twins naptime adventures

and in case you didn't get the drift of what it means to be tag-teamed by the twins...well, here's is a video.



before this video was shot we had already been into the room to resettle & put them back to bed. then we set {matt}s iphone up in their room to see exactly what was happening during nap time. this is a little snippet of it...what you didn't see is the 3 other times that {matt} or i came in to put someone back into their crib.

we totally were laughing. {matty} is so strong! my favorite part is {sam} putting his arm around {matty} as he climbs out, as if he were saying "stay & snuggle some more." but don't let his sweetness fool you...he climbs out in the middle of the night. he's been known to sneak into our bed & kiss his dad in hopes of convincing {matt} it's ok to let him stay. and it usually works. {sam}s also been known to just sit & play toys if he can't get the door open...yes, in the dark of the middle of the night.

i'm more than ready for these canine teeth to finish cutting. that's what seems to be keeping them up. *fingers crossed* they'll stop after all their teeth are in.

Current adventures:: twinnie tag teamin'

things have just been crazy lately. And trying to keep up with these twins may be the death of me.
There's been some during-nap-closet climbing...

A little hair-pulling-while-trying-to-take-a-picture

...this...twinnie tag team at its finest

And more closet climbing. this time wallowing in the extra blankets.

So if you need me...you can find me hiding in the kitchen sneaking some chocolate cake.

- Posted from my iPhone

i choose an adventurous life of living with urgency

i've been reminded lots this week of a message we heard in church last week. sidenote:we are definitely still in the process of finding a home church, but thankfully it's taken the step from casual sunday visits to seeing if there is a place for us to connect. it was about living life with urgency.and not the flustered kind that we conjure up when we are unprepared, but the life-giving kind that guides, directs & often times changes our steps. it spoke to the deep places of my heart. it was like the Lord was telling me that i wasn't insane after all. help me discover that our life does indeed have a calling, an urgent one to follow where & what the Lord is asking of us. there's a powerful peace in that.

the pastor actually talked about noah and how he had been divinely warned way ahead of time hebrews 11:7. noah was given a glimpse of the future...im sure that noah would have rather had the flood come sooner than it did, but he still trusted in the Lord's timing & faithfulness. i think the Lord has given most, if not all, of us a glimpse of our future at some point. but maybe we've dismissed it or have lost touch with that life. but why? we should all live our lives with an urgency to serve the Lord...even if we must be like noah & wait 100 years until it comes to pass. but in order to get there you have to ask yourself some real questions...hard, eye-opening, heart-examining questions.

are you becoming who you are suppose to become-so you can do what you are called to do?
noah decided it was more important to save his family than to listen to other's gossip and ignorant uninformed comments of his doings. he knew he was called to be in the world building that boat but with a heavenly mindset on glorifying the Lord. i think that lifestyle made his family respect him more and be willing to go along with him in the end. cause don't you think that during those boys younger years they too didn't have the same faith their father did. so if you want to use family as an excuse as to why you aren't becoming that person, find a new excuse people.

are you living in & being fueled by God's grace...or are you still relying on comparison to motivate you to get things done?
if noah had looked at the others around him & asked the WHY ME question...well, there wouldn't have been an ark. if he had looked at enoch and realized that enoch just ascended into the heavens, yet there he was year after year building that ark & waiting, he would have grown discouraged. and while i know noah was human and i'm sure he had his times of weakness & discouragement, in the end, noah chose to be fueled by God's amazing grace-not the worldly equivalent of comparison. that's real folks. we have to chose every day, even multiple times a day. there are charts to compare our kids on. tests in schools. jobs. salaries. houses. cars. boats. clothes. the list can go on & on. but when we securely live in grace, we tend to not notice or let those things hold power over us.

think of it this way...comparison holds power over us & holds us down. grace fuels us & pushes us forward. i prefer to not to allow myself to be held down, how about you?

comparison               us

           us                    grace

what adjustments are you making in order to make room to live the life God has asked of you?
first things first...it's a process & it doesn't just happen overnight. i mean noah waited more than i lifetime, but the grace reward that he received in the end was more than worth it don't you think? having his family safe & sound is pretty awesome...plus he was able to actually prove all the haters wrong. ok, back to the process...check it out, jeremiah 1:10 says:

"uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow, to build and plant. "

yes, that's a lot of steps and only 1 of them is something that we like to do. you can't have one planting without the other uprooting and vice versa. pruning is a necessary evil & the Lord does all things with purpose. i can say after several years we are finally in a place of building again. let that be a testimony of God's faithfulness, that you can make it through all of these things and still love the Lord & be in a good place.

everyone around you is screaming "NO! DON'T DO IT! YOU'RE CRAZY!" ...but in your heart you can't shake it?! 
if noah had listened to all the nay-sayers, disbelievers & haters, he literally would have drowned. if he had decided that those people were certainly right, he would have missed out big time! he may even have argued that he didn't have supplies, help or knowledge to build an ark, but guess what...the Lord provided.  for most of my life, i feel like i've met some version of this-the world trying to drown me, to drown out the whispers of the Lord in my heart. i've been discouraged. i've doubted. i've even tried to abandon the call of my heart and listen to those around me. well, as i'm sure you know, God doesn't take no for an answer. so hear this, remember that time in high school or college or at a worship night at church last year when you said, "God use me...use me in whatever way you can." yeah, He's a knocking on that door. when you beg God to use you as a tool to touch people, ya don't get to ask or give preference of how he chooses to do so. God is the potter & you are the clay. if the potter chooses to use the clay to make a bowl, who is the clay to ask to be a bowl. yes, the Lord does know the desires of our heart & won't use us in ways that we won't work. but maybe if it's seeming too hard, the Lord is just wanting you to trust him more.

as humans, we all want the good in life...but it's never as sweet with out the hard work & sometimes heart break. but choosing to live a life of urgency after God brings a much sweeter reward. so now, i ask you, are you living a life of urgency?

trailblazing adventures

after going through several personal trials during high school/ college, i realized that the way the Lord wanted to use me was as an trailblazer, an encouragement to those who followed the path behind me. and i wanted all the personal pain i suffered to not be for nothing...i wanted to help & share my experiences so that others didn't have to go through life alone. i asked the Lord to bring people into my life that were about to walk down the same road that i had just been down. i wanted to be able to encourage them in the Lord, be a testimony of God's faithfulness & promises that He never leaves us. and i have. i have always had someone to share with directly after i've walked through the dark, shadowy valley of death. and in the particular instance of my health/ cancer scare last month, i literally was walking in the valley of death. and while i do not feel like i've cleared it or escaped it, i have been on a hill basking in the life-giving sunshine. what i didn't expect was someone to have someone follow me down that path & into that same valley so quickly. 

"But after I am raised up, I, your Shepherd, will go ahead of you..."

matthew 26:32 

 

the end of 2011 was full of crazy health issues in our family. first {matt} got crazy sick, the boys all got nasty sick, then there's me. and well, then came {grammie} my mom...

she finally decided to go to the doctor to figure out why she was experiencing shortness of breath...while just sitting sometimes. they ran a slue of tests, including CT & PET scans. the tests turned up empty on answers for the shortness of breath, so they called it asthma. but they did find something on her scans...spots, masses, lisions, call em what ya want but in the end they are things that should not be there! a few spots on her lung and even one on the kidney. my entire family was caught completely off guard. for 1 thing, she never smoked regularly...or even at all. and 2, she can't drink a glass of anything sort of alcohol without getting giddy-she's a lightweight-so a closet alcoholic she is not. and 3...i was the one who had just been told & untold i had cancer.

long story short, they are indeed calling these spots cancer. mainly because non-cancerous masses would not take the dye for the PET or CT scan like these did. she underwent surgery last week to remove the spots on her lung. all went according to plan. although they did find a few smaller spots, once they got in there, that did not show up on the scans. that meant a longer incision, a longer surgery time, a longer recovery time. the doctor said it was all stage 1 cancer and they got it all....meaning no need/talk of follow-up radiation therapy. she did lose 20% of her lung capacity. which means keeping up with my boys will be a little harder, but the snuggles from them will be even sweeter.  

as for the kidney spots, the plan is to get those taken out in march or april. but i think that will depend on how she recovers from this surgery. so prayers & thoughts of a speedy recovery and fullness of health are more than appreciated...they are coveted!

i'm never sure why i walk through trials before someone else does, i just know that is how the Lord uses me. and i don't think i'll ever figure out his schedule...especially with this scenario. but whatever buffer or encouragement i was able to serve for my mom, i'd do it again in a heart beat. but this time there's a sweetness of knowing i get to do this adventure along side my mom. 

all that being said, i'm off to visit a doctor here. turns out i didn't end up being able to get the MRI biopsy done the day we left virginia. that was a blessing in disguise! {matt}s grandmother recommended a great local breast specialist. so we'll head off to see her today. i will try to update things here on the blog when we hear anything. i know that people are checking in on me via this sweet place of mine here on the interwebs. 

so please, come on back for info. or comment with questions for me or about my mom. and if you're incredibly shocked at this cause i haven't told many people at all, then shoot me an email: kristiruckel [at] gmail [dot] com. so thankful for this community i've found here!

inspired adventures

as you can probably tell from my post earlier this week, i've found some creative juices...and i'm trying to keep them flowing. it's harder to do than i'd expected. there are 4 little interruptions of life & normal daily tasks that break that flow regularly. and once said interruptions are down for the night...i struggle to regroup, even to just veg & watch tv.

alas, earlier this week while {matt} was out of town, i rallied & sat down to intentionally be creative. upon picking up some of the toys & mess of the day, i came across our copy of The Giving Tree by shel silverstein. this book sits on our living room shelf instead of the bookshelf in the boys room. why? because it was my wedding gift to {matt}. just before our wedding we had talked about childhood memories and what we wanted our family to look like...and this book came up. therefore, i wanted to have a tangible reminder in our house. that we are to love other & put them before ourselves.







i was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from this book

and she loved a little boy very, very much-even more than she loved herself.

but as i was trying to recall it exactly, i found it wasn't in this edition of the book...it must have just been from my childhood. so i scoured google to see if what i was recalling was correct. indeed it was...or it had been. i have yet to nail down when the wording changed in the books, but there are plenty of pictures of the page in question these older editions. even found a few tattoos of it, so i think it's safe to say, my memory really is serving me right.

so i decided to make my own version of the quote. 

because simply loving just one boy is outta the question!

the frame i already had. it was up on the wall already with a picture in it. i wasn't really lovin' how it looked on the wall, so i decided to put something new in it. low & behold, i was able to make this print in photoshop the exact size needed. perfect!

and i must say...i love the way it turned out! definitely a true portrait of what i think motherhood is.

and it has definitely kept the fire of creativity ignited & burning. still working on some rooms in the house so that is definitely needed!

what's got you inspired?!

livin' with less::settling into our new digs

in an attempt to add some more 'me' to our little home i asked for some scripture prints from this fabulous etsy shop for christmas. it is time to replace some of our wedding pics & stuff we used to stage the houses with some new stuff. i mean it's been 6 1/2 years of marriage, almost 5 years with kids & we have no pictures of our kids framed or hung. i'd like to think it's because we were de-personalizing the house getting it ready to sell, but really it's cause i'm horrible at committing to decisions & getting stuff printed.

it may also be the fact that i like to just put things off. i'm used to having friends that would come over  & kick my butt into gear. sadly, those friends all 1000 miles away now. and as much i wish they were here...to help, to visit, to settle me into this new casa...i'm regaining my independence from the tight grasp of my babies-who are no longer teeny tiny babes. i can actually accomplish some tasks during the day. the {twins} are old enough now to be distracted by the tv or toys or brothers which means i can do some work. and while there are dishes piling up in my sink, i really need to do something fun. something creative. plus, i'm helping work on one of my goals for this year. score!

don't mind the scattering of toys...its totally normal.

so there was this big, long, empty wall in the middle of our living room just begging for some attention. we had tried a couple different furniture pieces in this space, but it is the major thoroughfare in our house so it ended up being more in the way than anything else. so stuff on the walls was the only way to go. i wanted it to be a collection of us...our little family of 6.



but there's this little...catch...there isn't a lot of money to work with. ya know, especially with the move & all.

• i took old pictures out of frames i wanted to re-use.
• i grabbed a can of black spray paint which we had in the garage to make sure all the frames were the same color. it helps visually to unify the mismatched frames. see you didn't even notice they weren't all the same style!
• i also found a pack of photo paper and figured it was time that i committed to getting some stuff printed.
• the only money i spent was on a few new frames that were required in specific quantity & size.
• and i dug through boxes of stuff to find the non-picture items to hang up. they all had previous lives somewhere else & i think they represent us pretty well. i love to use things that hold special meaning to us, gives it an even more cozy/ homey feeling i think. 

and i present to you...my finished work-in-progress product

here's what i used:

mirror: came from {matt}s childhood bedroom

pictures: i chose recent shots from the past 6 months or so & plan to add some of our classic shots later

scripture prints: from here or here

the antlers: shot by {matt}s grandfather

the R: from my dad who works for a company that makes letters for signs

ukele: well, my husband is a musician after all. you could say it was just laying around.

pewter cross: we got it on a trip to mexico

clock: no real story there. every home needs a good clock right?!

it feels good to decorate...get my creative juices flowing.

it makes a house, whether you own or rent, feel more like a home.

and it totally does feel so much cozier in here. 

i'll try to get some pictures of the other finished rooms up soon. 

and eventually a whole house tour for those of you who have asked. keep your pants on!

Our family fishing adventure

With Matt's new and consistent work schedule, we have truly found our weekends to be more precious...and actually available! So we are trying to do some sort of family outing, ya know explore & take advantage of our new town.

We skipped going to church this week. It's had it's ups & downs but that's a story for another time. instead we packed up the boys and ventured for a fishing trip. Yeah, we're crazy like that. 4 little boys+water+hooks can be a scary combo.

And while there are probably a million & 1 fantastic fishing spots down here in the "redneck riviera" as my father inlaw calls it, we just don't know them yet. So we set out to a place that we knew would be great at our first attempt. The park that sits across from {matt}s grandparents old house.

yes, it was really that foggy.

{gran} & {pop} have both gone to be with Jesus and we haven't been by the house since new owners have moved in. It was a little strange. But this trip was different. We had 4 little boys that are so full of life & adventure that the memories here were sweet & full of excitement to have our own kids there. Digging in the sand. Running down the pier. Squealing as they ran around the playground.













While the day was full of fog & no fish. We all were worn out by lunch. I've come to learn that the success of these trips isn't about whether or not any fish are caught, but that we are all enjoying our time together...even if it's spent untangling fishing lines. It's about giving my boys a chance to do little boy things.

{ben} loved the worms.
i definitely heard him say to a worm, 'come here, ya slimy jerk!'
what?! haha!

Give boys room to explore & the possibilities become endless.
So what if their pants are soaked because they didn't wipe the slide off first...they were enjoying the moment.
Or their clothes & shoes get muddy...they were running & playing.
Maybe they're hot & sweaty & smell like outside...they're doing what boys were made to do!

{matt} said he used to play in this same spot for hours.
i. love. this!

- Posted from my iPhone