Remember to Stop and Smell the Flowers

When Ashton says a prayer at night he often says the same prayer night after night and week after week. Here is Ashton's very special prayer (note: there are no spelling errors in the prayer, this is just how Ashton talks)

DEAR HEAVENEE FADDA,

BE WITH MICHAEL IN RUSSIA (His best friend from Kindy).
DANK YOU FOR MY KINDY.
PLEASE HELP HAYDEN TO BE NICE TO ME AND NOAH NOT TO TAKE MY HOT WHEEL CARS.
AMEN

It is so cute to watch Ashton at three years old saying a prayer! Ashton is nearly always the first one to volunteer saying the prayer in the evenings or at the dinner table. We’re proud of him for this and we truly hope he stays that way.




On to the past week:




I made another really yummy dessert on Thursday. Fleur and I decided the dessert didn’t look good on white plates so I spent another $12 on blue plates this time.





Just kidding!! Wish I could’ve seen some of the reactions!



Last Sunday I conducted Primary for the first time. It was fun despite the fact that I turned up to church OVER an hour late and missed all of junior primary. I had no idea the clocks had gone forward an hour for daylight savings. I drove into the church parking lot thinking I was just in time to set up all the chairs and then when I got out of the car and could hear children singing, I couldn’t figure out why!! So, I got to conduct the second half (senior primary and closing exercises) and both children that were assigned talks didn’t show up. I then had to fill in the time, and normally, I hate being put on the spot, but I quickly decided to talk about prayer and told the children my story about praying when I left my wallet in the supermarket trolley. It turned out really good and the children were very reverent and actually listened! Tony stayed home with Noah since Noah hadn’t slept well and had been awake a lot during the night.


It’s school holidays at the moment (in between Terms 3 & 4) and Hayden has been going to a holiday programme at a church called ‘City Impact’. The church runs a full day and half day programme for kids and offers all kinds of activities and fun things to do. HAYDEN LOVES IT and is always begging me if he can stay all day (which he can’t because it costs too much). Some days there are around 130 kids. The children get to bring their bikes & skateboards, they do cooking, art ‘n’ craft projects every morning, they have ALL kinds of competitions and fun games, there’s movies to watch and always lots of music going with stage shows and skits…it’s KID CRAZY, but very well supervised and run.

I came to a realization this week that I need to ‘enjoy’ my kids a little more by slowing myself down a bit. I realized that I seem to always be rushing them along, telling them, “Hurry up, come on faster, quickly, go as quick as you can, hurry, you’re taking too long!” I only realized this on Sunday when I was trying to talk with someone at church, and Ashton was tugging on my clothes wanting to tell me something. He must have felt under pressure to speak quickly because all that came out was, “I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got…and then finally, “I got…something on my finger.” I suddenly felt terrible that I always have things to do and places to be in such a hurry and that I even tell my children to SPEAK quickly, so this week I’ve concentrated on giving the boys ‘plenty of time.’ It’s been good for them and me and I’ve also felt less stressed. I continually have to keep reminding myself to enjoy the little moments - to stop and smell the flowers.

I’ve had some good success in the kitchen this week, and I have to mention it because I am use to having so many disasters! I wish I could recall the worst, but one that comes to mind is when I was first married and my in-laws came over for dinner. I attempted to make ‘Twice baked potatoes’ for the first time (where you take the potato out of the skin, mash it and put it back in). As my father-in-law was eating the potato (that hadn’t turned out like it was suppose to), he pulled a very long dark brown strand of hair out of his mouth! YUK! A bit embarrassing, but at least he knew where it came from! I am actually quite a good cook most of the time (even if I do say so myself!) but as a joke my mum recently bought me a funny sign for the kitchen that reads: COUNTLESS PEOPLE HAVE EATEN IN THIS KITCHEN AND GONE ON TO LIVE NORMAL LIVES. So on to my success. I discovered a great secret for really good Schnitzel this week. After dipping the meat in flour and then egg, dip it in ‘stuffing mix’ instead of bread crumbs. It makes a really yummy thick coating over the Schnitzel. And then when serving, drizzle with apple sauce on top – my boys loved it. I also discovered a good secret for really good apple crumble. Only use granny smith apples as they definitely have the best taste and the crumble is really nice (and healthy) with ¾ cup of rolled oats.
Am I making myself sound as if I’m a good cook? I’m encouraging myself!

Ashton (nearly 4) has so much personality, does some of the cutest things and loves to 'pretend'. Every now and then he likes to pretend that he is a Kitty Cat and he will crawl around on the floor meowing. It usually goes on for a couple of days until he’s had the satisfaction of us continually calling him Kitty and acknowledging him as a cat. He also likes to pretend that he is Lightning McQueen from the movie ‘Cars’ (Lightning McQueen is a very fast car just incase you didn’t know!). The other day when we were walking along outside the Mall Ashton stopped to fill up with gas/petrol by sticking his butt out towards a pole and making a SSHHHH sound!!!! We went a few steps further and then he stopped to change all his wheels/tires by doing something funny with his feet. I’m sure onlookers must have thought he was quite a strange kid!! As usual I was in a hurry to get into the mall before it started raining, but then I stopped to enjoy the moment and didn't care if I got wet as Ashton was just so cute.

I have spent hours and hours doing washing this week (I can't imagine how much washing a mum has to do with 5 or 6 kids) as Ashton and Noah have been wetting their beds. Noahs nappy has been leaking and since he has conjunctivitis/pink eye at the moment he's been getting stuff from his eyes all over his blankets.

Ashton will be turning 4 soon and I was hoping he would be ready to stay dry at night but he still seems to pee about 10 times in one night!