Hats off to Daddies!

Daddies who love their kids.

Dad and Anna-Maria skyping the boys

Tane has been away for the weekend. It really made me appreciate life with a participating father. It wasn't the getting the kids ready for church that was difficult, it was more the fact that he takes care of Ella-Rose while I spend 2 hours teaching the 3-11 year old children at our church. She is very particular about her parents at the moment and screamed hysterically anytime any one of the very willing mothers tried to prize her out of my arms so I could get on with teaching. She couldn't even be bribed with a mandarin... even though she was happy to munch on it while I held her.

So the lesson was a little crazy to say the least... teaching forgiveness to 12 rowdy CTRs and sunbeams, followed by a sharing time of 'forever families' and temples to the whole primary - with Ella-Rose in my arms. Needless to say I was glad to get my heels off after that!

Joseph really made my day when he came out from the bedroom long after the other kids were asleep. He retold me the story I had told them in primary... almost word for word. He told me he learned how to be kind (because the boy had been kind to another boy who had been mean to him). It made me realise not everything I say falls on deaf ears.

Tane usually cooks pancakes for Sunday breakfast. Josh has been learning with him. As he wasn't going to be there I made them for Saturday lunch. There was some pancake mixture left over so while I was talking to Anna-Maria on Skype (she was lucky enough to go to see Grandma and Grandpa with her daddy), Joshua decided to make pikelets... from the leftover mixture.
They did not look too appetising, but he and Joseph enjoyed them. It is neat to see how they are learning little things from their daddy. Tane jokes with them about how they have to cook pancakes for their mission companisons and their own families one day.
We managed the Sunday roast and the chocolate brownie without Tane, but somehow a roast for 3 seems to be almost as much work as a roast for 7 (we usually also have the missionaries every sunday). I realised why it felt like so much work though... as Tane usually does the clean up afterwards... which I really appreciate!! :)
It was pretty funny, because he cooked the same sunday roast for my parents- right down to the corn on the cob and peas. We got all the details on Skype from Anna-Maria. She spent a lot of the afternoon watching and talking to the boys and in some ways it felt like they were in the same room.

More pics the kids took while skyping their sister.

So thanks Tane for spending time with your kids, cooking great meals... and fresh bread, and helping keep the place clean and loving your wife. I love you.  Keep up the great work.

Practice makes perfect or at least very close to it

"Practice makes perfect."
"The more you practice the better you get."
I think I sound like a broken record.

This week did not start out pleasant. Mondays are pretty busy usually, but this Monday was very difficult. Most particularly as I had a hard time motivating a certain son to practice the piano. He is really quite capable, he really enjoys it... but there is something about trying to motivate him to play his piano pieces 3 times over when he has already sat for most of the day at school. It just doesn't work. I should have realised that but I just kept pushing him... in the end I was incredibly angry, shouted at him...and I did not feel good.

I sat down with Tane and we made a plan. It was really hard to motivate any of the kids to do anything after school. They usually have a bit of spelling, maths and reading homework. Reading is not a problem with any of them, but the other stuff can take ages... and there wasn't enough time to even enjoy being with the kids...

The plan went like this. We all get up at 6am, have scriptures then breakfast, then Josh does his piano practice, while the other two get ready for school, and then Joseph does his homework while Josh gets ready for school. Somewhere in the mix there they also pack most of their own school lunch and get their bags ready.

SO far SO good.... The mornings turned out to be a lot more organised. I usually had done a load of washing and had the dishwasher on by the time we went to school. Not sure if we can keep it up during the winter months... but it did wonders for Joshua's piano practice. He whipped through his pieces in probably a third of the time it would take him after school, and he then would carry on practicing favourite pieces he had learnt in previous lessons. AMAZING!!

It has meant in the evenings we can relax more... the kids can read more AND they go to sleep earlier! which was another motivating factor to make the change.

By Saturday night I was sitting in the theatre watching a ballet (The tales of Beatrix Potter) with the 3 older kids. They were entranced. It was a local production with children ranging from about 4 to adults. The kids had friends in the show which made it even more exciting. As I sat there with the kids I felt extremely happy. Seeing their excited faces, watching them bounce up and down on their chairs to the music was a lot of fun.

When we arrived an elderly lady was sitting next to Joseph, he was jumping up and down on his seat and asked her "Are you excited?" She replied "Yes". It was evident that he was though as he started reading the programme over her shoulder. She didn't mind and explained all the scenes and acts to him.

It was such an awesome way to end what had started out to be a difficult week. I guess the kids are not the only ones who need to practice... I mean being a mother is pretty hard, I'm the first to admit it, but with 4 of them I certainly am getting a LOT of practice!

Don't stuff your things under the bed!

My mum always made us clean our rooms properly... and would check them when we were done. I have always told my kids to clean their rooms properly and if I find they have just filled drawers with their things or thrown it under the bed, they have to do it again until I'm satisfied. Which is why I giggled to myself when I found myself doing the same thing. I don't usually do this but extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. The real estate agent called and said she would be bringing someone to view the house in an hour. Luckily I  pretty much had the lounge and kitchen sorted, but the boys room was lets just say looked like the 'floordrobe'. So as I was proceeding to deal with a mountain of clothes there was a knock at the door and there they were.
So under the bed went all the clothes.

Its a pity though that the housing market is so flat. It doesn't seem to matter whether clothes are on the floor or on the drawers, there are still very few buyers out there. But we live in hope.