What in the world have the Barnes been up to?

PROJECTS!

My parents are only in town for one year.  I decided to seriously take advantage of having them by my side this year.  I have had a few projects that have needed to be completed for the last five years.  Some projects have literally sat half done for five years!

 Edward had been feeling a bit neglected and I could tell he was sad because we are all running track and he isn't.  So instead of going to track, I took him out for sushi.  Just him and me.  We did homework at the table and talked.

 Our sweet turtle, Sally, is awake for the spring and summer. 

 Nolen had a lunch date with his best friends.  There is a double decker bus that sells doughnuts so after lunch we headed up stairs to eat at the top of the bus. 

 I had this hair brained idea to fix the rubber stop in the bottom of the sink.  I thought it was going to be so easy.  It was not.  This one hour project took two days.  It was so annoying; however, my Dad figured it all out and we finally got the garbage disposal to work properly with the rubber stop perfectly in place.

 Track season started back in April and Nolen is loving it.  He has so many friends at track.  He loves going and pushing himself each practice.  He has some amazing coaches that truly care about him.  Since Nolen broke his arm he has been doing more push-ups to strengthen his arm. 

 Here is the project.  I wanted to clean up the second tier of our back yard five years ago.  So I added 300 red bricks.  That was the easy part.  I had to move some rocks off one area in order to add red bricks to that area.  So I started on the project.  I shoveled rocks with the intent to move the wheel barrow and dump them where the same type of rocks are in the yard.  I was doing the Santa Fe Opera at the time so I had very little time to get it done.  It was a long project.  I asked my niece Amanda to help.  Instead of dumping the rocks in another part of the yard, she filled up the wheel barrow completely full.  So full that we could not move the wheel barrow.  

Well the wheel barrow sat there for five years.  Unmoved.  

My amazing Dad finally moved the wheel barrow!!  

Sweet freedom.  We are now in the process of fixing the railroad ties and finishing the rock project.

While working on the back yard, I decided to paint the kitchen.  Yeah.  Not my brightest moment but it had to be done.  My mother in law dropped a bottle of nail polish on the kitchen floor and it splattered all of the wall.  Stephen grabbed a gallon of paint from the garage and painted part of the wall grey.   It sat like that for nearly five months.  I decided enough was enough.  My Mom and I spent two days painting the kitchen grey.  Phew.  It's done and it looks great!

Lastly, we have been spending some good quality time as a family.  I have given up most of social media and I am much happier.  Family is everything.

 

 This little rabbit lives in our neighborhood.  I caught him sitting on our front steps one morning and snapped a photo.

Epic Mudpit!

I feel like sometimes my boys do not get enough unstructured play time.  I have to plan the "unstructured" time with friends in order to make it happen.  We had a few days off of school, so we invited our very best friends from school over to play in the mud.  We ate lunchables in the grass, had gatoraide, and devoured Oreo cookies!

Recital time!

Our Spring Recital seems to have sneaked up on me this year.  I love doing a recital every 6 months so that the students have something to work towards.  My students did AMAZING!  My boys are no longer taking lessons from me; however, they play their cellos and the piano at my recital so they can learn to perform in front of others.

Easter at the Barnes Home!

Ah, Easter!  As you may have guessed, I am not a big fan of the commercialization of holidays.  I actually hate it.  I try to add some fun for my kids, but mostly, I like them to know the real reasons we celebrate holidays.  We did hide easter eggs and eat a lot of candy today.  We had a non traditional dinner including corn on the cob and chicken with black bean burritos.  Having my parents close by has been AMAZING! I absolutely love it.  I am so grateful they are here to celebrate with us for the next year.

Just another day on the Farm

Ok, I don't live on a farm any more, but I do seem to have a lot of things that need to get done.  This year, I decided to have our family photos taken at our home.  I am so excited about this; however, this means I have a lot to clean up at my house.  There are dozens of little projects that are not complete.  I have been working on the back yard all week so that I can get the grass growing and the flowers blooming now that spring is finally here. 

My dad and I spent all morning trying to fix the broken sprinkles.  It is a huge undertaking because there is a leak in one of the water lines.  We are also changing the drip system up in the garden to sprinklers.  The drip system is constantly breaking and it is always in need of repair.  

Nolen finally got his cast off last Thursday, the promptly fell down the stairs.  Never a dull moment here.  He was so upset for falling down the stairs.  He screamed for 25 minutes straight.  I didn't know how to calm him.  We took a few deep breaths but nothing worked.  He didn't break any bones, but his back is badly bruised.  Ugh, autism and spacial awareness is a daily challenge at this home. 

We dyed Easter eggs on Sunday evening.  The boys always love dying the eggs.  It is always so messy, but fun.  We even made a golden egg!  Nolen wanted to hide the eggs in the yard, but I told him we would hide eggs this coming Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Edward really seemed to enjoy dipping the eggs in and out of the dye.  He also made home made slime with Grandma but it turned into glue the very next day.

Hopefully, I can get all my projects completed before our family photos in May.  Also, everyone is coming to our home at the end of May so I really need to get this place cleaned up!