The Cleaning Man

 Enoch and Ezra have been moved up to a larger amount of work around the house. They are getting older and more capable and it's high time they started doing more than picking up after themselves and emptying the dishwasher. They have been doing the occasional odd jobs as well but now they have rotating jobs each week. This was Enoch's first week on cleaning his own bathroom. He is a serious germ freak and so These big yellow gloves were the best thing that happened to both of us that day.

After protecting his hands from the big mean nasty germs he stopped crying and complaining about having to clean the toilet and floor and sink :) poor kid. Its hard to be him. He did a great job though and after a week of cleaning his bathroom everyday he has become a pro. And sometimes he even does it without the gloves ;)

Ethne's Funny Words

Ethne sometimes lives in a world of her own. She also makes up words of her own because she, like Fancy Nancy, loves things to sound fancy. Instead of Brush she says "Brusha" and instead of Comb she says "Comba". She has her imaginary friends Oagy and Isaac and Izzy pronounced "I-Z" and Olivia which she pronounces "Livia". 

The "Kanga" you see here now has a new name. In perfect Ethne form she has re-named her kanga after someone she loves-her friend Sabina. Her sock monkey now has a new name as well. It has been named Becket after another of her friends. :) She is such a social and friendly child and we are all in love with her.  

I L-O-V-E C- A-M-I-L-L-A

While we are on the subject of love I thought I would tell you about Enoch's writing. He has been practicing writing different names the last few days and he has just learned to spell Camilla and Neil. The other day he said "hey mom, I L-O-V-E C-A-M-I-L-L-A and I L-O-V-E N-E-I-L" Then today he said " I L-O-V-E G-A-R-R-E-T-T" He is getting pretty good.

I Am in Love With You AND I Love YOU More!

Tonight I was listening to this song and feeling sentimental about my favorite man in all the world-my husband. I seem to always feel exceptionally sentimental when he is working lots of overtime and I miss him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQsBwRrbS78&sns=fb

This year will be our tenth anniversary and to me that's a pretty big deal. It's not really that long all by itself but its a fifth of the way to us celebrating our 50th anniversary :)  That gives me butterflies to think about growing old with him and hitting that HUGE milestone! Both sets of my grandparents have hit that milestone and beyond. What an heritage that is for me. My parents will hit that as well one day and then my dear man and I will be the third generation of love who sees it through. I am proud of that. I know it wasn't always easy for my grandparents, or my parents, but the love that they had for each other extended far beyond the changes and challenges of life. And for their example and their hard work I am eternally grateful. My respect for them is huge. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa VanWart(now passed on), and Grandma and Papaw Anderson. You have no idea how much it means to me, and the strength it has given me to know that you all have not only found love, but managed to hold on to it for so long.

So this week I feel that all the time I have had to myself in the evenings has helped me to think and ponder the differences in the early stages of romance between Garrett and I and the love we have now. I have thought about the things we do well and the things I need to work on and I feel inspired.

I realized that one thing that I am lacking these days is the degree of Love behind the sacrifices I make for him each day. For example-every night I pack him a nice hot lunch because it is something that has always been important to him. I sometimes get annoyed that he can't just take a sandwich now and then or pack it himself. This week though I thought about how when we were dating I probably would have jumped up and volunteered to make him lunch :) So the other night I packed him a wonderful lunch of chicken tacos with pico and guac and lettuce on the side. I was careful to make sure all warm and cold ingredients were packaged separately so it would make a tasty meal instead of a reheated mess. (I always do but that night I had been tempted to just throw it all in). I then wrote him a long letter and wrapped it in plastic and put it in the top of his container to brighten his day at lunch time.

Starting then, my new goal has been to think about how much I adore him when I cook for him, clean for him and pick up those never ending dirty socks by the side of the bed. So far it makes me much happier to do these out of my overflowing devotion to the man I love than it did when it was just one more thing to do during my day.

I really do adore you husband! You are my ONE, my ONLY, and you are my SUPERMAN. xoxo Mawah!

Easter Monday

This was our fun day. We did a few things in the morning that had to be done but we had a pretty lazy morning. We ate our meals together and played together. We went to a street near our house where you can ride the scooters down a steep hill and then up another one to slow you down again. The boys and Garrett rode the scooters for a while while I sneezed my head off (allergies) and took video.


I spent the afternoon prepping a really fancy dinner for us(our Easter dinner since G was gone yesterday) and then after naps we put on our togs and went to the beach. Ezra and Ethne swam for a while until they froze and got out, wrapped up in towels, and then sat and watched us. I snorkeled while G watched the kids and dealt with Enoch's melt down and then he snorkeled and I huddled in towels with the kids until he was done.

We saw lots of cool fish and shells. I had Garrett dive for the shells for me cause I don't like doing it. He's my hero :) I got stung by something on the finger and it sent shooting pains up my hand for a while but it didn't last too long. Right before we were getting out to go home Garrett found a sting ray hiding in the sand. He was so excited he popped up and told me about it. I was so excited I jumped in the water and took the snorkel he offered me and swam to see it. Two Indian men in their late 20's heard us talking about a sting ray and they kind of freaked out. The got out of the water as fast as they could and thought I was crazy for getting in to go see it. They said sting rays can be really dangerous. I have touched them on many occasions in CA so I guess I don't see them as being a threat. Maybe I should. I didn't get close enough to it to frighten it just close enough to get a good look at it. It was definitely the highlight of the snorkeling trip.

It was too late to eat our fancy meal together that night so while I got straight to the cooking Garrett bathed, dressed and fed the kids some nachos before putting them to bed. Then when the food was ready we sat down and had our fancy dinner alone. That was nice too except I was still in my swimsuit covered in salt water :) oh well. c'est la vie.

We had a meal I learned to prepare at the Wellington On a Plate Master Class. It was made by the famous Chef Al Brown, but it wasn't quite like his since 1. I am not a famous chef and 2. my butcher couldn't get me any farm raised venison from the amazing red deer in NZ. I had to substitute cuts of beef :(

The meal was supposed to be: Cervena venison loin with braised venison cheeks and sauteed pumpkin mousse. But it turned out to be: local butcher's two similar cuts of beef braised, rested and served with sauteed pumpkin mousse, vegetables and Brumby's soft rolls. Very very good, but not what I had hoped for.

I have since found a butcher who can get me venison but I have to look into the price and the type.

Sorry about the picture but it was the best I go from my starving husband photographer :)

Easter Sunday-and Garrett's New Calling

Today was a nice day. Besides the boys getting up at 5am to hunt for their baskets (that did not make for happy parents) the day was nice.


We had warm hot cross buns, boiled eggs, and freshly squeezed juice for breakfast. Garrett and I had a nice cup of herbal tea as well. It was yummy and we enjoyed talking over the meal.

The kids played all morning while G and I prepared for church and cleaned up the meal. Garrett talked me into cutting his hair which I usually refuse to do on Sundays. I took some really funny pictures of Ethne pretending to cut Garrett's hair. She was so excited to do it. I will post those later. We had such a relaxing morning that we lost track of time and missed our bus by not being early at the stop on the one day it came early.
We ended up taking a bus WAY out of our way and getting a nice walk in beautiful weather to get to the other bus stop where we could pick up another bus to finally get to church. By the time we got there we had missed all but 30 min. of sacrament meeting. I had to teach a class and conduct in Primary and I felt so frazzled but lucky for me it all went pretty well. That primary class is tough to teach some days and today was one of them.

After church we came home and Garrett grabbed some food and went to get another bus to the train station and then took a train from there to another station and ran to the stake center from there to be at an interview with a member of the stake presidency. I was a little bitter about him having to go to an interview on Easter Sunday but I got over it. We didn't have a nice Easter dinner since he was going to be gone and I just fed the kids and put them to bed at 7pm. They were really tired that day.

Garrett got home at 8 or so and we talked about his new calling. The man he met with(I don't know his name) said they usually like to have to wife there because they like to ask her if her husband is worthy of whatever the calling is. I laughed as Garrett said he told him I would say yes if I was there. I said a more appropriate question would have been if I thought you were capable of doing the calling. Garrett pretended to be offended but we had a good laugh over that as well. It might have been funny but it was also true. I sure hope he will be able to stay on top of the calling and do a good job. He isn't exactly the most organized person I know, but I suppose it will help him to get better. Garrett has been called to be the new High Priest Group leader in our ward. Better keep him in your prayers ;)

I think her favorite part of getting to cut dad's hair was spraying him with water

 She also really enjoyed the combing with her "comba" as well. She told him things like "be still. Keep youse head still daddy". I hsould have an after picture of the haircut I gave him. It was really good.

 Our simple Easter Sunday breakfast of Hot Cross Buns, Boiled Eggs, Fresh juice, and tea

The colored eggs look nice in the egg cups don't you think?

Easter WEekend Saturday 2012

We ended up getting to have Garrett off of work Sat. Sun and Mon and we loved it. We didn't do tons of fun stuff, but we worked hard together and got a lot done Sat. so we did play on Monday.


Sat. Garrett went to IKEA to exchange the rug we bought for the living room. When we bought it we had it delivered to our house but then when we (and by WE I mean ME) decided that although the white looked OK in our house, the red one would have looked SO much better AND would stay so much cleaner we decided to exchange it. I wanted the red one to begin with but we weren't sure it would match (since we hadn't seen the furniture for almost as long as we have owned it we were hesitant about the shade of blue etc...), so we went with the color that we knew would match even though we knew it would be harder to keep clean.

Garrett, Enoch, and the rug took two buses to get to IKEA and got there when they opened. He waited in line for the exchange for 35min. After that Enoch was hungry so G got him something to eat at the cafe and they went looking for the rugs. When they finally made their way through the labyrinth Garrett looked for the rug and carried it over to his trolley to bring it down and pay for it. The trolley was gone and a VERY frustrated Garrett put the rug down and went to find another one. Why he didn't just carry it I don't know(and shouldn't have asked cause by the time he got home he was really crabby). He made his way to the kitchen area and picked out a silverware tray, which I guess was also very frustrating as their selection is terrible and there really wasn't a great option. He ran all the way to the bus stop with a very heavy rug and when he got there the bus driver refused to let him on with the rug. Garrett argued with him and then the guy shut the door and drove off. The driver even had the gal to imply Garrett was lying when he told him he had taken two buses with the same size rug to get to IKEA that very morning.

As the driver pulled away Garrett started walking with Enoch and the rug to the second bus stop hoping someone there would let him on. On the way he saw another bus that would take him where he needed to go and managed to flag him down and be picked up even though he wasn't at a stop. THAT my friends is a miracle. Those drivers DO NOT stop and pick people up or even open their doors to people who are not at a bus stop. It was the first thing that went right for him that day, but it did little to imporve his mood. By the time he got home 1/2 the day was gone and not much had been accomplished.

While they were gone the other two kids and I went shopping and bought all the groceries we needed and stopped at a toy store to pick up the last two things I needed for Easter baskets. The rest of the day Garrett and I spent cleaning and organizing and rearaiging furniture. Now that we had the rug we could get it all set up. It looks pretty good in here for what we have to work with, but really what we need is another rug exactly like this one pushed together to make it bigger, but if you think I could convince my husband to go back to IKEA to get it for me you are sorely mistaken ;) There are, after all, limits to the things you'll do for love.

Lessons From 'Pinocchio"

Last night the kids watched Pinocchio and laughed hard through most of it, but when it was over Ezra told me he didn't ever want to watch it again. I was surprised because of all the laughter I had heard and asked why? He said that everyone in that movie was too sad.
During scriptures that night he talked about how he knew people didn't really turn into donkeys, but he didn't like the part where they are smoking and partying on pleasure island (or whatever it's called). I haven't seen it since I was a kid and I had forgotten that part. We had a really good discussion though, about how living for pleasure does turn you into a bit of a donkey, if not in the literal sense then figuratively. We talked about hard work and using our minds, keeping them clean and free of addictive substances and how that was really the only way to avoid becoming stagnant and complacent like the donkey children in the movie. It was a very meaningful conversation to have with him/them and although the movie was a bit disturbing to him it really drove home the point that a devious lifestyle full over over-indulgence and "living in the moment" is NOT the way to be truly happy. Knowing Ezra as I do, I know it will be a topic revisited soon.

"I don't have any words..."

So last night after family (mom and children) scripture study I asked Ethne to say our closing prayer. She sat in her cot in the dark and looked at me and said "I don't have any words for that". I cracked up inside but outwardly tried to remain straight faced. I said That's OK I will help you. I told her what to say and she said it beautifully. She was very serious for Ethne and I suspect it is being tired. Sweet girl!

a little background on my process-when G isn't working overtime he has a beautiful and well thought out scripture study with the boys every night but leaves Ethne and I out of it. I usually go put her to bed while he does it, but now she is a bit older and so since G has been working late every night I have included her in our study. I sit in the hallway in a chair between both bedrooms. Children lay in bed with lights off and I share with them the lesson I am preparing for the Sunbeams and CTR 4's each Sunday. (I am not the teacher for those classes but I am filling in until we get someone called. Names have been submitted but the process is very slow). We go over some of the scriptures and then we have discussions on them. Last night we talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and went over the story of the Israelites and the manna. How it was gathered 6 days of the week and the miracle that occurred only on the 6th day of the week where they could gather extra so that on the Sabbath they could rest from their labors.  I am always amazed at how much my children know about the scriptures and the meanings within the stories. Ezra talked a lot last night and we incorporated "Pinocchio" into the discussion, but I will save that for another post.

Easter Holidays

Something really cool about Australia is that everyone gets good Friday and Easter Monday off. Its the start of the kids school vacations and the mums and dads have a 4 day weekend to spend with them. I LOVE this. Unfortunately, what we thought would be a 4 day weekend for us was canceled due to Garrett's job saying they needed everyone to work.


So I abandoned my plans to find the perfect location and book hotels etc... THEN, last night Garrett finds out that the producers checked budget and can't afford to have everyone work both days and get double pay-SO now he is only supposed to work either Friday OR Monday but not both. So we have a three day weekend. I am certainly not going to complain about that. We miss seeing him since he has been working such long hours. But I do wish they could have figured this out earlier because now it is too late to put together a weekend away somewhere.

We will probably just do day trips to places like the Blue Mountains and maybe one of the really cool family tours at the opera house or something. I am sure we will have a great time together even if we just end up going snorkeling and boogie boarding up the street. Family time is fun time no matter what we do. Can't wait to spend time with my love.

Outing at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney

So next week is the beginning of school vacation and we are so excited. I can't wait to put away all the books for two weeks and play. We have been very diligent in our learning and we are ready for a break. Today I took advantage of the fact that we just had daylight savings and our bodies are confused by the time. We are waking up at 6am every morning. 

I laid out the kids clothes in their room on Tuesday night and their writing assignments and math books on the table. I told them we needed to get started immediately when they woke up so by 9am we could be mostly done and on our way to the Royal Botanic Gardens :) Enoch got up at 6, got dressed and had his math and writing done before I could even get dressed and ready to start breakfast. He was super speedy. Ezra finished his math before breakfast but didn't get started until I came in and prodded him a little. He was dressed though even down to his socks :)  We had math, writing, Enoch's violin, and breakfast all cleaned up and were packed and ready to go by 9am.

Our Friends Erin and Wesley came to our house and we walked together to the bus stop and rode downtown to Circular Quay. We walked around the opera house and into the gardens. It was really a fun day. We fed the eels and fish and swamp hens in the pond. Erin fed peanuts to the cockatoos (I don't feed those anymore. Ever since I was attacked and had my clothes and flesh ripped off. STOP LAUGHING CAMILLA!!!).
We saw all the bats mating :) Boy are they loud too. Its just a little creepy. We wished over and over we had our cameras. LOL, I just realized I wrote this right by the bats. We weren't wanting pictures of the mating bats. We wanted pictures of our cute kids and the eels and birds and such.

 Enoch and Ezra rode their razors all over and were sweaty and VERY HUNGRY by the time we were done. On the way back to the bus stop at circular quay I bought the kids croissant sandwiches(which I ate a small part of and didn't finish because it was too fatty and gross).

We got off at the shopping center and bought bananas to make muffins and I got a sushi roll which tasted so fresh and yummy. Then the boys rode the razors and I pushed the pram all the way home. It was hot and we were all so happy to be out in the sunshine. Its fall here and yesterday it was 90' :) and today the high was 84'.  I hope the weather holds out next week for lots of BEACH days during our Easter and School vacation.  I am itching to get in the ocean since it has been over a week since we have been in. 

The kids were so tired by the end that Enoch is laying in bed reading and Ethne is asleep and Ezra is in his bed on the way to being asleep. I love days like this. I just hope we all have the energy to finish school and Ezra's violin practicing before it's time to start dinner. Banana-walnut muffins should make a great dinner with some freshly squeezed juice.

Violin Lesson #2 (Since we got the violin from customs)

So this was Ezra's first week ever of practicing the violin and his second lesson was today. Enoch has taken before but this was his first week back into it. Both boys practiced 5 out of the seven days this week. Hurray for mom for making it happen. Its a lot harder than you might think to practice EVERY SINGLE DAY. The goal for this week(and every week) is 7 days. Wish me luck!


Enoch had his lesson first. He was quiet and focused as per usual and he listened very carefully for the most part. He did a good job but not great. He didn't play for her as well as he played for me at home. He seemed tired and he has a hard time looking at his teacher. It could be her tattoos, but I am not quite sure. Unfortunately I need to start looking for a rental violin for Enoch. He has pretty much outgrown this one :( darn!! I thought maybe he could get another 6 months out of it if he didn't have a growth spurt but it isn't going to happen. His arms are just too long for it :(

He did awesome practicing this week. He practiced with me M-F and then practiced several times on his own as well. I have decided to leave the violin out (in its case of course) where they can reach it and can play anytime it strikes them. Enoch took advantage of this. He would see it, pull it out, and just play because he felt like it.

Ezra was AWESOME in his lesson. Especially since an hour before he assured me he would NOT have a lesson and would NOT continue taking violin. Anyway, he played much better for her than he had played for me and he was very focused when he played. He could hear when he accidentally hit the A string instead of the E string occasionally and he was able to adjust and keep playing without missing a beat. That is impressive for being such a young kid and beginner. He is so different than Enoch. Enoch usually listens and does what he is asked in his lessons, but is usually quiet. Ezra chats and chats and chats. He asks every conceivable what if question he can think up about the violin, and it is hard to keep him on task because he talks about it so much. During Enoch's lesson he made up a game for violin and wanted to play it with his teacher. He wrote 1-4 on slips of paper and each number was for a different twinkle variation. He turned them over so he couldn't see the # and he would pick one at a time and play the corresponding variation. He was really cute about it.

Today Ethne brought the pink violin I made for her out of a ruler and a biscuit box, and she played it and sang in the stroller all the way to violin. At one point Ezra asked her "Ethne will you please STOP singing?".

She desperately wanted a violin lesson today and since we had another extra long lesson to finish making up the time from being sick she got her wish. She took a few minutes of Enoch's time and she played busy, busy, stop, stop (while singing it) with the teacher. Then she played the Twinkle theme on her violin singing all the words while the violin teacher accompanied her. It was quite precious and I really wish I had it on video. She is just too cute. She can sing and "play" all 6 Twinkle variations, and she LOVES to do it. She sings them all the time and she is adorable. We definitely have another violinist on our hands :)