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. 

All I want for Christmas...

Well it finally happened.

Gabriela lost one of her front teeth.

This is her third tooth, but by far, the most eventful.

It has been a process. Way too long for my blood. You see, I'm a tooth puller. I like it. A lot. I pulled all of my sister's teeth. I'm pretty good at it, so when Gabriela told me it was loose and I could finally see it was ready to come out, I was dying to pull it. But I refrained. I had to build her trust and promised that everytime I felt of it, I..would..not..pull..it. And I didn't.

 By Sunday morning it looked like this. I was begging her to pull it herself, because I did not want her walking around church with her tooth poked out like that. I know it grosses most people out. And of course they sang on the stand for Father's day and she was fiddling with the tooth the whole time. And as she's walking back up the aisle to our pew, she flashing it to everyone. It was just as bad as I thought. It was hanging by a thread. Oh, I wanted to just put her in a head lock and pull it myself. I was ready to be done with it.

And, well, last night we were talking about it and fiddling with it some more and I told her to twist it as far as she could, even if it hurt, and what do you know...it popped right out. I wanted to sing the hallelujah chorus!

She was super excited. And surprised. At night she placed it in an envelope under her pillow, but then thought better of it, because the tooth fairy is so small that it wouldn't be able to lift her head up to get to the tooth. So we placed it at the foot of her bed. (Much easier and better idea). But before she knodded off into sweet slumber she informed me that her cousin told her that the tooth fairy isn't real and that it was just a mom and that Santa wasn't real also. It was just some dad. I might have to have a talk with said cousin soon.

Here's to the Dads!

Like Father

Like Son

Maybe Max has an intoxicating, magical, sleeping smell, because all the men who are put in charge of looking after him seem to pass out.

I love these guys!

Tender Mercies

Yesterday before naptime, I was reading the girls some stories and one of those happened to be Pinkalicious. In the book, she describes herself as being the color of a sunset. I usually never pause at that point in the book or have paid much attention to it, but yesterday I happened to stop and tell the girls that one of my favorite things in the whole world is a beautiful sunset.

Later that evening, I sent all of the girls on an errand with Miguel just to get some peace and quiet. I made cupcakes for the girls, since I had been promising for days, and went through a few books that my visiting teacher had left that day (she also did my grocery shopping and did a load of my laundry), all the while trying to nurse and get my baby to sleep. One of the books had been recommended to me at one of those retreats I had been on, but probably would have never picked up. It has been a delight to read. Once the girls got home they ran in and told me that there was a beautiful sunset outside.

So I took my baby,  who was not interested in sleeping at the time, and went outside to see what was there. It was the most amazing pink. Kind of reminded me of Pinkalicious. And then I felt like the Lord was smiling down on me.

If I looked up, I saw this.

 And if I looked down, I saw this.

And I felt loved. And blessed. The Lord truly is mindful of us and blesses us in his own ways and through his ministering angels on earth.

And I guess he looks after those little ladies of mine, because they came home to hot cupcakes and pink frosting.



My Handsome Boy is 1 Month Today...Hooray!!!

This is Maximus.

He's 1 Month Today.

He'd like to show you a few things.

 He's grown super l..o..n..g.. in the last month.

 This is his famous "O" face. It's a fan favorite.

 He is soothed by Mariachi music. I have no idea why.

 And this is his touchdown pose. Or maybe his surrender pose. We're not sure what he's going for.

So how's life at one month. To be honest, it's a little stressful and today I started to feel some familiar feelings like I did when I had Julianne. It's mostly a feeling of being overwhelmed. It seems like everyone needs something at the exact same time. Meal times are especially trying. I'm trying to dish the kids some food, while Max is screaming bloody murder, and Julianne is constantly telling me that Max "needs me," but if I pick him up, she'll commence her "I'm hungry" tantrum and try to eat anything in sight.  Their table manners are going out the window, because  I'm usually nursing Max while they are eating and I'm not at the table with them. I remember the feeling of only being one person and that I just couldn't do enough to meet everyone's needs. I remember not ever eating because it's all you can do to feed everyone else and by the time you're done, you've just plum forgot to eat yourself. I remember feeling like a martyr.

Those are the exact feelings that drove me to do that pageant.

I've got to figure something out and regain some sort of self, because I don't want to feel like a martyr. I love my job as a mom and wouldn't trade it for anything, but I need to find a way to weather the next six months, and still find joy in it.

3 1/2 Weeks Postpartum

All people ask me these days is "How are you doing?" or "How are you feeling?"

It's kind of an akward question to me, because I don't know if they really want the truth. I warn pregnant women not to talk to me, becuase I'm not the most positive or chipper person on the block right now. But if  you really do want to know what's up in the Ruiz household, here it goes.

Things I CAN do right now:

Get in my bed without a step stool

Can get the baby, change the diaper, nurse him, and put him back down by myself at night

I can bathe my girls (barely)

I can sweep the floor

I can wash a few dishes

I can heat up food in the microwave

I did make homemade bread once

I can show up to functions as long as I'm sitting

Things I CANNOT do right now:

discipline my children

walk for very far

go to the grocery store

go anywhere with my kids

carry the baby carrier around

listen to my baby cry for very long without feeling like I'm going to vomit

wear anything but baggy clothes because everything hurts my incision

And because there are very important things that I CANNOT do right now, life is very frustrating. I pride myself on my ability to go and get things done. This sitting around is about to drive me crazy, but when I do try to venture out, like walking to Gabriela's school to turn in a paper with all my kids, I end up regretting it later. My older kids are the hardest part. They are NAUGHTY lately. And I mean N..A..U..G..H..T..Y!!!

This is one of the many fiascos Sophia has created since the baby has come. Yep, she emptied an entire box of pantyliners and decorated her bed. And if you notice the wall, she stamped that too.

 

  They've gotten into all sorts of trouble lately. They've been going to the bathroom in the backyard and I mean #1 & #2. Don't ask. They sneak out of the house and play when I have put them down for a nap and am trying to sleep myself. They get into food, end up naked frequently, and who knows what else. So today was my last straw. They have officially been put on restriction. They can't go outside for two days. No movies or treats. And Miguel made them get out in the yard and work this evening. It was glorious to watch. Gabriela actually got her first lesson in mowing the lawn. She did surprisingly well and stuck with it. And Sophia was forced to pull weeds. She whined and complained the entire time, but it was good for her.

 And I can't believe Max is a week shy of a month old. That's crazy. He's a good baby, but super spittty. So beware to any that hold him. He's up 2-3 times a night. He doesn't sit very long when he is awake, before he feels like he's been left for the vultures and proceeds to scream his head off. We all love him though.

So that's us in a nutshell. Naughty girls. Sleep deprived parents. Spitty baby. House that looks like it's been hit by a tornado. Living off of food other people bring us (which is such a blessing, you people have no idea, thank you, thank you, thank you). And well just trying to survive. But we are in better spirits, so that's the positive side.

Some Welcomed Visitors

 My Mom and sister, along with her baby, came to visit us and help out about a week after Max was born. It's always fun to see them and the girls just love it when they come. My mom even treated Gabriela to "the best day of her whole life" when she took her on a personal shopping trip to the mall, where they had lunch and got milkshakes, and came home with a lot of loot. They even took the girls to paint pottery one day too, not to mention the countless dishes they had to wash, and the meals, and the picking up they had to endure.

This is Max with his cousin Bentley. Max weighted a whole 6.3 lbs. when he was born. His cousin...9.5 lbs! He's three months old and probably weighs 17 lbs. by now. He's a BIG BOY! and he made Maximus look more like Minimus. But then again, Bentley's mom makes me look like a runt too. She's way taller than I am.