Kristina's Picks Archives - Kristina Lunde

January 1, 2018 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Book Launch of Memoir Sequel

My River of Sorrow: A Widow’s Journey with God is Kristina Lunde’s memoir of true love, sudden death, and authentic faith.

Memorial Stones: Reflections from My River of Sorrow is the sequel that focuses on the rebuild, God’s Word, and a new normal.

What do you do after you have survived tragedy in your life? What can be gained from the lessons learned through challenge and adversity? How do you integrate that experiential growth into life and living as you move onward from grief? In this sequel to her memoir, second-generation, sudden-death widow Kristina Lunde takes you through insights gained, understanding expanded, and challenges overcome as she chronicles her life’s rebuild. Find encouragement and comfort as you follow Lunde’s adjustment from widowhood to a life no longer consumed with grief. Lunde relies on God and finds guidance in His Word as she copes with single parenting, a cross-country move, and mid-life dating on her way to a new normal.

Cover credits:
My River of Sorrow cover image by Sergey Peterman
Memorial Stones cover photo by Pavel Vakhrushev

November 22, 2014 by Kristina Lunde 2,500 Comments

Dear Mama Deer

Dear Mama Deer,

As a safety conscious mama, I want to have a few words with you about how you teach your little ones to get across traffic lanes. Although we live in a low-traveled area, I think you need to pay more attention to how your family gets across the street and how you train your fawn-babies to do that.

When I moved here from California, I remember hearing the clomp-clomp-clomp down my street for the first time. Expecting to see horses on my small town street, I ran to the window and gaped in surprise. There you were with your herd, crossing the road after coming up the ravine trails. Little did I realize how much you own this neighborhood! Since then, I am always amazed when you cross the street in single file. Slowing my car for a deer to cross the road means an inevitable halt as your brood wanders across the street one by one. My Minnesota friends warned me that the fall deer hunting season was the worst for car collisions with deer, understandably because your kind are skittish and on the run.

To your credit, you deer seem to look both ways with that twitchy neck movement that scouts out danger. I really haven’t seen the proverbial “deer in the headlights” look; usually I see jerky, swivel heads as your group crosses in front of my car. Kudos to you for teaching your fawn-babies to look both ways, but why start this procession when cars are coming?! Please give a thought to the size of your parade before scampering across the road, leaving your less-experienced little ones to follow right into oncoming traffic.

One day, heading down the big hill, I saw an animal lying in the middle of the road. The size of a medium dog, the animal appeared to have a long, crooked tail. After realizing that the animal was not going anywhere, I stopped my car and got out to take a look. Here was a sweet, spotted fawn-baby of yours, looking very frail and very young. I thought it was dead, until I approached and noticed the heaving of its chest. Backing off quickly, I got back in my car and thought of whom I could call. Cops? Humane society? Game warden? Then, as I picked up my phone, I saw the little one stretch up onto wobbly scrawny legs and lope off clumsily into the woods, presumably to where you were watching from.

Interesting how the Creator God had the whole situation under control. Perhaps that is how you handle things in the woods, letting your little ones get up on their own under the Creator’s watchful eye. (There is probably a great parenting lesson in there somewhere for me.) It just seemed to me that you were abdicating your motherly duty by leaving him stuck in the middle of the road. Would you please keep your birthing in the woods and far away from the road next time?!

And about my neighbor’s flower boxes . . . Yes, it was hilarious to drive down the street and see you and your kin eating the beautiful flowers right out of her living room bay window boxes, as if they were your personal feeding troughs. But would you please lay off her house decorations? At least start on the stuff in the yard first.

So please, keep your littlest ones out of the street, look both ways before you cross, and go easy on the flower boxes. I will do my best to drive safely and watch out for you.

November 16, 2014 by Kristina Lunde 2,448 Comments

Letter to Little Ben

Dear Little Ben,

(Not that you are so little anymore, but I call you that to distinguish you from my Big Ben. You are already a nine year old in fourth grade! Doesn’t seem like that long ago that I encouraged you to try using a straw in your front tooth gap.)

This morning, when you asked your mom Erin what she was doing today, she had to think. As you know, she was not going to a job where she oversees multimillion dollar contracts for a large company or develops programs for the handicapped. She does not have a job performing surgery, teaching high school math, administering city government, or running a small business. These are all notable professions, but not what your mom has chosen to do.

Did you know that your mom has a college degree in education and that she used to teach fourth grade? Can you imagine having your mom as a school teacher this year?! Instead, her teaching career is on hold; she and your dad dedicated her efforts to working for your family at home and in the community. Their budget might pass on items other families find essential, like the latest electronics or a vacation home. (Your sister thinks she is the only seventh grader without a cell phone!) Instead, your family focuses on time spent together, like “organized dinners” as you named your home-cooked evening meals.

Remember this year’s school book fair, mile run, vision & hearing screening, school pictures, fall party, and the field trip to the Science Museum? Your mom was involved in all of those; the school secretary even counted on her to recruit other parental help. Well, your mom would not have been available if she was working elsewhere. The fun that you and your friends enjoyed with your mom at those events would never have happened.

Here is a list of what your mom did today, although she is so humble that I had to force her to list it all:
Bank chores – pay bills, balance checkbook, send emails
Work out – staying healthy is on her daily list
United Way “Packing for the Weekend” food program – your mom develops menus and orders food for 86 families to feed 233 kids from our town 3 meals per day, plus snacks and desserts each weekend. She also coordinates this for two other towns. On Thursdays, she spends hours organizing the food, packing bread/milk vouchers, and setting up backpacks for other volunteers to pack the food. (She says you and your sister are great helpers!)
The usual housework – pack lunches, clean kitchen, load dishes (I hear you are a good dishwasher emptier!), vacuum, laundry (only one load today)
Breakfast for all of you, drove your sister to middle school, got you to the bus
Dinner of taco pie and salad
Drove for the two basketball carpools she set up
Ran errands – post office, library, gas
Read a book for 30 minutes – also on her daily list to keep her mind healthy
Plan to welcome the new neighbors with treats, a card, and introductions

That list does not mention the activities your mom plans ahead for, like the Sunday school teaching and classroom volunteering. She even offered me a ride to pick up my car when I needed help today. Your mom is available and helpful in the neighborhood, and many of us appreciate that.

Ben, keep asking good questions like that, and I hope and pray that you can recognize and appreciate all the incredible things your mom does for you, your family, our neighborhood, and our community. She is quite the professional mom and thanks, Ben, for sharing her with us!

God’s grace to you, Ben, and to your Mom Erin.

P.S. My kids tease me that I will buy anything from you when you sell for fundraisers because you are so adorable! Yes, that is true, but that will have to stop when you start selling things like cars, computers, stocks, or whatever when you grow up. I might vote for you, though.

My River of Sorrow: A Widow’s Journey with God is Kristina Lunde’s memoir of true love, sudden death, and authentic faith.

Memorial Stones: Reflections from My River of Sorrow is the sequel that focuses on the rebuild, God’s Word, and a new normal.

Cover credits: My River of Sorrow cover image by Sergey Peterman Memorial Stones cover photo by Pavel Vakhrushev

Cover credits:
My River of Sorrow cover image by Sergey Peterman
Memorial Stones cover photo by Pavel Vakhrushev