. And people don’t. Tolerance is one thing Christians should have most of all. I don’t. And I know its sin. I fight it all the time. Unfortunately, the ones who feel the brunt of my anger are the ones closest to me. My anger led me to drink and to be depressed. Depression is just (for me) sin. I feel my life should be one way and God knows my life should be another way. His way. When I settle in and just walk in the path He leads me in faithfully, my depression lifts. Jeez, Doug, you picked some gloomy topics. 

 

#4     I want to learn how to ride a motorcycle.  

 DM:  have you ever ridden one/ any particular brand you would like?

When I was younger, all I ever wanted to do is learn to knit and learn to ride a motorcycle. A dear sweet older lady at my church taught me how to knit. She was gonna teach me how to ride, but alas, the Lord took her from me way too soon.

My hubby says I can not learn to ride until our son is grown up, because he doesn’t want to be a widow or make our son mother-less. Hubby used to ride, but is a bit scared, he doesn’t trust car drivers to see motorcycles. I have ridden on motorcycles before and loved the feeling of exhilaration.

Hubby says I need to get a Rebel, they are smaller and easier to ride, but I’m up for an suggestions!!

 

#5     As of Nov 2007, I’m vegetarian, striving for vegan. 

  DM: How did you get interested in this..and what is the difference (vegetarian vs. vegan)?

What started the process was watching this movie here.

Backtrack; I’ve always been an animal lover, had animals, and always knew in the back of my mind, killing animals was wrong. Never liked leather or fur. I’ve never been a big meat eater, but since I’ve started weightlifting, I’ve guzzled protein.

The more I learn the more I realize all the animal killing for our food, pleasure, clothes, entertainment is from nothing but plain and simple human greed.

We don’t need to wear furs or leather, we don’t need to watch bullfighting or cock fighting or animals in movies or circuses, and we don’t need to experiment on animals. We don’t need to eat at a mega-food franchise that has careless disregard for the life of animals. We are way too advanced in thought, fashion and science to do the arcane things we do concerning animals. We have numerous other options.

I don’t eat meat for ethical and health reasons. I do not have biblical reasons. There is nowhere in the bible that claims we eat or don’t eat meat. There is no law, everything is clean for us. Everything is permissible. I’m for saving/preserving the earth, not killing animals, recycling, reusing, renewing. I have rain barrels, I organically garden, I recycle and I don’t eat anything that can cry out in pain.

The most flack I get is from other Christians on this matter, funny huh?

A vegetarian can eat eggs, cheese and milk but no animal flesh.

A Vegan eats nothing from an animal, whether or not no harm was done to the animal.(by the way, that sweet little free-range chicken that people get eggs from, get sold to slaughterhouses that kill them in the most horrific way) (oh sorry, another mini-rant)

Most vegans would say veganism is more of a lifestyle than just not eating animals. Most don’t have leather, fur, wool or silk clothes/products. They don’t use any products that have animal products in them or products that have been tested on animals. While this is really hard to do, especially with cosmetics and cleaning products, and since I’m all about not being wasteful, as I run out those products I replace them with vegan products.

My son eats only chicken and my hubby is still an omnivore, but he is good at trying many different things with me and I’m hoping that by cutting down on his meat consumption, he is getting healthier.

I don’t push my opinions or my lifestyle on others, I just ask they watch the video and choose for themselves.

#6 We are visiting Mr and Mrs DM  and attending AppleJam.

My son and I are visiting DM  in early Sept. and staying in their bed and breakfast. We get to walk Miss Winston and attend Applejam. We’ve never been to Iowa and we are looking forward to sitting on the upper deck reading and knitting and listening to the crickets or whatever else is out in farmland Iowa. We plan on trying to sneak Miss Winston in bed with us, but it looks like she will be too big to do that by Sept. Oh yeah, I guess we have to talk to the humans on the farm, too. Just teasing, I look forward to hearing all about Mr and Mrs DM’s  life thus far. It will be good to sit with a brother and sister in Christ to chat about our Savior and how good He has been in our lives.

One of my very favorite things!