About Kristi


I'm just a girl woven by God, living and loving the adventure Jesus wrote for me. I'm so very thankful He is the author and I just get to be a character in His grand narrative!
  • I'm wife to NP - for the past 18 years. He keeps me steady and sane, won't let me quit when life gets hard, and makes me laugh. 
  • To 14 year old daughter AG, sons 12 year old LB and 9 year old BW, and spunky 3 year old daughter TE, I'm Mom - and also teacher at "Stephens Academy." These four are great treasures and I'm incredibly thankful for the privilege and responsibility of being their mom. 
  • To our church, I'm director of women's ministry. I love seeing women grow in their love for and fear of our great God as we dig into the Scripture together.
  • To five little boys, I'm foster mama who brought them home from the hospital. They won't remember me, but I had the privilege of imprinting on their little minds and hearts that they were safe and loved. They aren't in our home but they will always be in our hearts and prayers. How grateful we are that God brought TE into our home in 2018 and that she is now ours forever. 
  • To those who know me best, I'm clumsy, forgetful, and prone to spilling my coffee. 



I'm in pursuit of a greater love for Jesus. As a recovering Pharisee, God continues to teach me year by year just how deep my need for Him is, just how desperate I am for His grace.

Oh for grace to trust Him more.

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What I wish people knew about our homeschool

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Many times when people comment to me that they could never do homeschooling, the comment is being made on the heels of an unexpected break from school (extreme cold snap, multiple snow days... a pandemic) when the students are sent home with packets of work to complete at home. I don't know how to fully explain how much  not  like homeschooling that is. I think there is a general misunderstanding of our homeschool life that I would love to clarify. And when I say "homeschool," I'm going to limit my comments to our  experience of homeschooling here at Stephens Academy. Every single family is different, kids are different, there are about a million different curriculum options and methods and variables. But here are some things I wish people knew about us. Homeschooling is not doing "school at home." We don't do worksheets. Ever. Math is the closest you will get to finding my kids working out of a textbook. If you had a live feed into our home, on ...
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On education and setting the table.

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We are about ready for #StephensAcademy 2020-2021. Even though we’ve done this for over a decade now, every year is a bit different with different ages and challenges and opportunities. This year, we will gather around our “morning time” table with a high schooler, middle schooler, elementary schooler, and preschooler. How do we do that?, people ask. At the center of this room stands a table that NP and I bought used to furnish our first apartment. A lot of meals have been eaten around that table. It’s been a gathering place for years and years. It seems fitting to have our old kitchen table in the schoolroom now, because education is a lot less like an assembly line and a lot more like spreading a feast. No one asks me how we possibly provide food for a family of six. The bigger the family, the more prep might be involved, it might take more time, some might need things cut up smaller or dietary needs taken into consideration. Not everyone likes the same foods to the same extent. But ...
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