The Gift of Nature

I have been reading a delightful book called Mitten Strings For God, by Katrina Kenison. It has been such a blessing for me to read over the last week. It makes you want to slow down and learn to enjoy the simple things in life and to teach those simple things to your kids. So I thought I'd share some of the principles in the book that stood out to me.

One of the chapters in the book that I loved, was called Secret Places. Children should be allowed to have a secret place. A place where they can be alone. A place to imagine and dream and to call their own. As the author puts it, hidden places beyone the realm and ken and comprehension of adults. Every child needs such a place, a place that invokes the processes of the imagination and the possbility of transformation. A place that is at once a haven from the adult world and a sourse of mystery and wonder, a place that a child can discover and shape and lay claim to, simply by virtue of his or her own quiet presence there, and deep observation.

I had such a place as a kid. It was on the other side of my neighbors home. We lived on two acres in GA and the trees were endless. We had a clubhouse that was really just a patch of trees inbetween two of the yards on the street. We wore all the grass out in that little circular patch of trees. We drug an old play kitchen in there. There were rooms to it and doorways. But it was all in our heads. No adult would have been able to see it. I had all boy neighbors, so I was always left in the clubhouse to tend to it and keep it clean, while the boys went off and got the bad guys or played war, or whatever else they did. I also made a place in the woods at the babysitters house where we stayed after school. We would line up rocks to show the perimeter of our space and then clean it out. We would drag books up there, or our toys, and would imagine all sorts of things. I loved my childhood outdoors.

There is also a chapter on Nature. Love it too. As the author puts it, any relationship requires time, lots of it. If a child is to truly love the natural world, to experience its beauty and truth and power at a spiritual level, he or she must first spend time in natural places. In the end, those who will make a real difference in our world-- those who will grow up with the confindence and the imagination to help save the earth-- will be those who know it well and love it deeply.

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last couple of months. As I drive up close to the foothills and see those big fancy homes with their perfectly manicured yards, I think to myself, what do their kids do in the yard. It lends itself to no imagination. The perfectly cut grass, the fine curbing, the flowers perfectly planted, and most importantly...no mature trees. As I see this it makes me ever so grateful for my mess of a backyard. There is a trail that runs along the other side of the river and as you walk down it,  you can tell our yard is the most wild and unkept, but you know what, I love it. We do keep up a portion of the yard up by the house, but the back, we just let it go. My kids have nature right in their backyard and that is rare here in Utah. And that is why we will probably never move from this spot. In fact, it's why we moved in the house in the first place. Nature is so acceccible to us, with our backyard, and then the mountains only minutes away. It's awesome.

Here is my kids' natural world.

 Nature tends to float right on in all the time.

This is the view from the other side of the bridge.

 These little guys have made our yard their home over the last week.

We have ducks all the time.

And a muskrat.

He's pretty cute. Kind of like a beaver...but with a rat's tail.

He swims in from the river and has made his home somewhere in our pond.

 We've even got our very own "Grandmother Willow."

(Although she kind of scares my kids)

I know Gabriela has a special spot up in her favorite apple tree. 

My Kryptonite

Wow, remember how Super Man would loose all of his strength when he came into contact with kryptonite. Well, I've found my own sort of kryptonite and unfortunately for me, I can't run from it. It's everywhere. It's TREES and GRASS!!!
I can't sleep, exercise, or much of anything else because I'm too busy stratching my eyes and face off or blowing my nose. I went in to the doctor last week and was told to be on antihistemines everyday forever. Great. I am having a little pity party or so you might think,

but OH NO, not this girl. Yesterday I woke up early, I'm talking 5:30, with Miguel to exercise, but soon realized that exercising straight out of the bed is just not my thing. I decided to go read instead. I picked up my question book again and came across something I found interesting. It asks, "when you tell your story are usually cast as the victim, the survivor, or the hero. Hmmm, well I usually tell it like the victim, feel like the survivor and rarely am I the hero. It tells you to start being the hero of your life. So no longer will I be the girl who is defeated by nature...nope, I'm going to be the girl who despite being surrounded by kryptonite manages to do ___________. It also tells you to write down your future next too weeks with you cast as the hero. Try it! I'm going too.

This is all baby steps to try to be a better me and enjoy life a little more.

Asking the Right Questions

Last year, sometime in May, I happened upon a book that had a profound influence on my life. It was called A Mother's Book of Secrets by Linda and Shawni Eyre. It seemed to change the way I looked a motherhood and gave me the courage to pursue the type of family that I had always dreamed about. It gave me vision and has led to many other learning opportunities, one being mentioned in my previous post.

Well I think I've happened upon another book that I have a feeling is going to do the same thing in my life. It's called Change Your Questions Change Your Life, written by Wendy Watson Nelson, current wife to Elder Russell M. Nelson. It's a beautiful book and as I skimmed it's pages in the store, I felt I really needed this book.
It talks about asking ourselves the right questions and getting rid of the negative ones. Within a few days and reading only a few pages, I could tell a difference in my life already. At one point during the day I caught myself asking, "if I were to write a list of all the things that drove me crazy, what would they be?" I was surprised at myself and thought better of it. I discarded that question and didn't allow my mind to go there. That was not a positive question to be asking myself. At one point in the book, it has the reader read Alma 5, which is full of questions, and then jot down your favorite ones. One that particularly stuck out to me was "do you see Christ image in your countenance?" It's been on my mind lately and as I mother my children day in and day out, I'm starting to think my kids see the devil instead. My heart's desires are righteous and I don't think others think I'm the devil, but man, my children seem to bring out the worst of me. They put all my weaknesses right in front of my face. I feel like a barking dog all day, trying to get the kids to listen and be obedient. I hit a turning point at lunch today.

Sophia wouldn't eat her lunch and after an hour of time outs, nagging, and pleading, I sent her to bed without eating. As I'm sweeping the floor, I started to think, "how would Christ deal with preschoolers all day?" "how would He get the three year old to eat?" I know some of these answers, but then realize I'm severely lacking in the patience department. Miguel came home from priesthood session and told me that Pres. Uchdorf said that impatience is a symptom of selfishness. Well he's probably right. I get so impatient, because I don't want to spend my precious time hand feeding my three year old. I get impatient for my kids to take a nap, because I'm dying for some alone time.

One thing I know for sure...at least I'm asking the right kind of questions now. This is an eternal quest. To become more like my Savior each day. And hopefully, little by little, my children will be able to feel of Christ's love for them through me and be able to see him in my countenance more and more each day.

It's great to see the workings of this book and the words of our church leaders in my life. For that I am ever grateful.