After a few crazy weeks, we were still needing to do soooo much work on the farm. Honestly, my list of things to do was so long that I avoided looking at it. Who needs to reminded of all the things they are not going to accomplish today?? Not me. I am well aware that I am only going to get a few things done today and they are probably only going to be the essentials. Like feeding my kids, making sure they have clothes on, or making sure that they don’t get lost. Check, check and…. check. And then repeat. Again and again. Yep, that’s about all I have time for most days. If I get them to therapy and get all their schoolwork done I consider it a sucessful day. Extra chores? Well, I didn’t manage to fit that in today. Woops! And that is why I avoided looking at my to do list. Mostly to preserve what’s left of my sanity.
Anyway, the house was really coming along, but we weren’t even close to caught up on all our work. But we had to start somewhere, right? So, the kids and I loaded up on Saturday morning to meet a drywall guy for a quote and get some work done. Wouldn’t you know it, he was early and I was late. I missed him altogether, but he was nice enough to give us a quote anyway. I really liked that fellow.
I might have missed the drywall guy, but I did get some lovely pictures of the farm.
I love this picture. You can even see our little house on the hill.
We still need some fencing. Any volunteers?
This might be my favorite picture of the farm so far.
Jim was at a class in Asheville that morning, but the kids and I had a full day of work planned. We were going to put hay all around the house to prevent mud from splashing on the new exterior that was going to be put up on Monday. I’m so, so excited about that!!!! No, not spreading the hay, but to see the board and batten exterior go on. That is going to be lovely! Just lovely. Ok, I got side tracked there, sorry!
We were also going to paint the exterior doors. Silly, silly, us. Buying doors that need to be painted, that’s crazy! Who does that? Oh, yeah. We do. We also brought shovels so we could level out in front of the porch. And we brought brooms and dustpans to sweep out the mountains of sawdust, wood shavings, and wires that had been left by the electrician and plumber. I also had a weedeater for the driveway and ant killer to help take care of some of the ant mounds. Oh, and work gloves so we could pick up the mess left by the roofers. Wow, all that sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? You can just imagine how excited my kiddos were that morning. My kids cringe whenever they see me making a list or even looking at a list. So does Jim. I’m so glad they love me in spite of my lists!
Well, I had my list. My very long list. I tried to be prepared by bringing snacks and goodies and even extra paint and paint brushes for the kids. I just knew the kids would want to paint too and there is not enough tape in the world to make it safe for a 3 year old and 6 year old to paint a door! Ok, there is not enough patience and understanding in my body to allow them to paint a door that we are going to be using as the entrance to our house. I did promise Maylin that she could paint some in her room when it was time. Oh, I do hope that goes well….
Maylin really, really wanted to help though, so I did let her help me tape the doors. That lasted about 8 minutes. Then I broke out the paints and paint brushes for them. I took the top off their sand box and Viola’, a blank canvas! Get to it kids! And they painted the top completely white and then painted each other. They had fun and honestly I had a blast watching them and laughing at them.
The next day, I went out to put another coat of paint on the doors and the kids painted the sandbox lid all kinds of colors. First, it was blue and brown. Then pink and yellow. Then it had spots. In the end, it became mostly purple. Miraculously, they didn’t paint the house!!
Jim thinks I’m an incredibly brave woman to let them have real paint and paint brushes near the house. No, not really. I’m just desperate! I really want to get some of this work done!!!
The kids played in the sand box or painted the majority of the weekend. I happen to think my kids are pretty special. They are always with us when we work on a project. Always. They do complain some and we do have our issues, but in the end I think they are really great kiddos!!
We had a great weekend and other than a few close calls with the paint, the kids were terrific.
Camden had to go to the bathroom. He just couldn’t understand why the toilet wasn’t there yet. We are working on it, buddy. We’re working on it, I promise.
This little stinker is always finding something and turning it into a toy. He just melts my heart! Look at that smile!!!
I honestly can’t remember what Maylin was doing in this picture, but Camden was riding his pipe horse into battle. Fear not! He won the battle and the war!
This was our first meal in the house. Jim brought McDonald’s for lunch. Ok, please don’t judge me here. Jim offered to bring lunch so I didn’t question where he was buying it at.
On Sunday, just before Jim got called into work, we took a walk down to the creek and just relaxed.
It seems like we always have an agenda. There is always something to do or a time schedule we have to follow. So we are trying really hard to make sure we don’t miss out on our kids during this crazy time.
It’s so nice to just take a step back and spend some time with them. They are all growing up too fast! Time please slow down!
