Happy Birthday Brendon

Saturday 19th: Brendon woke with a headache this morning and after getting a little bit of the grass cut headed to bed and spent most of the morning trying to sleep it off.
It was great to have Rachael pop over with 3 of her boys in the afternoon. Two fold visit - she wanted to get some baby clothes to me and Liam wanted to borrow some Christian books. The children had a fun time playing (I got the camera out when I could at least get all of them in one shot) and Rachael and I had a wonderful chat. I miss her Tuesday ballet visits and hope that we can make a new plan to visit regularly in the year ahead.

She has 6 children and her last two are quite close - so she knows all about the business of a full house with lots of little ones (she has 3 pre-schoolers). She has also had a number of home births and could be a wonderful encouragement to me specifically about the upcoming birth and this hard "waiting" time. She really did help me to deal with a lot of things that I have been thinking about and trying to analyse and work out. It's so good to be reminded to just relax and "go with the flow". It was great getting to know one another at a much deeper level - so I thank the Lord for that.
Hezekiah spent quite a bit of time looking for apples that had dropped off the tree. Brendon called me out to have a look at him. More than happy to climb up and down the base and just "do his own thing". So far he has not tried to pick any apples off the tree (they still have a couple of months to go).
I got Brendon's Birthday Chocolate Cheese cake made just before the girls went to bed. Hannah enjoyed watching all the different ingredients get prepared and talking about them all and which order they get added. I did not want to have to think of something to do with the extra cream - so I added extra dark chocolate, sugar and cream (doubled the cream actually to just use it all up) and so the cake will be a bit more of a chocolate-mousse-cheese-cake.

Sunday 20th: Happy Birthday Brendon!!! It was so nice that Brendon's birthday was on a Sunday and we could enjoy the whole day with him. I was also thankful that he woke without a headache today. I had made pancakes yesterday for lunch but ended up having to make a 2nd batch as the first one disappeared so quickly. I made sure I had enough and so we had the left overs for breakfast. A double treat for them (Ruth was so pleased with the "fancy" lunch of pancakes yesterday).
We watched a different morning message today thanks to a friend who suggested recording David Jeremiah who is on Sunday evening on ShineTV.
So we watched last week's recording this morning. An excellent message on God's love from Romans 8:35-39.
Then we all got to work (while Hezekiah had his nap). The girls job was to sort all the (now clean) outside toys into different "types" while Brendon and I cleaned windows. Rachel and I had cleaned all the bedroom windows after winter (getting rid of that horrible mold on the frame) but there were still the others to get done and so Brendon and I got a good system going and got through them all really quickly. Hannah did a great job of sorting while Ruth and Rachel were busy with other things but then she started tiring. So we suggested we have a race to see who could finish first. The older girls had joined her by that stage and they just managed to beat us.

And then we all enjoyed some birthday cake for morning tea. A little later than normal at 10:30 - but very well worked for today. The mousse aspect to the cake was rather nice - making it really light and fluffy but packed full of flavour. So perhaps a permanent change to the recipe. :-)
Ruth, Brendon and I then got all the toys sorted into 3 different sets. One to be played with now and then 2 others to be able to rotate every couple of weeks or months. It will just make it much easier for them to keep control of all there toys as they just have far too many to play with (and keep in order) at one time.

It was roast chicken for lunch - a favourite for Brendon which Rachel had prepared for us. It's so nice that she is learning to do more meals and she really enjoys it.
We watched a bit of a family movie together after lunch as it was so hot outside and then Brendon headed out with Hezekiah to get the grass cut (it was too wet this morning). Hezekiah was thrilled to be with dad on the "tractor" the whole time. And it's so cute to hear him call it a tractor. To him - it's a little tractor. He really does love machinery already.
A friend then blessed us again by watching the children so that just Brendon and I could go out for afternoon tea. What a treat. And the lady at the tea rooms was so surprised to see just us (but thought it was a very good idea for us to have a turn). We had lovely ice cream sundaes which none of us had there before and as they do a "children" one - I am sure it will be something the children try out in the weeks to come when it's their turn again.

When Hezekiah got out the bath he noticed the tractor loading up the hay that had been cut the other day. He did not want to do anything but watch. So we sat and watched.
Once Hannah had finished her bible story with Dad she joined us. My two tractor loving children.
Hezekiah waved and said "bye bye" to the tractor and then the truck but was devastated when we then told him it was time to come inside. The only way to stop the tears was to get him his own tractor which ended up going to bed with him. He was exhausted (hence the tears) and fell asleep really quickly.
(Note: When I picked him up the next morning he was so thrilled to have his tractor in the cot with him.)

Through the afternoon I had kept up with my "nesting" and had gotten almost a year's worth of filing done. There was not loads to do - but it's just a job I hate and always put off. I then got stuck into the kitchen and cleaning all the counters really thoroughly.  This led to me asking Brendon to put this extension up on the wall. So right till the evening I kept him busy. Not much of a "rest" for him on his birthday - but I think after spending so many hours in bed yesterday he was thankful to be able to get a lot done today. It did me the world of good. It was so nice to cross off a whole bunch of things on my "to do list". I know generally Brendon is happier when he is busy - so it was an enjoyable day for us all.