Jared's Latest Painting

Picture Catch Up

Most of my pictures are on my dead computer so here are the few that I have from the last couple of weeks.

Our ward has an outdoor adventure group. I was quick to join that one. Kendi and I went hiking to an ice cave just a couple miles from our house. We didn't even know it was there. Poor Kendi kept complaining and saying she wanted to rest. I told her we were "hiking" and had to keep moving and she did. When we got home she started throwing up and had the stomach flu. I felt so bad for prodding her and not knowing she wasn't really feeling well.

She was a trooper and still enjoyed the hike.
We made valentine cookies on valentines day.Here is a picture of some flowers that a friend showed me how to make.
Aydri has been standing by herself without holding on to anything for a few weeks now. She's too little to do that!
Like most babies, she really likes music. She pretends to play the guitar and bounces with the beat.
Other than that, we've all been sick except for Jared. Just as one of us recovers someone else comes down with it.

Uncle Brandon, Rest In Peace

Jared lost his uncle Brandon a couple weeks ago. He had suffered from MS for 20 years. We know he is learning the gospel on the other side like he was never able to learn here. Someone mentioned to Jared that his Uncle was proud of his artwork. One thing we know for sure is that Kolob Care and Rehabilitation Center will never be the same.

Brandon Jay Barnes, 57 years old, passed away Feb. 3, 2010, at 6:30 p.m., from complications attributed to his multiple sclerosis (MS) he has been ailing from for the past 20 years. He passed away while in the care of Kolob Care & Rehabilitation Center, in Cedar City, UT. Kolob has been his kind care provider for almost 10 years. Brandon was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was baptized on Nov. 19, 1966. He graduated from Blair High School, of Pasadena, Calif., in 1970 and started his career in metal fabrication welding and diesel mechanics. He enjoyed tremendously working with his hands, repairing, and building engines and other mechanical devices. Brandon is survived by his mother, Mary Eriksson Cannon; his two brothers, Jeffrey Nowell Barnes and Matthew Scott McKinley Barnes; his sister Claudia Lynn Boggs; and his son, Brandon Oliver Barnes, of Southern California. His father, Warren J. Barnes, preceded him in death in August 2008.

A Messy House is a Happy House

AND WE ARE DELIRIOUS!

I can't remember where I first heard that saying, but it made me finally have a reason to smile about my messy house. Since then, I've often thought about what it means. Most often if my house is messy, I'm not happy. So how could this be? There have been days where I have considered posting pictures of my house because it would give you all a good laugh. I hate the fact that some people judge you by how clean your house is. Here are a few things I've been thinking about.

A friend came up to me at church and asked what I had been up to. I told her, "I've been really busy, getting nothing done." It only took her a second to realize exactly what I meant and we both had a good laugh. She has two young kids as well. Whenever I attempt to clean a room really well, it is guaranteed that my kids are destroying another room at that very moment. Even Jared, being artistically minded and not organizationally minded, is like a tornado in a trailer park. I mean that with kindness. Its two steps forward and one step back at my house. Jared was working from home one day and by the end of it I said to him, "I've been going and going all day long and if you look around it doesn't look like I've done anything. He agreed. If you stop by my house at any given time I will be cleaning, doing laundry, preparing food or washing dishes. I'm not going to blame everyone else for this messiness, but I'm not going to yell at them for it either. You see, a messy house is a happy house, partly because I refuse to stomp around and throw tantrums till everyone obeys. A clean house is not worth ruined family relationships.

There are people out there with young kids like mine that do keep a clean house. I've often wondered and marveled at these people. They must have so much energy and discipline to be able to follow their family around and clean up all their messes and do nothing else. No. . .maybe my kids are especially messy. That must be it. A while ago, I came across a parenting magazine article and I finally realized what it was. My kids play all day. They don't sit on their behinds watching TV for hours on end. I would rather have them playing and making block castles with hundreds of blocks and filling the bathtubs with a laundry basket full of clean clothes than brainlessly losing their attention spans in front of a television so that I can keep a clean house. Don't think that my kids don't know how to clean either. Kendi has certain rooms that must be cleaned everyday before she can have her allotted TV time. She actually likes to clean. Sometimes I tell her that she only has to clean up the toys. When I come back from being with Aydri, the room I left Kendi in will be spic and span and she will be beaming. She knows that we are genuinely ecstatic when she helps.

I don't believe nagging your family to death works as an efficient way to motivate them to clean. I do believe that kids should be kids and play more and sit less. As they get older they will be more aware of how they play and more capable of helping out. Until then, our messy house will be a happy house.